Saudi Arabia, UAE shared intelligence with US, Israel ahead of Iran attack - report

Saudi Arabia and the UAE shared intelligence with the US and Israel ahead of Iran's drone and missile attack on Israel, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday.

On Saturday evening, Iran launched a large-scale attack on Israel, firing over 300 drones and missiles, most of which were intercepted.

The attack came in response to Israel’s strikes on the Iranian consular building in Syria earlier this month, which killed seven of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.

According to the WSJ, Israel was able to intercept almost all of the drones due to the involvement of Arab countries, who passed along intelligence about the attack before it took place, opened their airspace to warplanes, shared radar tracking information and in some cases, supplied their own forces to help.

The report said that two days before the attack on Israel, Iranian officials briefed counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, giving them a brief outline and timing of their plans so that they could safeguard airspace.

The information was then passed along to the US and Israel, giving them advance warning.

Since Israel’s attack on the Iranian consular building in Damascus, US officials started pressing Arab governments to share intelligence on Iran’s planned strikes on Israel.

After a wary initial response, the UAE and Saudi Arabia privately shared intelligence, while Jordan said it would allow the US and other countries' warplanes to use its airspace, as well as use its aircraft to assist in intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.

In response, the White House ordered the Pentagon to reposition aircraft and missile defence resources, an Israeli official said.

Officials who spoke to WSJ added that Iranian missiles and drones were tracked from the moment they were launched, by early warning radars in Persian Gulf countries linked to the US operations centre in Qatar.

The operations centre transmitted the information to fighter jets from several countries in the airspace above Jordan and other countries, and to warships at sea and missile-defence batteries in Israel.

Israel reported some damage to several air bases while the United States said it would discuss a diplomatic response with major powers on Sunday.