Israel open to teaming up with Gulf states on missile defense, official says
Shift in tone comes as Israel hails "successful" missile defense exercise in cooperation with Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency
Israel’s government has completed a major missile defense exercise and is open to the possibility of working with Arab Gulf states on collective missile defense in the future, a senior official said today.
Moshe Patel, head of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, which operates under the country’s Defense Ministry, said Tuesday that no regional agreements are yet ready, but that cooperation with Israel’s Arab neighbors may be possible in the future.
“From an engineering point of view, of course there is a lot of advantage,” Patel told reporters Monday, according to Reuters. “That information can be shared, like sensors that can be deployed in both countries because we have the same enemies.”
The comments come as Israel’s Defense Ministry hailed the successful completion of a multitiered missile defense exercise that brought Israeli defense officials together with representatives of the US Missile Defense Agency.
