Saudis limited cooperation with Israel during flydubai emergency – report

Saudi Arabia reportedly limiting its cooperation with Israel in the wake of the flydubai incident – and has not shared information from the ongoing investigation.

By World Israel News Staff

The Saudi government has sharply limited cooperation with Israel during and after the recent incident involving a flydubai passenger flight to Tel Aviv which was forced to make an emergency landing, according to a report published by The Jerusalem Post.

Saudi Arabia is said to have provided medical care, airport assistance and safe haven to more than 170 passengers after an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai jet bound for Israel, but refused Israeli requests to send its own aircraft to retrieve them and kept Jerusalem at arm’s length from the initial investigation.

The contrasting responses emerged after Flight FZ1073 made an emergency landing Wednesday in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, following a violent cockpit attack in which the Omani co-pilot allegedly stabbed the Indian captain and sent the aircraft into a steep dive.

Passengers and other pilots ultimately regained control, allowing the damaged Boeing 737 to land safely.

Saudi authorities immediately received the aircraft and its passengers despite having no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Videos from Tabuk showed Saudi medical and airport personnel tending to passengers after the landing, while the injured captain received treatment. Israeli travelers later praised the way they were treated.

Saudi Arabia “took care of us, and it was the best hospitality I ever experienced,” passenger Almog Italie said after returning to Israel.

“I look forward to returning, and hopefully there will be peace,” he added.

Behind the scenes, however, cooperation had clear limits.

Israeli security officials sought permission to send aircraft into Saudi Arabia to retrieve the passengers.

The Israel Air Force prepared Super Hercules transport planes for a potential evacuation, but Riyadh rejected the request.

Israeli officials also considered sending a civilian aircraft, but that option did not materialize either.

Instead, the passengers were required to return aboard another flydubai aircraft sent to Tabuk.

That created an additional problem: some of the Israelis initially refused to board another plane belonging to the same airline only hours after surviving the cockpit attack.

Israeli security agencies worked to reassure them by vetting the replacement flight crew before departure.

The passengers eventually boarded after being told that the flydubai aircraft was the available route home.

The replacement jet later landed at Ben Gurion Airport, where the returning passengers were greeted by relatives and Israeli officials.

The decision not to admit an Israeli was made despite the fact that Israel and Saudi Arabia have developed increasingly significant security contacts, even without a formal diplomatic relations.

Just weeks before the flydubai emergency, the two countries had been engaged through US military channels over Israeli intelligence assistance intended to help Saudi Arabia confront renewed Houthi attacks from Yemen.

Israel has provided intelligence relevant to Houthi deployments and threats against Saudi infrastructure as Riyadh confronts a renewed campaign by the Iran-backed group.

Mossad officials responsible for managing sensitive foreign relationships had reportedly been more cautious about how far Riyadh would be willing to go publicly.

A person close to the Saudi royal family offered a blunt explanation of Riyadh’s position.

“Israel needs to understand that normalization cannot be forced,” the person said.

Saudi Arabia has resisted joining the Abraham Accords despite repeated US efforts to broker an agreement with Israel, maintaining that there must first be meaningful movement toward Palestinian statehood.

A senior Saudi official this week denied reports that Saudi representatives had participated in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli officials say Saudi Arabia has not provided Jerusalem with detailed information directly from the first stages of its investigation into the co-pilot.

Much of Israel’s early understanding of what occurred came instead from the passengers, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The suspected attacker remains in Saudi custody.

Israel has asked to participate directly in the investigation, including efforts to determine why the co-pilot attacked the captain, how he obtained a weapon inside the cockpit and whether he acted alone.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the United Arab Emirates agreed to Israeli participation in questioning the suspect, but the precise arrangements involving Saudi authorities remain unclear.

“Everything is difficult because the way the event is framed by the moderate Sunni Arab states is completely different from the Israeli narrative,” defense officials said.