As the international community continues debating the merit of economic sanctions against Israel, Saudi Arabia has passed a message to Israel via the United States that any IDF planes crossing into its airspace will be shot down. It appears the message was given to government leaders during a recent visit by senior American officials to Jerusalem, most likely by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
There is ongoing speculation regarding such an attack, particularly regarding the aerial route, if Saudi Arabia will permit IAF jets to enter its airspace or perhaps a more direct route, over Jordan and Iraq.
A former US secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld recently released statements that he believes Israeli intelligence regarding Iran is accurate, and despite the opinion of the US administration, the Iranian threat is greater than perceived by the international community. Rumsfeld also signaled that if he were in Israel’s place, he too would not favor informing the United States ahead of an attack under current realities.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Allowing a country to use your airspace for an attack is considered an act of war, and it is unlikely that Saudi Arabia (or any of the other countries between Israel and Iran) want to go to war with Iran (or with Israel, for that matter) – though Syria and Iraq probably don’t have enough of a military to do more than protest, and only Jordan has an embassy that can file a protest.
The Israelis should probably explore ways to attack Iran without going over other country’s airspace (perhaps with missles fired from submarines, or even something space launched – which would terrify the world since only the US and Russia have ICBMs, so far).
Oh i saw the title said fighter jets i assumed this article was gonna be about Rex Ryan.
More heurablurtzin…A country looking the other way when another nation use its airspace to attack a third party is not a rare event. It happened during both Gulf wars…more than a few military writers say it happened during the 1981 Israeli attack on Iraq’s Ofira facility…it happened during the Balkan conflicts and during Vietnam.
I think there is a typo. Did you mean economic sanctions against Iran, not Israel? B”H as far as I know there are no International economic sanctions against Israel.
YWN mods
“As the international community continues debating the merit of economic sanctions against Israel” Is that supposed to read Israel or Iran?