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The United States announced Monday new military pacts worth 20 billion dollars for Saudi Arabia, 13 billion dollars for Egypt and 30 billion for Israel in a bid to counter Iran.Details of the new Middle East military aid bonanza came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates left Washington for a rare joint trip to the region, seeking assurances of help in stabilizing Iraq.

“To support our continued diplomatic engagement in the region, we are forging new assistance agreements with the Gulf States, Israel, and Egypt,” Rice said in a statement.

The move will “help bolster forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran,” she said.

The 20-billion-dollar arms package for Saudi Arabia calls for missile defenses, early warning systems, air power and naval systems to counter Iran, said a senior US defense official briefing reporters traveling with Gates.

US media had reported that Washington was considering arms deals worth 20 billion dollars for the Saudis and five other Gulf states, but the figure discussed by the defense official was only for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia “may come in with at least that much, the others we don’t know yet,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Twenty billion is definitely a floor.”

The official would not discuss specific weapons that would be included in the package.

“These are weapons that Saudi Arabia will be considering and will be needing over the next decade or so in order for them to meet their security needs as they confront Iran and other threats,” the official said.

Rice said before leaving that the United States had agreed a new 10-year, 13-billion pact to bolster Egypt’s capacity to address shared strategic goals.

Rice and Gates flew on separate airplanes to the Middle East.

A new 30 billion dollar pact with Israel over 10 years will soon be concluded, which hikes the value of US military assistance to the Jewish state by 600 million dollars a year on average.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states will also benefit, to help “support their ability to secure peace and stability in the Gulf region,” Rice said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said reports of the deal showed the United States was bent on “spreading fear” in the Middle East to generate better sales for its weapons and munitions.

“The United States has always had special policy of spreading fear in the region and tarnishing existing good relations” between countries in the Middle East, Hosseini said.

Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns will to travel to Israel and the region next month to finalize the agreements, Rice said.

“We wanted to send a strong signal of support for the security concerns of all our partners in the region,” Burns told reporters.

The package was also an “effort to rebuff the attempt by Iran to advance its own strategic influence in the region,” he said.

While there was no formal “quid pro quo” for the arms sales, Burns said, Washington did expect allies to back its role in Iraq and the fragile Iraqi government.

Rice and Gates will make rare joint visits to Egypt and Saudi Arabia before separate trips to other parts of the region.

In Egypt, they are scheduled to meet ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as Jordan and Egypt in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

Amid growing calls at home to withdraw US forces in Iraq, the duo are also expected to reaffirm US commitment to regional security against possible threats from Iran and its nuclear program.

In addition, Washington is expected to underline concerns that some Sunni Arab nations are offering financial aid to foreign fighters fueling the insurgency against the fragile Shiite-led, US-backed government in Baghdad.

Washington is particularly concerned that its most powerful Sunni Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, is bankrolling Sunni militants and serving as a conduit for them to stoke the insurgency in Iraq.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, foreign fighters flowing into Iraq via US arch-enemy Syria come from Qatar and Yemen, among other Middle East allies, US officials said.

The trip will also allow Rice, who will travel separately to Jerusalem and Ramallah to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials, to prepare for international Middle East peace talks, which President George W. Bush said would be held later this year.

Iran is the “single most important” strategic challenge in the Middle East for the United States and its allies, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday, as she flew to the region with a plan for billions of dollars in arms sales and military aid for Israel and Arab nations. Rice, who will be joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at high-level meetings in Egypt and Saudi Arabia , defended the proposed arms transfers as vital to reassuring America’s friends in the face of what she called Iran’s “destabilizing activities.”

