For the first time, an Israeli army chief held talks with his Arab counterparts, including representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar, in Egypt’s resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday.
The talks, held under the auspices of the United States in March, included discussions on how to explore coordination possibilities against Iran’s alleged nuclear missile and drone threats.
According to the WSJ, it was for the first time that such high-ranking Israeli and Arab officers met under US military auspices to discuss how to defend themselves against a common threat.
US Centcom hosted secret meeting for Israel, Saudi, Qatar, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Jordan in March in Sharm Sheikh, WSJ reports.
If true, first such meeting with Saudi and Israel involved: https://t.co/NiP5WdR1Df
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) June 26, 2022
In addition to Saudi’s Al-Ruwaili and Israel’s Aviv Kochavi, top military officials from Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain attended the talks.
The meeting of top officials followed secret meetings of junior officials, who discussed Iran’s aerial threats against their countries and defense mechanisms against them.
According to sources close to the meeting, the participants agreed in principle on a mechanism to communicate immediate threats over phone lines and computer communications, as a precursor to government-level participation.
Such cooperation between Israel, the Saudis and Qatar, the WSJ said, became possible after the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords – normalization agreements between the occupation states and Arab countries.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
