While touring an anti-mine warship in the U.S. Fifth Fleet, Hagel reiterated America’s support for the Gulf.
Hagel said the U.S. military is committed to maintaining its 35,000-strong force in the Gulf region regardless of a nuclear deal with Iran.
The United States has "more than 35,000 military personnel" in and around the Gulf and "will not make any adjustments to its forces in the region" as a result of the interim accord with Iran, said Hagel, according to a prepared text of a speech.
The ship he toured, the USS Ponce, is to be equipped in 2014 with a new laser weapon designed to deter aircraft and missiles as well as attacks by swarms of small boats like those used by Iran, on the opposite side of the Gulf.
“Our history in this area is long and proud. Our commitment to our partners in this area speaks for itself and I will assure our partners that we’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“This region is dangerous, it’s combustible, it’s unstable,” Hagel continued. “But having a steady American hand in this region can help our allies and reassure our allies.”
“We are not going to change any of our military posture in this area or any part of the world during that six- month period,” Hagel said speaking specifically to the worry that the latest deal grants Iran a six month interim period to diminish its uranium and nuclear facilities.
“We will keep the same kind of strong assets, the same exercises, the same partnerships, and the same focus on our strategic interests that we had before.”
Hagel also said Saturday that diplomacy with Iran must be backed up by military power.
- “We know diplomacy cannot operate in a vacuum,” the Pentagon chief said, speaking in Bahrain, just across the Gulf from Iran.
“Our success will continue to hinge on America's military power, and the credibility of our assurances to our allies and partners in the Middle East.”
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, told Reuters that Gulf Arab leaders felt U.S. policy was misguided and that when they wanted to air their concerns, there was no one in the Obama administration to talk to.
“There’s been a deep sense that nobody’s listening to them,” Alterman said. Personal relationships in policymaking are critical in the Gulf, he said, and many regional leaders do not believe they have that kind of connection with Obama.
Alterman said Hagel’s task would be to listen to the leaders’ concerns, to clearly explain U.S. security moves and to “emphasize the fact that strategically we have very, very closely-aligned interests.”
Hagel planned to explain U.S. security thinking in a speech on Saturday to the Manama Dialogue, which is broadly attended by defense figures in the Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (L) greets Saudi Arabia
Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Salman bin Sultan before a meeting at
the Radisson Hotel in Manama Dec. 6, 2013. (Reuters)- Coinciding with the visit was the U.S. Congress’ approval of a sale of more than 15,000 Raytheon Co anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia. The sale will total $1.1 billion.
- The United States has sold more than $81 billion worth of arms to Gulf countries since 2007, $10 billion of which was announced by Hagel earlier this year on his first trip to the region as defense secretary , reported the New York Times.
But the Gulf States fear the deal could potentially fortify Iran’s power on the international stage. The majority Sunni Gulf states have long been wary of Shi’ite-led Iran pursuing a nuclear program.
(With Reuters)
alarabiya.net
7/12/13
--
-
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ:
Siria, Papa Francesco: «No alle guerre per vendere le armi». /Papa rechaza "guerras comerciales" que solo buscan vender armas.
Πάπας: Οι πόλεμοι λύνουν προβλήματα ή γίνονται για να πουληθούν όπλα;...
Defence secretary: selling weapons abroad is priority for Britain...Philip Hammond praises 'fabulous' arms trade fair in London...
Countries arm themselves even in peace times, economic crises...
-----
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Hagel outlines new weapons sale plan for Gulf against Iran...
ReplyDelete......."Significant interest" in F-35 from Gulf.....
Meanwhile, strong demand from Gulf countries for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet has prompted Washington to grapple with the thorny question about releasing the jet to the region sooner than expected, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Washington has already approved sales of the new stealth fighter to a range of allies, including Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Israel, but sales to the Gulf require a deeper review given U.S. policy guidelines that call for Israel to maintain a qualitative military edge in the Middle East.
Talk about selling the plane to the United Arab Emirates and other U.S. allies in the Gulf came into the open during the Dubai air show last month, with potential buyers weighing whether to buy existing planes or wait for the U.S. government to release the new radar-evading F-35.
Government officials and industry experts have said they do not expect Washington to allow the sale of the F-35 to Gulf countries until around 2020, just short of five years after Israel receives its first F-35 fighters in 2016.
The senior U.S. official said the depth of interest in the new fighter - the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program - from Gulf countries came as a surprise to some in the U.S. government.
"We in the Defense Department now recognize that there is significant interest there," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. "We knew eventually we were going to have to face that question, but it's come upon us a little sooner than we thought and we're going to have to deal with it."
Decisions about releasing sensitive technologies for sale to foreign countries are made by the State Department in consultation with the Pentagon and other government agencies.
"Eventually we're going to have to make a decision. We have a very structured process in place for doing that. And it takes a little bit of time," said the official. "But we are going to have to make decisions on a tighter timeline than we thought."
U.S. government officials and weapons makers have put a bigger focus on foreign arms sales in recent years as a way to offset declines in projected U.S. military spending, and buttress the Obama administration's drive to build partnerships and help U.S. allies beef up their own military capacities.
Lockheed is building three F-35 models for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped fund its development: Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway, Turkey, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Israel and Japan have also ordered the jet, and South Korea signaled last month that it also expected to order the F-35.
"The interest in the airplane is coming about simply because it's getting more mature and people are finally realizing that it's really going to happen," said the official.
The $392 billion F-35 program has seen repeated delays and a 70 percent increase in costs over initial estimates, but U.S. officials say the program is making good progress now........http://www.ellanodikis.net/2013/12/hagel-outlines-new-weapons-sale-plan.html
7/12/13
Hagel outlines new U.S. weapons sale plan for Gulf....
ReplyDeleteIran deal buys time, but U.S. well aware of regional tensions, says U.S. Defense Secretary as he lays out steps to beef up regional defense cooperation in speech to Gulf leaders.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel opened the door for the U.S. to sell missile defense and other weapons systems to U.S.-friendly Gulf nations, with an eye toward boosting their abilities to counter Iran's ballistic missiles, even as global powers ink a nuclear deal with Tehran.
In a speech Saturday to Gulf leaders, Hagel made it clear that the emerging global agreement that would limit Iran's nuclear program doesn't mean the security threat from Iran is over.
Instead, he laid out steps to beef up defense cooperation in the Gulf region, while at the same time insisting that America's military commitment to the Middle East will continue.
"I am under no illusions, like all of you, about the daily threats facing this region, or the current anxieties that I know exist here in the Gulf," Hagel told a security conference. "These anxieties have emerged as the United States pursues diplomatic openings on some of the region's most difficult problems and most complex issues, including Iran's nuclear program and the conflict in Syria." .......http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.562229
7/12/13