army drill
Israel, UAE, Bahrain, US hold major Red Sea drill ‘to counter Iran’s aggression’
Naval exercise represents first public military cooperation between Jerusalem and Manama; comes amid growing tensions with Tehran at sea.
The navies of Israel, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain launched a joint exercise in the Red Sea this week, in response to their shared adversary Iran’s presence and aggression in the waters of the Middle East, a senior Israeli naval official said.
“This [Iranian] presence is something that we need to push back as much as possible from the State of Israel, from the Red Sea, from the areas that harm our freedom to sail… In order to do that, we need to make our partnerships tighter,” the senior officer told reporters on Thursday evening, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Here the goal is to extend the range of the navy’s operations — for the good of the State of Israel and the IDF — to extend our ability to detect [threats], to extend our sailing range, to prevent naval terror and also to retaliate, when we must, when it’s needed, against what the Iranians are doing,” the officer said.
Since February, Iran and Israel have been accused of engaging in what analysts have called a naval “shadow war,” in which vessels linked to each nation have come under attack in waters around the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in a series of tit-for-tat exchanges.
The officer said that unlike much of its efforts in the region, which are conducted through proxies, Iran is more “independent” at sea, conducting operations with its own forces.
Earlier on Thursday, the US Central Command’s 5th Fleet announced that it had launched an exercise in the Red Sea the day before with the navies of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, focusing on “visit, board, search and seizure tactics.”
“It is exciting to see US forces training with regional partners to enhance our collective maritime security capabilities,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the 5th Fleet, said in a statement.
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