Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia
22 April 2015
The sale of American military hardware is on the rise in the Middle East, reports the New York Times. Defense industry officials notified Congress that Arab allies fighting the Islamic State – Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt – are set to purchase thousands of American-made missiles and other weapons. Until recently Gulf Nations militaries have been “a combination of something between symbols of deterrence and national flying clubs. Now they’re suddenly being used”, said Richard L. Aboulafia, a defense analyst at the Teal Group. Saudi Arabia has become the world’s fourth largest defense market, spending more than USD 80 billion on weaponry last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute tracking global military spending. The Emirates and Qatar have followed suit, the Emirates spending nearly USD 23 billion last year and Qatar signing an USD 11 billion agreement for the purchase of Apache attack helicopters and an air defense system. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | Sale of U.S. Arms Fuels the Wars of Arab States
26 March 2015
The Yemeni foreign minister, Riad Yassin, requested Gulf Arab states for support to prevent the advance of rebels further into the country. The Shia Houthi rebels who ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in February 2015 siezed Yemen’s third largest city, Taiz. (more…)
Source: BBC | Yemen minister calls for Gulf military intervention
28 January 2015
On 23 January, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby stated that US troops will soon be dispatched in order to establish training sites for the Syrian opposition. He is quoted as stating that: ‘We’ve said, though, we know how to do this and we’re not going to do it just alone (…) We’re going to do it with our interagency and international partners, people who know these groups.’
Pentagon spokeswomen Elisa Smith said: ‘Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have agreed to host training sites, and we anticipate the program to train and equip the moderate Syrian opposition will take approximately 400 U.S. trainers, with the caveat that this number could fluctuate based on course load, course requirements and other variables.’
Source: U.S. Department of Defense | U.S. Troops to Begin Establishing Syrian Opposition Training Sites
Source: The Washington Times | U.S. is sending 400 troops to train Syrian fighters against Islamic State
21 October 2014
The New York Times recently reported that a still-classified C.I.A review, one of several such studies commissioned in 2012 and 2013 by the Obama administration, concluded that many past attempts by the agency to arm foreign forces covertly had a minimal impact on the long-term outcome of a conflict and proved even less effective when militias fought without any direct American support on the ground. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | C.I.A. Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels
23 September 2014
The United States and five Arab countries launched airstrikes on 22 September on Islamic State group targets in Syria. The airstrikes were conducted by the US, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. (more…)
Source: ABC News | Pentagon: US, Partners Begin Airstrikes in Syria