A naval exercice to counter theats in the Red Sea
UAE, Bahrain, Israel, US forces conduct Red Sea naval exercise
The military exercise is the first publicly announced naval exercise between the US, Israel and the two Gulf Arab countries.
Thursday 11/11/2021
A naval exercice to counter theats in the Red Sea
DUBAI - Forces from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Israel and the United States Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) began a multilateral maritime security operations exercise in the Red Sea on Wednesday, NAVCENT said on Thursday.
This is the first publicly announced naval exercise between the United States, Israel and the two Gulf Arab countries who both normalised diplomatic relations with Israel last year under a deal known as the Abraham Accords.
Two years ago, the US launched the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) in order to train Gulf Arab allies to "protect navigation" in the region's troubled waterways, as it sought to build an alliance to contain Iran.
It held a three-week International Maritime Exercise (IMX), which started on October 21, 2019 came after a number of commercial vessels were attacked in the Gulf from May, ratcheting up regional tensions.