Report: Israeli Objections Delaying U.S. Arms Sale To Arab Countries

Taken from Haaretz, Israel, 05/04/2007

Israeli objections are delaying a major arms-sale package that the Bush administration is planning to offer Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to deter Iran, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Israeli government officials confirmed the report, saying that Israel has pressed the United States not to offer a major weapons deal to its Gulf Arab allies for fear it would damage Israel's military deterrent in the Middle East.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz raised the matter during a March 11 meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the officials said on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive subject with the press.

While there is no official dollar figure provided for the planned sales, an American defense industry executive said that if the transaction would be performed as planned - including tanks, warships and advanced air defense systems - the deal could run from $5 billion to $10 billion.

According to the report, a series of Israeli officials, including former defense minister Shaul Mofaz, have come to Washington in recent months to argue against parts of the planned sales.

Israel's main concerns lie with the possible handover of precision-guided weapons that would significantly enhance Saudi warplanes' ability to accurately strike targets, officials told the NY Times.

There is less Israeli opposition, however, to possible sales to Gulf countries of several advanced weapons systems that are seen as more defensive in nature. These include advanced Patriot anti-missile batteries as well as new missile-armed coastal warships and a version of the sophisticated Aegis radar system, officials and defense industry executives told the NY Times.

One defense industry official said Saudi Arabia was considering buying as many as a dozen of the new ships.

The United States has made few, if any, sales of satellite-guided ordnance to gulf countries, several officials said. Israel has been supplied with such weapons since the 1990s and used them extensively against Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War.

Several officials in the State Department and the Pentagon told the paper that plans to formally notify Congress about the potential weapons sales had been delayed at least until later this month. After notification, Congress has 30 days to decide whether to block the sales.

Support for maintaining Israel's military superiority remains strong on Capitol Hill, and administration officials are discussing how to allay the concerns, including the possibility of a separate arms package for Israel, the NY Times said.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, declined to comment "due to sensitivities of issues such as this," he said.

Administration officials told the paper that Israel did not seem intent on using its political clout in Congress to kill the entire planned sale.

"It's not like the Israelis are going to end up with nothing," said a senior administration official, adding "the Israelis understand that it's in our interest and their interest" that the United States try to shore up military systems for Sunni Arab allies. But Israel is also concerned that the Bush administration's ambitions for an American-Israeli-Sunni coalition allied against Iran may never materialize, or that there could be a revolution in Saudi Arabia that would leave the mostly American-made Saudi arsenal in the hands of militant Islamists, the paper said.

"The Israelis believe the government of Saudi Arabia is under a great deal of pressure," said David Schenker, a former Pentagon official who is now a senior fellow on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"Osama bin Laden would like to change the Saudi government to what he considers a real Islamist government. So Israel doesn't want them to have this heightened military capability," he told the paper.