[Ramadhan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/w...ers-ties-to-saudi-arabia.html?ref=global-home

With $30 Billion Arms Deal, U.S. Bolsters Saudi Ties

By MARK LANDLER

Published: December 29, 2011

HONOLULU — Fortifying one of its crucial allies in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration announced a major weapons deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying it had agreed to sell F-15 fighter jets valued at nearly $30 billion to the Royal Saudi Air Force.

The agreement is part of a broader 10-year, $60 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia that Congress approved a year ago. But its timing is laden with significance, with tensions over Iran mounting and the United States pulling its last soldiers out of Iraq.

It could also indicate that the chill between the United States and Saudi Arabia has thawed since the two longtime allies clashed over how each handled the Arab Spring.
The administration announced the sale during a week when Iranian officials threatened to close the strategically vital Straits of Hormuz in response to indications that the United States planned to impose tough sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

Saudi Arabia has long opposed Iran’s ambitions in the region — and the two countries’ relationship that soured further after the United States broke up what it said was an Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

Under the terms of the new weapons agreement, the United States will sell Saudi Arabia 84 F-15SA jets manufactured by the Boeing Corporation and upgrade 70 F-15’s in the Saudi fleet with munitions and parts. Washington will also offer help with training, maintenance and logistics.

“The agreement reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a strong Saudi defense capability as a key component to regional security,” said Joshua R. Earnest, the deputy press secretary, in a statement issued in Hawaii, where Mr. Obama is vacationing with his family.

With the United States withdrawing its last troops from Iraq last week, the administration has been eager to demonstrate that it will remain a presence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. It is pushing ahead with weapons sales to Iraq, even though internal political frictions there are deepening.
The sale to Saudi Arabia may also suggest that the two countries have decided to move past their public disagreement this year when political upheavals swept the Arab world.

The Saudis were angry that President Obama withdrew support for Egypt’s embattled president, Hosni Mubarak, after he faced large-scale protests in Cairo and other major cities. Mr. Mubarak was a longtime ally of Saudi Arabia and of the United States.

Later, it was the White House’s turn to be upset, when Saudi tanks rolled into in neighboring Bahrain in a show of support for that kingdom’s Sunni monarchy.

But Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to collaborate in areas like counterterrorism. In recent weeks, the two have worked to resolve the crisis in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh has formally agreed to cede power in a Saudi-brokered agreement and has applied for a visa to travel to the United States for medical treatment.

 

[جوري]

Nice GPS controlled U.S weapons which they still have to pay for and can't use against Israel or the U.S.. will wonders ever cease?

 

[Ramadhan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/w...es-to-iraq-raise-concerns.html?ref=middleeast

Weapons Sales to Iraq Move Ahead Despite U.S. Worries

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: December 28, 2011

BAGHDAD — The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.

The military aid, including advanced fighter jets and battle tanks, is meant to help the Iraqi government protect its borders and rebuild a military that before the 1991 Persian Gulf war was one of the largest in the world; it was disbanded in 2003 after the United States invasion.

But the sales of the weapons — some of which have already been delivered — are moving ahead even though Mr. Maliki has failed to carry out an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force. While the United States is eager to beef up Iraq’s military, at least in part as a hedge against Iranian influence, there are also fears that the move could backfire if the Baghdad government ultimately aligns more closely with the Shiite theocracy in Tehran than with Washington.

United States diplomats, including Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, have expressed concern about the military relationship with Iraq. Some have even said it could have political ramifications for the Obama administration if not properly managed. There is also growing concern that Mr. Maliki’s apparent efforts to marginalize the country’s Sunni minority could set off a civil war.
“The optics of this are terrible,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, an expert on national security issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a critic of the administration’s Iraq policy.

The program to arm the military is being led by the United States Embassy here, which through its Office of Security Cooperation serves as a broker between the Iraqi government and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power.
“The purpose of these arrangements is to assist the Iraqis’ ability to defend their sovereignty against foreign security threats,” said Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington.
But Iraqi politicians and analysts, while acknowledging that the American military withdrawal had left Iraq’s borders, and airspace, vulnerable, said there were many reasons for concern.

