![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Israel Over Saudi Arabia
Apr. 5th, 2007 07:13 am♠
WASHINGTON, April 4 — A major arms-sale package that the Bush administration is planning to offer Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to deter Iran has been delayed because of objections from Israel, which says that the advanced weaponry would erode its military advantage over its regional rivals, according to senior United States officials.
... In particular, the Israelis are concerned about the possible transfer of precision-guided weapons that would give Saudi warplanes much more accurate ability to strike targets, officials said.
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 in its war against Hezbollah last summer.
... The United States has long committed to preserving what is known as Israel’s “qualitative military edge,” or Q.M.E. “Israel has expressed concern that this proposal could affect the Q.M.E.,” said a Defense Department official.
-- David S. Cloud and Helene Cooper for The New York Times
Considering recent events, it seems silly to assume that the Saudis are not aligned more with Iran anyway. It seems fatuous to regard them as allies any longer, if it was ever sensible to do so in the first place.
xXx
WASHINGTON, April 4 — A major arms-sale package that the Bush administration is planning to offer Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to deter Iran has been delayed because of objections from Israel, which says that the advanced weaponry would erode its military advantage over its regional rivals, according to senior United States officials.
... In particular, the Israelis are concerned about the possible transfer of precision-guided weapons that would give Saudi warplanes much more accurate ability to strike targets, officials said.
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 in its war against Hezbollah last summer.
... The United States has long committed to preserving what is known as Israel’s “qualitative military edge,” or Q.M.E. “Israel has expressed concern that this proposal could affect the Q.M.E.,” said a Defense Department official.
-- David S. Cloud and Helene Cooper for The New York Times
Considering recent events, it seems silly to assume that the Saudis are not aligned more with Iran anyway. It seems fatuous to regard them as allies any longer, if it was ever sensible to do so in the first place.
