Saudi Arabia is concerned that Iran may attempt to target senior officials in the kingdom, either directly or via the Houthis in Yemen, a source familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
One of the precautionary measures Riyadh has adopted since the start of the Israeli-American war against Iran is to hold meetings among ministers and other senior officials via video.
According to the source, Saudi leaders do not typically hold high-level video meetings during routine periods.
Iran crosses Riyadh's red line with strikes on Saudi soil
On Wednesday, KAN News reported that the Saudi leadership had increased security for senior officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman, amid concerns that Tehran or the Houthis may attempt to attack them.
Since the war began, Iran has launched dozens of missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia. Among the targets hit were the CIA headquarters in Riyadh, Aramco oil facilities, and other civilian infrastructure. This represented a red line for Saudi Arabia in its dealings with Iran - a line that appears to have been crossed, prompting the kingdom to begin discussions about the possibility of striking Iran.
Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told the Post that Saudi Arabia’s strategic calculations have fundamentally changed because Iran attacked vital civilian infrastructure.
“Riyadh had previously delivered a clear warning to Tehran: if Saudi Arabia remained neutral during a conflict between the United States and Israel and Iran, its infrastructure must remain off-limits,” he said. “The Iranians, however, told the Saudis that if they faced an existential attack from Israel and the United States, they would strike Saudi Arabia.”
“The Saudi red line was that if their civilian facilities were attacked, they would strike Iran. And that is what is happening now,” Haykel said, adding that Saudi leaders are now considering what to do and whether they should respond with a counterattack.
“This is making them very angry - the Iranian attacks are far worse than they expected,” Michael Ratney, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told the Post. However, he added that the kingdom’s response may still be restrained due to fears of uncontrollable chaos.
“I think they will be cautious about their counter-response, because they know it would escalate the conflict to an unpredictable level that they would then have to deal with.”