Israel was running low on Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) interceptors as Iranian ballistic missiles slammed into Israeli cities in June.
The US asked Saudi Arabia to turn over interceptors to help a US ally in need. But Riyadh’s response was “no”, two US officials familiar with the talks told Middle East Eye.
“During the war, we asked everyone to donate,” one official told MEE. “When that didn’t work, we tried deal-making. It wasn’t aimed at one country.”
But Saudi Arabia was well placed to help Israel, and US officials have been keen to emphasise that Iran is a threat to them as well as Israel.
The US has already deployed air defence systems to the oil-rich Gulf state, which until recently was targeted by Houthi missile and drone attacks.
As Iran and Israel were fighting it out, the kingdom was preparing to receive the first THAAD battery it purchased with its sovereign funds. The battery was inaugurated by the Saudi military on 3 July, just nine days after Israel and Iran reached a ceasefire.
Just before the inauguration, US officials were concerned that a massive Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel would drain the US stockpile of interceptors to a “horrendous level”.
Middle East Eye was the first to report that Israel was rapidly depleting the US’s stockpile of ballistic missile interceptors as well as Israel’s arsenal of Arrow interceptors. The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian later confirmed MEE’s report.
The Guardian later reported in July that after the conflict, the US was only left with about 25 per cent of the Patriot missile interceptors that planners at the Pentagon assess are needed for all US military operations globally. A US official confirmed that classified number to MEE.
The US also fired the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) mounted on Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers to defend Israel.
Despite Israel’s three-tiered air defence system being backed up by additional American firepower, Iran was able to send missiles into Israeli cities right up until the ceasefire was reached.
The Telegraph reported that Iranian missiles directly hit five Israeli military facilities.
Analysts say that the American and Israeli air defence systems held up better than some military planners anticipated, given the scale of Iran’s barrages, but the Islamic Republic was able to exploit the system’s weak spot, particularly as the conflict dragged on.
“The weakness is that it is an enterprise where you are at risk of running out of your magazine depth. We only have so many interceptors and the ability to produce them,” Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, previously told MEE.
Amid the shortage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that some US officials even discussed taking THAAD interceptors purchased by Saudi Arabia and diverting them to Israel.
One US official confirmed to MEE that the talks took place after Saudi Arabia had rejected polite US overtures and deal-making efforts.
Both US officials also told MEE that the US asked the United Arab Emirates to share interceptors with Israel. Neither would confirm if any arrived. The UAE was the first non-US country to purchase and operate the THAAD, which it activated in 2016.
Iran’s success breaching Israel’s sophisticated air defences did not go unnoticed in the more lightly defended Gulf states, experts say.
‘Israel paid a price’
Scrambling the globe for interceptors has become a common job for a select few US officials, as its allies, Israel and Ukraine, both face adversaries who rely on much cheaper ballistic missiles and drones.
The US Department of Defence’s office for policy has taken the lead in trying to cajole and coax US allies to share interceptors with Israel. The efforts were led by Christopher Mamaux, who is the deputy assistant secretary of Defence for Global Partnerships.
But Saudi Arabia’s refusal to help Israel will sting officials in Washington. Before the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the US was working to integrate Israel’s air defence system with Gulf allies in part of a much hyped “Middle East NATO”.
Instead, Gulf states sat out the Israel-Iran conflict and felt “vindicated” that they had revived relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, analysts in the region told MEE.
The Trump administration still says it wants to broker a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But Riyadh and other Arab states are increasingly seeing Israel as an expansionist military power to check, not aid in a time of need.
For example, Saudi Arabia lobbied the US for Syrian soldiers to deploy to southern Syria this month. Riyadh was upset that Israel launched strikes on Syrian government forces amid the sectarian clashes in the country.
As the smoke clears from the Israel-Iran conflict, the flaws in Israel’s missile defence system are being studied, and Iran is rebuilding its air defences with help from China, MEE has reported.
As one Arab diplomat told MEE: “From our perspective, the war ended well. Israel experienced the price of confronting a strong nation state.”
And Iran, trying to regroup from a blistering Israeli bombing campaign, is also becoming more dependent on the Gulf, too.
“On Israel, the Saudi position has hardened in light of unchecked Israeli actions in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. With Iran now weakened, the kingdom is repositioning closer to Turkey & may even do the same with Iran,” Firas Maksad, Eurasia Group’s managing director for the Middle East and North Africa, recently wrote on X.
Source: MEE
