BICOM

US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter said in an interview that Washington will ensure that Israel maintains its qualitative military edge in the region and praised Israeli military innovation.

Speaking to Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic, Carter said that the United States “can or will maintain” Israel’s military edge equivalent to “the sum of all Sunnis” in the region. Carter last week met with Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon in Washington to discuss regional issues, but also to advance negotiations on a new US military aid package. The current arrangement expires in 2017 and the Jerusalem Post says that Israel is requesting a new ten-year deal worth £3.25 billion annually, roughly a 40 per cent increase on the existing agreement.

Carter explained that Israel is particularly keen to maintain its military superiority given the unrest and unpredictability in the region. He said, “They [Israel] worry about rogue officers taking off in a one-off thing, right up to regime change, or whatever you want to call it, in Saudi Arabia, and having an entirely new show there.”

Carter also insisted that militarily, the US-Israel relationship is a “two-way relationship.” He commented, “There’s no question that it’s not symmetric, but it is two-way – we really do get things from the Israelis in technology.” Although wary of making “invidious comparisons,” Carter said that Europe has “been very slow to come out of the industrial age” in terms of military technology, whereas “The Israelis you will find to be more clever and more innovative.” As an example, he explained that Israel is a leader in combating improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Carter commented, “The Israelis were really quite ingenious in this area and we got a lot from them. There’s no question that lives were saved as a consequence of their (help).”

Carter’s comments come just days before Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on 9 November.