RIYADH (Dispatches) – For the first time, an army chief with the Zionist regime held talks with his Arab counterparts, including Saudi Army Chief Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwaili, in Egypt’s resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Wall Street Journal has revealed.
The talks, held under the auspices of the United States in March, included discussions on how to explore coordination possibilities against Iran’s military might.
According to the WSJ, it was for the first time that such high ranking Zionist and Arab officers have met under U.S. military auspices.
In addition to Saudi’s al-Ruwaili and the occupying regime’s Aviv Kochavi, top military officials from Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain attended the talks.
The meeting of top officials followed secret meetings of junior officials, who discussed Iran’s aerial prowess in a possible military confrontation wit and defense mechanisms against them.
According to sources close to the meeting, the participants agreed in principle on a mechanism to communicate ‘immediate threats’ over phone lines and computer communications, as a precursor to higher-level participation.
Such cooperation between the Zionist regime, the Saudis and Qatar, the WSJ said, was unthinkable for the past decades but it became possible after the signing of the U.S-sponsored so-called Abraham Accords – normalization agreements between the occupying regime and Arab countries.
In another development, the United States, the Zionist regime and four Arab countries agreed to closer cooperation and annual foreign ministers’ meetings on Monday, two weeks before President Joe Biden’s first visit to the Middle East.
Bahrain, host of the six-way talks, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco all opened ties with the occupying regime under the U.S.-brokered deal 2020, while Egypt made ‘peace’ with the Zionist regime in 1979.
Monday’s meeting follows a foreign ministers’ summit in the Negev desert in March, and comes ahead of Biden’s visit to the occupied territories and Saudi Arabia from July 13 to 16.
“We’re trying to build a new regional framework... and tangible initiatives that can put flesh on the bones of the Negev forum,” said Yael Lempert, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.