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CIA Chief: Saudis Working With ‘Israel’ To ‘Fight Terror’

CIA Chief: Saudis Working With ‘Israel’ To ‘Fight Terror’
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Local Editor

Saudi Arabia is working directly with ‘Israel' and other Sunni Arab nations to ‘fight terror', US CIA Director Mike Pompeo said.

CIA Chief: Saudis Working With ‘Israel’ To ‘Fight Terror’

"We've seen them work with the ‘Israelis' to push back against terrorism throughout the Middle East, to the extent we can continue to develop those relationships and work alongside them - the Gulf states and broader Middle East will likely be more secure," said Pompeo at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on Saturday.

Former CIA Director and War Secretary Leon Panetta then called on the moderate Sunni Arab states to form a coalition with ‘Israel', the US and Turkey and even to run a joint military operations center.

Last month, Zionist Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz publicly confirmed that ‘Israel' had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over Iran, a first disclosure by a senior official from either country of long-rumored secret dealings.

Just prior to that, ‘Israeli' military chief Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot told a Saudi newspaper that ‘Israel' is "ready to exchange experiences with Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab countries and exchange intelligence information to confront Iran."

But the statements by the current and former CIA directors were important as they seconded what ‘Israeli' officials have started to say out loud, even as Saudi officials have publicly denied that there will be increased cooperation without progress on the Palestinian negotiations track.

Also at the forum, Pompeo said he sent a letter to Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani and Iranian leaders expressing concern regarding what he referred to as Iran's increasingly ‘threatening behavior' in Iraq.

Soleimani, however, refused to open the letter.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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