by ZeroHedge News Staff at ZeroHedge
Saudi Arabia has for the past month been directly engaging Iran on the Gaza issue, a half-year after the longtime rivals restored official relations in a China-brokered agreement. Prior to that, a decade-long proxy war had raged, chiefly centered on Syria, where Saudi Arabia and its partners backed al-Qaeda groups in an effort to topple Iran-aligned President Bashar al-Assad.
But the potential for major regional conflict has returned in light of the Israel-Hamas war, and Tehran is seen as a key backer of Palestinian Islamist factions now holding Israeli and foreign captives hostage.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reports the major development that “Saudi Arabia has approached Iran with an offer to boost cooperation and invest in its sanctions-stricken economy if the Islamic Republic stops its regional proxies from turning the Israel-Hamas war into a wider conflict.”
It was only this month that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman met in person for the first time, after the restoration of diplomatic ties, during a summit in Riyadh which focused on addressing the Gaza war.
Bloomberg continues, “The proposal has been delivered directly and through multiple means since Hamas’s attack on Israel last month and the ensuing war in Gaza, according to Arab and Western officials familiar with the matter.”
Hamas is widely believed to be funded and trained by Iran,…
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