Chapter Seven: Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Gulf Arab navies are undertaking significant development programmes to equip themselves for a more challenging and complex regional maritime environment. Israel has been enforcing a red line around the transfer of advanced military technology from Iran to Hizbullah and also conducting a campaign of air and missile strikes against Iranian forces in Syria. However, following the 17 September shootdown by Syria of a Russian IL-20 surveillance aircraft, Russia’s supply of S-300 missiles to Syrian forces will complicate Israel’s plans and calculations.