Barely a day after the United States through its Secretary of State, John Kerry, expressed readiness to assist Nigeria end the reign of terror perpetrated by the blood-thirsty Boko Haram terrorists, Israeli media has alleged that the United States halted its plan to grant aid to Nigeria as well as resell some military hardware.
An aviation-oriented website, flightglobal.com, reports that Nigeria had shown interest in buying surplus Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters that were phased out of service by the Israeli air force in 2013, as well as an Israeli-produced unmanned air systems. But Washington blocked any transaction of excess American-made weapon systems to Nigeria by Israel, insisting also that Israeli-made equipment should be exported to the country only “under strict conditions”.
An official of the Obama administration had told The Jerusalem Post that the transfer of such aircraft currently requires a review to determine its “consistency with US policy interests”.
FlightGlobal was told by an informed source that negotiations were said to have been initiated, but Israeli defense ministry ordered them to stop following a request by the U.S. It is believed the United States government does not in any way want to be involved in the domestic war between Nigeria’s military and Boko Haram militants, the source said.
According to Israeli official, Nigeria also wanted to purchase more Israeli-made UAS. The country in 2006 had procured a number of Aerostar vehicles made by Aeronautics Defense Systems in a deal said to be worth $260 million.
Meanwhile, the Israeli defense ministry declined to comment on the matter, saying: “We never comment on the export of Israeli-made weapon systems.”
The prime reason adduced for U.S. stand against the transfers has been attributed to fears of human rights abuse by the military, allegation Nigerian officials continue to debunk.
New York Times quotes U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, James F. Entwistle, as telling reporters in October that “The kind of question that we have to ask is, let’s say we give certain kinds of equipment to the Nigerian military that is then used in a way that affects the human situation,”
“If I approve that, I’m responsible for that. We take that responsibility very seriously,” he asserted.
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