The Persian Gulf Arab states are not expected to join Saudi Arabia in improving ties with Israel, say lawmakers who believe the major shift in the kingdom's position is meant to serve its own interests.
In a recent interview with the US magazine The Atlantic, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Israelis are entitled to live peacefully on their own land.
"I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land," he stated, adding, "There are a lot of interests we share with Israel, and if there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council countries."
Saudi Arabia and Israel still have no formal diplomatic relations, but behind the scenes, improvements in their ties have accelerated in recent years.
According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel last month—a public sign of an apparent thaw in their relations.
Lawmaker Hossein Naqavi Hosseini argues that the distinctly warmer tone toward Israel adopted by Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler shows that the Saudis are willing to put the wider interests of the Muslim world as well as regional security in danger to achieve their own objectives.
Riyadh is seeking to spread its dominance in the region but its policies have failed to gain traction among its neighboring states, the spokesman for Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told ICANA in remarks published on Tuesday.
"Members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council no longer give any credit to Saudi Arabia so the Saudis cannot get their own way at the council and are resorting to the Israelis," he noted, adding that the Arab state's image has been tarnished by its support for terrorist groups and military intervention in Yemen.
"It can be said that Saudi Arabia is committing suicide out of fear of death," Hosseini said.
Hostility Toward Iran
Echoing a similar view, Lawmaker Yahya Kamalipour said the time is over when Saudi rulers wielded influence over the Persian Gulf Arabs.
The prince is under the "delusion" that Saudi Arabia's traditional Arab allies will voice their support for his softened stance toward Israel, he stated in an interview with ICANA published on Tuesday.
"Saudi Arabia is seeking to double down on its hostility toward Iran through getting closer to Israel and plans to take advantage of the potential of the Persian Gulf countries."
However, they will not join ranks with Saudi Arabia and the country will get more isolated than before, Kamalipour said, noting that the kingdom's "wrong" policies toward its neighbors have created a rift among Arab nations.
In his conversation with The Atlantic, the 32-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia—which has cut ties with Qatar over accusations of support for terrorism and Iran—claimed that the Islamic Republic wants to spread its "extremist ideology" throughout the world and accused Tehran of interfering in its internal affairs. Iran and Qatar deny the charges.
National Interests
Another parliament member maintains that Riyadh's Persian Gulf allies will never "sacrifice their own interests for the sake of Saudi Arabia" given its "aggressive" policies and will not establish "friendly" ties with Israel.
The Saudis have shown their true colors and they will soon be in great trouble, Morteza Saffari Natanzi was quoted as saying by ICANA on Tuesday.
Fate of Dictators
In addition, Lawmaker Shahrouz Barzegar called on Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, to revise its foreign policy, warning that its rulers risk going the same way as overthrown dictators in the Middle East, who used to be close allies of Washington.
"Today, Saudi Arabia does not enjoy the same status at the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council so the policy of getting closer to Israel could not be the policy of other member states," he said in reference to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, ICANA reported on Tuesday.
