Arab States Account for Quarter of Zionist Arms Exports

Date: 14 June 2023 - 21:59

News ID: ۱۱۶۰۷۴

AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s military exports hit an all-time high of $12.5 billion last year, with Arab countries that recently established ties accounting for nearly a quarter of purchase contracts, officials said Wednesday.

The occupying regime’s war ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of the regime’s military industries, said one quarter of deals were for drone systems, with “missiles, rockets and air defence systems” making up another 19 percent.

Ministry figures show total exports have doubled over the past nine years.

The war ministry would not provide further details.

The German parliament was set to approve a $4.3 billion deal to purchase the regime’s Arrow 3 air system.

A breakdown of the regions to which the goods are exported showed a leap among the so-called Abraham Accords countries from $853 million (nine percent) in 2021 to $2.96 billion (24 percent) in 2022.

Four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – agreed to normalize relations with the Zionist regime under U.S.-brokered agreements in 2020, under then president Donald Trump.

Spearheaded by the UAE, the move has sparked widespread condemnations from the Palestinians as well as nations and human rights advocates across the world, largely within the Muslim world.

Palestinians censured the deals as a treacherous “stab in the back” and a betrayal of their cause against the decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories.

Palestinians are seeking an independent state in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip with East Al-Quds as its capital.

‘No Normalization Without Palestine Solution’

However, the Saudi embassy in Washington has spoken out on U.S. efforts to normalize relations between the kingdom and the occupying regime, saying that any agreement will only be possible after a solution to the regime’s occupation of Palestinian territories is achieved.

“For that to happen, for the kingdom to take that step, we need that core dispute [with the Palestinians] to be resolved,” Fahad Nazer, spokesman for the embassy, said in an interview with the English-speaking and state-owned Arab News.

The remarks are a rare instance of the Saudi embassy making a media appearance, with the embassy being one of the most closed off to the media.

Over the past few months, Israeli news outlets had been reporting near-daily updates on the Biden administration’s back and forth with the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia. A report by Axios that the White House aimed to seal a deal within 6-7 months, before the next U.S. elections, added to the frenzy.