Vasily Kuznetsov, Director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, talks about the reasons behind Saudi Arabia and Israel's fears of Iran. Kuznetsov noted that Israel and Saudi Arabia have a genuine fear of Iranian expansion and no one has been able to convince them of the rationality and pragmatism of the Iranian regime.
According to Kuznetsov, this fear contributes to the rapprochement of Israel and Saudi Arabia, as their positions and arguments are very close in nature. He also noted that from the point of view of Israel and Saudi Arabia, the main goal of Iran is to build an Iraq-Syria-Lebanon axis. However, Saudi Arabia greatly exaggerates fears of Iranian influence in Yemen and Bahrain.