WASHINGTON: US senators who just returned from a trip to Israel called on Tuesday for an increase in the $38 billion in military aid the United States is currently providing Israel, signaling support for more funds for Israeli missile systems.
Senators Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican foreign policy voice, and Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they considered the provision of $38 billion over 10 years, “a floor.”
Graham said during a meeting with reporters that he thought provisions in the agreement phasing out an arrangement in which Israel could spend US funds on its own defense industry and the provision of just $500 million in missile defense funding were “short-sighted.”
Coons said tensions in the broader region supported the idea of more funding for Israel, citing the ongoing war in Syria and Iran’s recent use of a stealth drone.
The United States and Israel signed an agreement in September 2016 to give Israel $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade, the largest such aid package in US history but one that included concessions by Israel’s government.
Key US lawmakers want to boost Israel’s $38 bln defense aid package
Key US lawmakers want to boost Israel’s $38 bln defense aid package
Iran’s new supreme leader ‘safe and sound’ despite war injury reports: president’s son
TEHRAN: Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is "safe and sound" despite reports of an injury during the war with Israel and the United States, said the son of the Iranian president on Wednesday.
"I heard news that Mr Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound," said Yousef Pezeshkian, who is also a government adviser, in a post on his Telegram channel.
State television had called Khamenei a "wounded veteran of the Ramadan war" but never specified his injury.
The new supreme leader is the son and successor of the Islamic republic's longtime ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 which triggered a war across the Middle East.
The 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, a discreet figure who has rarely appeared in public or spoken at official events, has yet to address the nation or issue a written statement since he was declared supreme leader on Sunday.
In a Wednesday report, the New York Times quoting three unnamed Iranian officials said that Khamenei "had suffered injuries, including to his legs, but that he was alert and sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication".
