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Israel Holds Air Force Drill with UAE Visit

Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
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Israel Holds Air Force Drill with UAE Visit

Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Chief of Israeli Air Force operations Amir Lazar has said that Israel’s largest-ever air force exercise, which kicked off Tuesday “doesn’t focus on Iran.”

Lazar said Tehran remains Israel’s top strategic threat and at the center of much of its military planning. However, he said the drills are part of the Blue Flag exercises, which his country hosts every two years since 2013 in the Negev desert.

The fifth in its series, this year’s exercise is taking part with the participation of air forces from France, the United States and Germany, as well as Britain, and in the presence of the chief of the UAE air force, General Ibrahim Nasser Mohamed Al Alawi.

Israel normalized ties last year with several Arab countries, including the UAE.

Al Alawi arrived in Israel on Monday and met with head of the Israeli military aviation, General Amikam Norkin.

Lazar told reporters at the southern Ovda airbase that with more than 70 fighter jets — including Mirage 2000s, Rafales and F-16s — and some 1,500 personnel participating, the drills are the largest-ever held in Israel.

While UAE aircraft are not flying in the drills, Lazar said the visit from the country's air force chief was "very significant."

Commenting on the visit of the UAE official, Norkin said: “This is a truly historic day with tremendous significance for the future of cooperation between our air forces.”

Although Lazar said the exercises do not focus on Iran, security sources told the press that through the drills “Israel has sought to sound the alarm over a fleet of drones it claims Tehran is dispatching to its proxies across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said in a statement that it launched on Tuesday a military exercise near the Gaza Strip to improve the mobilization of troops.

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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani was set to raise his country’s new flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York Friday and to attend a UN Security Council briefing, the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning opposition offensive in December.

The three-starred flag that had previously been used by opposition groups has replaced the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country's official emblem, the Associated Press said.

The new authorities in Damascus have been courting Washington in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by the US and its allies in the wake of Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiraled into a civil war.

A delegation of Syrian officials traveled to the United States this week to attend World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington and UN meetings in New York. It was unclear if Trump administration officials would meet with al-Shibani during the visit.

The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the offensive that toppled Assad. Washington has also so far left the sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The opposition group al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organization.

Two Republican members of the US Congress, Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit and met with al-Sharaa and other government officials.

Mills told The Associated Press before meeting with al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise.”

Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, coordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.

He also said that al-Sharaa had said Syria could normalize relations with Israel “under the right conditions,” without specifying what those conditions are.

Other Western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The British government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.