DUBAI: The US Navy held a joint drone drill with the United Kingdom on Friday in the Arabian Gulf, testing the same unmanned surveillance ships that Iran twice has seized in recent months in the Middle East.
The exercise comes as the US Navy separately told commercial shippers in the wider Mideast that it would continue using drones in the region and warned against interfering with their operations.
The drone drill — and the American pledge to keep sailing them — also comes as tensions between the US and Iran on the seas remain high amid stalled negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as protests sweep the Islamic Republic.
Friday’s drill involved two American and two British warships in the Arabian Gulf, as well as three Saildrone Explorers, said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet.
The drones searched for a target on the seas, then sent the still images its cameras captured back to both the warships and the 5th Fleet’s command center in the island kingdom of Bahrain. There, an artificial intelligence system worked through the photos.
The 5th Fleet launched its unmanned Task Force 59 last year. Drones used by the Navy include ultra-endurance aerial surveillance drones, surface ships like the Sea Hawk and the Sea Hunter and smaller underwater drones that resemble torpedoes.
But of particular interest for the Navy has been the Saildrone Explorer, a commercially available drone that can stay at sea for long periods of time. That’s crucial for a region that has some 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) of coastline from the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz and into the Arabian Gulf.
It’s a vast territory that stretches the reach of the Navy and its allies and has seen a series of attacks amid the atomic accord’s collapse. It also remains crucial to global shipping and energy supplies, as a fifth of all oil traded passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
“No matter what forces you have, you can’t cover all that,” Hawkins told The Associated Press. “You have to do that in a partnered way and an innovative way.”
But Iran, which long has equated America’s presence in the region to it patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, views the drones with suspicion. In August and September, Iranian regular and paramilitary forces seized Saildrones in both the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, alleging without providing evidence that the drones posed a danger to nearby ships.
Iran ultimately released the drones after the US Navy arrived to the sites. Cameras on the Saildrones involved in the Red Sea incident went missing.
Iranian state-run media did not acknowledge the drill Friday. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Recent events notwithstanding, we have been operating these systems safely, responsibly and in accordance with international law and will continue to do so,” Hawkins said.
The Navy underscored its plan to keep operating the drones in notices sent to shippers and sailors in the region beginning Thursday. It said that the drones would continue to broadcast their location via their Automatic Identification System trackers.
Ships are supposed to keep their AIS trackers on, but Iranian vessels routinely turn theirs off to mask their movements as Tehran faces international sanctions over its nuclear program and human rights abuses.
“US Navy (drones) are US government property and will lawfully operate in international waters and through straits in accordance with internationally recognized rights and freedoms,” the Navy said in the notice. “Any interference with US Navy (drones) will be considered a violation of the norms of international maritime law.”
US, UK hold drone drill in Arabian Gulf after Iran seizures
https://arab.news/vje8g
US, UK hold drone drill in Arabian Gulf after Iran seizures
- Drill involved two American and two British warships in the Arabian Gulf, as well as three Saildrone Explorer
- Iran, which long has equated America’s presence in the region to it patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, views the drones with suspicion
Libya fighting calms after truce announced
UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli“
TRIPOLI: The worst fighting in Libya’s capital for years calmed on Wednesday an hour after the government announced a ceasefire, Tripoli residents said, with no immediate statement from authorities on how many people had been killed.
Clashes broke out late on Monday after the killing of a major militia leader. After calming on Tuesday morning, the fighting reignited overnight, with major battles rocking districts across the entire city.
“Regular forces, in coordination with the relevant security authorities, have begun taking the necessary measures to ensure calm, including the deployment of neutral units,” the government’s defense ministry said.
The ministry said the neutral units it was deploying around sensitive sites were from the police force, which does not carry heavy weapons.
The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli” and urgently called for a ceasefire.
Monday’s clashes had appeared to consolidate the power of Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the divided country’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and an ally of Turkiye.
However, any prolonged fighting within Tripoli risks drawing in factions from outside the capital, potentially leading to a wider escalation between Libya’s many armed players after years of relative calm.
The main fighting on Wednesday was between the Dbeibah-aligned 444 Brigade and the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), the last major armed Tripoli faction not currently in his camp, the English-language Libyan Observer reported.
Fighting also erupted in western areas of Tripoli that have historically been a gateway for armed factions from Zawiya, a town to the west of the capital.