“We are …very determined to maintain the ability of our allies and friends to rely on the United States to help them with their security concerns,” she told reporters.The security assistance package, which Rice announced earlier Monday, includes $30 billion in military aid to Israel over 10 years, $13 billion for Egypt in the same time frame and more than $20 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states.Rice emphasized that the Bush administration intends to counter the challenge from Iran with diplomacy, not military force.he joint trip by Rice and Gates comes at a time when U.S. domestic debate over withdrawing troops from Iraq and Iran’s resurgence have eroded confidence in Washington’s 60-year-old commitment to the security of the energy-rich Persian Gulf.But whether Rice and Gates can overcome deep Arab disappointment with President Bush ’s record remains to be seen, even with the assistance package they’re offering and promises of a more robust diplomatic effort to manage the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Rice accused Iran of backing Middle East terrorist groups, supplying arms to Iraqi groups who attack U.S. soldiers and of seeking nuclear weapons.”The Iranians should stop their destabilizing activities. That’s what they should do,” she said.Taken literally, Rice’s comments place U.S. worries about Iran ahead of concerns over the war in Iraq . Although that doesn’t seem to square with the reality of the war raging on the ground, it may well describe the situation likely to develop if the United States begins to withdraw from Iraq , leaving a much broader field for Iran to maneuver.Bush’s goals for the unusual Rice-Gates mission may be at cross-purposes.Another U.S. aim is to persuade Iraq’s neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia , to increase their tepid support for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki .But the Saudis see Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-dominated government as little more than a proxy for Shiite Iran, their historic adversary, and have little incentive to support it.”I see a (Saudi) government that has concerns about the lack of progress on some of the elements of national reconciliation” in Iraq , Rice acknowledged. She was referring to demands by Iraq’s Sunni Muslims for more political power. “They are the same concerns, frankly … that we’ve had.”Rice said there’s been “a more active Saudi effort” recently to stop Saudi citizens from crossing into Iraq to fight alongside the anti-U.S. insurgency there.She said she would urge Saudi King Abdullah, whom she and Gates will meet in Jeddah on Tuesday night, to implement a promise to forgive Iraq’s debt from the Saddam Hussein era and consider establishing an embassy in Baghdad .Rice and Gates also will meet Tuesday in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt , with top officials from Egypt , Jordan and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council .The arms sales to the Persian Gulf monarchies are expected to include advanced air-to-ground munitions, naval upgrades and other technologies. Already, they’ve drawn opposition from some members of Congress , who say that the Saudis have done too little to support U.S. goals in Iraq and elsewhere. Israel and its backers on Capitol Hill also have expressed qualms about the sales. But a senior official on Gates’ aircraft, who briefed reporters on the condition that he not be identified, said the administration “has reason to believe” that Israelis see the “kind of strengthening of some of our friends in the region— particularly vis-a-vis Iran — is in their own interest as well.” Rice, alluding to those concerns, said the White House is determined “there not be a shift in the military balance between the parties in the region. That’s extremely important and we have it very much in mind.” After leaving Jeddah , Rice will spend Wednesday and Thursday in Israel and the Palestinian territories. She said the visit there is one of many she expects to make in the coming months, leading up to an international Middle East peace meeting that Bush called for two weeks ago.

Voice of America’s Dan Robinson reports the House of Representatives is poised to take legislative steps to increase the economic costs to Iran of pursuing its uranium enrichment program and that a vote is expected Tuesday. Congress has been steadily ramping up pressure on Iran, with a range of measures aimed at restricting investments in Iran, banning Iranian imports, and targeting Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts.