Despite pronouncements from American and Iraqi officials that the Iraqi military is a nonsectarian force, they said, it had evolved into a hodgepodge of Shiite militias more interested in marginalizing the Sunnis than in protecting the country’s sovereignty. Across the country, they said, Shiite flags — not Iraq’s national flag — fluttered from tanks and military vehicles, evidence, many said, of the troops’ sectarian allegiances.
“It is very risky to arm a sectarian army,” said Rafe al-Essawi, the country’s finance minister and a leading Sunni politician. “It is very risky with all the sacrifices we’ve made, with all the budget to be spent, with all the support of America — at the end of the day, the result will be a formal militia army.”

Mr. Essawi said that he was concerned about how the weapons would be used if political tension led to a renewed tide of sectarian violence. Some Iraqis and analysts said they believed that the weapons could give Mr. Maliki a significant advantage in preventing several Sunni provinces from declaring autonomy from the central government.

“Washington took the decision to build up Iraq as a counterweight to Iran through close military cooperation and the sale of major weapon systems,” said Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group’s deputy program director for the Middle East. “Maliki has shown a troubling inclination toward enhancing his control over the country’s institutions without accepting any significant checks and balances.”

Uncertainty over Mr. Maliki’s intentions, and with that the wisdom of the weapons sale, began to emerge even before the last American combat forces withdrew 11 days ago. Mr. Maliki moved against his Sunni rivals, arresting hundreds of former Baath Party members on charges that they were involved in a coup plot. Then security forces under Mr. Maliki’s control sought to arrest the country’s Sunni vice president, who fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north. In addition, Mr. Maliki threatened to release ****ing information on other politicians.

With these actions plunging the country into a political crisis, a few days later, Mr. Maliki said the country would be turned into “rivers of blood” if the predominantly Sunni provinces sought more autonomy.
This was not a completely unforeseen turn of events. Over the summer, the Americans told high-ranking Iraqi officials that the United States did not want an ongoing military relationship with a country that marginalized its minorities and ruled by force.

The Americans warned Iraqi officials that if they wanted to continue receiving military aid, Mr. Maliki had to fulfill an agreement from 2010 that required the Sunni bloc in Parliament to have a say in who ran the Defense and Interior Ministries. But despite a pledge to do so, the ministries remain under Mr. Maliki’s control, angering many Sunnis.

Corruption, too, continues to pervade the security forces. American military advisers have said that many low- and midlevel command positions in the armed forces and the police are sold, despite American efforts to emphasize training and merit, said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington.
Pentagon and State Department officials say that weapons sales agreements have conditions built in to allow American inspectors to monitor how the arms are used, to ensure that the sales terms are not violated.
“Washington still has considerable leverage in Iraq by freezing or withdrawing its security assistance packages, issuing travel advisories in more stark terms that will have a direct impact on direct foreign investment, and reassessing diplomatic relations and trade agreements,” said Matthew Sherman, a former State Department official who spent more than three years in Iraq. “Now is the time to exercise some of that leverage by publicly putting Maliki on notice.”

Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the head of the American Embassy office that is selling the weapons, said he was optimistic that Mr. Maliki and the other Iraqi politicians would work together and that the United States would not end up selling weapons to an authoritarian government.

“If it was a doomsday scenario, at some point I’m sure there will be plenty of guidance coming my way,” he said in a recent interview.
A spokesman for the United States Embassy declined to comment, as did the National Security Council in Washington.
As the American economy continues to sputter, some analysts believe that Mr. Maliki and the Iraqis may hold the ultimate leverage over the Americans.

“I think he would like to get the weapons from the U.S.,” Mr. Pollack said. “But he believes that an economically challenged American administration cannot afford to jeopardize $10 billion worth of jobs.”
If the United States stops the sales, Mr. Pollack said, Mr. Maliki “would simply get his weapons elsewhere.”

Michael S. Schmidt reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

 

[Eric H]

I seem to remember we invaded Iraq, because we suspected they had WMDs, I sense the start of a cunning plan, sell Iraq weapons of mass destruction, then invade Iraq to get the WMDs back.

