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Israeli official heads to U.S. to seal defense aid deal

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's National Security Adviser Yaakov Nagel will head to Washington next week to seal a long-negotiated defense aid package deal with the U.S., the Israeli prime minister's office said Monday.

Nagel will head to Washington on Sunday and meet with his U.S. counterpart Susan Rice, in an attempt to "reach a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Israel and the U.S.," a statement from the prime minister's office read.

Israel and the U.S. have been negotiating since November on an agreed deal of financial defense aid to Israel for the upcoming 10 years, which would reportedly cost around 4 billion U.S. dollars annually. The aid package is set to come into effect in two years' time.

The statement also said Israel will not seek an increment to the 2017 defense aid, already budgeted by the current MOU, which expires in 2018. The current budget for the aid in 2017 is 3.1 billion dollars.

The Ha'aretz daily reported Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew his objection to a U.S. demand that aid funds would be spent on the U.S.-made goods and services, rather than Israeli ones.

Senior officials in Jerusalem said Netanyahu agreed to change an agreement from the 1980s which allowed the Israeli Defense Ministry and the army to spend nearly 40 percent of the annual U.S. aid on purchases from Israeli contractors and industries, according to the report.

Under the new agreement, Israel would now be able to spend up to 26 percent of that sum on purchases from Israeli defense industries.

While Israel and the U.S. cooperate closely on military affairs, diplomatic ties between the countries have dwindled in the past several years, as animosity built up between U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The main disagreement between them was regarding the nuclear deal between the international community and Iran signed last July, while Obama advanced and lauded the deal, Netanyahu rebuked it.

In February, Netanyahu told members of his cabinet that if the aid package won't address Israel's security needs "as he sees fit," Israel would wait for the next president to take office in order to close the deal.

In March, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to sign the deal prior to the U.S. elections in November, saying Israel will not receive a better deal afterwards. Endit