Report: Israel Building Middle East Air Defense Alliance to Counter Iranian Missile and Drone Attacks 

Report: Israel Building Middle East Air Defense Alliance to Counter Iranian Missile and Drone Attacks 

Amid Iran’s advancing missile, drone, and nuclear weapons program, Israel is forging a Middle East air defense alliance to shield the region from Iranian aggression. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Jerusalem is building a “wide partnership with additional countries in the region,” which “includes aerial defense.”

The Israeli defense minister’s statement comes after a recent report in The Wall Street Journal claiming the formation of such an alliance following “undisclosed talks” between U.S., Israeli, and Arab military officials. So far, the U.S. and Israeli officials have not responded to the daily high-level military talks reported by the U.S. business.

“The U.S. convened a secret meeting of top military officials from Israel and Arab countries in March to explore how they could coordinate against Iran’s growing missile and drone capabilities, according to officials from the U.S. and the region,” the WSJ reported Sunday.

The Times of Israel reported Defense Minister Gantz’s remarks:

Israel is building a regional air defense alliance to defend its members from Iran, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday, appearing to confirm, at least in part, a report that the Israeli military was in talks with its Saudi and Qatari counterparts on the matter.

“We are building our wide partnership with additional countries in the region to ensure a secure, stable and prosperous Middle East. Among other things, this also includes aerial defense,” Gantz said, speaking at the start of his Blue and White party’s faction meeting in the Knesset.

“We will strengthen this, as a stable Middle East is an international, regional and Israeli interest of the highest order,” he said.

Besides a rogue nuclear weapons program, Iran has one of the most advanced and sophisticated missile programs compared to the nations of the Arab Middle East. The regime possesses not only several types of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles but also provides terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah with rockets and related technology.

Iran’s drone program also poses a threat to the region. “After decades of steady development, Tehran now uses drones to complement its missiles and support the broader effort to bring the entire Middle East within its range,” the think-tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy reported in March 2022.

Last month, the Iranian military unveiled a massive underground base at an undisclosed location that houses more than 1oo attack and reconnaissance drones. “Iranian state television on Saturday broadcast footage of an air force base for drones under the Zagros mountain range in the west of the country,” the French news agency AFP reported on May 28.

Much like its missile program, Tehran supplies attack drones to its terrorist allies across the Middle East.

The revelation comes as the Biden White House revives nuclear talks with Iran. “Iran and the United States appeared poised Tuesday to start indirect talks in Qatar aimed at finding a way to save Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers,” The Associated Press reported.

As AP noted, President Joe Biden has sent his Special Iran Envoy, Rob Malley, to oversee the nuclear talks in Qatar. Malley, however, is anything but an honest broker. Malley was booted out by the 20o8 Obama presidential campaign after it became known that he was holding secretive “unauthorized” talks with Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas. He was “forced to sever ties with the campaign when news outlets reported he had met with members of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization,” NBC News reported in 2015.

With someone like Malley steering the U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Israel should genuinely fear another disastrous nuclear deal and the resulting regional chaos from an emboldened and aggressive Iran. Apparently, Israel is not alone in this assessment, and some Arab states seem willing to put aside their decades-long animosity toward the Jewish State to face the real existential threat posed by Iran’s Mullah regime.

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