Deterring Iran: Gulf ready to enter under Iron Dome

Eslam Mohamed

With the increase in Iranian threats to Arab Gulf countries, efforts are continuing to contain these threats by strengthening military cooperation with other parties to spread their weapons in the region. Tel Aviv has agreed to a request to deploy a number of Iron Dome anti-missile systems at American military bases in the Gulf to deter threats from Iran and its proxies, at a time when the first consultations were held between the new US administration and Tel Aviv on the Iranian nuclear file and the regional situation, before an Israeli delegation is set to visit Washington early next month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the validity of the reports of consultations on several regional issues, foremost of which is the Iranian file, as consultations took place between Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan over the phone for the first time since President Joe Biden took office this past week.

Earlier, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the head of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Yossi Cohen, would present the Israeli view on Biden’s vision for diplomacy with Iran and a return to the nuclear deal in the first visit by an Israeli official to meet Biden since he assumed his duties at the White House.

Cohen is supposed to provide Biden and senior US defense officials with new information about Iran’s secret nuclear program, and a man is expected to ask the Biden administration to force Tehran by imposing severe restrictions on its nuclear program while requiring radical amendments to the nuclear deal, according to Channel 12.

In turn, the Israeli I24 channel referred to a list of Israeli demands from the American administration in the event that the United States decides to return to the nuclear agreement, revolving around integrating a number of basic components in the deal to ensure Israel’s national security, provided that it includes an Iranian commitment on the nuclear level by immediately stopping uranium enrichment, stopping the production of advanced centrifuges, and granting IAEA inspectors the right to inspect all facilities.

With regard to the regional role, it indicated that the Israeli request is limited to “stopping Iran’s support for terrorist groups such as the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah,” as well as forcing it to “withdraw the Iranian military presence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.”

It is expected that the United States will soon begin deploying Iron Dome batteries to American military bases in a number of countries, including countries in the Middle East, Europe and the Far East, but Israeli officials have refused to disclose the countries in which these systems will be deployed, and they denied that this was part of the agreements to normalize relations.

The Iron Dome is an Israeli-made anti-missile system capable of intercepting missiles at a distance of 4 to 70 km.

It was manufactured by the Rafael arms development company with funding from the United States. The US military bought the system, and Rafael agreed with the American company Raytheon, one of the largest security companies in the world, on its joint production and launching its production line outside Israel.

Last September, the United States conducted missile interception experiments in New Mexico to determine the type of systems that could be deployed to protect their sites on the ground from various air threats. It preferred Iron Dome systems to systems made by Boeing and General Dynamics.

The Israeli website Walla reported that the commander of the US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, will arrive in Israel on Thursday, which is the first visit since Biden took over. In addition to the timing, political sources stressed the importance of the visit in the context of regional threats and the next negotiations with Iran.