The U.S. Arms Its Middle Eastern Allies
// Against the Russo-Iranian threat
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates began their joint trip to the Middle East yesterday, with stops in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel on their schedule. Washington is counting on those countries, its key allies in the region, to counter the Iranian “threat” and it is offering them multibillion-dollar military aid. In tandem with the high officials' tour, a propaganda war against Iran has been declared, in which Russia has already become involved as well.
The first stop on Rice and Gates' tour was the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where a meeting of the foreign minister of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf began yesterday. That organization is made up of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Besides representatives of the member states, diplomatic missions from Egypt and Jordan were also present, flying in from Cairo, where a meeting of the League of Arab States took place on Monday and expressed support for U.S. President George W. Bush's suggestion that an international conference on the Middle East be held.
This tour of the Bush administration top officials is devoted to putting together a new anti-Iran coalition that Washington will count on in its heightening standoff with Teheran. Rice explained yesterday in Egypt what the United States expects from its regional allies and what it has to offer. She said that efforts were being made to strengthen moderate forces and support a strategy to contain the negative influence of Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. Iran was specially pointed out as having a role in all destabilization in the region. Rice called it “a source of evil” in the Middle East.
In that connection, the U.S. intends to increase the military power of its allies in the coming years. During their visit, Rice and Gates will discuss ten-year agreements to provide Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the five other Gulf States and Israel with military aid worth $13 billion, $20 billion and $30 billion, respectively.
The planned increase in military aid by the U.S. to the Middle Eastern states has already caused a negative reaction in Teheran. Official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Ali Hosseini stated yesterday that the goal of the plan was to seed fear in the region and uphold American arms exports. He said that the U.S. policy relies on “fabricated accusations.”
It is notable that an informational campaign was mounted in the Israeli media before the arrival of Rice and Gates to explain why the U.S. intended to sell Arab states so many arms. At the end of last week, the popular Israeli Internet site Debka reported that Iran is signing a multibillion-dollar contract with Russia for the delivery of 250 Su-30MKM fighter planes and 20 Il-78MKM aerial refueling planes that will extend the Su-30's flight range to 8000 km. According to Debka's information, the first planes will be delivered to Teheran before the end of the year and Iranian pilots are already being trained in Russia. “Iran's acquisition of an exceptionally large fleet of the Russian fighter-bomber will elevate its air force to one of the two largest and most advanced in the region, alongside the Israeli Air Force… The only chance of aborting the Russian sale would be to route the approach through Washington,” the publication noted. That same information was published in the influential Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The Israeli press reports caused consternation in Russia. “It's either a provocation or it's delusion,” Dmitry Shugaev, chief of staff of the Rosoboronexport general director told Kommersant. A Sukhoi spokesman told Kommersant that “It is a provocation by the Israeli media. here are no negotiations with Iran for the delivery of fighter planes, much less such a huge lot.” Nor does the Russian Foreign Ministry or Defense Ministry know anything about them. A high-placed representative of the United Aviation Construction Corp. told Kommersant that filling such a large order in the next few years would not be possible even theoretically. “There are only three plants in Russia that assembler fighter planes of the Su-30 type – in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Irkutsk and Novosibirsk, and they are all engaged with orders. So there is no one to make 250 planes for Iran,” he said. Independent experts also say that such an order is unfillable. “Even with good market conditions for oil prices, Iran isn't likely to come up with the necessary sum. Two hundred fifty fighters of the Su-303MKM type – that's about $10 billion,” noted Konstantin Makienko of the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology.
Sergey Strokan, Konstantin Lantratov, Alexander Gabuev
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 01, 2007
|
