Normalization escalates… UAE and Israel in a joint military exercise

The UAE Armed Forces will participate with a number of countries’ forces in the Red Flag 2019 exercise which will be held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, USA over the next two weeks.

The Red Flag exercise, which began in 1975, is one of the strongest combat air exercises in the world aims to train air crews to participate in air combat positions, as well as to deal with ground targets using live ammunition in a real combat environment.

The US Air Force will participate in the second edition of the Red Flag exercise, as well as Saudi Arabia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Singapore. It is customary for Israel to participate in these maneuvers as well, but the Gulf states do not announce this Israeli participation. The Israeli media, however, reveals such participation.

Despite the heavy maneuvers involving Saudi Arabia and the UAE each year, US military commanders have complained about the poor performance of Gulf forces, especially the air force. They have pounced on their claims of their performance in Yemen. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh war planes often target civilians not because of faulty intelligence but because their weak skills, in the words of US military commanders.

Israel recently boasted of unprecedented security coordination with the UAE, whose regime is embroiled in normalization at the expense of the Palestinian cause.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli security services foiled a bombing of a plane on a flight between the UAE capital Abu Dhabi and the Australian city of Sydney.

Netanyahu added, according to the channel “13,” the Israeli authorities foiled 40 terrorist attacks organized by Isis last year.

Netanyahu’s statement reflects the joint security coordination between the UAE and Israel, which the first time such cooperation between the occupation and an Arab country has been discussed.

In a related context, the Israeli Prime Minister claimed that “most of the Arab countries no longer consider us as an enemy and our relationship has developed significantly with them recently,” explaining: “Our interest in the Warsaw Conference focused on the danger of Iran, and the present Arabs agreed.”

Last month, the Warsaw conference was held to meet the challenges of Iran in the Middle East, with an impressive Arab and international participation.

A number of Arab ministers, most notably the UAE foreign minister, appeared at the same table as the Israeli prime minister at the conference which was boycotted by the Palestinian Authority.

The UAE has hosted a number of Israeli officials in public and private visits in the recent months which is an escalation of the shame of the normalization by the Abu Dhabi ruling regime.