Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Washington has added tens of millions of dollars in extra defense aid for Israel, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump wound up a visit. He did not say over what timeframe the money would be disbursed. The addition comes on the heels of a weekend announcement of a massive U.S.-Saudi arms deal.
Under a 2016 agreement, Washington already bankrolls its Israeli ally's military spending to the tune of $3.8 billion annually over 10 years, making the Jewish state the top recipient of U.S. assistance.
"Three days ago, the U.S. added another $75 million to the aid package for the missile defense program," Netanyahu said at a memorial ceremony for Israel's dead in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday he was uneasy over a massive U.S.-Saudi arms deal announced at the weekend, saying it was part of a "crazy" regional arms race.
In the first public comment by an Israeli official on the $110-billion U.S. sale of ships, tanks and the latest anti-missile systems to the kingdom, Lieberman said he had expressed his concerns in recent talks with U.S. National Security Adviser HR McMaster.
"I'm not at peace with any arms race and the huge Saudi purchase for sure doesn't add much to our peace of mind," he said in an interview with Israeli army radio.
"I'm not at peace with the whole arms race in the Middle East," he added. "It's not just the Saudis, it's also the Emirates, also the Qataris, also the Iranians; they are all acquiring weapons."
Administration officials claim the agreement - worth $110 billion over the next decade - is the biggest single arms deal in American history, and it will see U.S. defense firms flow everything from ships and tanks to the latest anti-missile systems to the kingdom. The deal also reportedly includes the renewed sale of precision-guided munitions that had been blocked under President Barack Obama's administration, for fear the Saudis would use them on civilian targets in Yemen, where Riyadh is prosecuting a war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. While not all its aspects have been made public, the thrust of the deal aims to help the Saudi military bolster its defenses to deter bitter rival Iran and its missile program.
The Israeli side was happy with Trump's statements and supported the idea that the Arab countries and Israel had to enter in a rapprochement. It is considered that Saudi Arabia and Israel may establish relations in the near future with the aim of moving together against Iran.
The Middle East, which has been an area of sectarian conflict since the early years of Islam - yet remained relatively calm under the rule of the Ottoman Empire - has been dragged into a new sectarian wave as anachronistic disputes have been triggered by regional powers with the intention of expanding their influence. Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has a centralized Shiite version of Islam and the strict religious jurisprudence of Salafi-Wahhabi thought for its policies, respectively, have entered into a competition over the region through applying sectarian policies from which the people of the region suffer. The renewed conflict has paved the way for the Trump administration to determining a new policy in the region. The Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia along with Israel likely to further cooperation with the U.S. against Iran in Yemen, Iraq and some parts of Syria.