JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A covert meeting which took place recently at Sharm a-Sheikh brought high-ranking Israeli military personnel together with similar high ranking officers from countries that Israel has no diplomatic relations with. The meeting was the result of a US initiative to coordinate regional efforts against Iran’s missile and drone threat.
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The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the previously undisclosed meetings were held at Sharm el Sheikh in the Egyptian-controlled Sinai Peninsula sometime in March and included participants from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Jordan.
At the meeting, Israel Chief of Staff Aviv IDF commander Aviv Kohavi reportedly agreed with other Mideast security officials to create a coordinated alert system which could be used by all the countries under Iranian threat.
Kochavi also met with his Saudi counterpart,Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Al Ruwaili, at the conference. This was the first time that Kochavi had attended such a conference with high-ranking officers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar which do not have relations with Israel. In recent months, there have been signs of warming in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the Arab country permitting Israel to use its airspace on flights eastward.
The US was represented at the conference by Gen. Frank McKenzie, the then-head of the US Central Command.
Participants reached an agreement in principle on methods for rapid notification of aerial threats, according to sources familiar with the talks. However, the alerts would be passed by phone or computer and not through a US-style military data-sharing system, sources said. Also discussed was how decisions could be made on which country’s forces would respond to any incident.
The secret summit was arranged as Iran is continuing to make steady progress towards nuclear power, a scenario which concerns all Middle Eastern countries in its periphery.
The US Central Command did not confirm the Sharm el Sheikh talks, noting in a statement to the WSJ only that it “maintains a firm commitment to increasing regional cooperation and developing integrated air and missile defense architecture to protect our force and our regional partners.”
Iran “is the primary destabilizing factor across the Middle East,” spokesman Col. Joe Buccino said. A National Security Council spokesperson added that the Biden administration supports “broadening and deepening Arab- Israeli ties.”
None of the countries involved responded to the Wall Street Journal report, with the exception of the UAE, which denied having any regional military alliances with any other country.
An Israeli official told the Wall Street Journal that the regional military alliance is “a work in progress. It’s a mechanism that’s being built,” but declined to discuss the Sharm el Sheikh meeting. “There are definitely partners who see it as too sensitive to talk about.”
Although Jordan and Egypt, which signed peace deals with Israel long before the Abraham Accords, already cooperate on air defense with Israel, Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, is likely to shy away from working with Israel until ties are formalized.