The Gulf states including Bahrain, The United Arab Emirates and Morocco accounted for 24% of the arms purchases in 2022 from Israel, whose defence exports hit an all-time high of $12.5 billion that year, reports released yesterday said.
This figure is a 7% jump from 2021 purchases made by the Arab countries that recently established ties with Israel, according to the Times of Israel. AFP, quoting the Israeli defence ministry, which oversees and approves the exports of Israel’s defence industries, said that purchases by Abraham Accords countries rose from $853 million (nine per cent) in 2021 to $2.96 billion (24%) in 2022.
The US-brokered Abraham Accords from 2020 saw Israel normalise ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. A breakdown of the sales shows that one-quarter of deals were for drone systems, with “missiles, rockets and air defence systems” making up another 19%.
Thirteen per cent of arms sales consisted of exports of radar and electronic warfare systems. Manned aircraft, avionics, observation systems, weapons launchers, communication systems, vehicles, maritime systems, ammunition and services accounted for much of the rest. The report also reveals 6% of the total sales amount to cyber-intelligence systems, without specifying which countries they were sold to.
10-fold jump Israeli officials noted that the overall number of government-to-government arms sales had increased tenfold over the past five years, reaching over $4 billion, compared to $412 million in 2018. North America accounted for 11%, and Africa and Latin America each accounted for 3%. “Global instability increases the demand for Israeli air defence systems, drones, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and missiles, and we continually work to preserve our capabilities and strengthen them,” defence ministry director-general Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
German lawmakers yesterday approved an advance payment for the purchase of the sophisticated Arrow 3 air defence system from Israel for nearly four billion euros ($4.3 billion). The budget committee in the lower house of parliament gave the green light for an initial payment of 560 million euros, a committee source told AFP.
