AMMAN —
US and Israeli media outlets have revealed that the US will work with Israel
and
Arab countries, including Jordan, to integrate air defenses to thwart
threats from Iran, under a proposed Congressional bipartisan law.
اضافة اعلان
The bill gives
the Pentagon 180 days to present a strategy for an integrated air and missile
defense system for nine Arab countries and Israel.
According to
Haaretz newspaper, bipartisan US lawmakers from both houses of Congress on
Thursday introduced legislation aimed at bolstering defense cooperation between
Israel and several Arab states with the
US Defense Department’s explicit
involvement, in order to thwart threats from Iran and its proxies.
The “Deterring
Enemy Forces and Enabling National Defenses Act of 2022” — or the “DEFEND Act
of 2022”, was introduced by Republican and Democratic members of the House and
Senate Abraham Accords caucuses, it added.
According to the
Israeli paper, the Arab countries include Jordan and the six GCC countries, in
addition to Egypt and Iraq.
The defense
project, according to various sources, aims “to protect these countries from
Iranian threats. Iranian ballistic missiles and drones are of concern to the
countries of the region, especially those that have been attacked.”
US lawmakers
argue that “Iran threatens the security and safety of Israel and our allies in
the
Middle East, who are working together to achieve peace in the region.”
“Iran is on the
one-yard line in their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, and is threatening our
allies in the region in numerous other ways. Strengthening our allies by
building unity and enhancing shared security capabilities is critical to
confronting Iranian threats to the region,” said one of the US lawmakers
introducing the bill.
Last March, US
General
Kenneth McKenzie publicly urged Israel to integrate air and missile
defense systems with its regional partners.
Last week the Tel
Aviv based Channel 12 reported that “Israel has deployed radar systems in
several countries in the Middle East, including the UAE and Bahrain,” claiming
the measure was in line with joint cooperation in confronting “Iranian missile
threats” and creating an early warning system.
Hassan Momani,
professor of international relations at the University of Jordan, pointed to a
steady relationship with Israel by many Arab countries, adding that the issue
of normalization has gone through many stages, according to Al-Arabi website.
He added that the
first normalization wave began at the end of the 1970s, in Egypt, and in the
1990s, when most Arab countries accepted normalization in the context of
reaching peace agreements through the peace process, then the third wave came.
“The unified defense
system expresses what may be common visions, interests and the concept of a
single threat, especially when talking about the fact that these countries as a
whole have strategic relations and partnerships with the US, and many of them
see that the current threat is Iranian.”
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