Podcast: Jonathan Schachter on What Saudi Arabia’s Deal with Iran Means for Israel and America

News recently broke that China had mediated a restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, 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 or the return of Benjamin Netanyahu 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?