The Obama administration has announced a whole host of arms deals with Gulf allies in an effort to counter Iranian power in the region following the United States withdrawal from Iraq.
The largest of these deals is a $29.4 billion deal with Washington’s long-time ally Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of the deal, which the Pentagon and State Department announced on Thursday, Saudi Arabia will purchase 84 new F-15 jet fighters and upgrades to 70 of the Kingdom’s existing fighter craft. The deal was the culmination of a joint-effort by the State Department and the Defense Department, working with their Saudi counterparts, that began in June 2010 Andrew Shapiro, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs said during a special press briefing announcing the sale.
Friday night the Pentagon announced that the United States had concluded a $3.84 billion deal with the United Arab Emirates on Christmas Day. According to Pentagon Spokesman George Little, under the deal the UAE will receive 96 missiles, supporting technology and training. Little also said the U.A.E. would receive Lockheed & Martin’s sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, making it the first foreign nation to receive this technology.
Earlier in the week, the New York Times reported that the administration was still planning on selling Iraq $11 billion worth of arms and training despite the renewed sectarian tensions and fears of civil war that have followed the U.S. withdrawal. The centerpiece of the deal is Iraq’s purchase of 18 of Lockheed & Martin’s F-16 fighter jets to reinvigorate the Iraqi air force that was obliterated over the course of the two Gulf wars. Although the Pentagon has said the deal is aimed at allowing Iraq to defend its borders, many Middle East experts fear the arms will be misused by Iraq’s increasingly autocratic and sectarian Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
A proposed $53 billion arms deal with Bahrain, which the administration will soon decide on, is proving more controversial, however. With the help of Saudi troops the Bahraini Monarchy violently suppressed a peaceful political movement earlier this year. Although Bahrain plays host to the United States’ 5th fleet, the naval command for the Persian Gulf, the government’s blantant human rights violations have led some to call on the administration to halt the deal. In October the administration agreed to postpone the deal it had announced in September after members of Congress and human rights groups protested.
The deals are all aimed at countering what is perceived to be Iran’s growing power in the region. Tensions with Iran rose this week after Tehran said it would close down the Strait of Hormuz, through which 35% of the world’s seaborne traded oil traverses, if Washington enacts sanctions against Iran’s central bank. The U.S. Navy responded quickly stating, unequivocally, that it would not tolerate any attempt to inhibit free navigation. It also moved an additional carrier in the region. Iran’s currently holding a ten-day naval exercise in the Strait and upped the ante on Saturday morning by firing a long-range missile as part of that exercise.
Comments