The Iranian government maintains that these efforts are for peaceful energy purposes, while the United States and its allies say Iran is also developing a nuclear weapon. On Monday, the House considered two pieces of legislation, including one approved by the House Financial Services Committee, to step up divestment efforts regarding Iran. The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act directs the U.S. Treasury Department to publish an Internet-accessible list of persons or entities in or outside of the United States investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector, selling arms to Tehran or extending $20 million or more in credit to Iran’s government. “If we can dry up Iran’s access to foreign investment,” said Brad Sherman, a California Democrat. “If we can sever the ties between the multinational corporations and the government of Iran, we may be able to increases the costs of Iran’s behavior and put enough pressure on that regime so either it decides, or its people insist, that it abandon its nuclear programs.” Lawmakers say the measure establishes clear congressional authorization for local and state governments and educational institutions to divest from Iran’s energy infrastructure, while giving private and public fund managers a legal shield against civil or criminal charges linked to divestment decisions. It also calls for the U.S. government’s federal employee retirement fund to initiate what is called a “terror-free” investment option. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was among Republicans rising in support, saying similar legislation she proposed earlier this year would have gone further. “I am concerned that this bill merely authorizes divestment from companies investing in Iran, rather than making divestment from those companies mandatory,” she said. House lawmakers also amend the main existing sanctions law regarding Iran, the Iran Sanctions Act, to expand and clarify the definition of companies and entities subject to sanctions. Included now would be financial institutions, insurers, guarantors, foreign subsidiaries and export credit agencies, while petroleum by-products and liquefied natural gas would be added to a category of petroleum resources. Many in Congress are unhappy with what they consider to be weak enforcement of sanctions by the Bush administration, something American Samoa delegate Eni Faleomavaega says would change under the measure. “It is more than lamentable that the administration in face has never once availed itself of the potent tools that the Iran Sanctions Act offers to deter such investment,” said Faleomavaega. “But the administration can rest assured that we will hold its feet to the fire in this session. For the sake of U.S. interests and world peace, both the executive branch and the Congress must do everything in [their] power to prevent the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran.” Other House measures include bills to ban all imports from Iran, and one to establish an international nuclear fuel supply bank, a proposal aimed directly at Iran’s justifications for nuclear enrichment. Lawmakers also want to deny a nuclear cooperation agreements to countries assisting Iran’s nuclear efforts, and to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group. Last week, House lawmakers also approved a provision to a bill reauthorizing the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to bar that organization’s investment in Iran, along with Sudan and North Korea.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Meshkini, chairman of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts, died on Monday, leaving the way open for his replacement by the influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The 86-year-old ayatollah, who had been suffering from lung problems, was a conservative who had led Friday prayers in the holy city of Qom. 

 Mr Rafsanjani, a pragmatist critic of Iran’s rightward drift under President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, is already vice-chairman of the assembly, a directly elected body of clerics responsible for choosing and monitoring the supreme leader, Iran’s highest office. “The assembly meets infrequently – so for the time being, Mr Rafsanjani will run it,” Mohammad Ali Abtahi, cleric and former vice-president, told the FT. “Then the assembly will choose a successor, and Mr Rafsanjani has momentum from the election.” In December last year Mr Rafsanjani topped the Tehran division of the assembly’s election with more than 1.5m votes. The Mehr news agency reported that a new chairman would be chosen at September’s scheduled meeting. Mr Abtahi said the “longer-term” effect of Mr Rafsanjani becoming chairman would be to “further weaken” the ideas of Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a fundamentalist cleric thought to influence Mr Ahmadi-Nejad. Whereas Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi has been concerned mainly with philosophy, his strong opposition to western cultural influence has chimed with Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s impassioned assertion of Iran’s right to develop nuclear technology and his scorning of the effects of western sanctions. Mr Rafsanjani, by contrast, has advocated a more measured approach in international policy. The atmosphere in Iran’s political class has been hotting up in recent weeks in the run-up to next year’s parliamentary elections. Buoyed by their relatively good showing in December’s polls for both the Assembly of Experts and local councils, reformists and conservative pragmatists have been discussing possible electoral co-ordination under a trio of Mr Rafsanjani and two leading reformists, former president Mohammad Khatami and former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi.

Source: Financial Times

Israel is looking into reports that Russia plans to sell 250 advanced long-range Sukhoi-30 fighter jets to Iran in an unprecedented billion-dollar deal. According to reports, in addition to the fighter jets, Teheran also plans to purchase a number of aerial fuel tankers that are compatible with the Sukhoi and capable of extending its range by thousands of kilometers.

Defense officials said the Sukhoi sale would grant Iran long-range offensive capabilities. Government officials voiced concern over the reports. They said Russia could be trying to compete with the United States, which announced over the weekend a billion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Despite Israeli and US opposition, Russia recently supplied Iran with advanced antiaircraft systems used to protect Teheran’s nuclear installations. At the time, Moscow said it reserved the right to sell Iran weapons, such as the antiaircraft system, that were of a defensive nature. The Sukhoi-30 is a two-seat multi-role fighter jet and bomber capable of operating at significant distances from home base and in poor weather conditions. The aircraft enjoys a wide range of combat capabilities and is used for air patrol, air defense, ground attacks, enemy air defense suppression and air-to-air combat. After years of negotiations, the Indian Air Force in 1996 purchased 40 Sukhoi-30s and in 2000 acquired the license from the company to manufacture an additional 140 aircrafts.

By: Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon, the Jersulam Post