July 28, 2007 (LPAC)--When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates travel to the Middle East, next week, they will be bringing with them a $20 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf Arab states. The deal, according to today's New York Times, includes advanced satellite guided bombs, fighter upgrades and new naval vessels, all as part of a strategy to contain Iran. Israel is to be bought off to accept the deal by a 40 percent increase in the amount of military aid it annually receives from the United States. The details of both packages were briefed to Congress, this week, by senior Bush Administraion officials. The Times report indicates a certain degree of desperation on the part of U.S. officials, because if the deal falls through, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries could turn to other suppliers in the region, which is exactly what happened in 1985 when the Saudis turned to Britain in the now-infamous Al Yamamah arms deal.

The proposed sale comes in the context of Dick Cheney's threatened "Guns of August" war on Iran and a long-term perspective of a Sunni-Shia civil war in Iraq that could spread to other parts of the region. According to Debkafile, an Israeli intelligence and right wing Likud linked outlet, there are three levels to the plan Gates and Rice will be bringing to Riyadh, next week: U.S. forces in Iraq will be redeployed to giant extraterritorial land and air bases in the north and central regions of the country; the U.S. would double the size of the air forces of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman and expand its own military facilities in the Gulf; and Jordan and Israeli military strength would form a backbone around the Red Sea, augmented by new U.S. bases. The arms deal includes advanced versions of the F-15 and F-16 fighter planes or even, according to Debkafile's sources, the new F-22 (though it's currently illegal to sell this plane overseas). Another element of the plan is to convert the U.S. facility on the Omani island of Masirha, in the Arabian Sea just outside the Strait of Hormuz, into the largest U.S. air base in the Persian Gulf region.

Debkafile further reports that Russia has responded to the Bush Administration's military plans for the region by selling 250 SU-30MKM fighter bombers to Iran, the first of which is to be delivered before the end of 2007.