The Virginian-Pilot April 04, 2002
U.S. plans to keep military allies on both sides of Mideast turmoil
By DALE EISMAN
WASHINGTON -- Despite rising tensions between Israel and its Middle Eastern neighbors, the United States has no plans to review or reduce military training exercises and related contacts in the region, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.
``We have extensive military-to-military relationships'' with Israel and the Arab states, Rumsfeld acknowledged. ``They vary from country to country; they vary from year to year. . . We're not in a systematic review or thinking about modifying those.''
American forces routinely train with their counterparts in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and and other Mideast nations sympathetic to the Palestinian nationalists battling Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A Pentagon official said those exercises range from mock battles and joint naval and air maneuvers to planning sessions in which senior and mid-level commanders discuss how they would respond to various wartime scenarios.
The Navy alone conducts more than 40 annual exercises with countries in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, which includes the Middle East and part of Africa, according to a Web site for the command's naval component.
Rumsfeld's comments notwithstanding, one senior official suggested privately that the Central Command has intensified its usual review of exercise plans in light of the Israel-Palestinian crisis.
A Central Command spokesman declined to comment on whether any exercises might be rescheduled or American participation in them scaled back. Though the exercises routinely are planned for months, they rarely are announced publicly until a few days before they begin, he said.
The United States also has permanent or temporary bases in several Arab countries, and has supplied tanks, aircraft and a variety of other military equipment to both Israel and Arab nations.
Additionally, a small contingent of American troops acts as a buffer between Israeli and Egyptian forces on the Sinai Peninsula, an area Israel captured during 1967's Six-Day War.
About the only states in which the U.S. military is not engaged in the area are those identified as supporting terrorists -- Syria, Iraq and Iran -- Rumsfeld said.
John Pike, founder of GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that tracks U.S. weapons systems and military operations, suggested that an exercise now set for June may be an indicator of whether the United States can maintain ties to the Israeli and Arab militaries amid regional tensions.
``Anatolian Eagle,'' first conducted in 2001, involves pilots and aircraft from the Israeli, Turkish and U.S. air forces. It was the first exercise in which Israeli pilots flew as allies of pilots from a predominantly Islamic state.
While continuing to conduct exercises with Israel and Arab allies in the region, U.S. commanders have all but banned informal contacts between American troops and civilians in those countries.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Navy ships have visited Middle East ports only for refueling and resupply.
Reach Dale Eisman at icemandc@msn.com or (703) 913-9872.
Copyright 2002, HamptonRoads.com
