JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will take part in a coalition called for by the United States to protect maritime security in the Gulf, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said on Monday after his US counterpart Mike Pompeo said his country would form a coalition of more than 60 nations.
During a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Katz said that Israel participates in international discussions in this regard in the United States and the region, and that it is involved in intelligence and other areas in which it has comparatively superior capabilities.
Following his recent visit to Abu Dhabi and meeting with a senior UAE official at the end of June, Katz instructed the State Department to work with all parties to integrate Israel into the US coalition to protect maritime security in the Gulf.
For his part, British Foreign Minister Dominique Rapp said he wants to form a stronger coalition to protect international law and order, adding that this new alliance will be in response to Iran's threatening behavior and Russia's destabilizing actions in Europe, as he described.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday his country would join a US-led naval security mission in the Gulf to protect merchant ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, saying London looked forward to working with Washington and others to find an international solution to the problems in the Strait.
Pompeo said on Tuesday that Washington had asked more than 60 countries to help secure maritime shipping lines, adding that Iran was "the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, and showed its willingness to withdraw commercial ships from the sea, put mines on six ships, and pulled a British ship out of water." She is still holding her. "