WEEKS OF GROWING TENSIONS
Tripoli residents trapped in their homes by the fighting voiced horror at the sudden eruption of violence, which had followed weeks of growing tensions among armed factions.
“It’s terrorizing to witness all this intense fighting. I had my family in one room to avoid random shelling,” said a father of three in the Dahra area by phone.
In the western suburb of Saraj, Mohanad Juma said fighting would pause for a few minutes before resuming. “Each time it stops we feel relieved. But then we lose hope again,” he said.
Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi and the country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.
A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe and its conflict has drawn in several foreign powers including. Its main oil facilities are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from the current fighting in Tripoli.
While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.
Dbeibah on Tuesday ordered the dismantling of what he called irregular armed groups.
That announcement followed Monday’s killing of major militia chief Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, and the sudden defeat of his Stabilization Support Apparatus (SSA) group by factions aligned with Dbeibah.
The seizure of SSA territory in Libya by the Dbeibah-allied factions, the 444 and 111 Brigades, indicated a major concentration of power in the fragmented capital, leaving Rada as the last big faction not closely tied to the prime minister.
Strong earthquake hits close to Egypt
CAIRO: A strong earthquake was recorded 431 km off the coast of northern Egypt on Wednesday, according to the country’s National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research.
The earthquake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 76 km.
It was felt throughout the Mediterranean, with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency stating that tremors were experienced in the Dodecanese islands and eastern Crete.
There have been no reports of loss of lives or property damage.
Israel army says killed Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah militant in a strike on south Lebanon on Wednesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.
“Earlier today (Wednesday), the IDF (military) struck in the area of Qaaqaaiyet El Jisr in southern Lebanon, eliminating a Hezbollah terrorist who held the position of the commander of the Qabrikha area within the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” a military statement said.
Pope urges Middle East Christians not to abandon homelands
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday hailed Christian communities in the Middle East who “persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them” despite war, marginalization or persecution.
“Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches at the Vatican.
The pope also offered on Wednesday to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the global Catholic Church, pledged to make "every effort" for peace and offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war was "never inevitable".
Leo, who was elected last week to succeed the late Pope Francis, has made repeated calls for peace in the early days of his papacy. His first words to crowds in St Peter's Square were "Peace be with all you".
He returned to the issue while addressing members of the Eastern Catholic Churches, some of which are based in conflict-ridden places such as Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and often face persecution as religious minorities.
"The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face-to-face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace," Leo said.
"War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering," he added.
Pope Leo warned against the rise of simplistic narratives that divide the world into good and evil. "Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but fellow human beings," he said.
On Sunday, the pontiff called for an "authentic and lasting peace" in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group Hamas, and welcomed the fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Leo spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday in his first known conversation with a foreign leader as pope. He offered to facilitate peace talks as world leaders come to his inauguration mass, the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskiy hopes to be present for the event in St Peter's Square on May 18 and is ready to hold meetings on the sidelines, the Ukrainian leader's chief of staff Andriy Yermak told Reuters on Tuesday.
Trump meets new Syria leader after lifting sanctions
- Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups
- Trump said he agreed to meet with Al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader on Wednesday after he offered sanctions relief in hopes of offering a new path to the war-battered country.
Trump, in Riyadh on the first state visit of his second term, met with Ahmed Al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla turned interim president after the December of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
The two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia during Trump’s tour of the region, a White House official said.
No US president has met a Syrian leader since Bill Clinton saw Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, in Geneva in 2000 in a failed effort to persuade him to make peace with Israel.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he was lifting “brutal and crippling” Assad-era sanctions on Syria in response to demands from Sharaa’s allies in Turkiye and Saudi Arabia — in his latest step out of tune with US ally Israel.
Trump said it was Syrians’ “time to shine” and that easing sanctions would “give them a chance at greatness.”
Syrians celebrated the news, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.
“My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English-language teacher.
The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point” that would help bring stability.
The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.
Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.
Other Western powers including the European Union have already moved to lift sanctions but the United States had earlier held firm on conditions.
A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.
In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites — the sect of the largely secular Assad family — and the Druze.
Israel has kept up a bombing campaign against Syria both before and after the fall of Assad, with Israel pessimistic about change under Sharaa and hoping to degrade the military capacity of its longtime adversary.
Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said that the easing of US sanctions would allow Syria to reintegrate with the global economy, including by allowing bank transfers from investors and some of the millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.
“Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support,” she said.
