Israel, US and Gulf military commanders met on Iranian threat - report

us. We start with our focus on the US-Iran war, and we start with news just in. New reporting suggests top military commanders from the United States, Israel, and several Arab countries met in Germany in the past week to discuss the war with Iran and broader tensions in the region. Axios is reporting as much just a short while ago. Now, President Donald Trump has said he was open to negotiations to end the war with Iran, but stressed the final decision rests with him. He maintains the Iranians are desperate for a deal. Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to visit China on Wednesday. So, for more on the latest developments, it's a pleasure to welcome to studio senior Middle East correspondent Ariel Oseran and security analyst Yaakov Lapin. Gentlemen, thank you both so much. So, I want to start with the news just in. Top military commanders from the United States, Israel, and several Arab countries meeting in Germany, Ariel, discussing the Iranian threat. Significant, indeed. >> Yeah, Bonita, let's just look at the list of participants. We're talking about the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the United States, and Israel. And Israel didn't just send any military official, it sent IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to this meeting in which he briefed other top military officials of the IDF's operations and conduct in its multi-front war. Now, sending Zamir to this meeting is first of all, it's huge, but it also sends a very clear message to Israel's Gulf Arab partners and neighbors that Israel is ready and willing to help. And I think this is very significant. Now, it is not like we have never seen or heard of any military coordination between Israel and some of these countries, but such a forum specifically in this timing, this is very significant. >> Yaakov, your take on exactly that, the significance of this meeting, the timing right now. There have been so many questions as to how much longer Iran could keep lobbying missiles and drones at so many nations, including Gulf nations, and get away with it. What is your take? >> Let's look at what drove Saudi Arabia to reportedly ask Israel for help. Saudi Arabia has been attacked on two fronts. First of all, by the Houthis, and we saw that they are taking over the straight the Bab al-Mandab strait, the Red Sea. This is a direct threat to Saudi Arabia's ability to export energy through the Red Sea. And also, the Saudi pipeline, the East-West pipeline, was hit by Iranian-backed Shiite militias. And this was the Saudi backup plan to actually circumvent both straits and use this pipeline to export oil. So, this is a two-front attack, obviously coordinated by the IRGC. And the Iranians look around, they see there's nobody there for them. The Mecca pact, worthless, it's an empty shell, as as we actually kind of speculated in in recent weeks. And the United States is not getting involved directly as of now. So, where does that leave them? It leaves them basically being pushed into Israel's hands. Now, I think Israel can help Saudi Arabia, but the question is, what will Israel's asks be? What will they want from Riyadh? Could it be oil? Could it be the beginning of a normalization process? I don't think it's realistic to expect an overnight one, certainly with the Gaza conflict still basically occurring. That's that's a problem for the Saudis. But perhaps some sort of visit or a meeting to basically legitimize relations. And and basically, I think Israel will want the Saudis to broadcast to the to the Middle East that there's a new era coming and Israel is going to be part of the new order, the new Sunni moderate a lot of block will be based on recognizing Israel. I think that will be an Israeli ask and of course, you know, most importantly what will the cooperation be to bring down the Iranian regime because that's what everybody in the room wants. The source of all everybody's problems whether it's in Riyadh or here in Jerusalem is the existence of the Islamic Republic and the endless troubles that it's creating for all of us in the region. So I think there's a new shared interest and it is an opportunity. So in terms of practical help, there's lots that we can speculate about but I think intelligence is the one thing that the Saudis are lacking when it comes to the Houthis. They've got firepower and they've got fighter jets. There's even been reports that they finally used their Chinese acquired missiles. Something that they haven't been willing to use for decades. And now we've got footage that they may have used that. But they don't seem to have very good intelligence on the Houthis and that's where Israel could come in.