An Israeli-Saudi Operation?

Editorial of The New York Sun
April 10, 2008

The killing in February at Damascus of Hezbollah terror master Imad Mughniyeh was a big story at the time, but the question of who was behind the assassination has yet to be authoritatively answered. The latest intriguing clue is a report by RTTNews, a financial wire, picking up a report from Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. The Iranian organ reported that "a high-ranking defense official in Saudi Arabia's embassy in Damascus" had been arrested by Syrian authorities in connection with the assassination. It quoted a source as saying that Israel had masterminded the operation.

Well, plenty of people, including Americans, wanted Mughniyeh dead, and the world is a better place without him. But if indeed a Saudi defense official played a role in the assassination, with or without Israeli involvement, it would have been the kingdom's finest hour.

The Sunni Saudis are petrified of growing Iranian, Shiite influence in the Persian Gulf and in Iraq, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia. Mughniyeh was an Iranian weapon, and his assassination was a setback for the terror masters in Tehran. Anything from the Iranian press should be taken with a shaker-full of salt, and the Saudis have their own terror ties to Al Qaeda and their own flaws when it comes to religious freedom and human rights. But the Saudi animus toward Iran is an opportunity for America and its allies to harness. If this was done in the Mughniyeh assassination, it is something to note.