Persian Gulf kingdoms normalizing ties with Israel Saudi decision: Hezbollah official

Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy head of Lebanese Hezbollah movement’s 

Executive Council (Photo by Lebanon’s National News Agency)

A senior official of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement 

says the fact that a number of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf 

region are dramatically warming their relations with the Tel Aviv 

regime after secret contacts is a decision dictated to them by the 

Saudi regime.

“Persian Gulf states' attempts at normalizing ties with Israel is a decision made by the royal Saudi family, because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam is currently facing numerous crises, namely the war on Yemen, the murder of prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi as well as internal  and external challenges. He is pinning hope on the Israeli regime in order to save himself,” Deputy Chairman of Hezbollah's Executive Council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said on Monday.

He said the willingness shown by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to establish diplomatic relations with the Tel Aviv regime has exceeded all expectations of Israeli officials, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he was not dreaming the day would come when he sees normalized ties with Persian Gulf kingdoms.

“The Manama regime continues to imprison, expel and revoke the citizenship of Bahraini scholars and popular opposition leaders at the same time that it is preparing to host an Israeli minister," Qaouq pointed out, adding, “Whilst the Saudi regime is offering an olive branch to Israel, it is savagely ramping up the war on Yemen and its crackdown on ordinary people in the kingdom.”

Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz visited Oman on November 4 to attend an international transport conference and pitch a railway project that would link the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean via Israeli-occupied territories.

PressTV-Netanyahu in Oman as Israelis kill Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev travels to the UAE to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018.

The trip came on the heels of a surprise visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Oman late last month, where he met Sultan Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said at the Bait al-Barakah Royal Palace in the coastal city of Seeb near the capital Muscat.

Israel’s English-language daily newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported that the two men discussed ways to advance the so-called Middle East peace process as well as a number of issues of mutual interest with regard to the region’s stability.

Netanyahu was accompanied by senior officials, including the head of the Mossad spy agency and his national security adviser.

Netanyahu's unpublicized visit to Oman came on the same day that Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to accompany Israel’s judo team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018.

Regev arrived in Abu Dhabi on October 26, and she participated in the opening ceremony of the international event at the Emirati capital’s Zayed Sports City, Palestinian Arabic-language Ma’an news agency reported.

PressTV-‘UAE military delegates visited Israel over F-35 fighter jets’

An Emirati military delegation reportedly visited the Israeli-occupied territories for talks with the regime’s air force on US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Her visit to the UAE marked the first of its kind by an Israeli minister to a Persian Gulf littoral state.

Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi have no diplomatic ties and the UAE does not recognize Israel, but the two sides have increased backchannel cooperation in recent years. There have been numerous reports of growing contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials too.

‘Israeli, Saudi military chiefs meet in Washington’

Israeli media say the regime’s military chief Gadi Eizenkot has held talks with his Saudi counterpart in Washington as Tel Aviv moves to make its secret ties with Arab governments public.

Among Arab countries, Israel has diplomatic relations only with Egypt and Jordan.

Saudi Arabia has hostile ties with resistance movements in the Palestinian territories, including Hamas which is fighting the Israeli occupation.

Netanyahu in Oman: Another Step toward Palestinian Betrayal

Crescent International

Why would the rulers of Oman welcome the war criminal Benyamin Netanyahu in their midst?

The surprise visit and meeting with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos late on Thursday (October 25), was kept secret until Netanyahu’s return home. The two countries have no diplomatic ties but that has not deterred such meetings between Arabian rulers and the Zionists.

Instead, Omani TV showed Netanyahu being warmly welcomed and walking with Sultan Qaboos.

Accompanying Netanyahu was his wife Sara and his delegation included Mossad intelligence chief Yossi Cohen and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

The visit occurred at the invitation of the Omani ruler, according to Netanyahu’s office. Why were the Omanis so keen to shake hands with a war criminal?

On October 27, Omani Foreign Minister Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah offered a tepid excuse telling a security summit in Bahrain’s capital Manama that the sultanate would not act as a ‘mediator’ in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

It was only offering ideas to help Israel and Palestinians to come together, he said.

If so, why was it necessary to allow Netanyahu to set foot in Oman and given a lavish welcome by the sultan himself? This could have been done without meeting face to face.

The Omani minister then made a Freudian slip admitting that the sultanate had also decided to surrender. He said Israel was “present in the region, and we all understand this, the world is also aware of this fact and maybe it is time for Israel to be treated the same and also bear the same obligations.”

Unlike other Arabian regimes, Oman had so far followed a fairly balanced policy and has not been railroaded into the disastrous policy of surrender to the Zionists.

This, however, may be changing despite the unraveling of America’s Middle East policy. In Syria, the warmongers have been defeated after seven years of blood letting.

President Bashar al Asad is still in power in Damascus and his army is close to liberating the last province—Idlib—from the clutches of the takfiri terrorists.

Similarly, the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi has exposed the Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman as a monster, not as a ‘moderate’ that the West has tried to project him.

Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ that is being imposed on the Palestinians through the Arabian rulers has also not made much headway. It has in fact received a setback following Bin Salman’s brutal tactics.

Not surprisingly, Netanyahu was pleased with his visit. “A special visit in Oman — we’re making history!” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter, posting a video of his reception and meeting.

The Zionist ruler discussed the Middle East peace process “and other issues of shared interest” with Sultan Qaboos, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Mahmud Abbas, illegal head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), had also visited Oman before Netanyahu’s visit. This was confirmed by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The US plan is so outlandish that even Abbas has renounced it. He says it has been devised without consulting the Palestinians.

The American plan would reduce Palestinians to live on tiny Bantustan-type enclaves with few rights.

They would be in charge of cleaning garbage but little else and will have to live at the non-existent mercies of the Zionists.

Trump has already declared Jerusalem as the “capital” of Israel without much of a response from the Arabian regimes or even the broader Muslim world.

Instead, last June Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Jordanassured Washington of their support for the plan during visits to those countries by Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Jason Greenblatt, the US envoy to the region.

Palestinian resistance groups—Hamas and Islamic Jihad—both condemned Netanyahu’s visit to Oman. They urged the Arabian rulers to support the oppressed people of Palestine, instead.

Hamas warned about the dangerous consequences of Netanyahu’s visit for the people of Palestine. Islamic Jihad movement also censured the visit, saying Oman acquitted Netanyahu of the crimes committed against innocent Palestinians by welcoming him to the country.