Iraq is headed towards a gradual military escalation between the Iraqi resistance, supported by the main political parties, opposing US forces and Iraqi security forces commanded by al-Kadhemi. This threatens to create a dangerous and unstable situation in the country. During his meeting with Al-Kadhemi, President Trump stated that he would not withdraw for three years. This statement was undoubtedly in response to what Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Iranian revolution, said during his meeting with Al-Kadhemi a few weeks before. Sayyed Khamenei demanded that the US leave Iraq as the price to pay for the blood of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, who was assassinated by Trump’s drone at Baghdad airport. […] However, Trump and his team within the current administration don’t seem to realise that they have put themselves where Iran wants them to be. By refusing to accept the Iraqi parliament’s binding decision that foreign forces withdraw, the US is challenging the Iraqi parliamentary majority, which requested a US withdrawal within six months, not three years. Consequently, Iran is eager to see the US.

On Monday, a report emerged that Netanyahu had agreed to an American sale of F-35 fighter jets and other highly advanced weapons to the UAE as part of the agreement. Despite the prime minister’s vehement denials, the reporter who broke the story — Yedioth Ahronoth’s Nahum Barnea, one of the most respected journalists in Israel — stood by his reporting. Although all parties claim the sale of the weapons is not a condition of the UAE-Israel agreement, subsequent statements support Barnea’s scoop. For example, the New York Times reported that American officials “do not dispute that the new momentum on the arms sale — after years of stalled requests by the Emirates to buy the fighter jet — is linked to the broader diplomatic initiative.”

The well-documented truth is that the two sides have been closely working together for decades and for electoral reasons in Israel and the United States and concerns about regime survival, Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) decided to give a public face to their deep and growing cooperation. Each of the three leaders has his own reasons to formalize the Tel Aviv-Abu Dhabi agreement. […]  A better approach to promote peace and stability is for all regional powers, in cooperation with international ones, to engage in security dialogue and recognize the legitimate concerns of each other and create a mechanism to facilitate a peaceful diplomatic settlement to the regional conflicts based on mutual respect. Finally, for many years the rulers of the UAE (and other Arab countries) have been buying Israeli spyware to collect data on dissidents inside and outside their countries. Such practices are not likely to contribute to regime survival and national security. Rather, implementing broad and genuine political reform based on transparency and good governance is certain to improve the legitimacy of governments and consolidate domestic political stability.

The exercise pitted U.S. and IAF F-35 “blue air” against IAF F-35 “red air” and simulated surface-to-air threats. This let U.S. and Israeli F-35 pilots practice working together to defeat sophisticated enemy air defenses and fighters before striking ground targets. That scenario closely mirrors what American and Israeli pilots may confront if Tehran acquires new air defenses and fighters from Moscow or Beijing. In a variety of real-world situations, F-35s would need to defeat Iranian air defenses and fighters to facilitate direct or standoff weapon strikes against ground targets.