The Arab League is set to hold an emergency meeting on Iran at Saudi Arabia’s request, this according to Reuters and various regional sources, at a moment when Saudi fighter jets may be mobilizing for war in an attempted show of force. Egypt-based Ahram Online also reports further that the meeting will discuss “Iranian interference” in the region at League headquarters in Cairo, and other early unconfirmed reports indicate the meeting could come as early as next Sunday.
News of the Arab League extraordinary session comes as tensions are at breaking point as regional powers – especially Saudi Arabia and Israel – talk war against perceived Iranian expansion and domination in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star, citing the Baghdad Post, claims that Saudi Arabia has scrambled its air force for strikes in Lebanon: “Reports now state the Royal Saudi Air Force has placed its warplanes on alert to launch strikes as the region sits on a knife-edge.” The report accompanies undated footage of Saudi F-15’s in aerial maneuvers over what is presumably a Saudi airfield.
The Daily Star adds the following accompanying the video:
The kingdom has mobilized its F-15 fighter jet fleet to launch a military operation against the Iranian-backed terrorist militia of Hezbollah in Lebanon, regional news website The Baghdad Post reports.
Saudi Arabia previously accused both Lebanon and Iran of committing an act of wars against it after rebels fired a missile at the King Khalid International Airport in the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh.
However unlikely it is that the Saudis would take direct military action against Lebanon, the report reveals the legitimate fears of Lebanese citizens who are increasingly aware that their country has fallen in the cross hairs of an unusual alliance between Saudi Arabia, Israel, and anti-Iranian interests which see Hezbollah and pro-Iranian proxies as the number one threat and scapegoat for all of the region’s problems.
Iran is currently being scapegoated for just about all tensions which have exploded in the gulf over the past week, including the following:
- the civil war in Yemen,
- the Qatar economic blockade and isolation over accusations that it is “Iran friendly”,
- the latest civil unrest in Bahrain and the alleged bombing of a major oil pipeline there,
- ratcheting up tensions with Israel in support of Hezbollah,
- destabilizing Lebanon itself leading to PM Saad Hariri’s “resignation” – all of this precipitating the Saudi “night of the long knives”.
As many astute pundits have pointed out, it’s now “blame Iran time” according to the official Saudi (and allies) narrative of events in order to set the stage for public support for potential military action against Iran.
Top photo | F-15 warplanes of the Saudi Air Force fly over the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh during a graduation ceremony at King Faisal Air Force University. (AP/Hassan Ammar)