IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon mentioned yesterday plans by Al Qaeda to hijack a Saudi Arabian F-15E fighter jet and crash it into a major office tower in Israel.
Speaking at an international conference in Herzliya sponsored by the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Yaalon explained that Al Qaeda was trying to recruit a Saudi air force pilot to fly his jet from the Tabuk air base into a building in Israel, only about 200 kilometers away. Middle East Newsline notes that Israel has cited this plot in its arguments to the United States for the immediate removal of Saudi Arabia's F-15E fleet from the King Faisal Air Base in Tabuk. About 50 F-15Es were flown to Tabuk this past March, and Riyadh refuses to return them to their bases in eastern and central Saudi Arabia.
Yaalon said that Israel has raised the issue with the United States, which sold Saudi Arabia the F-15s in 1982 and 1995. In 1978, then-Defense Secretary Harold Brown pledged to Congress that Saudi Arabia would not base the F-15 aircraft at Tabuk. Yaalon said that Israel is concerned over the phenomenon, and could not tolerate the continued presence of the planes in Tabuk; he would not elaborate.
Speaking at an international conference in Herzliya sponsored by the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Yaalon explained that Al Qaeda was trying to recruit a Saudi air force pilot to fly his jet from the Tabuk air base into a building in Israel, only about 200 kilometers away. Middle East Newsline notes that Israel has cited this plot in its arguments to the United States for the immediate removal of Saudi Arabia's F-15E fleet from the King Faisal Air Base in Tabuk. About 50 F-15Es were flown to Tabuk this past March, and Riyadh refuses to return them to their bases in eastern and central Saudi Arabia.
Yaalon said that Israel has raised the issue with the United States, which sold Saudi Arabia the F-15s in 1982 and 1995. In 1978, then-Defense Secretary Harold Brown pledged to Congress that Saudi Arabia would not base the F-15 aircraft at Tabuk. Yaalon said that Israel is concerned over the phenomenon, and could not tolerate the continued presence of the planes in Tabuk; he would not elaborate.