Gold stresses common Israeli-Arab interests in unprecedented interview to Saudi paper
In the Foreign Ministry’s first interview granted to a Saudi news outlet, director-general Dore Gold said Jerusalem would not allow the transfer of weapons from Russia to Lebanon or attacks from Syria on Israel.
The headline of the interview with the Saudi-owned Elaph online newspaper read, “Israel: Iran creating anarchy in order to market itself as a solution,” while the subhead read “Dore Gold tells Elaph that ISIS is a joint threat.”
“History teaches that when Israel signs a peace treaty with the Arabs, Israel honors the treaty forever,” Gold is quoted as saying at the beginning of the article.
The director-general is described in the story as being close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it’s stated that the Foreign Ministry appointment lends him the ability to maneuver and engage with various states as Netanyahu’s representative.
Appointed in May, Gold said Israel views Arab states with great importance and that it has an interest to reach agreements with them. He stressed the use of technology and resources to create a better Middle East.
He also spoke of the common interests between Israel and the Arab states, including a nuclear armed Iran and Islamic State, and he stressed that the nuclear deal reached in July between Iran and the world powers was dangerous.
Israel is not involved in the war in Syria, he said, but stressed that it had its red lines that could not be crossed, such as the transfer of Russian missiles from warehouses in Syria to Hezbollah.
Gold accused Iran of trying to gain a foothold in Lebanon, Syria and in Gaza to threaten Israel from the south, north and east, and argued that Iran, in the Persian Gulf, was trying to gain similar footholds in Yemen, Bahrain and Kuwait, as well as in Iraq through the use of Shi’ite militias.
Iran, he said, was trying to foment anarchy and destruction in order to present itself as a body to solve crises.
Israeli-Egyptian relations were strong and the common interests between the two countries were greater than their differences, Gold added.
With regard to renewing normal diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey, Gold said there were intense contacts and points of agreement have been reached but that there are still disagreements between the two.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post