The United States and Israel have agreed to sign a new round of 10-year military assistance agreement, which is the largest and longest military agreement reached by the two countries so far.
According to the US "Defense News" report, the US government revealed at a press conference that the agreement will be signed at the US State Department on September 14, US local time.
This agreement is a continuation of the 10-year military aid memorandum of understanding reached by the United States and Israel in 2007, which was worth US$30 billion.
The US "Defense News" has reported on this contract renewal this summer, saying that approximately US$400 million will be spent on US-Israeli cooperative missile defense projects in Israel and other joint projects that have been agreed in advance.
As a condition for increasing the amount of military aid from US$30 billion to US$38 billion over the next 10 years, the United States insists on canceling a 30-year-old Israeli privilege that allows Israel to convert large amounts of US aid dollars into Israeli new shekel currency to support local research and development and procurement projects.
The deal has become a legacy of the Obama administration, but conflicts between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have created obstacles, in part because of the 2015 deal between the United States and Iran.
The conflict between Obama and Netanyahu broke out publicly in August this year. A statement issued by the Israeli Ministry of Defense compared the agreement reached between the United States and Iran to the Munich Agreement reached between Britain and Nazi Germany before World War II. The Israeli Defense Ministry issued a semi-apologetic statement a few days later, but the contradictions remained.
Two questions remain open. The first is the exact details of the 10-year agreement, and the second is whether the agreement will have an impact on countries such as Qatar and Kuwait that are eagerly looking forward to purchasing US fighter jets.
(Translation: Wang Yinuo)
