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‘Limited and Pragmatic’: Saudi Analyst Sets Boundaries on Cooperation With Israel  Riyadh and Israel increasingly confront overlapping threats from Iran and the Houthis, but political constraints continue to limit direct military cooperation  By Giorgia Valente/The Media Line  A secret gathering of senior US, Israeli and Arab military commanders in Germany has offered a rare glimpse of the security coordination taking shape across the Middle East as Saudi Arabia confronts a renewed Houthi offensive and Washington remains heavily focused on its war with Iran.  The meeting, held last week and organized by US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper, brought together military chiefs from Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt, according to Axios, which first reported the gathering. CENTCOM confirmed that it hosted senior military leaders from eight Middle Eastern countries in Germany to discuss opportunities for strengthening regional security cooperation. The conference was not publicly announced in advance.  Its significance lies less in the existence of military contacts—which have developed incrementally for years—than in the circumstances surrounding the gathering.  The commanders met as the conflict with Iran continues to strain American forces and Gulf security, while the Houthis have expanded their position along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Reuters reported that Houthi forces seized Mocha and Perim Island during their latest offensive, increasing their leverage near Bab el Mandeb, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.  The developments have created a difficult security environment for Saudi Arabia. Riyadh must contend with renewed missile and drone threats from Yemen while disruptions around both the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz complicate its energy and maritime calculations.  Yet the Germany meeting should not automatically be interpreted as the birth of a formal Arab-Israeli military alliance.  Abdulaziz Alshaabani, a Saudi political analyst, cautioned against reading the gathering as evidence that Riyadh is preparing for direct military cooperation with Israel.  “The Germany meeting is significant, but I do not see it as evidence that Saudi Arabia is moving toward direct military cooperation with Israel,” Alshaabani told The Media Line. “Any intelligence coordination would likely remain limited and pragmatic, while Riyadh continues to rely primarily on its own security mechanisms and broader regional frameworks,” he added.  Saudi Arabia and Israel share concerns about Iran and, increasingly, the Houthis, but they do not have diplomatic relations. Operational necessity can produce intelligence exchanges, deconfliction or parallel military planning without resolving the political constraints that have prevented formal normalization.  The regional security architecture also predates the current crisis. In July, CENTCOM said the United States and regional partners were operating what it described as a large active air- and missile-defense umbrella across the Middle East. The command said a Middle Eastern air-defense coordination cell established in January was intended to improve information sharing, threat warnings and responses to regional contingencies.  That does not mean every country represented in Germany operates within a single integrated command structure. It does show that efforts to coordinate regional defenses were underway before the latest Houthi escalation.  Giuseppe Dentice, an analyst at the Observatory on the Mediterranean (OSMED), sees the current moment through the erosion of confidence in Washington and the resulting search by Gulf states for additional security options.  “What is actually happening is what no one wanted: at this moment, there is total chaos,” Dentice told The Media Line. “The problem is that it is political chaos in which there is no real leadership. The United States is pulling itself out of everything, and the most paradoxical thing is that it is also part of this problem,” he added.  For Dentice, governments are responding pragmatically rather than ideologically.  “Everyone is acting for themselves, and within this ‘everyone for themselves’ approach, the Gulf states are the most prepared to seek some form of action,” he said. “Not so much to resolve the issue, because at this moment neither what is happening in the Red Sea nor what is happening in Hormuz can really be resolved, but rather to try to find some kind of compromise through diplomacy,” he added.  Washington has so far resisted Saudi requests for direct American military action against the Houthis.  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sought US military assistance as Houthi pressure increased, according to Reuters, but Washington limited its involvement to intelligence and targeting support rather than direct strikes. Cooper met the crown prince in Jeddah this week as the crisis intensified.  The United States has also maintained a separate channel with the Houthis. Reuters reported that American officials met Houthi representatives at the US Embassy in Muscat, Oman, over the weekend. Sources familiar with the talks said the Houthi delegation pledged not to target US or Israeli vessels and said it would continue observing its previous arrangement with Washington, while excluding Saudi shipping from those commitments. The State Department declined to confirm the meeting.  For Alexander Portnoy, an independent military and geopolitical analyst, this environment makes behind-the-scenes cooperation more consequential than public declarations of alliance.  “Military contacts and mutually beneficial cooperation between these countries ceased to be sensational news a long time ago,” Portnoy told The Media Line. He argued that disclosure of such contacts can itself serve as strategic messaging.  Portnoy expects any Israeli contribution to a regional response to Yemen to remain discreet.  “Yes, but any Israeli involvement would take place behind the scenes,” he said when asked whether Saudi Arabia and other regional states could coordinate against the Houthis without direct American combat participation.  Israel and Saudi Arabia increasingly face the same types of weapons: ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and long-range drones. Shared threats, though, do not necessarily produce a shared political strategy.  Alshaabani rejected more dramatic assessments suggesting that the latest Houthi advances make a ground offensive into Saudi Arabia the likely next stage.  “I think the word ‘invasion’ is too strong in this context,” he said. “Saudi Arabia is a vast country, while the Houthis remain a militia with limited capabilities. I do not see a ground invasion as the most likely scenario at this stage,” he added.  Instead, he said, the immediate danger is that the Houthis could exploit their new positions inside Yemen.  “The more immediate concern is the Houthis expanding their control in western Yemen and using that position to intensify missile, drone and maritime attacks against Saudi Arabia,” he said.  The latest Houthi gains have increased the group’s ability to threaten Saudi territory and maritime traffic, but its territorial advances have so far been concentrated inside Yemen and along the Red Sea coast.  Saudi concerns have nevertheless intensified. Riyadh said this week that it intercepted a Houthi drone south of Mecca. The Houthis denied targeting the holy city while acknowledging other operations against Saudi targets.  The kingdom is also seeking additional support. Riyadh has approached partners including Egypt, Pakistan, the UK and France as the conflict strains its missile-defense resources. No broad regional military intervention has materialized.  For Dentice, the central question is less whether a new alliance suddenly emerges than how long individual governments can absorb several interconnected crises.  “There is a strong interest among virtually all the actors in preventing Bab el-Mandeb from becoming another Hormuz,” he said. “But we are already very close to that situation. Everyone risks making the same mistakes, because even sending a strong military signal can become counterproductive. Not because the Houthis are militarily superior, but because they retain the ability to strike strategic assets,” he added.  That vulnerability is particularly visible in the energy sector. The Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, while attacks have placed additional pressure on alternative Saudi export infrastructure. On Wednesday, preliminary ship-tracking data showed only three commercial vessels transiting Hormuz, down from 12 the previous day and a 10-day average of 17, according to Reuters. Traffic through Bab el Mandeb also remained depressed. Vessels operating with their tracking systems switched off would not necessarily appear in those figures.  The existence of several active military theaters does not necessarily mean they will merge into a single regional war.  “I do not think the risk of integrating these separate theaters of war into a wider regional conflict is high,” Portnoy said.  He also viewed the Germany meeting as evidence that regional coordination is still being worked out rather than proof that a collective defense mechanism is already operational.  “If these countries were already prepared for a collective response, I do not think the meeting in Germany would have been necessary,” he said.  The Media Line sought additional comment from the US Defense Department and contacted current US military experts and former senior US military officers for their assessments but received no responses by publication time.  The Germany gathering reveals both how far regional security contacts have advanced and where their limits remain. Israel and several Arab governments face overlapping missile, drone and maritime threats and have reasons to exchange information and coordinate defenses. They also maintain sharply different relationships with Iran, Israel and the United States.  Dentice similarly described Saudi strategy as one of selective engagement rather than permanent alignment, pointing to the recently signed Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Turkey and Pakistan. The pact contains a collective-defense commitment, though its full text has not been made public and questions remain about how its provisions would operate in practice.  “The Saudis are willing to talk to anyone, but not to bind themselves completely to anyone,” he said. “The same applies to the Mecca agreement. It is not a binding agreement; it is based on the availability of the actors involved,” he added.  Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Ambassador Huckabee Predicts Another Iran Uprising, Makes a Pitch for Objective Truth  In a wide-ranging interview with The Media Line’s Felice Friedson, the US ambassador to Israel discusses issues from UNIFIL and attacks on Palestinians to Iran and regional diplomacy, while warning of the dangers posed by AI  By Felice Friedson/The Media Line  US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is not a conventional diplomat. A Baptist pastor, former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate, and television host, he came to the post after decades in American public life and an even longer relationship with Israel.  