Saudi Arabia threw its weight, wealth and prestige behind urgent efforts to end Palestinian divisions yesterday as it stepped up a diplomatic drive to challenge Iran and its regional allies and play a more muscular role across the Middle East.
King Abdullah’s mediation between Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and leader of the Islamist movement Hamas, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, represents a high-profile attempt to defuse the crisis by steering these bitter rivals to forge a desperately needed deal on a national unity government.
The talks fit into a pattern of what analysts and diplomats see as new activism by the normally low-key Saudis, who are more used to quietly wielding chequebooks to buy influence and preserve the status quo than launching public initiatives to achieve their goals.
The oil-rich, conservative kingdom has been galvanised into action by fears about the continuing chaos and violence in Iraq, the increasingly assertive Iranian influence across the region – in Iraq, Lebanon and, most recently, in the Palestinian territories – and anxieties about a widening divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
The Saudis were horrified by last summer’s war in Lebanon, when Hizbullah seemed to be fighting Israel as part proxy for Iran, Syria and the Palestinians.