Senior Hezbollah Official Warns about S. Arabia’s Arms Purchase from US

A senior member of Hezbollah group in Lebanon warned about Riyadh’s measure to purchase a large cache of weapons from Washington, and called it a threat to Iran.
Member of Central Council of Lebanese Hezbollah Sheikh Muhammad Yezbek said that the sale agreement amount is around 90 billion dollars, which is one of the biggest in the US arm trade history, and it was signed under condition that the weapons won’t be used against the Zionist regime.

The United States has long been Saudi Arabia’s leading arms supplier. From 1950 through 2006, Saudi Arabia bought or was granted from the United States weapons, military equipment and services worth $79.8 billion. Almost a fifth of all American arms sales during that period went to Saudi Arabia-or 19% of all US arms sales during the period.

The Congressional Research Service report said that Saudi Arabia emerged as the leading importer of US military equipment in 2009. In a report, CRS said Riyadh replaced Israel as the leading US defense client and received $1.7 billion in weaponry in 2009.

The report, titled “US Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 2002-2009,” said Saudi Arabia was followed by Egypt and Israel, which both received $1.2 billion in US weapons in 2009. Iraq received $700 million in US defense exports in 2009.