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U.S. Arms Deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE Is Near
(New York Times) Thom Shanker - The U.S. Defense Department is expected to finalize a $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week. The objective, one senior administration official said, was "not just to boost Israel's capabilities, but also to boost the capabilities of our Persian Gulf partners so they, too, would be able to address the Iranian threat - and also provide a greater network of coordinated assets around the region to handle a range of contingencies." Those other security risks, officials said, include the civil war in Syria - a country with chemical weapons - and militant violence in the Sinai Peninsula. Israel would buy new missiles designed to take out an adversary's air-defense radars, as well as advanced radars for its own warplanes, new refueling tanker planes and - in the first sale to any foreign military - the V-22 Osprey troop transport aircraft. The UAE would buy 26 F-16 warplanes, a package that could reach $5 billion alone, along with precision missiles to reach distant ground targets. Saudi Arabia would buy the same class of advanced missile. The expectation is that the arms sale, which was outlined to Congress on Thursday, will encounter little opposition from lawmakers, but Congressional officials said members were seeking assurances that the package was in keeping with American policy to guarantee Israel's "qualitative military edge."