Will Israel's war on Palestine further bridge the Iran-Saudi Arabia divide?

As Israeli jets were bombing the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, killing and displacing thousands of people, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke to each other on the phone last week to discuss the situation.

It’s the first time since March - when the two regional rivals started normalising ties under a China-led initiative - that such talks took place between the two leaders.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at odds with each other on numerous geopolitical issues and have backed different groups vying for power in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

Analysts say the question of Palestine is a unifying factor for the Muslim powers across the board.

“The call could be a way to give a sense to world public opinion that it's not just Iran, and that Muslim nations are all liaising together for the sake of Palestine,” Sami Hamdi, a Middle Eastern political analyst and head of the International Interest, a political risk group, tells TRT World.

Beyond Iran-Saudi discussion, Türkiye, a long supporter of the Palestinian cause, has put its weight behind the Palestinians in Gaza, stating that it’s ready to send aid to the enclave while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Israel's Gaza bombing in powerful terms and offered to mediate between Israel and Palestine.

“If anyone could do anything about the situation in Gaza, it would be either Türkiye or Saudi Arabia,” says Fatima Karimkhan, a Tehran-based Iranian journalist.

Karimkhan says that “all the communications going on between Tehran and Riyadh'' is mostly aimed at finding a way to deal with Gaza's worsening humanitarian crisis.

Israeli air strikes have killed more than 1,000 people, injured thousands more and displaced over 300,000 civilians who have been forced to seek shelter in UN-run schools. Now Israel is threatening to expel half of Gaza’s 2 million people to one portion of the besieged enclave in the south.

“I don't believe that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or any other group could withstand this harshness from Israel,” Karimkan tells TRT World. “People are dying in enormous numbers and Gaza needs emergency help.”

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a former top Iranian diplomatic representative to the UN, says Gaza urgently needs humanitarian aid. “What the most urgent measure is prompt emergency assistance to over 2 million innocent civilians in Gaza deprived from essential needs for water, food, medical care, etc.”

It’s also necessary to establish “a humanitarian corridor to realise emergency assistance” to Gaza’s bombed population, Soltanieh tells TRT World.

Palestine brings Muslims together

With the Gaza escalation, Saudis distanced themselves from the recent US-led initiative to establish diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Israel.

Omri Brinner, a researcher and lecturer at International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS), a Verona-based think-tank, says that Saudis “realise that the normalisation with Israel is unlikely to happen now.”

While Brinner finds the post-Hamas attack communication between Riyadh and Tehran “not significant in the context of the ongoing war”, he still thinks that Saudis will “probably make an effort to bring about a ceasefire and position themselves as regional mediators” between Hamas and Israel.

According to Saudi state news agency SPA, Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the country, "affirmed that the Kingdom is making all possible efforts in communicating with all international and regional parties to stop the ongoing escalation."

Riyadh also strongly opposed Israel’s targeting of civilians in Gaza, a point which was discussed in the recent Tehran-Riyadh phone communication, said the Saudi news agency.

Iranians gave a similar account of the leaders’ conversation. Both sides "agreed on the need to end war crimes against Palestine," wrote Mohammad Jamshidi, Raisi's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, on X.

"Islamic unity was stressed and both believed the (Israeli) regime's crimes and the US green light would cause destructive insecurity for the regime and (its) backers," he added.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Iran reiterated their support of the Palestinian cause, emphasising “the unresolved issue of Palestine is the root cause” of the current crisis, which endangers the security of the region and world at large, according to Soltanieh.

But during a joint press conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refused to give any weight to the suffering of Palestinians amid Israel’s aerial bombardment. Instead, they blamed Hamas for all the troubles and equated the Palestinian group with Daesh.

“​​Unless all elements in this equation are not dealt with in a responsible manner, the tragedy and blood shed of civilians will continue,” said Soltanieh.

“In a nutshell, there would not be sustainable peace in the Middle East unless Palestinians are able to exercise their legitimate right to a prosperous life like others on the planet.”