Saudi Arabia and Israel 'working together against Iran': Tehran

Saudi Arabia is coordinating with Israel to create an "international atmosphere" against Tehran, Iranian leaders claimed on Monday, in the latest tit-for-tat between the rival nations.

Riyadh and Tel Aviv jointly "imagine they can compensate for their numerous defeats and failures in the region by creating an international atmosphere against our country", alleged foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

The alignment is "not accidental", he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are among several nations accusing Iran of fuelling regional conflicts by supporting armed Shia movements in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

But Iran has repeatedly rejected the accusations and called on Riyadh to stop its support for "terrorists" such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.

"It's unfortunate that this occupying regime [of Israel] is counting on the coordination and collaboration of an Islamic country to further its perpetual anti-Iranian policies," Ghasemi said.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited Washington and said there were now "broader conditions for broad peace in the Middle East between Israel and the Arab countries".

"For the first time in the life of my country, Arab countries in the region do not see Israel as an enemy, but increasingly as an ally," Netanyahu told President Donald Trump.

"We think the larger issue today is 'how do we create the broader conditions for broad peace in the Middle East between Israel and the Arab countries'," Netanyahu, said the following day on MSNBC.

Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel - although the regional neighbours share informal links with the controversial state.

The GCC members have repeatedly accused Iran of meddling in "internal affairs", most prominently in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is leading the Arab coalition in a bombing campaign against Houthi rebels. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen war, with schools, hospitals and other infrastructure reportedly targeted.

US President Donald Trump's pick for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has gone on record pushing for cooperation between Tel Aviv and Sunni Arab nations to oppose Iran.

On Sunday, an Israeli newspaper reported that Netanyahu met secretly with Arab rulers last year to hear former US Secretary of State John Kerry pitch a regional peace plan.

It said Kerry wanted the sides to endorse six principles, which he laid out in public in December.

They included a call for Israel to vacate territory it occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War, subject to land swaps agreed between the two sides, however Israel reportedly rejected the secret peace deal with the Arab states.