Britain to boost arms sales to Saudis

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/220882.html

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made his first visit to Saudi Arabia as the UK premier to win lucrative weapons deals in the Middle East's most autocratic regime.

Cameron's visit to the Saudi monarchy comes amid warnings from human rights groups and MPs over the sale of arms, as well as a "shocking disrespect for basic human rights" in the Kingdom.

Amnesty International's UK campaigns director Tim Hancock, said any future arms sales to the regime should take account of Saudi Arabia's behaviour.

“In recent years we've documented the indiscriminate bombing of Yemeni villages by Saudi Arabian jets," Hancock said.

"So if Mr Cameron is discussing arms deals on this trip he must ensure that they will be subject to rigorous controls and that no equipment is shipped to the country if there is the slightest risk of it being used to commit human rights abuses", added the Amnesty's director.

The trip comes at a time when the Foreign Office has posted a warning on its website calling on all Britons travelling to Saudi Arabia to exercise vigilance.

As Cameron was discussing deals to sell armored personnel carriers, sniper rifles, small arms ammunition and weapon sights to the Saudi regime, the monarchy's troops killed an anti-regime's protester in eastern Qatif region, in a demonstration calling for the release of political prisoners in the country.

His visit also comes at a time when MPs on the Committee on Arms Export Controls demand to know why the government has continued to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, “given there was some unrest”.

After the prime minister's meeting with King Abdullah a Downing Street spokesperson said the two leaders "agreed to strengthen co-operation in a range of areas."

"The two leaders also discussed recent developments in the region, in particular their shared concerns about the situation in Syria, Iran and Yemen” , said the spokesperson.

David Cameron discussed the future of Syria and his country's plan for ousting of President Assad, when the Saudis have not only been involved in the crushing of dissent in Bahrain, but also in their own eastern province of Qatif.

Last year, the British premier conducted a mini-tour of the region, but he did not visit the Kingdom. That tour, as evidenced by later agreement was merely designed to flog weapons to oppressive regimes as the Islamic Awakening swept across the region.

Cameron was joined on the trip by British business leaders, including representative from the defence giants BAE, Thales and Qinetiq.

Today's trip to Saudi Arabia also comes as a committee of MPs questioned why the government had not blocked weapons sales to Saudi Arabia given the widening unrest earlier in the country.

"Why does the UK believe that the assurances relating to end-use will not be breached?", asked the committee on arms exports controls.

Saudi Arabia is Britain's biggest trading partner in the Middle East, with bilateral trade worth 15 billion pounds a year. Saudi investment in Britain is worth more than 62 billion pounds.

Taiwan renews bid to buy US arms

US F-16 fighter jet (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181248.html

Taiwan has announced that it still continues its bid to buy eight submarines and 66 F-16 fighters from the United States.

"The country's position to seek (eight) diesel-powered submarines and F-16C/Ds has never changed," Taiwan's defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday, AFP reported.

"The deal is still in the US government's screening process. The ministry will keep pushing for the deal so as to meet Taiwan's self-defense demands."

Washington approved in 2001 to sell eight conventional submarines to Taiwan as part of the biggest arms package with the island since 1992.

The US has not produced conventional submarine for more than 40 years. Germany and Spain, other builders of submarines, have refused to offer their design to Taiwan, fearing the action would anger China, experts say.

Taiwan also asked for 66 F-16 fighters in 2007, a plan that has since then been stalled.

Taiwan has reportedly decided to agree with a US offer of delivering four submarines to accelerate the process of the deal.

China's Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde said last week that further US arms sales to Taiwan would hurt military relations between Beijing and Washington. He said the US cannot stop China's development using Taiwan.

Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Thomas Hou said on Thursday that most of US lawmakers have shown support for the implementation of Taiwan Relations Act, a law which obliges the US government to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan.

China stopped defense ties with the US in 2010 when Washington announced plans to sell more than $6 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan.

US to proceed with Mideast arms sales

Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Richard Genaille

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/174375.html

The Obama administration has decided to proceed with the sale of advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in two of the largest-ever arms sales.

The Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Richard Genaille, said Monday that Saudi Arabia's $60 billion purchase of 84 new F-15 fighter jets, 190 helicopters and a wide array of missiles, bombs and delivery systems, as well as accessories such as night-vision goggles and radar warning systems have been approved and is proceeding without delay, Bloomberg reported.

The Pentagon official added that the purchase by the United Arab Emirates of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems, worth nearly 7 billion dollars, has also been cleared to proceed.

The US Defense Department expects fiscal year 2011 arms exports to exceed $46 billion compared with about $37.9 billion in the previous fiscal year.

The report comes as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have assisted Bahrain's Al Khalifa regime to reinforce its brutal crackdown against anti-government demonstrators.

“The Saudis are using American equipment: American tanks, American soldier carriers and they are also using the Apache helicopters, which are American,” a Bahraini opposition leader, Saeed al-Shahabi, has told Press TV.

On Monday, Saudi-backed Bahraini forces arrested clerics Sayyed Mohammad al-Alawi and Sheikh Abdul Adim al-Mohtadi in the capital Manama.

It comes after the Bahraini government dismissed 30 doctors and 150 health ministry workers for supporting anti-government protests.

Saudi Arabia dispatched thousands of troops to neighboring Bahrain in mid-March to help quell month-old protest rallies seeking to break al-Khalifa dynasty's monopoly on power.

Saudi and other Arab rulers fear that any concession by Bahrain's rulers could embolden more protests against their own despotic rulers.

This is while the US military, which has its Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, has avoided describing the foreign troop intervention in the country as an invasion.

Bahraini demonstrators maintain that they will hold their ground until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy as well as a proportional voice in the government are met.

Scores of protesters have been killed and many others gone missing since the beginning of the Bahrain revolution.

China suspends military ties with US

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117442&sectionid=351020404

China suspends military exchanges with the US and threatens to impose sanctions on US arms companies over a Washington decision to sell weapons to Taiwan.

China's Defense Ministry suspended military exchange visits with the US, saying the suspension was "in consideration of the serious harm and impacts [of the 6.4-billion-dollar US-Taiwan arms deal] on Sino-US military relations."

Chinese Foreign Ministry also threatened to impose sanctions on US firms that sell weapons to Taiwan amid straining relations between Washington and Beijing.

"China will also impose corresponding sanctions on US companies that engage in weapons sales to Taiwan," the ministry said on Saturday.

"The United States must be responsible for the serious repercussions if it does not immediately reverse the mistaken decision to sell Taiwan weapons," Chinese deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told the US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman.

The arms sale includes Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, mine hunter ships and information technology.

US Congress has 30 days to comment before the plan goes forward. Lawmakers traditionally have supported such sales.

Saturday's measure is the second such suspension, since the former Bush administration in 2008 announced a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan.

Relations between the two countries have been strained as President Barack Obama plans to meet with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, later this year.

More complications could affect President Hu Jintao's expected visit to the US this year, as well as talks on human rights that Obama and Hu had agreed to continue, a Press TV correspondent reported.

China warns US about arms sales to Taiwan

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115690&sectionid=351020404

China has objected to the US plans to sell missile equipment to Taiwan, urging Washington to abandon the move as it would undermine trust between the US and Chinese militaries.

"The US arms sales to Taiwan infringe upon China's security interest[s] as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and interfere with China's internal affairs," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement on Saturday.

The reaction follows the US Defense Department's approval of the sale of Patriot missile equipment to Taiwan despite opposition to the move by China.

The Pentagon in October 2008 notified Congress of $6.5bn in arms sales to Taiwan.

The deal will allow weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. to sell Taiwan over 250 advanced Patriot missiles.

Taiwan estimates that China has up to 1,500 missiles aimed at the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own.

The latest Chinese Foreign Ministry statement came hours after China's Defense Ministry issued a separate warning that it reserved the right to take unspecified further action if Washington followed through with the plan.

"The US side clings obstinately to the Bush administration's plan of arms sales to Taiwan, which severely undermines the mutual trust between the two militaries," said Defense Ministry Spokesman Huang Xueping in an official statement.

He added that China urges the United States "to sever military links with Taiwan, in order to avoid further damaging relations between the two countries and the two militaries and the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."