Strategic Assessment

Strained ties with Washington and growing security threats prompted Egypt and Saudi Arabia to seek closer cooperation with Israel on issues of common interest. Relations between Turkey and the United States have also become tense due to issues surrounding the Syrian civil war, as well as the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey and Erdogan’s growing acts of repression. However, despite the June 2016 agreement between Jerusalem and Ankara to normalize ties, it is unlikely that Turkey and Israel will expand security cooperation significantly in the near future, because shifting regional dynamics have caused their common interests, which served as the basis for their close ties in the 1990s, to diverge.