 

[alpharius]

The US has just sold 3.48 Billion worth of Missles to the UAE

 

[FS123]

F-15 fighter are old, and they won't even stand russia's new missiles fighters. The only fighter capable of going against lastest Russian missiles and fighters are F-22 and F35. And US won't sell those fighters to Saudia.
Saudi should have bought Eurofighter which is more advance than f-15 or make a joint venture with Russia like India.

 

[Ramadhan]

Saudi should have bought Eurofighter which is more advance than f-15 or make a joint venture with Russia like India.

The US would never allow Saudi to buy defense system from europeans.

 

[FS123]

The US would never allow Saudi to buy defense system from europeans.

Maybe or maybe not. But what is the point of buying 30 year old technology. UAE is probably gonna buy Eurofighters. And another point is US is not a good partner they are selling their old inventory. Russia seems to be a better partner with India, they are sharing and developing latest technology together.

 

[Ramadhan]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/31/us-usa-uae-iran-idUSTRE7BU0BF20111231

U.S. in $3.5 billion arms sale to UAE amid Iran tensions

By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:42am EST

(Reuters) - The United States has signed a $3.5 billion sale of an advanced antimissile interception system to the United Arab Emirates, part of an accelerating military buildup of its friends and allies near Iran.

The deal, signed on December 25 and announced on Friday night by the U.S. Defense Department, "is an important step in improving the region's security through a regional missile defense architecture," Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement.
The U.S. Congress had been notified of the proposed sale in September 2008 by former President George W. Bush's administration. At that time, the system built by Lockheed Martin Corp had been projected to involve more missiles, more "fire control" units, more radar sets, all at a cost roughly twice as much to UAE.

It marks the first foreign sale of the so-called Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the only system designed to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere.
The United States, under the government-to-government deal, will deliver two THAAD batteries, 96 missiles, two Raytheon Co AN/TPY-2 radars plus 30 years of spare parts, support and training with contractor logistics support to the UAE, Little said.
"Acquisition of this critical defense system will bolster the UAE's air and missile defense capability and enhance the already robust ballistic missile defense cooperation between the United States and the UAE," he said.
Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for its delivery timetable for THAAD, part of a layered bulwark being built by the Obama administration in Europe and the Middle East against Iran's growing missile capabilities.

IRAN TENSIONS
UAE lies across the Gulf from Iran. The announcement of its purchase underlined rising tensions since a November 8 report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog that Iran appears to have worked on designing a nuclear bomb and may still be pursuing research to that end.
Iran delayed promised long-range missile tests in the Gulf on Saturday and signaled it was ready for fresh talks on its disputed nuclear program.
Tehran on Tuesday threatened to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of an oil embargo over its nuclear ambitions.
The THAAD follows a $1.7 billion direct commercial contract this year to upgrade Saudi Arabia's Patriot antimissile missiles, and a sale this year of 209 advanced Patriot missiles to Kuwait, valued at roughly $900 million, the Defense Department said.
On Thursday, the Obama administration announced it had sealed a deal on December 24 to sell $29.4 billion in advanced Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, the priciest single U.S. arms sale yet.

The Saudi sale involves 84 new F-15SA models to be delivered starting in 2015 plus upgrades to 70 F-15s already in the Saudi fleet and new munitions. Congress had been notified of that deal in October 2010.
The ongoing U.S. buildup of Saudi Arabia as a counterweight to Iran is projected to total as much as $60 billion over 10 to 15 years, including the F-15s, three types of helicopters and advanced missiles, bombs and other hardware and services.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest buyer of U.S. arms from January 1, 2007 through the end of 2010, with signed agreements totaling $13.8 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates, with $10.4 billion, according to a December 15 report by Congressional Research Service analyst Richard Grimmett.
In another pending arms sale to the region, the Obama administration formally proposed in November to sell 600 "bunker buster" bombs and other munitions to UAE in an estimated $304 million package to counter what the Pentagon called current and future regional threats.
Israel, the closest U.S. regional partner, is also being built up. It is to get Lockheed Martin's new radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, the first country in the region that will fly it. Israel views Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence.

