air defense technologies<\/a>, an area in which Israel\u2019s defense companies specialize, has contributed to the country\u2019s rising export volumes.<\/p>\nRegional conflicts shaping arms demand<\/p>\n
According to SIPRI researchers, arms transfers to the Middle East were closely tied to ongoing conflicts and geopolitical rivalries, including Israel\u2019s confrontation with Iran and Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, as well as the Israel-Hamas War.<\/p>\n
Several other states involved in regional tensions were listed among the world\u2019s largest arms importers. Saudi Arabia ranked third globally, accounting for 6.8% of global imports, while Qatar ranked fourth with 6.4%, and Kuwait was ninth with 2.8%.<\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s imports increased 106% in 2016-2020 and 2021-2025, with purchases of \u00a0combat aircraft from the US, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.<\/p>\n
Kuwait also sharply increased its acquisitions, rising from being the 47th largest arms importer, globally, to the ninth, during the same period.<\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates remained another major buyer, importing combat helicopters from the US and air defense systems from multiple suppliers, including Israel.<\/p>\n
Iran ranked 101st among global arms importers, with the only recorded transfers consisting of several Yak-130 trainer aircraft from Russia.<\/p>\n
However, Iran has become more active as an arms exporter, ranking 25th worldwide, with the majority of its exports going to Russia in the form of missiles and one-way attack drones. Additional shipments included missiles and drones supplied to Houthi forces in Yemen.<\/p>\n
Despite ongoing wars and tensions, overall arms imports to the Middle East declined by 13% in 2016-2020 and 2021-2025, largely due to reduced purchases by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt.<\/p>\n
SIPRI researchers noted that continuing conflicts and security concerns across the region were likely to sustain strong demand for advanced weapons systems in the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel increased both its arms imports and exports since 2021 as conflicts across the Middle East reshaped global…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2382,37,5878,7568,7569,7570],"class_list":["post-13938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-defense-industry","tag-israel","tag-israel-defense-news","tag-israeli-new-weapons","tag-military-aid-to-israel","tag-weapons-sales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116209444775384505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}