The US sent a long-range bomber force to the Middle East at short notice over the weekend as leading American, Israeli and Saudi officials held an unprecedented diplomatic meeting on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The show of American air power was headed by B-52H strategic bombers which flew 7,000 miles to the Middle East from their Minot air force base in North Dakota on Saturday.
B-52Hs, the largest of the US Air Force’s bombers, and the longest in service, appear to have been deployed both to deter Iran — the arch regional rival of both the Saudis and Israel — and to provide a show of force in the region as the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia and Mike Pompeo, America’s secretary ofstate, gathered for the unprecedented diplomatic exchanges at
Neom.
US officials would not confirm how many of the bombers were deployed but a statement from US Central Command said B-52H Stratofortress “aircrews” assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot air force base had “conducted a short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East on November 21”, the day before the arrival of Mr Pompeo and, reportedly, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in Saudi Arabia.
Central Command said the B-52Hs had been sent “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies”.
The long-range bombers, which can carry nuclear as well as conventional bombs and missiles, were joined in the show of force by F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.
“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theatre to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression,” Lieutenant-General Greg Guillot, commander of US 9th Air Force, said.
According to Israeli sources the meeting in Neom also involved Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. It is the first time the Israeli leader has officially met the crown prince.
Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, denied that the Israeli leader had taken part, dismissing confirmation of Mr Netanyahu’s presence by Israel’s education minister.
The Saudis meanwhile have been targeted by the Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel movement in Yemen, which has given a striking indication of its advances in missile technology with a precision attack on an oil distribution plant in Jeddah. The missile, fired from a distance of more than 400 miles, was accurate enough to knock a hole in a storage tank at a site run by Aramco, the Saudi oil and gas company.
The rebels have fired a series of missiles at Saudi Arabia, which is backing the recognised government in Yemen’s civil war, but none is known to have been so accurate over a distance before. They released a claim of responsibility saying that the ground-launched missile was a new type, called the Quds-2.
The Quds-1 is known to be a variant of an Iranian cruise missile, itself developed from an old Soviet model.
“Unfortunately the facility was hit yesterday by a projectile, by a hostile attack,” said Abdullah al-Ghamdi, manager of the Jeddah facility, on a tour for journalists to show the damage. He said that production had been restored within three hours. He added: “As you know Aramco has been a target of such hostile attacks. It was a big fire, it was a big explosion but it was controlled.”
UN mediators have been frustrated in their attempts to engineer a sustained ceasefire to the war in Yemen. Hopes for a resolution in the conflict now depend in part on the attitude of the incoming Biden administration.
The president-elect, during his campaign, promised to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord abandoned by President Trump, seek negotiations with Tehran, and put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to come to a resolution in Yemen.