Iran is looking to capitalize on its improved ties with longtime rival Saudi Arabia to expand cooperation with the Kingdom and neighboring Arab states at a time when tensions between Iran and the United States were heating up in the waters of the Persian Gulf.
Major General Mohammed Hossein Bagheri, chief-of-staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, called Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman on Thursday to express his desire to promote military relations between the two Middle East powers, among other regional matters, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Saudi Defense Ministry also announced the call, stating that "bilateral relations between the two countries in the military and defense field were reviewed, and a number of topics of common interest were discussed."
A deal brokered in March by China saw Iran and Saudi Arabia reestablish relations after a seven-year rift. While Riyadh remains a close security partner for Washington, Saudi Arabia has also looked to diversify its international relations, fostering closer ties with China and Russia, which have enhanced relations with Iran as it set about improving its ties in the region.
The latest call came amid a flurry of Iranian diplomatic and defense activities playing out as regional tempers flared over the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas movement.
The U.S. has heightened its force posture in the Persian Gulf as well as the Eastern Mediterranean in an attempt to deter the conflict from spreading as a growing number of militias, many with ties to Iran, sought to open new fronts against Israel and its supporters. Iran has protested the presence of U.S. ships operating in nearby waters, including the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
On Tuesday, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri announced that his forces had sent drones to harass the operations of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its strike group.
The incident was confirmed and described as "unsafe, unprofessional and irresponsible" in a statement issued Wednesday by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command chief Vice Admiral Brad Cooper and shared with Newsweek. The U.S. carrier strike group was said to have been "conducting routine flight operations in the international waters of the Central Arabian Gulf when it detected an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)," which was "visually identified as Iranian."
"Its closest point of approach to IKE was approximately 1,500 yards. Multiple hails and warnings were ignored by Iran," Cooper said. "This Iranian action violated safety precautions outlined in a daily Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). The NOTAM directed manned and unmanned aircraft to remain greater than 10 nautical miles from the aircraft carrier in order to ensure safety of flight of military and civilian aviation."
The incident is the latest in a long history of confrontations between U.S. and Iranian vessels operating in a strategic waterway that constitutes one of the world's most important chokepoints for maritime oil traffic. In past years, Iranian officials have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz by force in response to flaring tensions with the U.S.
Such threats have riled nearby Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which are engaged in a civil war against the Iran-aligned Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, in Yemen. Tehran, however, has more recently sought to mend regional ties and boost cooperation, with Iran now appealing for a common stance among Muslim nations to enact harsh measures against Israel over the war in Gaza.
In a call Wednesday with Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian emphasized that "Islamic countries must continue their efforts to completely stop the war crimes of the Zionist regime and open wide routes to the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza."
A readout released by the UAE Foreign Ministry said the two "exchanged views on developments in the Middle East and its humanitarian and security repercussions," as well as "bilateral relations and joint cooperation to serve the benefits of their two peoples."
Another topic of discussion was the upcoming COP28 climate summit hosted by the UAE. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who earlier this month attended an extraordinary joint Arab League-Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Saudi Arabia to address the war in Gaza, has declined his invitation to the event over objections to Israel's invitation.
President Joe Biden's special envoy for climate change, John Kerry, and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to be among those who represent Washington at the UAE gathering, which is being held as the U.S. comes under regional pressure over its support for Israel.
While a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas has also quieted a long-running series of rocket and drone attacks by militias against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, U.S. and Iranian officials have continued to accuse one another of stoking tensions amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
During a ceremony to commemorate Iran's paramilitary Basij organization on Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lauded what he referred to as a trend toward "de-Americanization, meaning the negation of U.S. dominance over the region," marked notably by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation first launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
"Operation Al-Aqsa Flood changed the table for U.S. policy in the region," Khamenei said, "a table that will be eliminated if this flood continues."
Naval activity has also been a particular focus of Iranian messaging over the past week as the country commemorated Iranian Navy Day on Tuesday. That same day, Khamenei lauded the nation's maritime advances over the decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution as "impressive and unbelievable" during a speech delivered to naval commanders.
Khamenei's remarks came days after the Iranian Navy deployed a new destroyer in the Caspian Sea and the IRGC Navy unveiled a new air-to-air missile. The country has accelerated its shipbuilding and missile capabilities in recent years and has mainly concentrated on rolling out smaller, stealthy craft operating in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian Navy commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani announced last week that a new maritime war game was being planned, with hopes of inviting more nations to future exercises after China and Russia joined Iran in naval maneuvers held in March.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy ships in the region have been forced to contend with Ansar Allah in Yemen, from which the group has fired missiles and drones against Israel and seized Israel-tied ships operating in the Red Sea. In one incident reported Sunday, U.S. Central Command said Ansar Allah forces fired missiles at U.S. warships that intervened to prevent the seizure of a commercial vessel.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has also issued warnings against U.S. ships if they intervened in the Israel-Hamas war.
Addressing a White House press conference the following day, National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said the deployment of additional U.S. military assets sent to the region served as a message "targeted at any actor in the region—nation-state or otherwise—that might have considerations of widening this conflict."
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Based in his hometown of Staten Island, New York City, Tom O'Connor is an award-winning Senior Writer of Foreign Policy ... Read more
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