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Iran says Saudi Arabia will take part in joint military exercises in the Red Sea, a historic first for the former regional rivals who only just mended their diplomatic relations last year.
Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of the Islamic Republic’s navy, said Saudi Arabia had asked Tehran to organize the military exercises in the adjacent Red Sea, according to the Iranian news agency ISNA.
Irani did not provide further details on when the drills would take place, with Tehran already conducting joint naval exercises with Russia and Oman since the weekend.
Saudi Arabia has yet to confirm if it will take part in the latest military drills.
Saudi Arabia has long stood as a rival superpower to Iran in the Middle East, often backing opponents of Iran’s proxies in the region.
The two had severed diplomatic ties in 2016, but the rivals resumed relations following a surprise Chinese-brokered deal in 2023.
While Saudi Arabia has called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, the nation has kept its distance from the war, notably declining to join the US-European naval coalition protecting merchant ships from the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
The Yemen-based terror group has repeatedly attacked military and commercial ships along one of the world’s most important trade routes in a show of solidarity with Hamas following Israel’s ground incursion in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia’s refusal to intervene in the Houthi attacks came as a surprise given that the kingdom has spent years backing the Aden government’s fight against the Iran-backed terror group.
The Houthis attacks in the Red Sea also put a halt to Saudi Arabia’s attempts to broker peace in Yemen.
Reports of the alleged Iran-Saudi Arabia naval drills comes as Tehran conducts joint military drills with Russia and Oman, which began on Saturday in the Indian Ocean, according to Iran’s state media.
The drills, dubbed “IMEX 2024,” are aimed at boosting “collective security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation, and display the goodwill and capabilities to safeguard peace, friendship and maritime security,” according to Press TV.
As of March, Iran has held a total of five joint drills with Russia and China in the Gulf of Oman, with Saudi Arabia among the six nations invited to watch the exercises.
With Post wires
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