U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies

$20 Billion Deal Includes Weapons For Saudi Arabia

The Washington Post reports:

The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The arms deals, which include the sales of a variety of sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by this administration. The military assistance agreements would provide $30 billion in new U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years, the officials said. Both figures represent significant increases in military support.

U.S. officials said the arms sales to Saudi Arabia are expected to include air-to-air missiles as well as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn standard bombs into "smart" precision-guided bombs. Most, but not all, of the arms sales to the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman -- will be defensive, the officials said.

U.S. officials said the common goal of the military aid packages and arms sales is to strengthen pro-Western countries against Iran at a time when the hard-line regime seeks to extend its power in the region.

"This is a big development, because it's part of a larger regional strategy and the maintenance of a strong U.S. presence in the region. We're paying attention to the needs of our allies and what everyone in the region believes is a flexing of muscles by a more aggressive Iran. One way to deal with that is to make our allies and friends strong," said a senior administration official involved in the negotiations.

The arms deals have quietly been under discussion for months despite U.S. disappointment over Saudi Arabia's failure to support the Iraqi government and to bring that country's Sunni Muslims into the reconciliation process.

The administration's plans will be announced Monday in advance of trips next week to the Middle East by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and are expected to be on their agenda in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The administration has a notional list of arms to sell to the Gulf states, but there are no final agreements on quantities and specific models, U.S. officials said.

State Department and Pentagon officials started briefing key members of Congress about their intentions over the past week, U.S. officials said. The initial reception has been positive, said officials involved in those briefings. They acknowledged, however, that some parts of the deal are supported more than others. Arms sales to Gulf countries have often been controversial.

The administration hopes to provide a full rundown this fall for congressional approval.

"We want to convince Congress to continue our tradition of military sales to all six" states, the senior administration official said. "We've been helping Gulf Arabs for years, and that needs to continue."

Sunni regimes in the Gulf region have felt particularly vulnerable since the election of a pro-Iranian Shiite government in neighboring Iraq last year. "There's a sense here and in the region of the need to build up defenses against Iranian encroachment," said a U.S. official familiar with the deals.

The aid packages to Israel and Egypt are further along. A U.S.-Israel agreement, to replace a 10-year arrangement that expires this year, has been under discussion since February, U.S. officials said. The new U.S. package will include strictly military aid and would expand the U.S. contribution 25 percent over the current $2.4 billion per year; economic assistance has been discontinued now that Israel is considered a developed economy, U.S. officials said.

President Bush said last month, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, that he was strongly committed to a new 10-year agreement that would increase U.S. assistance "to meet the new threats and challenges [Israel] faces." Washington has long promised to help Israel sustain a so-called "qualitative military edge" over other major powers in the region.

Rice is expected to announce Monday that, after her Middle East trip, Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns will finalize the agreements with Israel and Egypt.

Egypt To Propose Iraq Cease-Fire At Conference; Baghdad Opposed

The International Herald Tribune reports:
Further deep differences emerged between Iraq and Arab countries on Monday days before a crucial conference aimed at bringing the region's support for the Baghdad government, with Egypt proposing a three-month cease-fire between Iraqi forces and insurgents.

An Iraqi diplomat said Baghdad was strongly opposed to the cease-fire proposal, which implicitly treats the Shiite-led Iraqi government and the Sunni-led "resistance" as equal partners in the country.
Egypt is trying to get the cease-fire call into final resolutions from two days of conferences on Thursday and Friday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. The gathering aims to rally the divided participants — Arab nations, Iran, the United States, Russia, China and top European powers — around a united plan to stabilize Iraq.

Arab nations are pressing the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take concrete steps to better incorporate Iraq's Sunni Arabs into the government and military — including changing the constitution and ending the system for purging former members of Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath Party, which was dominated by Sunnis.

The Egyptian proposal only underlines the differences between Arab nations and al-Maliki's government. Iraq's Shiites and Kurds, who now dominate the government, have long viewed Sunni-led Arab governments as biased toward Iraq's Sunnis and sympathetic toward the Sunni-led insurgency.

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Under the Egyptian proposal, the participants would "call on all parties to implement a cease fire for an initial period of three months to allow for a conducive environment to help foster the political process and national accord," according to a copy of the draft final resolutions, obtained by the Associated Press. It did not elaborate on how insurgents could be brought on board for a cease-fire.

The draft resolutions are still being finalized by senior diplomats from the participating countries, but an Iraqi official close to the discussions said the Egyptian proposal is a nonstarter.

"This is not a good idea. How can we have a cease-fire with terrorists?" said the Iraqi diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Although the United States has been pushing al-Maliki to reach out for Sunni Arabs, it is highly unlikely that it would back a cease-fire call with insurgents who are battling U.S. forces as well as Iraqi troops.

There were also still differences over a resolution on how to build reconciliation between Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

An Arab-backed resolution calls for the Iraqi government to take "constructive steps toward reviewing and amending the constitution and the Debaathification law."

But the Iraqi-backed version of the resolution calls only for steps toward reviewing the constitution, without a mention of changing it or a mention of the Debaathification program.

Syria is pressing for the final statement to also include a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, a step opposed by Washington and the Iraqi government.

"There have been some differences in the points of view about the presence of the foreign troops in Iraq. There is a need for a compromise, and there is no need to mention a specific timetable," said Italy's ambassador to Egypt, Antonio Badini, who participated in talks in Cairo on Monday between diplomats from the participants aimed at hammering out the final resolutions.

Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Labid Abbawi, who headed his country's delegation in the preliminary talks, said the differences could be resolved in further talks.

"Some of the points need to be resolved, and the participants want to go back to their governments to resolve them," Abbawi told reporters.

The differences could heighten tensions at the gathering, which is to be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The U.S. and Baghdad are hoping the conference can produce a strong show of international support for al-Maliki's government — particularly a commitment to reduce Iraq's huge debts.

But Arab countries are demanding that Iraq do more to reach out to disgruntled Sunni Arabs before pledging any substantial aid to the troubled country. Al-Maliki has rejected any conditions on his government.

In June, al-Maliki announced a national reconciliation program that offers amnesty to members of the Sunni-led insurgency who are not involved in "terrorist activities" and amends the Debaathification law from their jobs. But Arab countries have called those steps incomplete and not implemented.