by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says $110 billion deal "is a matter that really should trouble us" • Washington official says U.S. understands Israel's "completely legitimate" concerns, remains committed to helping Israel maintain its military advantage.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz
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Photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem  |
Israel expressed muted concern on Sunday over
the $110 billion arms deal announced a day earlier during U.S. President
Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. Under the deal, Saudi Arabia will
buy U.S. arms to help it counter Iran, with options running as high as
$350 billion over 10 years.
Although Israel also sees Iran as a threat to
its security, it has a military advantage over the Arab states and has
always been concerned about arms sales to them that could possibly
narrow the margin separating them.
"This is a matter that really should trouble
us," said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz prior to the weekly
Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meeting.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention of the deal during his remarks prior to the cabinet meeting.
A senior U.S. official traveling with Trump
said Washington understands Israel's "completely legitimate" concerns
and pledged to help the Jewish state maintain its military advantage.
"We're taking a whole bunch of measures, some
apparent, some not so apparent, to ensure Israel's qualitative military
edge. That will in no way be compromised. ... You'll hear a really
strong statement from the president on his commitment to Israel and to
Israel's defense," he said.
Netanyahu has expressed the wish to improve
ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states as part of an initiative
that would draw the Palestinians into an eventual peace deal and
function as a broad front against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Steinitz said he hoped to hear details of the deal.
"We have also to make sure that those hundreds
of billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia will not, by any
means, erode Israel's qualitative edge, because Saudi Arabia is still a
hostile country without any diplomatic relations [with Israel] and
nobody knows what the future will be," he said.
In the 1980s, Israel expressed its concern at a U.S.
sale to Saudi Arabia of advanced F-15 fighter jets that were stationed
at a Red Sea airfield. But the desert kingdom has never threatened to
use them against Israel.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=42563
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