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.
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2020-08-20
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2020-08-19
The UAE leadership has long viewed Israel as a model for how a small nation can nonetheless thrive in a region filled with security threats. The Emiratis have studied how Israel, Singapore and others have harnessed strong leadership, high tech, a certain amount of risk-taking regionally and globally as well as their highly educated populace to succeed diplomatically, economically and in terms of security. Israelis have been going to Dubai on other passports or meeting Emirati businessmen in third countries since the 1980s. The Emiratis and Israelis have had informal, covert, and indirect contacts, notably on intelligence and security, for more than two decades.
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2020-08-16
Iran’s highest ranking military commander says the Iranian nation and Armed Forces will make a radical change in their approach to the United Arab Emirates after Abu Dhabi’s recent step to normalize relations with Israel.
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2020-08-15
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the United States has cooked up a story about the seizure of four tankers carrying Iranian gasoline bound for Venezuela after suffering an embarrassing diplomatic defeat at the United Nations Security Council which on Friday rejected its proposal to extend an arms embargo on Iran. “Having suffered the political defeat, the Americans claimed to have seized four Iranian vessels in international waters. It, however, turned out later that the tankers were neither Iranian nor Iran-flagged. It was all just fake news,” Rouhani said during a meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus in Tehran on Saturday.
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2020-08-14
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.
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2020-08-09
While Western Media was busy mocking Iran's 'fake aircraft carrier', the aftermath of the July exercise revealed something much more intriguing - a novel launch technique that IRGC-ASF Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh aptly dubbed 'Missile Farms' [...] Iran's new missile farms are an interesting approach to countering threats that may try to erode Iran's deterrent. By eliminating the need for TELs to move into position, missile farms prevent surprise attacks from being detected prior to launch. They also substantially reduce reaction times and costs of SRBMs. These improvements make Iran's regional deterrent more robust, timely, and less vulnerable to attrition.
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2020-08-08
Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi in a letter to the UN chief filed Iran's complaint over US' support for terrorist group 'Tondar', saying Washington is responsible for its terrorist crimes in Iran.
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2020-08-07
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin in the UN Security Council said Beijing is diametrically opposed to Washington’s illegal bid to prevent removal of an anti-Iran arms embargo that is slated to expire in October.
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2020-08-03
During its annual “Great Prophet” military exercises in late July, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck dummy targets, including a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier, as it did in 2015, and a U.S. missile defense system. But the IRGC also launched two hitherto unidentified ballistic missiles from underground positions in the Iranian desert. Who was the intended audience of the IRGC’s spectacle? In the wake of numerous unconventional attacks, widely attributed to the United States and/or Israel, against Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, the United States and the Iranian public (the latter in desperate need of a morale boost) appear to be the target audiences.
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2020-08-01
Anatoly Tsyganok, the head of the Russian Center for Political-Military Studies, said on Saturday that recent drills by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in the Persian Gulf was a serious warning to the enemies of Iran, especially the United States. In an interview with IRNA, Tsyganok said the maneuver showed Iran’s power in the sea and air. Iran has repeatedly announced that it is not looking for any disputes and tensions in the region, but it keeps militarily alert and ready to react to any aggression, the Russian expert added. The IRGC ended on Thursday massive drills in the southern parts of Iran and the Persian Gulf which it had started on Tuesday.