Washington Approves Arms Sales Exceeding $8 Billion to Allies in the Middle East

SadaNews - The U.S. State Department announced late Friday - Saturday that it has approved military sales totaling over $8.6 billion to Middle Eastern allies including Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE.

This announcement comes nine weeks after the war began between the United States and Israel against Iran, and more than three weeks after a fragile ceasefire in the Iran war took effect.

The State Department noted that it has approved military sales to Qatar that include services to upgrade the Patriot air and missile defense system worth $4.01 billion, and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems worth $992.4 million.

The department also approved the sale of an integrated combat command system to Kuwait worth $2.5 billion, and the sale of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems to Israel worth $992.4 million.

The department has also approved the sale of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems to the UAE for $147.6 million.

The department stated that the prime contractor for the Advanced Precision systems deals with Qatar, Israel, and the UAE is BAE Systems. It added that RTX and Lockheed Martin are the main contractors for the integrated combat command system deal with Kuwait and for the Patriot upgrade deal with Qatar. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman is also a prime contractor in the Kuwaiti deal.