US releases $3.5 billion to Israel to spend on US weapons and military equipment, months after Congress appropriated
By Natasha Bertrand, Alex Marquardt and Lauren Fox, CNN
(CNN) — The US is set to provide Israel with $3.5 billion to spend on US weapons and military equipment, releasing the money months after it was appropriated by Congress as tensions continue to rise between Israel and Iran, multiple officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The State Department notified lawmakers on Thursday night that the Biden administration intended to release the billions of dollars worth of foreign military financing to Israel, one of the sources said. The money comes from the $14.1 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel that was passed by Congress in April, the sources said.
The funding is essentially money Israel can use to buy advanced weapons systems and other equipment from the US through the Foreign Military Financing program.
Sources told CNN it is not unusual for it to take time for money to be released from these packages. But the funding was released this week as Israel and the broader region have been bracing for an attack by Iran and/or Hezbollah following Israel’s assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut earlier this month.
Israel won’t receive $3.5 billion worth of US-made weapons immediately. Instead, the funding is so Israel can procure systems that are being built now and likely won’t be delivered for several years. The supplemental funding also allocated billions of dollars’ worth of equipment that the Pentagon can draw from its own stockpiles to send directly to Israel on a much faster timeline.
US diplomats and the Biden administration have also been pushing peace efforts in the region in recent weeks, amid the looming threat of retaliatory strikes against Israel.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi for the second time in a week, according to a State Department readout of their call Friday, about “efforts to calm tensions in the region.”
“The Secretary and Foreign Minister Safadi discussed the joint statement by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar which called for an immediate ceasefire to provide relief to both Palestinians in Gaza and the hostages and their families,” according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in the statement.
CNN’s Michael Conte contributed to this report.
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