Efforts for establishing permanent peace in the Middle East have remained elusive because of unresolved issue of Palestine and Israeli intransigence to vacate occupied Arab lands. The arms acquisition spree by some Arab countries, particularly by the GCC countries, in recent years has literally ignited a sort of arms race in the region. According to a recent study by SIPRI, the United Arab Emirates was the largest market for conventional arms in 2005-09. During this period, the United States dominated defense sales in the Persian Gulf in and delivered 54 percent of the Middle East’s military hardware, including advanced systems that had been denied Arab states because of Israeli objections. SIPRI reported that U.S. defense companies won 60 percent of contracts by value awarded by the federation of seven emirates, a key oil producer and a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.
According to Dan Darling, a Middle East defense analyst with the U.S.-based Forecast International, the United States has consolidated its status as the principal supplier of advanced military systems to the United Arab Emirates, which has emerged a regional military heavyweight. The U.S. arms sales to these countries are meant to improve the defense capabilities of the recipient nations, reinforce the sense of U.S. solidarity with its GCC partners and, finally, create a semblance of interoperability with American forces. The United States plans to sell Saudi Arabia, the principal power in the GCC advanced weaponry worth some $67 billion over the next 10 years.
These trends don’t augur well for peace efforts in the region.
