U.S. Pledges $20B in Arms to Middle East

07/30/2007

Rice, Gates to Discuss Arms Sale Plans with Gulf States, Egypt and Israel


By Robin Wright and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 30, 2007


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice formally announced today that the United States intends to provide billions of dollars in military assistance to six Gulf states, Egypt and Israel to boost security against Iran.

Rice made the announcement hours before she and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates left the United States to travel to the Middle East, where they will meet Arab and Israeli leaders to discuss the arms packages, worth an estimated $20 billion, as well as efforts to stabilize Iraq and possibilities for generating new movement in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

In Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister was sharply critical of the proposed arms sales.

"America has always considered one policy in this region and that is creating fear and concerns in the countries of the region and trying to harm the good relations between these countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in Tehran. "What the Persian Gulf region needs is security, stability, peace, prosperity and economic development," he said.

Rice and Gates will meet Arab leaders in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over the next two days. The arms packages--for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman--are part of a broader U.S. strategy to contain Iran's growing influence in the region. U.S. officials have accused Tehran of meddling in Iraq, mainly by aiding and arming Shiite militias. Administration officials say Iran's involvement has increased, rather than decreased, since the first U.S.-Iran dialogue was launched in Iran two months ago. And there is growing international concern about whether Iran is secretly trying to subvert its peaceful nuclear weapons program to develop a nuclear bomb.

Saudi Arabia would receive the most military assistance, including upgrades to its fighters, new naval vessels, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn standard bombs into "smart" precision-guided bombs. To shore up two other allies in the region, the Bush administration also plans to finalize new military assistance agreements to provide $30 billion in U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years, U.S. officials say.

In a conference call with reporters this morning, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns insisted that Iran was only one factor in the new agreements, saying that it reflected broad U.S. strategic interests in the region. "The primary rationale," Burns said, "is to strengthen [U.S. partners] so they can be strong all issues important to them and to us."

But in describing expanding threats in the region justifying the assistance, he mentioned only Iran. "Iran has worried everybody in the region," Burns said. "If you travel around the Middle East . . . everyone is concerned by the fact that Iran is arming and funding" terrorist groups, and are worried about Iran's nuclear program.

Burns also emphasized that the aid to Israel and Egypt and sales agreements with the Gulf States "is not a departure for the United States, not a new initiative," and said that existing basing arrangements and status of forces agreements would continue.

In contrast to past objections to big arms sales to Arab countries, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that his government will have no objections to the deals for the Gulf monarchies .

"We understand the need of the United States to support the Arab moderates states and there is a need for a united front between the U.S. and us regarding Iran," Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.

In the 1980s, Israel tried to quash the Carter administration's attempts to sell F-15 warplanes and AWACS-- airborne warning and control system -- aircraft to Saudi Arabia.

To balance the Arab sales package, aid to Israel will increase from $2.4 billion a year to $3 billion, and President Bush last month pledged to maintain Israel's "qualitative military edge" in the volatile region.

Rice and Gates are hoping to press their Sunni Arab allies to do more to get Iraq's Sunnis to reconcile with Iraq's Shiite-dominated government.

Despite U.S. appeals, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states have refused to support the Shiite-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and have instead provided support to Sunni militants there. Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia refused to allow Maliki to visit.

Burns denied that there was any quid pro quo involved in the arms packages, which he described as strategic moves separate from U.S. goals in Iraq.

But, he said, "it stands to reason that given the fact that Iraq is the number one American foreign policy interest globally . . . we want our friends to be supportive not only of what the United States is doing, but of the Iraqi government itself. We've made that point repeatedly."

Burns sought to separate the democracy agenda Bush outlined in his second inaugural address from an expansion of the U.S. military relationship with undemocratic regimes in the region. There was no contradiction, he said, since "we never suspended our military assistance to Saudi Arabia or the other Gulf States . . . We have been constant supporters of their national security."

While he said the sales package to Riyadh and the others would likely total in the billions of dollars, Burns declined to specify a figure, saying that details would be worked out and presented to Congress sometime in September.

Rice will also travel to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to discuss President Bush's announcement this month that the United States will convene a meeting of major players in the Middle East to try to jumpstart the peace process.