The Monday meeting, which has not been officially announced, was organized by the US Central Command and is being kept quiet due to regional sensitivity, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the low-profile gathering.
The meeting came with Israel eight months into a war against Palestinian terror group Hamas that has drawn sharp condemnation from Arab states
Halevi met the top military officials from Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt in Manama on Monday, according to the report, as part of ongoing military cooperation with Arab neighbors.
US General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM, participated in the meeting, the report said.
The IDF and CENTCOM declined to comment on the report.
Kurilla was in Israel over the weekend, and according to the IDF he and Halevi held an assessment and discussed “recent regional challenges, and the strengthening of the strategic partnership in the region against the Iranian threat and Iran’s proxies in the region.”
“The developments on the northern border and the war in Gaza were also discussed,” the military said.
The US has been working for years to forge military cooperation between Israel and Sunni Arab states that share an alignment against Iran. READ MORE