US, Israel reach deal on 10-year military aid

WASHINGTON - The United States has concluded a new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel on security assistance for Fiscal Years 2019 through 2028, the State Department said Tuesday.

This MOU constitutes the single largest pledge of bilateral military assistance in the US history, the State Department said in a statement, without disclosing the figure.

The new MOU will be signed in a ceremony on Wednesday in Washington. Jacob Nagel, Israel's acting national security adviser, arrived in Washington on Tuesday to sign on behalf of his country.

The agreement is expected to give Israel as much as $3.8 billion a year over 10 years, The Washington Post reported.

That represents a significant increase over the $3.1 billion the United States gives annually now, a figure that increases to about 3.5 billion a year with aid supplements approved by Congress, the newspaper said.

Negotiations for the aid package have been underway since November to replace an MOU that will end in 2018.