The US sent a long-range bomber force to the Middle East at short notice over the weekend as leading American, Israeli and Saudi officials held an unprecedented diplomatic meeting at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The show of American air power was headed by B-52H strategic bombers which flew 7000 miles to the Middle East from their Minot air force base in North Dakota on Saturday.
B-52Hs, the largest of the US Air Force’s bombers, and the longest in service, appear to have been deployed both to deter Iran – the arch regional rival of both the Saudis and Israel – and to provide a show of force in the region as the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia and Mike Pompeo, America’s secretary of state, gathered for the unprecedented diplomatic exchanges at Neom.
US officials would not confirm how many of the bombers were deployed but a statement from US Central Command said B-52H Stratofortress “aircrews” assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot air force base had “conducted a short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East on November 21”, the day before the arrival of Mr Pompeo and, reportedly, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in Saudi Arabia.
Central Command said the B-52Hs had been sent “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies”.
Read the article by Mike Evans and Richard Spencer in The Australian.