Israeli and United States (U.S.) forces intercepted the majority of Iranian drones and projectiles. But they succeeded partially because Arab countries (Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)) quietly passed on intelligence about Tehran’s attack plans.
Arab countries opened their airspace to warplanes, shared information about radar tracking, or, in some cases, deployed their own forces to assist.
The operation was the culmination of years of U.S. efforts to break down the political and technical obstacles that have thwarted military cooperation between Israel and Arab governments.
Instead of a Middle Eastern version of the NATO alliance, the U.S. focused on less formal regional collaboration in air defense to blunt Tehran’s growing arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles – precisely the weapons that threatened Israel on Saturday.
Efforts to build an integrated air defense system for the region date back decades. After years of false starts and minimal progress, the initiative gained momentum following the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration, establishing official ties between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain.
All at the initiative of the U.S.
Two years later, the Pentagon moved Israel from its European command to the Central Command, which includes the rest of the Middle East, a move that facilitated greater military cooperation with Arab governments under U.S. auspices.
“Israel’s move into Centcom was a game-changer,” facilitating intelligence sharing and early warning among countries, said Dana Stroul, who until December was the senior civilian official at the Pentagon responsible for the Middle East.
Collaboration between Israel and Arab governments in air defense with the U.S. as an intermediary has become commonplace, even with Saudi Arabia, which has not yet established diplomatic relations with Israel, Israeli and U.S. officials say.
After Iran’s announcement of retaliation for the attack on the consulate in Damascus, senior U.S. officials began pressing Arab governments to share intelligence on Iranian plans to attack Israel and to help intercept drones and missiles launched from Iran and other countries toward Israel, according to Saudi and Egyptian officials.
The initial response of several Arab governments was cautious, fearing that assisting Israel could directly involve them in the conflict and risk retaliation from Tehran. After further discussions with the U.S., the UAE, and Saudi Arabia agreed to privately exchange intelligence, while Jordan said it would allow the use of its airspace to U.S. and other countries’ warplanes and use its own aircraft to assist in intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, officials said.
Two days before the attack, Iranian officials informed colleagues from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries about the outlines and timing of their plan for large-scale strikes on Israel so that these countries could protect their airspace, officials said. The information was passed on to the U.S., giving Washington and Israel crucial advance warning.
“Alliance working at full strength”
With an Iranian attack almost certain, the White House ordered the Pentagon to move planes and missile defense assets to the region and took the lead in coordinating defense measures between Israel and Arab governments, according to a senior Israeli official.
“The challenge was to rally all these countries around Israel at a time when Israel is isolated in the region,” said one official. “It was a diplomatic issue.”
Arab countries offered assistance in defense against Iranian attacks because they realized the benefits of cooperation with the U.S. and Israel, as long as it is not discussed, said Yasmine Farouk, a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based in Washington.
“Gulf countries know they still don’t have the same level of support that Israel receives from the U.S. and see what they did on Saturday as a way to get it in the future,” said Farouk.
Iranian missiles and drones were tracked from the moment of launch by early warning radars in Persian Gulf countries connected to a U.S. operational center in Qatar, which transmitted information to combat aircraft from several countries in the airspace above Jordan and other countries.
When slow-moving Iranian drones entered range, they were mostly shot down by Israeli and U.S. fighters, and to a lesser extent by British, French, and Jordanian warplanes.
An Israeli official involved in creating regional security cooperation said that while there had been frequent exchanges of intelligence on air defense threats in the past, the Iranian attack on Saturday “was the first time we’ve seen the alliance work at full strength.”, Klix.ba reports.
Photo: Klix.ba
E.Dz.
