In a joint press conference with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said the joint Saudi-US vision signed by King Salman and President Donald Trump marks a “turning point in strategic relations” and opens a “new era” of bilateral ties. The outcomes of this “turning point” and “new era” of course depend on developments in the region. Even so, they signify the success of the Saud--i drive to enhance its military and security weight and leadership, manifested in the quality and quantity of the military deal between Riyadh and Washington which has been described as “unprecedented” and “historic”. Riyadh and Washington agreed the primary target of their new security arrangements is Iran. In excluding Turkey from the scene Saudi Arabia effectively curtailed two regional powers. Israel, for its part, carefully weighed the effect of the US-Saudi military and security deals on its regional military advantage while Cairo avoided identifying too closely with the Saudi-US agenda, cautioning that powers in the region other than Iran also promote and support terrorism. The “new era” will lay the foundations for future balances of power in the region and will see a reshaping the domestic balance in Riyadh. The summit strengthened relations between the Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Jared Kushner, architect of the deals with Riyadh. According to a New York Times report, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser personally intervened, breaking with convention in order to broker the major arms deal and have it ready for signing by the time Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on the first overseas visit of his presidency. The report claims that when, during the US-Saudi talks on weapons to be included in the package, the subject of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAADO) antimissile system came up Kushner picked up the phone and called the chief executive of Lockheed Martin to ask if they could cut the price. The newspaper cites Derek H Chollet, assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs under Obama, saying that the House of Saud is now dealing directly with a member of the Trump family. “It's quite normal for them to sit down with the son-in-law of a president and do a deal. It's more normal for them than any previous administration.” The article also noted that according to White House officials Kushner had begun building ties to members of the Saudi royal family during the transition. “He was at the table when his father-in-law hosted the deputy crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, at a lunch in the State Dining Room in March” and he arranged a number of secret and unpublicised lunch meetings with him. At the security level, the Riyadh declaration issued following the summit said “Islamic coalition” countries plan to establish a core regional force comprising 34,000 troops drawn from member countries to support military operations against IS. The force will be headquartered in Riyadh and should become operational in 2018. Reports and leaks prior to the summit suggested plans for an Arab version of NATO might be adopted. Egypt first proposed such a project three years ago and held numerous inter-Arab military meetings in order to formulate the frameworks for such a force. But as the war in Yemen dragged on the Saudis shifted towards the creation of an Islamic alliance – a kind of “Sunni pact” – to counter Tehran's regional ambitions. King Salman told the summit the Iranian regime was “the spearhead of global terrorism from the Khomeini revolution up to the present day”. A second initiative to be unveiled at the summit is the “Global Centre for Combatting Extremist Ideology (GCCEI), opened by King Salman, Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. According to the official Saudi press release the centre will “confront extremism using the latest intellectual, media and digital methods and means”. The press release also states that the centre has “developed innovative techniques that can monitor, process and analyse extremists' speeches with high accuracy” and that “all phases of data processing and analysis are done in no more than six seconds once the data or comments are posted on the Internet”. This, it says, permits an unprecedented degree of speed in countering extremist activity on the net. Ali Bakr, an expert on Islamist movements and jihadist organisation, describes the centre as one of many initiatives in the fight against terrorism. “Let's say jihadist recruitment over the internet is around 20 to 30 per cent. What about the 70 to 80 per cent recruited through personal contacts and other ways?” he asks. Bakr drew attention to another project, the Munasaha programme founded and supervised by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Naif several years ago: “This too is another step. It pertains to the processes of ideological revisions on the part of those organisations. But how are we to assess such mechanisms against the backdrop of the proliferation of extremist organisations in the region? Many more steps needed in this framework.” Though it would appear that Saudi Arabia is seeking to concentrate regional security and military networks in Riyadh General Mohamed Qashqoush, a security adviser who took part in discussions on the creation of a Joint Arab Force told Al-Ahram Weekly that “the Joint Arab Force has not been shelved because of the ‘Islamic regional force' that is still under formation.” “During discussions of the administration, command and deployment of the Joint Arab Force there was a proposal to divide it in two, one Arab-African based in Cairo and the other Arab-Asian based in Riyadh, connected by the proposed bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, using the island of Tiran and Sanafir, to enable movement between the two centres,” said Qashqoush. He adds: “The force that is in the process of formation may possibly be the prelude to the establishing of a Joint Arab Force. Certainly, non-Arab Islamic forces will not be represented in it.” Riyadh and Washington's signing of an arms deal worth $110 billion is part of a larger package of deals estimated to be worth $460 billion. The military purchases will be paid for immediately while the remaining balance – $350 billion – will be paid over ten years. The initial deal with the US is double the Saudi military's annual budget of $55 billion. Tillerson said the agreements covered five areas of concern: Border security and counter terrorism, maritime and coastal security, upgrading the air force, air and missile defence and cyber and communications security. He added that the package of defence equipment and services supports the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf over the long term in the face of the threats posed by Iran. Among the package is a $6 million dollar contract with Lockheed Martin to support a programme to assemble 150 Black Hawk S-70 helicopters in Saudi Arabia and a contract with Raytheon to establish a branch of the defence contracting firm in Saudi Arabia in order to develop local skills and build capacity in aircraft manufacture and security. Another contract, signed with General Dynamics, will transfer “50 per cent of design, engineering, manufacturing and support of armoured combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia”. The agreement is a step towards the Saudi government's goal to shift 50 per cent of its defence expenditure to local contractors. M1A2 The agreement with Raytheon is probably the most important of the contracts. According to the US Defence Department the deal includes the purchase of two THAAD antimissile defence systems and Patriot PAC-3 missiles which will be produced by Raytheon's new branch in Riyadh. It is no secret the main target of this programme is Iran. A Pentagon press stated the purpose of these systems is to “support the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of malign Iranian influence and Iranian related threats”. According to other sources, the list of defence equipm#ent also includes four advanced combat ships manufactured by Lockheed Martin, 115 M1A2 tanks and a cyber security defence system. Tehran has received a devastating broadside from its Gulf neighbours. In addition to describing Iran as the “spearhead of terrorism” King Salman lumped Tehran in the same basket as the Houthis, IS and Al-Qaeda. Echoing such sentiments, Trump said that Iran was responsible for the instability of the region and accused Iran of training and arming terrorist groups. Tehran, for its part, warned that the US arms deals with Saudi Arabia will undermine the security of the region by “using Muslims' money against Muslims” as Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, put it. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif remarked ironically: “Iran, which just held genuine democratic elections, is being attacked by the American president from the Saudi bastion of democracy and moderation! Is this foreign policy or a policy of milking Saudi Arabia for $480 billion? Thaad The US State Department responded by telling Rouhani, reelected to a second term, to halt support for terrorist militias in Iraq and Syria. Israel, too, is less than comfortable with the US-Saudi arms deal which Israel Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz says threatens Israel's “military edge” in the region. Katz nevertheless contended the Trump visit could contribute to building a broad regional coalition to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East. Israeli Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz was troubled by the developments and, in remarks to Radio Israel, said his government needed “an exact copy of the details of the deals”. Antoine Shalhat, head of the Israeli Studies Unit at the Madar Research Centre, told the Weekly in a telephone interview that Israel was paying close attention to the ramifications of the summit. It was particularly interested in the Israeli-Arab convergence against Iran, and in the huge armaments deal that has raised concerns in Israel over its military superiority.
