US assures Israel financial aid will be provided despite budget cuts Description: US assures Israel financial aid will be provided despite budget cuts
Photo: EPA
The United States will continue providing Israel with defence aid after a
current package worth some $3 billion a year expires in 2017, and the grants
are unlikely to wane despite Washington belt-tightening, two American
senators announced Thursday.Kelly Ayotte and Joe Donnelly, members of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, visited Israel to confer on security issues
like missile defence, on which the allies have partnered.
The previous US administration signed a 10-year deal with Israel in 2007
granting it $30 billion, most of which must be spent on American defence
products.
Talks on a new package were already under way, said Ayotte:
"Obviously the final negotiations have not been worked out but I do not
expect that our commitment and work withIsrael will diminish."
Politically popular American aid to close ally Israel has held steady
despite cuts to a wide range of other programmes, including reducing the
size of the US army to its lowest level since before World War Two and
shrinking spending in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Donnelly, a Democrat from Indiana, noted Israel's rare stability in a
turbulent Middle East.
"I think there is understanding among the people across our country about
the value of the relationship withIsrael, not only just personal and
friendship-wise, but also the importance of having Israel as an ally in this
region," he said.
"And so I think that the people of our country feel that every dollar spent
on this is worth it, is well spent."
Voice of Russia, Reuters
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