Washington: The United States has significantly scaled down a planned joint military exercise with Israel most likely because of disagreements on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Time magazine has reported on its website
Citing “well-placed sources in both countries,” the magazine said Washington was slashing by more than two-thirds the number of US troops going to Israel, and reducing the number and potency of missile interception systems that will be used in the exercise dubbed Austere Challenge 12, which is scheduled for October.
Instead of approximately 5,000 US troops, the Pentagon will send between 1,200 and 1,500. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not, according to the report.
Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence warships, the new plan calls for sending just one, and even the remaining vessel is listed as a “maybe,” the report said.
Basically what the Americans are saying is, “We don’t trust you,” a senior Israeli military official is quoted by Time as saying.
Time said the official explanation was budget restrictions. But the reductions coincided with growing tensions between the administrations of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s threats to launch an airstrike on Iran over its nuclear programme.
But the Pentagon rejected the media report portraying the decision as a sign of US mistrust.
“Austere Challenge-12 remains the largest-ever ballistic missile defence exercise between our nations and a significant increase from the previous event in 2009,” said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jack Miller, a Pentagon spokesman.
“The exercise has not changed in scope and will include the same types of systems as planned. All deployed systems will be fully operational with associated operators,” Miller said.
Miller said US-Israeli ties were strong and Austere Challenge “is a tangible sign of our mutual trust.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say how many US personnel would be involved in the exercise but said the reported figures were wrong and the change in scale was far smaller than indicated.
An Israeli defence official briefed on the exercise told Reuters the drill “will be held on a similar scale as when it was last held, two years ago.”
The Israeli official said the size of the exercise initially was slated to be larger but added that “the changes are within the framework of the drill’s requirements and nothing more.”
“These things are planned over a long time and changes are not uncommon,” the official said.
Miller said the exercise initially was planned for May but earlier this year Israeli defence officials approached the United States about shifting the date until the late autumn.
“When the exercise was moved, the United States notified Israel that due to concurrent operations, the United States would provide a smaller number of personnel and equipment than originally planned. Israel reiterated to postpone until late fall,” Miller said.
