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Iran’s defense spending per capita among lowest in Mideast

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

LONDON (IRNA) -- Iran’s defense expenditure per capita remains among the lowest in the Middle East region despite having the second highest population behind Egypt, according to the new publication of Military Balance.

The 2008 edition said that Iran’s total defense spending for 2006, the latest available, was nearly 55 percent less that Israel’s, despite having ten times the population of the Zionist entity.

Per capita, Israeli regime’s expenditure was calculated to be nearly 17 times higher at an average of $1,737 per person compared with only $110 for each Iranian.

Israel’s military spending was shown to be the second highest in the world and only $59 per capita behind the U.S., excluding Qatar, which only has a population of less than one million.

Even as a proportion of GDP, Iran’s defense expenditure of 3.3 percent was found to be well less than half of Israel’s 7.9 percent, which is among the highest in the world and even more than the U.S.

Publishers of Military Balance, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), reported that Tel Aviv had increased its proposed defense budget for 2007 following its invasion of Lebanon in the previous summer.

Under a new agreement with the U.S., it also said Washington was providing Israeli regime with a $30 billion package of Foreign Military Financing between 2009 and 2018, an increase amounting to around 25 percent more than in the previous ten-year period.

Copyright © 2008 The Tehran Times Daily Newspaper

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=163138 [also at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19348.htm ]