Saturday, 25 July 2020_US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley has made an unannounced visit to Israel at a time that both regimes take on new adventures in the region.
He met with senior Israeli military and intelligence leaders at an air base south of the occupied territories and discussed "regional security challenges.” The US Army general also held a video conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli minister of military affairs Benny Gantz said that during his talks with Milley, he had emphasized "the need to continue the pressure on Iran,” claiming that regime’s military "is prepared and ready for any scenario and any threat, and I do not suggest our enemies to test us.”
The visit came a day after US warplanes operating illegally in Syria harassed an Iranian Beirut-bound passenger plane over Syrian airspace, which forced the Mahan Air flight to lower altitude to avoid collision.
Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command (CENTCOM), said that a single F-15 had made what is called a “standard visual inspection” of the Iranian airliner at “a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed the claim as "ridiculous,” saying the “illegal and dangerous” US maneuver amounted to playing with the lives of innocent people.
"The presence of American forces in Syria is illegal, and the air missions of their jet fighters are also illegal. More importantly, no one has allowed the United States to inspect passenger planes over the skies with its military jets,” he added.
Mousavi also warned against any new adventurism by the US or the occupying regime of Israel in the region, noting that "stability and security in the West Asian region should not be used as a toy in the US election campaign”.
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