TEHRAN -- Saudi Arabia has denied a British report claiming Riyadh had agreed to allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran.

Saudi Arabia “rejects violating its sovereignty or the use of its airspace or territories by anyone to attack any country,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying on Saturday. But it declined to name the official.
The source called the allegations “false” and “slanderous” and stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reiterates its position of firm opposition to and rejection of the violation of its sovereignty and the use of its airspace or territory by anyone to attack any country, Press TV reported.
It is more appropriate that Saudi Arabia should apply this policy to the authority of the Israeli occupation regime, with which it has no relationship in any way, SPA quoted him as saying.
Israel’s smear campaign
The Times newspaper reported Saturday that Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defenses for Israel for such a scenario.
“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” an unnamed U.S. defense source in the area was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
Discussing the Times report, Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a pan-Arab newspaper, rejected the possibility of Saudi acquiescence in any Israeli plan to attack Iran's nuclear installations.
“I can deny with full force that there is no such thing as 'Saudi circles'. Any Saudi official will deny this,” he told Al Jazeera.
“The Israelis are good at changing subjects. They are trying to refocus the attention to another subject, to shift away the focus from the massacre that took place in the flotilla ship and Gaza.
“This is a smear campaign by the Israeli government (which is) trying to divert the attention away from Gaza.”
Photo: U.S.-supplied Israeli F-16 fighter jets