Saudi Arabia Rejects Request From Netanyahu To Join Yemen Operations

Israeli media is reporting that the Netanyahu government wants to join the fight against the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, and is seeking the Saudi coalition’s permission to do so.

At the moment, Saudi jets are patrolling the skies and conducing hundreds of bombing raids against territory held by the Ansar Allah movement, in support of the Aden-based government under the Presidential Leadership Council.

Haaretz is one prominent news source which reported that the Israeli prime minister had through US mediation offered Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman military help as a way to strengthen ties with the kingdom and face a joint enemy.

However, Haaretz has also underscored that MbS is rejecting the appeal, mainly on fears it could cause outrage and backlash among his domestic population.

Without doubt, the powerful clerical and Islamic courts establishment would also not be happy at a military partnership with Israel, or ‘the Jewish state’, related to Yemen.

There has likely long been hidden intelligence cooperation between the Saudis and Israelis, especially related to the last decade of covert war in Syria to oust Assad.

Broadly, Riyadh and Tel Aviv have loosely cooperated toward rolling back Iranian and Shia influence across the Middle East.

Israel has also alongside the kingdom long been at war with the Shia Houthi rebels, and at the height of the Gaza war conducted multiple major bombing campaigns against them. The Houthis during the Gaza fighting also launched ballistic missiles on southern Israeli on a semi-regular basis.

With things heating up against Saudi civilian transport and energy infrastructure, Netanyahu is getting more vocal.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrific terrorist attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which claimed the lives of 12 innocent people and injured hundreds more,” he wrote on X in the wake of the weekend attacks.

“On behalf of the people of Israel, I extend our deepest condolences to the families of those murdered and our wishes for a full recovery to the injured,” he added.

Netanyahu is seeking Saudi approval, through US mediation, for Israel to join the war against Yemen’s Ansarallah, but Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman opposes the move, Haaretz reported Monday, citing a diplomatic source. According to the report, the crown prince fears a domestic backlash if Israel enters the fight. Netanyahu hopes Israeli involvement would strengthen ties with Riyadh and advance normalization. Saudi officials have said normalization depends on a path to a Palestinian state. PM Netanyahu has tried this before. Last month, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar reported that he had offered “Israel’s services” in a “comprehensive war” against Ansarallah. The report comes as Saudi Arabia escalates its campaign against Yemen, backing mercenary forces in the south against Ansarallah forces making sizable gains against the Saudi coalition in Taiz and the southwestern coast.

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Some kind of tighter Saudi-Israeli military coalition would certainly be welcomed by the Trump administration, which has long tried to push the two into a formal Abraham Accords pact.

It could eventually be tempting for MbS, given his armed forces are not very powerful, despite having cutting edge American-supplied equipment.