Jonathan Schachter on What Saudi Arabia's Deal with Iran Means for Israel and America

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

News broke last week that China had mediated a restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Afterwards, analysts of the Middle East wondered what that means for the quiet relations that Israel and Saudi Arabia had been building recently thanks primarily to their joint opposition to Iran. Had Israeli domestic politics turned Saudi Arabia away? Did the American withdrawal from the Middle East over the last decade create a vacuum that China saw an opportunity to fill? How, if it all, did this relate to reports of recent liberalization in Saudi society, or the ongoing protests in Iran? Would this deal breathe new strength into the latter regime at the very moment that it has acquired new fighter jets from Russia and grows closer to breakout nuclear capacity?

Jonathan Schachter, one such observer of the Middle East, thinks that the Iran-Saudi deal is, in significant measure, a diplomatic signal directed at President Biden and the United States. In conversation here with host Jonathan Silver, he looks at that deal in light of a set of Saudi announcements that were released just one day before. Those announcements hint at what might induce Saudi Arabia to formalize its relations with Israel and even more deeply root itself in the American-led, Western alliance structure. He believes that the Saudis are sending America a question: do you, the United States, want to see us go in the direction of our Thursday announcement, or do you want us to go in the direction of our Friday one?

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a language to diplomacy that is hard to decode and hard to fully understand in real time.
0:13.7	The grammar of that language tends to be national interest, and its vocabulary includes expressions
0:19.3	as varied as military posture, energy investment,
0:22.6	public statements, private assurances, resolutions, and much else.
0:27.6	Communicating in this language is hard, in part because many of these actions are liable to interpretation,
0:33.6	and indeed could sustain multiple interpretations.
0:36.6	Signals are incompetently sent and easily misunderstood, or, more commonly still, not noticed as signals at all.
0:46.5	It's with this challenge in mind that this week we focus on the recent agreement reached between Saudi Arabia and its longtime adversary, Iran,
0:55.6	brokered not by the United States, but by China. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,
1:01.5	Jonathan Silver. News broke on Friday, March 10th, that China had mediated the restoration of
1:07.4	diplomatic relations between these two mighty and warring countries.
1:11.5	Analysts of the Middle East have come to wonder about what this all might mean for the quiet
1:16.5	relations that Israel and Saudi Arabia had been strengthening together in opposition to Iran
1:21.9	over the past many years. Had Israeli domestic politics somehow turned Saudi Arabia away, has the American withdrawal
1:29.9	from the Middle East created a vacuum that China saw an opportunity to fill? How, if at all,
1:35.5	does this relate to all the changes we've been observing in Saudi society, or the ongoing and
1:41.1	widening and deepening protests in Iran. Indeed, with this breathe new life
1:46.8	into that regime at the very moment that it has acquired SU35 fighter jets from Russia and grows
1:53.6	ever closer to break out nuclear capacity. Well, as it happens, my guest this week believes that
1:59.4	the announcement of this restoration of relations was, in significant happens, my guest this week believes that the announcement of this restoration
2:00.8	of relations was, in significant measure, a diplomatic signal directed at President Biden
2:07.1	and the United States. You see, one has got to understand Friday's news in light of a previous
	...

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