Saudi Crown Prince Outlines Middle Eastern Policies in Interview with Time Magazine

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has outlined his policies for changing the Middle East in an interview with the American magazine Time. He reiterated the existence of Israel as a reality and spoke of a "shared interest between Saudi Arabia and Israel" against Iran, evaluating the future of oil as "bright." The Crown Prince stated that significant social and economic changes will soon completely transform Saudi Arabia, but the Saudi monarchy, as he described it, will remain. The 32-year-old Saudi prince, who is about to begin his second year of crown prince and is also the Minister of Defense, described Iran as a "common enemy" for Saudi Arabia and Israel in the interview published by Time on April 5. According to him, "shared interests" with Israel could pave the way for economic cooperation as well. Mohammed bin Salman added that his country will have normal relations with Israel the day after Israel and the Palestinians reach peace; something that would benefit everyone, but until peace is achieved, this is not practical. In another recent interview with the American magazine Atlantic during his lengthy trip to the U.S., he spoke for the first time about the "right of Israelis to live on their land" alongside Palestinians; historic remarks that were interpreted as practically recognizing Israel as an existing reality. Both interviews with Atlantic and Time were conducted in the days before the onset of a new wave of bloody protests by Palestinians at the Gaza-Israel borders, but were published after the protests began; apparently for this reason, the Saudi Crown Prince did not refer to the events that led to the deaths of at least 22 people and injuries to more than 1,700 in the first seven days. The Saudi Crown Prince, who in the Atlantic interview stated that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has "whitened Hitler's face," also spoke harshly about Tehran's policies in the Time interview, stating that every unresolved problem in the Middle East is due to Iran's interference there, and that failing to confront Iran could worsen the regional threat. However, he claimed that Iran, with its small economy and weak military capabilities, is not a threat to Saudi existence and is "far behind" Saudi Arabia and other countries. In the Time interview, Mohammed bin Salman also spoke about the "great" mistakes of the U.S. in the Middle East over the past two decades, including the intervention in Iraq and the subsequent withdrawal of American forces, which allowed for the dissolution of the Iraqi army, as well as U.S. policy in Afghanistan, leaving that country without genuinely empowering it. The Crown Prince, whose country leads an Arab coalition in the Yemen war, emphasized that without this intervention, Yemen would have faced the same fate as Iraq. The Saudi Crown Prince labeled the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged from Egypt in the last century and has taken root in many Middle Eastern and Arab lands, as the "godfather" of all radical Islamic forces in the world, describing Saudi Arabia as faultless in spreading extremist ideologies. He emphasized that his country stands at the "forefront of the fight" against terrorism and has made it so that "terrorists can no longer easily recruit Saudi citizens." One day after the publication of the latest interview with the Saudi Crown Prince, Iranian political figures and clerics expanded their verbal attacks against Mohammed bin Salman while also threatening Israel. According to ISNA, Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, reacted to Mohammed bin Salman’s interview with Time on April 6, stating that "the ambitions of the ill-conceived Saudi Crown Prince have exceeded limits" and added, "We warn that all the divisive conspiracies of recent years in the region have been designed and executed with the aim of creating discord and division in the Islamic world and providing a safe haven for the fake Zionist regime (Israel)." Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran, also said during the Friday prayers on April 6 that "the stain of recognizing the existence of the Zionist regime (Israel) has recently been announced, but Saudi Arabia has been cooperating with this regime for decades... What they used to do secretly for two decades, they now express openly and officially... The entire hope of the Zionist regime is in the hands of the Saudi executioner." Iranian news agencies reported that Ahmad Khatami also added that if Israel attacks Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hezbollah, which is "stronger" than before, could "flatten Tel Aviv and Haifa and turn them into ghost towns"; his remarks were a veiled response to comments by Gadi Eisenkot, the commander of the Israeli army, who recently assessed that 2018 would finally see another war between Israel and Hezbollah. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, also responded indirectly to the Saudi Crown Prince's remarks about recognizing the "right" of Israel in a letter published by his office on Wednesday in response to a recent letter from Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's political bureau, stating that moving towards negotiations with Israel is a "grave unforgivable mistake." The verbal conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, while the "shared interests" of Saudi Arabia and Israel have been emphasized by Mohammed bin Salman and the Israeli Prime Minister, has intensified ahead of a significant U.S. decision regarding the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear agreement with global powers. Israeli and Saudi officials have recently stated in multiple separate remarks that Iran has become "more audacious" in its regional policies since the JCPOA. Israel and Saudi Arabia have also deemed the potential withdrawal of the U.S. from Syria and the "falling of Syria" into the arms of Iran as dangerous for the region. The Islamic Republic, which has established a foundation of hostility towards Israel since its establishment 39 years ago and has written the slogan "wiping Israel off the map" on its long-range missiles in recent years, has found itself in a serious and heavy confrontation with Saudi Arabia over the past three years. This is while the prospect of the return of heavy sanctions against Iran and social uprisings of Iranians amid deep dissatisfaction with economic and living conditions and political, social, and cultural demands has marked the beginning of a not-so-easy year for Iran.