Iranian state media claimed this week that Saudi Arabia wishes to “organize joint exercises in the Red Sea.” Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry curtly stated on Wednesday that no such exercises are currently being planned.
The claim was made by Adm. Shahram Irani, commander of the Iranian navy, and reported by Iran’s state ISNA news agency.
“Coordination is underway and delegations from both countries will hold the necessary consultations on how to conduct the exercise,” he said. He did not indicate the potential scope of these exercises, or when they might be held.
Saudi Arabia was one of six nations to send observers to a naval exercise held in the northern Indian Ocean by Russia, Oman, and Iran on Sunday. The Saudis watched the drills along with India, Thailand, Pakistan, Qatar, and Bangladesh.
The exercise, dubbed “IMEX 2024,” had a whiff of public relations stunt work around it, since Iranian media said it was intended to “boost collective security in the region, expand multilateral cooperation, and display the goodwill and capabilities to safeguard peace, friendship and maritime security” – but Iran and Russia are the two most active threats to peace and maritime security in the region.
Iran is sponsoring outright piracy in the Red Sea by its proxies in Yemen, while Russia is attacking ports and ships in the Black Sea as part of its war against Ukraine.
Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki somewhat confusingly stated on Wednesday that the Royal Saudi Naval Forces “recently concluded a joint naval exercise with the Iranian Naval Forces alongside other countries in the Sea of Oman,” even though there was no indication Saudi ships actively participated in IMEX 2024.
Maliki added that “no other exercises are being addressed during this period of time,” which would seem to throw cold water on Iran’s claims of an upcoming bilateral exercise with the Saudis.
China’s state-run Global Times nevertheless plowed ahead on Wednesday and treated the “Saudi-Iranian joint naval exercises” as practically a done deal.
The Chinese Communist paper said the Saudi and Iranian navies training together would be the culmination of the rapprochement between those long-feuding nations that was brokered by China last year. China frequently touts the resumption of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran as a triumph that heralds the rise of China as a dominant world power.
“While Iran and Saudi Arabia maintained a peaceful approach to diplomacy, cooperation between the two countries is likely to extend to the military field, which implies that the tide of reconciliation is not stagnating or reversing, rather it is progressing much further,” Shanghai International Studies University professor Zhu Weilie assured the Global Times.
Zhu claimed that “if the joint exercise goes ahead,” it would demonstrate that “Middle East countries have lost confidence in the U.S.”
“Any potential cooperation between the two sides this time should not be over-interpreted as targeting the U.S. or other regional rivals, but instead reflects more of a cooperative effort to strengthen security management in the Red Sea region,” added another Shanghai International studies professor, Liu Zhongmin – who injected a bit of comedy into the proceedings with his observation, given that Iran’s proxies in Yemen are wantonly attacking U.S. and European ships.
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