(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The deal includes 96 missiles along with supporting technology and training, Pentagon spokesman George Little announced on Friday.
The US has also reached a 30 billion dollars agreement to sell advanced fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
The agreement will provide the Saudi military with 84 new Boeing F-15SA fighter jets and modernize 70 existing warplanes.
We have conducted an interview with Kamel Wazni, political analyst, to share his opinion on this issue.
Following is a transcript of the interview:
Q: First of all, giving the current dynamics in the region with the Arab Awakening taking place, tell us more about the motives of the US in making arms deals of this magnitude with the Persian Gulf Arab states?
Wazni: Well I think the United States still tries to capitalize on the tension and try to instigate and build sectarian tension in the region trying to implement that Iran is the enemy and not the American domination of the region is the problem behind everything that we face in the Middle East.
We have to remember that the United States build war in that region and you have to look at second thing that United States [is] trying to tell the weapon manufacturing in the United States we can still create war for you so you can sell your weapon.
And I think the third option that the American tried to do here is to cover their defeat in Iraq. The American, what they invested in Iraq of money and soldier and casualty, they ended defeated on the ground and the American [are] trying to cover that and at the same time tell the Persian Gulf countries specially Saudi Arabia which I think they have to be more rational and cautious and not listen to the American because if they listen to the American they will face the consequences to other country that play with the dirt.
We have to remember the American helped Saddam to launch a war against Iran and look what happened to Saddam Hossein after the war ended. They could be a puppet in the hand of the United States but eventually their economy, their existence, their political establishment, will pay dearly.
They have to remember the Iranians are not the enemies. The Iranians, they extended their hands many times to the region, they calmed the nerve of the region. The American here are playing the devil's advocate and they have to be very cautious because nobody would actually object to have its own defense but not to use the purchase of these weapons to threat political stability in the region because that could back fire.
Q: Mr. Wazni, for instance with Saudi Arabia as you mentioned, which has a long history of repression and human rights violations, how can a 30 billion- dollar arms deal not need any form of opposition?
Wazni: Well you have to remember Saudi Arabia uses oppression, especially in the eastern part. The people, they feel discriminated against them, it is by law, people cannot get the jobs. You have to look at the scope of the country economically. There is a large portion of the economy live below poverty level, even the economic number that is showing by the US Congressional Research Service, they estimate the unemployment between 10 to 25 percent.
If you go to the eastern part there is a larger number because in the first place there is Saudis but they are not allowed to have jobs because they belong to a certain sect but the United States is trying to cover all the misdeed of the Saudi Arabia as long it serves the American interest and as long it serves the defense lobby interest.
You have to remember that every time they create tension in the region so Lockheed Martin and Raytheon can sell their weapons. Every time that happen, those defense lobby, they are very strong within the administration and they have to make their sales and that is another part of it.
They have to create wars and sometimes they use country to launch these wars with no regard to what happens to the citizens of that country. And that is what happened with Iraq when Iraq launched its war against Iran and you had like the Saudi and the Arab Emirates and the Jordanian, everybody supporting Saddam Hossein in his war and what happened to Saddam Hossein and what happened to Iraq?
So history should be a lesson for all those people who think the American weapon will solve the problem. I remember very clearly when Rumsfeld at that time came and stood next to Saddam Hossein and he told him we give you all the weapon that you need but fight Iran and what happened to Saddam? What happened to Rumsfeld? What happened to the whole experience?
Somebody have to read history and learn from history. Those weapons I don't think will change the pictures of the Middle East because I think the Iranians are steadfast, they know where their boundary is and I think if something happens it could be the American planning for something.
They could be a boost for Obama in the election, they could be a big mistake on their part because this is going to engulf the whole Middle East and the whole Persian Gulf and will have implication for the world economy.
I am sure Obama said he doesn't want to respond to the Iranian because he knows the economic ramification for such a statement but the world economy cannot withstand a two hundred, three hundred dollars a barrel of oil.
The Americans have to be very cautious, don't play with fire. You should have learned your lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan but I guess they still have more to learn.
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