Israeli says air force cooperated with Egypt, Jordan

Israel has suggested its air force is enjoying increased cooperation with its Arab counterparts, in a departure from a standard policy of keeping Israeli-Arab military cooperation secret, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.

Moshe Yaalon, Israel's defence minister, said Tuesday Israeli fighter pilots had trained alongside Arab pilots in July in air force exercises hosted by the US.

Israel is trying to show it has wider regional connections by hinting at growing ties with some Arab powers

Israel has also said its air force helped locate a Russia passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai on October 31.

After lobbying against the Iranian nuclear deal and due to an impasse over Palestinian peace talks, Israel is trying to show it has wider regional connections by hinting at growing ties with some Arab powers, said Reuters.

Yaalon gave a speech suggesting that Israel was developing common ground with countries opposed to Iran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Hizballah.

Referring to the air force exercises named 'Red flag', Yaalon said: "There were Arab pilots there too, and pilots from the various branches of the United States military and other countries."

A US official told Reuters that Jordan also took part in the exercise and its warplanes flew with Israeli jets and refuelled from an Israeli tanker in the Atlantic Ocean.

Both Israeli and Jordanian officials declined to comment on whether Jordan had taken part in a follow-up exercise called 'Blue Flag' hosted by Israel last month.

The Israeli military also issued a statement saying that it had "assisted with aerial surveillance" to locate the Russian passenger jet that crashed in the Sinai on Saturday.

An Israeli military officer told Reuters that Israel had provided a spotter aircraft.

A former consultant for Israel's defence ministry, Uzi Rubin said this was likely due to the crash site's proximity to the Israeli-Egyptian border.

"That part of Sinai is very hilly and a good 100 km from Israel, so if we have the means to survey it from the border, it would be a feat that I would off my hat to," said Rubin.

An Egyptian security source, however, denied such an aircraft had entered Egypt's military airspace.