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The US is trying to reassure its allies in the region - but is experiencing deep distrust

The U.S. Secretary of Defense came out frustrated from the Manama Dialogue conference.

Although he made it clear that the United States was ready to confront Iran if necessary, he encountered skepticism and difficult questions.

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• United States

• Lloyd Austin

• Brett McGrack

• Bahrain

• Eyal Hulta

• Dubai

• John Kerry

Barak Ravid, Walla!

To Bahrain

Monday, 22 November 2021, 21:30 Updated: 21:31

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In the video: The National Security Adviser at the IISS Strategic Conference addresses Iran (Photo: IISS Conference)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was frustrated. He attended the Manama Dialogue Conference in Bahrain to convey a reassuring message to US allies in the region, delivering a speech emphasizing that the United States has not withdrawn from the Middle East, and remains committed to facing Iran and protecting its friendship. But after the speech, he was bombarded with questions from the audience, all of which testified that a large part of those sitting in the hall - including senior officials in Israel and many Arab countries - simply did not believe him.

In the public debates in the Security Conference Hall, in the hallway conversations in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel and in the closed discussions in the 51st floor meeting rooms overlooking the Gulf waters - everyone spoke of the feeling that the US is abandoning the Middle East and showing weakness in Iran.

When I met a senior US Department of Defense official at his hotel in Manama he explained his boss's frustration.

"People in the region have become accustomed to thinking in a certain way," he said, "but our commitment to build our alliance is not just measured by the number of troops we have in the Middle East.

More on Walla!

US Secretary of Defense in a reassuring message: Protect our allies from Iran

To the full article

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Stressed that the United States has not withdrawn from the Middle East.

Austin in Bahrain (Photo: Reuters)

"The hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan only heightened the sense that Biden would continue Obama and Trump's policies and reduce US involvement in the Middle East. President Biden's senior adviser to the Middle East, Brett McGrack, who also spoke at the Manama conference, tried to ward off this criticism." "The United States is not going anywhere. Afghanistan was because of Afghanistan - it has nothing to do with our interests in the Middle East. On the contrary, the withdrawal from Afghanistan is actually devoting resources to us for operations in the Middle East," he said.

Senior Biden administration officials at the conference stressed that the United States would be willing to use force against Iran if it thought it was serving its interests, but one of the events undermining this claim was the Iranian attack on the US base in Syria a few weeks ago. The United States did not respond militarily, and at this stage contented itself with imposing sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' UAV system.

"The withdrawal from Afghanistan frees us up resources for operations in the Middle East."

McGrack at a conference in Manama, November 20 (Photo: Official Website, IISS screenshot)

I asked McGrack if he understood that such a policy conveys weakness.

"Not every comment will be on CNN or will be reflected in something exploding somewhere, but it is not accurate to say we are not doing anything," he replied.

He said the United States had issued a warning message to the Iranians in the wake of the incident, saying the United States was prepared to respond very harshly if such incidents recurred.

McGrack said the right things, but as in the case of Secretary of Defense Austin, they were received with great skepticism.

National Security Adviser Eyal Hulta summed up in his remarks at the conference what many Arab officials do not say in public.

"The Iranians do not have behavior just because we ask them nicely," Hulta said.

"Iran can only be stopped if we all - Israel, Arab countries and the United States - stand up to them resolutely."

Avraham Agreements - On the Road to Security Normalization

All senior US officials speaking at the conference in Bahrain noted the Abrahamic Agreements and the fact that Israel has moved to the area of ​​responsibility of the US Central Command, which also includes countries as a key to increasing stability in the region and as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between US, IDF and Arab armies. Who have not yet normalized their relations with Israel.

A senior U.S. Department of Defense official told me that the naval exercise in the Red Sea, in which the U.S. Fifth Fleet participated along with military forces from Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, was just the beginning.

He said there would be more such joint exercises - both among the air forces, also in the field of missile defense and especially with regard to defense against attacking UAVs made in Iran - which have become the main threat to the region's countries in recent months.

No one turned their backs on him and no one refused to shake his hand.

Hulata at a conference in Bahrain (Photo: official website, IISS screenshot)

"We want to increase this cooperation so that when necessary we can work together. Everyone will benefit from it," the senior US official stressed.

"And in addition to the diplomatic efforts to return to the nuclear deal, these joint exercises are also a way of sending a message to the Iranians."

The presence of National Security Adviser Eyal Hulta at the conference in Bahrain was of great interest, but was also received very naturally.

A year after the Abrahamic Agreements were signed, such visits no longer produce headlines.

At the dinner that opened the conference, Hulta sat at the main table with a senior member of Kuwait sitting on one side, the Minister of Defense of Indonesia on the other and the Minister of Defense of Malaysia in front of him.

No one turned his back on him and no one refused to shake his hand.

After dinner he had a lively conversation with the Indonesian minister, and even exchanged business cards with him in front of the eyes of hundreds present.

Strategic agreement in Dubai

From Manama, Hulta took off for Dubai to join Energy Minister Karin Elharar to sign the "Electricity for Water" agreement unveiled at Walla! Last week. At the signing ceremony today (Monday), Hulta and Elharar sat next to Jordanian Water Minister, UAE climate minister and US climate crisis envoy John Kerry.

It is hard to imagine this agreement coming to fruition without the agreements of Abraham. While serving as Secretary of State for the United States, Kerry devoted most of his energy to trying to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians - and failed. He has stated several times in recent years that Arab states will not normalize relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state. There was something ironic in the fact that in the end he was the one who sponsored the signing of the agreement.

During the conference, I asked Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi whether the Avraham agreements allow Jordan to do things with Israel that it could not have done in the past. He said the reason for this was related to another significant development in the region - the replacement of Benjamin Netanyahu with Naftali Bennett.

Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Israel, Jordan, the Emirates and the United States (Photo: Walla !, -)

"Part of the policy of the previous government in Israel was not to promote cooperation with Jordan," Safadi said.

"Take the canal project for example. The Netanyahu government withdrew from the agreement at the last minute. There was a tendency of the previous government in Israel to destroy any attempt to cooperate or improve the situation."

It is easy to imagine what would have happened to relations with Jordan if Benjamin Netanyahu had still been prime minister.

It is difficult to overstate the dramatic improvement that relations with Jordan have undergone since Naftali Bennett entered the Prime Minister's Office.

The agreement with Jordan is the best example of why the climate crisis is a critical political-security issue in the current era.

Renewable energy and water are huge challenges for Jordan and Israel.

The agreement will both provide solutions and make relations between the two countries more strategic than ever.

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