He also came with a style of his own. Huckabee can move from geopolitics to Scripture to a homespun analogy without much warning. He is direct, sometimes blunt, and rarely sounds as though his words have made a preliminary stop at the State Department’s diplomatic-language desk.  * * * *  WhatsApp Image 2026-09-17 at 20.03.34 – Felice Friedson interviews US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at The Media Line’s studio in Jerusalem, Sept. 17, 2026. (Dario Sanchez/The Media Line) Linked video – https://youtu.be/GJTwi6l2Qm4    Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution Thursday that would have authorized U.N. experts to keep monitoring sanctions that were reimposed against Iran last year over its nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council sanctions are still in effect, which freeze Iran’s assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. Using a provision in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the “snapback” mechanism, which reimposed the sanctions on Sept. 27, 2025. It restored the Security Council sanctions committee and authorized a panel of U.N. experts to monitor implementation. The United States drafted a resolution to extend the U.N. expert panel’s mandate for a year, coming as America also pursues a wider campaign to isolate Tehran from its remaining economic partners as the more than six-month-old war in Iran has hit a stalemate. The proposal was defeated by a vote of 11-2, with Somalia and Pakistan abstaining, because of the Russian and Chinese vetoes. Since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025, U.N. nuclear inspectors have been unable to verify the status of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. According to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iran maintained a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran’s U.N. mission thanked China and Russia for vetoing the resolution, saying on social media that the countries “prevented yet another cynical attempt by the United States and its allies to abuse the Security Council for their political purposes.” U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Jennifer Locetta said the United States wasn’t surprised by the vetoes because the experts “would have shined the light” on prohibited cooperation between Iran and its partners. She said the vetoes are part of a broader effort to prevent expert monitoring of sanctions, and even the appointment of panel members, “to stifle reporting that implicates their own activities in support of rogue regimes.” In March 2024, a Russian veto ended U.N. monitoring of sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program. In Mali, sanctions were terminated, and Locetta said that in Yemen and the Central African Republic expert appointments have been delayed or refused. While the panel of experts for Iran was authorized a year ago and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed members, they were never approved. “Without an independent panel of experts, this council loses its principal source of impartial, evidence-based reporting on sanctions violations, creating a monitoring gap that only benefits the Iranian regime and those who profit from evading those measures,” Locetta warned. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s claim that the “snapback” of sanctions against Iran was illegal, and therefore the resolution to extend the mandate of the panel of experts “was deeply flawed and did not have any legal basis.” Russia and China had strongly urged the U.S. and its allies not to put the resolution to a vote, which would only increase tensions in the council, Nebenzia said, but Washington “decided to opt for confrontation.” French U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, the current council president, said implementing sanctions is “a crucial instrument to encourage Iran” to return to its nuclear obligations. France will study how to ensure sanctions are enforced, he said. One possibility would be to follow what happened after the North Korea panel of experts was abolished: establishing a monitoring team that includes France, Germany, the U.K. and the United States. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

A former senior budget official for Connecticut’s Democratic governor is now a fugitive in Greece after fleeing the U.S. by boat and plane ahead of his sentencing for corruption, his lawyer and prosecutors told a federal judge on Thursday. Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, 70, also sent his attorney a 10-page email accusing Gov. Ned Lamont of weaponizing the justice system against him, denying wrongdoing and saying his life, reputation and family relationships were ruined by the prosecution. He could have faced more than 10 years in prison at his sentencing Thursday in federal court in Bridgeport. Diamantis, who was also a former Democratic state representative, was convicted by a federal jury last year of extorting private contractors for thousands of dollars in bribes from 2018 to 2021, in exchange for helping the companies keep and obtain work on multimillion-dollar school construction contracts. He told reporters at the time that he was afraid to go to prison. The prospects of returning Diamantis — who holds both American and Greek citizenship — to the U.S. are unclear. Greek courts have upheld the claim that extradition of Greek nationals is forbidden. Authorities and Diamantis’ lawyer, Norman Pattis, did not say when Diamantis