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The United States arms sales to the Middle Eastern countries will eventually boomerang on the US, a political analyst tells Press TV. His comment comes as the US has recently finalized a 30-billion-dollar deal with Saudi Arabia as part of a 60-billion-dollar contract, first unveiled in October 2010. The US has also signed a deal to sell about USD 3.5 billion worth of arms to the United Arab Emirates. “The sales of such high technology to unstable regimes in the Middle East region such as Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates, is something that is going to backfire on the United States,” said Nader Mokhtari political commentator and journalist. “You have to take into account that these countries are not run via political operatives like other countries,” the Tehran-based analyst said, adding that they are run 'like family-run businesses.' The US has demonstrated support for popular uprisings in the Middle East while at the same time propping up their authoritarian regimes by selling them billions of dollars worth of various types of weaponry. In its Yearbook 2010, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated that the US accounts for 43 percent of world military spending and 30 percent of global arms exports, making it the world's leader in both categories. US arms sales to the Persian Gulf countries has reached USD 123 billion, with a USD 67.8 billion package for Saudi Arabia, USD 35.6 billion for the United Arab Emirates, USD 12.3 billion for Oman and USD 7.1 billion for Kuwait.

Switzerland has decided to suspend arms shipments to the United Arab Emirates following a report that Swiss-made hand grenades are being used by armed gangs in Syria. The measure was taken on Wednesday after the Sonntagszeitung newspaper published a photograph taken of one such device in possession of anti-Damascus forces in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, at the end of June, AFP reported. Preliminary inquiries into the photo showed the grenade in question was made by the Bern-based arms manufacturer RUAG, and was part of a shipment made by the company to the UAE in 2003. The Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA) says 225,162 hand grenades were exported to the UAE, who signed an agreement not to re-export the munitions. "As far as the FDEA is aware, the hand grenade ... originates from a RUAG shipment to the United Arab Emirates in 2003. At present there is no evidence that Swiss hand grenades have found their way to Syria; inquiries are ongoing, however," the government statement said. The FDEA statement also said arms shipments from Switzerland to Syria stopped in April 1998, and raised doubt whether the photograph was taken in Syria after all. Antje Baertschi, a spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said as a “provisional" measure, Switzerland immediately moved to "freeze all arms export permits to the UAE." Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, author & historian, to hear his opinion on this issue. The following is a transcription of the interview. Press TV: The Swiss claim that they are surprised about this entire issue because they have a “neutral stance” when it comes to issues like Syria. Are they as innocent as they claim considering they have been providing weapons in the first place to repressive states such as the UAE? Tarpley: I think everybody in the world with an effective intelligence service and that would emphatically include Switzerland through their banking system; they are as well informed really as anybody in the world, they know very well that the [Persian] Gulf states, these reactionary feudal absolute monarchies like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait but above all Saudi Arabia, all of them have been massively shipping weapons to the death squads that are working for NATO in Syria and this has been known now for months. There is really no news except that Switzerland, to cover themselves, to cover themselves maybe on liability suits, have decided to cut off the air shipments to these feudal monarchies in the [Persian] Gulf. But other than that, we have known, even the New York Times always the last to know, has confirmed that there were CIA officers who are directing traffic in southern Turkey sending these weapons to the groups that they want to receive them. I think that we could see a larger context; tomorrow there would be another one of these Orwellian ‘Friends of Syria’ conferences in Turkey, I believe, tomorrow, or is it Paris? Anyway, the Russians and the Chinese have said that they will not go. I think Hilary Clinton, however, will be there. I believe it is in Paris. So that entire exercise will continue. One of the things that NATO is doing is simply lying. Whenever they have a diplomatic meeting with Russia, in particular, then they come out and lie about it and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was asked today, are you going to call Assad and offer him asylum in Russia? And Lavrov said that is a bad joke; why don’t you ask the same question to the German Foreign Minister [Guido] Westerwelle we were standing with? Why don’t you see if Assad is going to go to Germany? It is all really absurd. The big development of today though that I would urgently point to is NATO is now rolling up its heavy artillery and that means WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Sophisticated knowledgeable observers all over the world have long known since the very beginning in 2010 that WikiLeaks is a NATO-CIA conduit for various kinds of fake or real documents that are released with political aims in mind and Assange in that sense is a tool of NATO. We are now told that there are 2.4 million cables; 400 thousand in Arabic, 70 thousand in Russia that are all embarrassing to Syria, embarrassing to the Syrian government but also embarrassing to companies that are still selling various things to Syria. The example given is Finmeccanica, an Italian firm that has been selling radios to Assad. Also notable is that Assange and WikiLeaks have got a consortium of international press organs; they have got the Associate Press of the United States, the biggest indeed.