Dennis Cavin, a Lockheed vice president for missile defense programs, told Reuters in August that, in scaling back their planned THAAD purchase, UAE officials had identified some elements "that they think they can do without right now."
Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales, is being awarded an initial U.S. government contract worth up to $1.96 billion for the two THAAD batteries under the government-to-government sale to UAE, the Defense Department said in its contract digest on Friday. It said the work was to be carried out through June 30, 2016.

Raytheon's related deal is valued at up to $582.5 million for radars and services, with details expected to be finalized in June 2012, the digest said. It said Raytheon also was getting a Pentagon deal worth up to $363.9 million to start building two more AN/TPY-2 radar sets.
Lockheed Martin is pleased that the U.S. government and the United Arab Emirates have reached an agreement on the first foreign sale of the THAAD weapon system, Tom McGrath, a company vice president and program manager, said in a release.
"We look forward to working with our customers to deliver this important capability," he said.
(Reporting By Jim Wolf; Editing by Will Dunham)

 

[Ramadhan]

It is quite clear that the US is going to use the arab countries to fight Iran, the way the US used Saddam to fight Iran.
The US is selling their second rate defense system, good enough to stand up to Iran but not good enough so that Israel's weaponries can pulverize them if they dare to attack.

I just hope muslims are not that easy to be divided and conquered.

 

[Ramadhan]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/218858.html

US arms sales threaten ME region
Sun Jan 1, 2012 6:29PM
Interview with Nader Mokhtari, columnist and political commentator

The US selling weapons to the Mid-East threatens the future of the region as it means the US has to find the wars for the weapons to be used in, an analyst tells Press TV.


The US has finalized part of a USD 60-billion 2010 arms sale to Saudi Arabia and signed a deal to sell about USD 3.5 billion worth of arms to the United Arab Emirates.

The nearly 30-billion-dollar deal Saudi Arabia has recently signed with Washington to buy dozens of new US fighter jets is part of a USD 60 billion US arms sale first unveiled in October 2010 to Saudi Arabia.

Press TV talks with Nader Mokhtari, columnist and political commentator from Tehran to discuss the recent arms sales, which Mokhtari says

What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview:

Press TV: Now 30 billion dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and another 3.84 billion dollars with the UAE. Both governments are not democratically elected and are facing political descent. What does this say about the US as it champions itself as the protector of democracy?

Mokhtari: Not really much really, just it’s a pack of lies. The Saudi deal is worth 60 billion or so and this sale comes at a time when the US is having serious economic difficulties.

But I don’t see how forcing such weapons on unelected governments that cannot even operate them, this missiles are highly advanced they cannot be operated by the local crew, regardless of the amount of training.

And so I don’t see how that is going to, how making profits for the military industrial complex is going to help the current state of economy in US.

Because they are not going to take on anymore work, they already have work force, which is sufficient for what they do, so this money is just going into the defense contractors pockets.

Press TV: Right now before we get into the economic aspect of it, what ends can be achieved by the arming of such regimes especially in the long-run because Saudi Arabia is already infamous for its home growing extremist elements?

Mokhtari: The US is making a mistake, the mistake again that it made back in the early 1960’s with the map program- mutual assistance program.

This is going to backfire on the US, the sales of such high technology to unstable regimes in the region such as Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates is something that is going to backfire, I’d say in the medium term on the United States.

You have to take into account that these countries are not run via political operatives like other countries. They’re run like family-run businesses and really I don’t see how they can take this money out of their people’s future and invest it in arms that they never get to use and they cannot operate by themselves.

Press TV: Looking at it at from the economic respective, now can the US even afford to invest so heavily in the industry like this one when millions of Americans are without jobs?

Mokhtari: Well the US cannot afford to do it. This is concentrating its wealth with the defense industry and that means the US will have to find future theatres of war.

Now the United States has used Iran as a bogeyman in the Middle East for the last 32 years to try to sell weapons. Everybody knows Iran hasn’t attacked anyone for 2050 years.

Iran is not an aggressive country, but it has made a good case for the Americans to sell billions of dollars and to keep a hundred thousand or so specialists in work outside of the USA.

But this is going to- again if the US sells such weapons then the US has to find the wars to use these weapons in and this doesn’t bode well for the future of the region.

Press TV: It doesn’t indeed.

 

[samin62]

Blessed king is collecting jizyah of course. Nothing to see here folks