The navy workout routines simulated renewed unrest alongside Israel’s northern border amid a territorial dispute with Lebanon
Israel and the US have carried out joint navy drills aiming to coordinate air defenses, intelligence and logistics within the occasion combating breaks out with armed teams in southern Lebanon, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
Performed over the past week and overseen by US Central Command (CENTCOM) and the Israeli Protection Forces (IDF), the workout routines aimed to organize each nations for “a navy escalation on Israel’s northern entrance,” based on the outlet.
Nevertheless, whereas CENTCOM and the IDF gamed out plenty of eventualities, the 2 sides didn’t talk about the opportunity of “energetic US involvement” in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, a militant group and political group based mostly in southern Lebanon which has clashed on and off with Israeli forces since its founding within the 1980s.
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This week’s drill nonetheless targeted on the potential for combating in Israel’s north, in addition to how to answer “Iranian involvement alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Haaretz added.
Although US navy ties with Israel have been beforehand coordinated underneath the European Command (EUCOM), these tasks have been handed to CENTCOM final September. The transfer has resulted in elevated cooperation between the 2 sides, together with the newest spherical of workout routines. Related drills had not been held underneath EUCOM for a number of years, as a substitute specializing in defensive methods alone.
The IDF beforehand introduced that it might conduct workout routines alongside the border with Lebanon final week, together with artillery drills, although didn’t point out any American involvement on the time.
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The navy exercise comes amid a rising territorial spat between Israel and Lebanon, during which the 2 sides preserve competing claims to energy-rich areas of the Mediterranean. Earlier this month, Lebanese President Michel Aoun warned that any try and faucet the offshore riches with out first resolving the dispute can be seen as a “provocation,” whereas current Israeli media stories have said the IDF is making ready for a doable assault on drilling platforms close to the contested waters.
