Times report, possibly to be treated with some caution.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom's air defences will return to full alert.

From David Kenner's Foreign Policy blog.

In a move that is sure to set conspiracy theorists aflutter, former Vice President Dick Cheney popped up yesterday in Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Abdullah. Accompanying him was former State Department diplomat and its top interpreter, Gamal Helal, who recently left the government to form a consulting firm, Helal Associates.

Washington Post story.

The United States test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads during a joint military exercise Wednesday with Saudi Arabia, a Western military official said.

The Leveretts comment.

Sometimes headlines really do convey powerful messages. That was certainly the case with an AFP story, which appeared late last week under the headline, "Saudis deny discussing pressure on China over Iran with US".

Guest piece by Jean-François Seznec on the Leveretts' Race for Iran blog.

Seen from Washington, Saudi Arabia seems to speak with a forked tongue on Iran. On the one hand, the Saudis are telling the United States that under no circumstances should it bomb Iran, or allow Israel to do so. On the other hand, the Saudis are also letting it be known that they are worried and quite sure that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

It seems that, in fact, the Saudis are more worried about potential U.S. military action against Iran than they are about the Iranians' ability actually to obtain nuclear weapons. The Saudis may not express this view clearly enough to change views on Capitol Hill, but the U.S. executive branch is probably quite aware of Saudi worries about the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Iran.

Al Jazeera report.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday in Riyadh with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Prince Saud al-Faisal said the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions demanded a more immediate solution than sanctions.

Al-Faisal described sanctions as a long-term solution, and said the threat is more pressing.

"But we see the issue in the shorter term because we are closer to the threat. We need immediate resolution rather than gradual resolution," he said.

The minister did not identify a preferred short-term resolution.