A joint message to Biden on Tehran

The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a momentous occasion. It marks another milestone in the warming ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and a further closing of ranks in the region against Iranian aggression.

It is noteworthy that we even know the meeting took place. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a free press. Israel has a military censor that can – and often does – block media from publishing stories that are matters of national security. The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t announce the trip, but no effort seems to have been made to hide the flight path Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen took from Israel to Neom, the Red Sea hi- tech Saudi city.

This tells us that the participants wanted people to find out about the meeting – and, in light of the timing, they are broadcasting a message to one person in particular: US Presidentelect Joe Biden.

They are telling Biden what they want and need to happen under his leadership, while still under the safe umbrella of support from the Trump administration.

Shortly before departure, Netanyahu publicly spoke out against the Iran deal.

“Do not return to the previous nuclear deal,” he said. “We must maintain an uncompromising policy to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.”

Saudi Arabia, a target of Iranian aggression in recent years, surely endorses that message, and there is no doubt that Iran was on the agenda for Sunday’s meeting.

Biden has said he will seek to return to the

from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base to the Middle East.

According to a press release by US Central Command, the mission was “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.”

The two bombers were tracked online as they flew across the Atlantic and until they entered Israeli airspace. But once they overflew Jordan, their tracking was lost. Now, according to The Aviationist website, such flights can be tracked online and have been tracked quite often, but “the fact that the WARBIRD 1 and 2 flights were visible on the most popular flight tracking websites seems to prove the mission was a clear show of force against Iran.”

The same can be said for Netanyahu’s “secret” flight to the Sunni Kingdom. Such flights by private business jets from Ben- Gurion Airport to other countries where Israel has less than friendly relations or no relations at all have been tracked online for several years.

But nothing was leaked to the public about what actually took place once the plane touched down – it was left to one’s imagination.

It was later leaked and confirmed by sources in both Israel and Saudi Arabia that the prime minister flew to Saudi Arabia and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that a senior Saudi adviser said that the three discussed normalization and Iran but that no agreements had been reached.

It wasn’t a “secret” flight, it was a flight that had a purpose: to send a message to his coalition partners while at the same time to Iran, that “Mr. Security” wasn’t done with securing normalization deals with Arab countries before US President Donald Trump leaves office.

The fact that those who enjoy tracking flights were the first to leak it also shows that classified flights, both by politicians and the military, may be a thing of the past. •