Behind scenes of Israel-Saudi pact, Pentagon works Arab air defense deals

Behind scenes of Israel-Saudi pact, Pentagon works Arab air defense deals

This is an excerpt from Security Briefing, Al-Monitor's weekly newsletter covering defense and conflict developments in the Middle East. To get Security Briefing in your inbox, sign up here.

WASHINGTON — As the Biden administration touts a bilateral deal with Saudi Arabia linked to a historic normalization with Israel, Pentagon officials are working behind the scenes to firm up what defense officials hope will be a cornerstone of Washington’s broader Middle East strategy for years to come.

Senior Pentagon officials sat down with Arab military brass in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss expanding a nascent Middle East air and naval defense coalition in hopes of eventually containing Iran’s missile and drone overmatch over its neighbors.

The department’s top Middle East policy chief, Dan Shapiro, along with officials from CENTCOM and the Joint Staff, are leading the discussions with Gulf Cooperation Council military representatives for the second annual round of defense working group meetings in the Saudi capital.

Biden administration officials aim to persuade Arab defense chiefs to expand their air defense radar arrays and share intelligence to detect and shoot down the Iranian-made projectiles the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has proliferated to militias across the region as well as to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

They also want to see Gulf states build up their navies' abilities to surveil and patrol regional waterways to help interdict the flow of advanced Iranian missile components to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Houthis, like many of the militias backed by the IRGC, have echoed the Iranian government's hostility to the US military’s presence in the region and have either targeted or threatened to target Arab states in the Gulf that host US troops at local bases.

"Our basic message as we head into these discussions is we're stronger when we act together," a senior US defense official involved in the talks told reporters on the condition of anonymity on Monday.

Long-term efforts

The effort isn’t new. The administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all sought to convince Arab states to work together on air defense. Biden administration officials say this time is different, however, because Gulf states now recognize a distinct threat from Iran and its proxies.

Yet the current administration's strategic approach to the Middle East has faced skepticism in Arab capitals, with some leaders seeing the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan........

© Al Monitor