[09 Mar 2015] Saudi Arabia is world’s biggest arms importer - English

Germany ARMS Row - PressTV - English

[17 July 2012] Paying Taliban to lay down arms is not effective - English US-led NATO says the strategy of buying the loyalty of Taliban members in Afghanistan has proved to be a failure as only around 5,000 militants have responded to the strategy by giving up their weapons. The US-led Western military alliance said that the plan has had very little effect across Afghanistan so far. The program, which started in October 2010, offers a stipend of USD 360 over three months to each Taliban militant who lays down arms and joins the program. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence of tens of thousands of US-led troops there. The US-led war in Afghanistan, with civilian and military casualties at record high, has become one of the longest wars in US history. Press TV has conducted an interview with Carl Osgood, Executive Intelligence Review, from Washington, to further discuss the issue.

[17 Mar 2013] Suleiman Lebanon not transit route for militants, arms bound for Syria - English

The French President has arrived in Israel on a three-day visit aimed at fortifying Paris-Tel Aviv ties. Upon arrival, French president Francois Hollande said he will not tolerate the proliferation of nuclear arms. Hollande added that his country will continue with sanctions on Iran, saying he\'s not certain if Tehran has decided to give up on its nuclear weapons. France was the first country to give Israel nuclear arms. Tel Aviv is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, with an estimated 400 nuclear warheads. It\'s so far refused to sign any regulatory international nuclear agreement. Iran on the other hand is a signatory to the NPT with its facilities under regular inspection. The International Atomic Energy Agency has once again in its recent report verified the non-diversion of Iran\'s nuclear energy program.

The head of the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons the OPCW says Israel and several other countries should join the chemical arms treaty. Ahmed Uzum-ju received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Organization in Oslo. The Hague based organization was awarded the prize for its efforts to eliminate Syria\'s chemical arms arsenal. The OPCW sent experts to Syria after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1400 people in the Damascus Countryside in August. Both the government and foreign backed insurgents blamed each other for the attack. Later on, the Syrian government agreed to give up the country\'s chemical weapons arsenal to avert a US attack on Syrian soil.

[23 Aug 2014] Pro-Palestinians urge UK govt. to halt arms trade with israel - English

[21 Oct 2014] Video shows US arms in hands of ISIL - English

[23 May 2015] US approves $1.9 billion arms sales to Israel - English

[08 Aug 2015] Nigerian President:Local arms manufacturers needed to boost fight against BokoHaram - English

Sales of U.S. arms have doubled during last year and now account for more than two-thirds of all foreign weapons sales - according to a report by the New York Times.

Quick Facts: US Arms Sales - English

UK: Major Supplier of Arms to Bahrain - Discussion - 27Mar2011 - English

US to Continue Arms Sales to Ruin ME - Interview 12 Apr 2011 - English

[18 Oct 2012] Lebanese opposition behind arms smuggling in Syria - English

[06 Dec 2012] Lebanon pro-Hariri MP denies Syria arms running - English

[28 Jan 2013] Syria militants possess chemical arms - English

[25 Mar 2013] CIA helps smuggling arms to Syria - English

[27 Mar 2013] NY Times: CIA arms Syria insurgents - English

[02 April 2013] Erdogan calls on PKK to lay down arms and leave - English

[11 April 2013] Obama increases nuclear arms funding - English

[19 April 2013] US arms al Qaeda to destabilize anti Israel states - English

Over the past 4 years the British government has approved arms exports of up to 4,000,000 pounds to Saudi Arabia despites great human rights violation in the kingdom.

[09 Sept 2013] Reports say UK firms sold chemical arms components to Syrian company - English

[25 Sept 2013] Assad: Insurgents chemical arms caches, labs uncovered - English

[06 Oct 2013] UN-OPCW experts destroy first batch of chemical arms stockpile in Syria - English