Lieutenant General Charles Hooper, the Director of the US Defense Security
Cooperation Agency (DSCA), said Monday that Middle Eastern countries purchased
more than $30 billion worth of weapons and other US military products in the
2018 fiscal year out of the Pentagon’s total $55 billion in foreign sales.
"Our products and services are the best in the world and we are not only
hopeful, but will take every step and do everything possible, to ensure we
remain a partner of choice in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and wider Middle
East,” Hooper told the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in
the Emirati city of Abu Dhabi on Monday.
The DSCA operates under the US Department of Defense and is charged with
brokering military deals with US allies around the world. It also facilitates
the transfer of military products, financial and technical assistance, and
training and services to those countries.
Hooper said his agency was undergoing major strategic changes to cut costs and
accelerate military contracts.
"We are razor-focused on improving the time frame for countries to receive
much-needed material,” he said.
To reach that goal, he said, the DSCA was planning to train 20,000 of its
personnel around the world under a special program next year.
"Our priority is to strengthen existing partnerships and attract new ones, while
helping partners train up their workforce and modernize their military
equipment,” Hooper said.
Saudi, UAE among largest purchasers of US weapons
When it comes to foreign weapons purchases in the Middle East, no country comes
close to Saudi Arabia.
The Riyadh regime has been frantically signing military deals with the US,
Britain and many other European countries since March 2015, when it began the
ongoing war against Yemen.
In 2017, when US President Donald Trump chose Riyadh for his debut state visit,
Saudi leaders cemented mutual ties by signing a $110 billion arms deal with
Washington.
The extravagant spending has put a strain on Saudi Arabia’s economy by driving
up its military spending to beyond $60 billion a year, much higher than what
Russia and the UK are spending.
Earlier, the UAE, which is Saudi Arabia’s main partner in a Riyadh-led coalition
invading Yemen, announced two military deals worth around $2 billion with US
arms giant Raytheon for the purchase of Patriot missile systems.
The Persian Gulf regime also agreed to a joint plan with the US to construct a
major military hospital in Abu Dhabi which will be used by Emirati and American
troops, a project that Hooper said the UAE was going to fund.
The Emirati military granted two more contracts worth more than $2.5 billion to
arms makers from Australia and other countries.
Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Bahrain and other countries in the region have also
signed or announced planned military deals with the US over the past year.
The United States has long been selling weapons to warring sides in various
Middle East conflicts, often using Iranophobia and other fear tactics to promote
its arms sales.
Source:PressTV