Report: Israel offered Saudi Arabia use of its Iron Dome technology
Rocket defense system was offered for Saudis to secure its border with Yemen.
By MAARIV ONLINE, REUTERSSoldiers stand near the Iron Dome missile defense system outside Tel Aviv.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Arabic-language newspaper Rai al-Youm reported on Saturday that Israel has offered Saudi Arabia to use its Iron Dome anti-rocket technology. The offer was made to the Kingdom to defend its border with Yemen that has come under numerous rocket attacks.According to the report, the offer was made last week during meetings in Amman between the Saudis and the US ambassador to Jordan. A spokesman for the Jordanian government said that he was not aware of a meeting between the Saudis and the Israelis in Amman, the news outlet reported. Saudi Arabia reportedly rejected the offer, according to the London based newspaper. On Thursday and Friday cross border rocket attacks launched from inside Yemen killed two people in southern Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA reported on Friday.SPA quoted a Civil Defense official in the southwestern province of Jizan as saying that a child was killed and three other children were wounded on Friday in the al-Tawal region.A rocket attack on Thursday killed one citizen and wounded two others in al Hosn village, the agency reported earlier.On Friday, Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded Houthi-held military outposts on the hills overlooking the Yemeni capital Sanaa, as the eight-week military offensive aimed at ousting the rebels intensified over the weekend.The airstrikes came as two Shi'ite mosques, one in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia and the other in Sanaa, were targeted by explosive devices and suicide bombers during Friday prayers.Coalition fighter jets also targeted the presidential compound in the capital on Friday, where the Shi'ite rebels seized control in September.
The Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab nations intervened in Yemen's civil war on March 26 with an all out air assault to force the Iran-allied Houthis to retreat from territories they have seized since last year, and restore the power of exiled Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.Friday's violence followed overnight airstrikes that targeted Houthi controlled military outposts of the notorious Republican Guard troops in the capital.At least four missiles hit one of the Guard's training camps in Sanaa late Thursday (May 21) night.The latest spike in violence comes ahead of UN sponsored Yemen peace talks to be held in Geneva on May 28.
