PRESS RELEASE: Unprecedented Arab Role in Defending Israel Signals New Possibilities – and Urgent Need for U.S. Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2025
Contact: Blake Johnson
bjohnson@jinsa.org
Twitter/X: @ItsBlakeJohnson
Washington, DC –A new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) underscores a historic development in the Middle East: for the first time, Arab nations played an active military role in defending Israel during Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attacks in 2024. The authors stress the potential for expanded U.S.-led defensive cooperation and urge the Trump administration and Congress to take steps to build upon and consolidate these gains into permanent capabilities.
The report, Forged Under Fire: Middle East Air Defense After Iran’s 2024 Attacks on Israel, documents how, under U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) coordination, Arab partners including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar participated—some publicly, others discreetly—in a U.S.-led coalition to intercept incoming Iranian projectiles aimed at Israel. Jordan and Saudi Arabia even deployed their own fighter aircraft to shoot down drones en route to Israeli territory.
“It was a remarkable development that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves,” said John Hannah, JINSA Randi and Charles Wax Senior Fellow and the report’s co-author. “In the middle of the most destructive war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the United States succeeded in getting a group of Arab countries, including some that had no formal relations with Israel, to step up and help defend the Jewish state against two of the largest aerial attacks in history. It marked a major leap forward for integrated air and missile defense, or IAMD, in the Middle East that Washington should urgently try to consolidate and build upon—especially with the risk of conflict rising again over the fate of Iran’s nuclear program.”
Among the lessons learned, the report warns that this coalition was improvised—“assembled on the fly”—and that there is no guarantee these nations will participate similarly in the future, especially under politically volatile circumstances. It also notes that Iran’s second attack in October 2024, involving 200 advanced ballistic missiles, highlighted gaps in both Israeli and Arab capabilities that should be addressed.
The report concludes with a series of recommendations both for Congress and the Trump administration that focus on addressing the many shortcomings revealed by Iran’s attacks, which at the same time seizing the tremendous opportunities created by the successful coalition effort to further strengthen Middle East IAMD going forward.
###
Jewish Institute for National Security of America
1101 14th Street, NW
Suite 1030
Washington, DC 20005
www.jinsa.org