The Truth About Why Saudi Arabia and Israel Are Forming an Alliance to Destabilise Lebanon

Despite Saudi Arabia’s tough rhetoric and brutal assault against its neighbour, Yemen (the poorest country in the region), the unfortunate reality is that Saudi Arabia is not the strongman it has hopelessly painted itself to be. This isn’t conjecture, nor is it an attempt to needlessly bolster and promote regional rivals such as Iran, as has become the trend among anti-imperialist  commentators.

Yes, Saudi Arabia is an oil-rich country who uses its money to great effect on the international level. Saudi Arabia’s relationships with the nuclear powers, Russia and China, have also been intensifying. However, what the media won’t tell you is that there is actually a hidden reason why Russia offered to sell Saudi Arabia its advanced S-400 missile defence system, while spending years flirting with selling Iran the lesser S-300 system.

According to Asia Times,

“Russia’s carefully-calibrated weapons sales to the opposing Persian Gulf powers follow a pattern established by China over the past decade. China sells missiles to Iran as well as to Saudi Arabia, but it sells more advanced missiles to the Saudis, because the Saudis are the weaker of the two adversaries, and China wants to maintain the balance of power. Russia has been called a ‘spoiler’ in the Middle East so often that the term clings like a Homeric epithet. In recent weeks, Russian policy has shifted to classic balance-of-power politics.”

China knows this, Russia knows this, and most importantly, Saudi Arabia knows this too.

That is why on multiple occasions, Saudi Arabia has expressed its desire to, “have the battle in Iran rather than in Saudi Arabia”.

And when the kingdom says it wants to have the battle “in Iran”, it doesn’t appear to mean that Saudi Arabia is in any way close to launching a strike or an invasion anywhere close to Iran. Rather, it appears the anti-Iran axis will continue the same tried and true strategy it failed to implement in Syria, and in neighbouring Lebanon, whereby regional powers funnelled weapons, money and fighters to bolster Sunni extremists attempting to topple the Syrian government. Over half a decade later — with hundreds of thousands of bodies left buried beneath the rubble — it appears the plan to destabilise Syria has failed abysmally.

If destabilising Lebanon through indirect means doesn’t work out, Saudi Arabia evidently has plans to use the Israeli military to do its work for them, as Middle East Eye explains:

“Saudi Arabia will only be able to destabilise Lebanon if it works with Israel, the only country with the military capabilities to threaten Lebanon’s fragile peace. Will Mohammed bin Salman go as far as striking a deal with Israel in which he offers full normalisation in return for Israel destroying Hezbollah and Iran in Lebanon?”

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia has essentially captured the Lebanese prime minister in its latest attempt to bully another country into direct submission. Never mind that Saudi Arabia, and a host of its allies, already embarrassed themselves drastically by trying to teach Qatar a lesson for being friendly with Iran and having an independent media that doesn’t kowtow to Saudi Arabia’s demands. The Saudis apparently thought kidnapping an elected official would somehow save them from their complete demise as a regional power.

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