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Israel is about to promote its Iron Dome air protection system to regional ally Cyprus, a Greek newspaper has reported.
Based on a report Friday in Kathimerini, the Cypriot Protection Ministry has begun to “implement the federal government’s determination to buy” the Iron Dome, and agreements pertaining to the deal have already been signed with Israel.
The paper didn’t say what number of batteries could be bought, and there was no indication of once they have been to reach.
Israel’s Protection Ministry didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the matter.
In March, the chief of the Cypriot navy, Demokritos Zervakis, was in Israel on a primary go to, which included a tour of an Iron Dome battery.
Final week, Protection Minister Benny Gantz hosted his Cypriot counterpart on the Israel Protection Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv. Thanking Charalambos Petrides for his nation’s navy cooperation with Israel, Gantz stated, “In such difficult instances, partnerships are essential.”
Protection Minister Benny Gantz (proper) and his Cypriot counterpart, Charalambos Petrides, meet on the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 11, 2022. (Ariel Hermoni/Protection Ministry)
Gantz stated he was “happy that our institutions have been working carefully, and that our industrial cooperation has grow to be a pillar not solely of our bilateral relations, but additionally to regional safety and stability.”
He added, “We additionally worth the trilateral framework with Greece. It’s an asset to the power build-up of the person nations, in addition to to wider regional safety.”
Based on Kathimerini, the Iron Dome could be utilized by Cyprus towards potential hostile Turkish actions, together with drones, from the mainland or Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus.
With its 70-kilometer vary, one system may cowl the whole island, the report stated.
The jap Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded in response to an Athens-inspired coup searching for union with Greece.
Solely Turkey acknowledges a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and Turkish Cypriots reject the internationally acknowledged Cypriot authorities’s authority over the island’s northern third.
File: Smoke trails are seen as rockets launched from the Gaza Strip are intercepted by the Iron Dome over Sderot on August 7, 2022. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)
Friday’s report comes amid warming ties between Jerusalem and Ankara following years of frosty relations that noticed Turkey emerge as certainly one of Israel’s most vocal critics internationally.
Initially designed to intercept rockets, the Iron Dome has since been upgraded and improved to permit it to additionally shoot down mortar shells, unmanned aerial automobiles, and cruise missiles.
The Iron Dome has intercepted 1000’s of projectiles in its years in service. It’s credited with taking pictures down over 380 rockets from Gaza throughout the newest spherical of combating towards the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, at an unprecedented interception price of 97 % of the full rockets fired at inhabitants facilities. (A lot of the 1,175 rockets fired from Gaza fell in uninhabited areas in Israel or inside Gaza.)
The Iron Dome has been credited with saving tons of of lives because it was first deployed in 2011.
Rockets from Gaza, on proper, are seen within the night time sky fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia within the northern Gaza Strip on Might 14, 2021, whereas Iron Dome interceptor missiles, on left, rise to fulfill them. (Anas Baba/AFP)
Israel is thinking about promoting the Iron Dome system overseas with out exposing the proprietary applied sciences that make it work, as such info might be utilized by the nation’s enemies to beat the system.
Reviews in recent times have indicated plans to promote the system to different nations together with Ukraine, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan. Such reviews haven’t materialized or have been denied by Israel.
Resulting from Iron Dome being a joint Israeli-American challenge, a sale to a 3rd social gathering can not happen with out the approval of each developer nations.
The US has bought two Iron Dome batteries below a 2019 settlement. Since then, the US Military has been working to combine the system into its air protection array.
Companies contributed to this report.
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