left the U.S. Federal prosecutors said he traveled by boat from Florida to the Bahamas, then boarded a plane to London. They said that although Diamantis had surrendered his U.S. passport, he obtained a Greek passport. Pattis said he was told by Diamantis during a phone call Wednesday night that he was in Greece and would not be attending the sentencing. U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill set a new sentencing date for Sept. 30 that would go forward with or without Diamantis in attendance. Connecticut officials were quick Thursday to condemn Diamantis for fleeing the country and took steps to stop his state pension payments. “Kosta Diamantis betrayed the public’s trust and needs to be held accountable for his actions,” the governor said in a statement. “His repeated efforts to skirt justice are shameful. I hope he is apprehended and made to face the music as soon as possible.” State Attorney General William Tong, also a Democrat, added in a statement, “His disappearance this morning is a shameful insult to every person in Connecticut and will not deter our efforts to fully protect the state’s interest and taxpayer dollars.” Prosecutors asked the judge to send Diamantis to prison for 10 to 12 years, while Pattis argued in court documents for a sentence that included no prison time but strict conditions of release. After the court hearing, the defense attorney told reporters that he was surprised that Diamantis fled the country. “I think that Mr. Diamantis was facing a tough day here today and would have gotten at least four or five years, perhaps 10 to 12,” he said. “So as a lawyer, I cannot support his decision to take the law into his own hands. But as a fellow human being, I understand why he did what he did.” Pattis provided copies of the email Diamantis sent to him to media outlets. “The injustice that has occurred to me and my family by political weaponization is beyond rational belief,” Diamantis wrote in the email. “I have lost everything that took me an entire lifetime to earn and more. It is devastating to lose your home, your children’s home, your car, your job, the ability to get a job, your law license, your honor, your dignity and pride.” He said he hopes President Donald Trump and the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington would take a look at his case. Diamantis claimed Lamont used “the power of his office and his powerful friendship with President Biden to create an insular system of justice” aimed at protecting the governor’s own wrongdoing. Diamantis has another pending criminal case in federal court, where he’s accused of taking bribes to quash a state audit of an eye doctor accused of Medicaid fraud. In the school construction grants case, Diamantis was convicted of using his position as director of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review to demand and ultimately receive thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors to steer building contracts their way, from 2018 to 2021. He was accused of threatening to terminate those contracts if he wasn’t paid. During the trial, witnesses testified about handing Diamantis envelopes of cash at various locations, including a men’s room at an upscale restaurant, a doughnut shop and his home. Some payments were referred to in messages as “birthday cards,” “pars” and “birdies.” Diamantis, who testified in his own defense, admitted that he received the money but insisted it was legitimate consulting income. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Netanyahu Seeks Citizenship Revocation, Financial Penalties for Those Who ‘Smear’ IDF   By The Media Line Staff   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would advance two laws allowing Israel to revoke citizenship and impose heavy financial penalties on people who “smear” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by falsely portraying Israeli troops as deliberately harming civilians.   “Their place is not with us,” Netanyahu said. “We will hit them both in the citizenship and in their pockets.”   Netanyahu said he expected the Knesset to approve both measures, although he did not provide further details about the proposed legislation. He cited several statements and works that he said demonstrated the need for the laws.   One example he cited was a 2025 statement by Democrats head Yair Golan, a political opponent of Netanyahu, who said: “a sane country does not kill children as a hobby.”   Netanyahu also pointed to a “fake video” released by former Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. (res.) Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi that falsely showed soldiers committing sexual assault.   Another case involved NAZA, a recent film that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and alleged that the IDF intentionally targeted civilians. The IDF rejected the film’s claims, saying they relied entirely on anonymous sources who most likely lacked access to classified intelligence. It also denied deliberately targeting civilians or using artificial intelligence to maximize casualties.   Culture Minister Miki Zohar backed Netanyahu’s proposal, particularly in relation to documentary creators Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, saying it was “time to put an end to this disgrace.” Zohar had previously raised the possibility of stripping the two filmmakers of their citizenship.   “The burning self-hatred of the creators, who are willing to harm their homeland to garner applause from antisemites worldwide, is inconceivable and constitutes an act of treason against the state,” Zohar said Monday.    Brought to you by www.srnnews.com