US Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved $25.8 billion in sales of missile interceptors and other arms to Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates last week, triple the amount originally announced, Bloomberg News reported.
On May 1, the US State Department said it was approving military sales totaling over $8.6 billion to Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The announcement did not mention Bahrain. Rubio’s emergency declaration allowed the sales to bypass a mandatory review period.
The reason for the discrepancy is that the US said the sales are an update to existing approvals, rather than new deals, Bloomberg reported.
The announcement came amid a ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, during which Iran pounded Israel and Gulf states with repeated missile volleys, testing their missile defense systems. That has prompted mounting concerns over the countries’ dwindling interceptor stocks.
Iran shot missiles at the UAE earlier this week, as tensions rose during the truce. Israel deployed an Iron Dome battery along with troops who know how to operate the missile defense system to the UAE to help Abu Dhabi fend off attacks from Iran during the war, an Israeli official and an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel, confirming a report in the Axios news site.
The officials denied a separate report claiming that Israel also deployed its Iron Beam laser-based air defense system to Abu Dhabi, explaining that the technology is too sensitive for use abroad.
But Israel and other countries in the region may still face a long wait before they receive the interceptors.
“The only way that you really get any delivery timelines that are faster than two or three years — and that’s optimistic — is if we have it in stock,” Elaine McCusker, a former Pentagon official, told Bloomberg. “You’re definitely not going to get something for the current conflict.”
