Islamist lawmakers lobbed the threat during a news conference at which they revealed what they called significant documents showing leading Kuwait military officials spurning the deal.

"Signing the purchase agreement means we will grill whoever is responsible for authorizing the deal," said Faisal al-Muslim, a spokesman for the Reform and Development Bloc.

Details of the deal haven't been made public but local media and members of the Islamist bloc say the multibillion-dollar deal includes the purchase of 14-28 Rafale combat aircraft.

The war plane, Dassault Aviation's newest multirole aircraft, has been a flagship program for France's arms industry but is still seeking export buyers, despite major efforts by French authorities.

The aircraft is only in service with the French military and marks the main competition of U.S. aviation rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The European Eurofighter is a competing force.

The Islamist bloc said its opposition had nothing to do with any animosity against France.

Lawmaker Jamaan al-Harbash said his bloc's opposition stemmed from the government's preferred pick of what was considered to be an outdated aircraft.

"The Rafale is technically inferior to some other planes because it belongs to the fourth generation while manufacturers are already into the fifth generation," Harbash was quoted saying by The Kuwaiti Times.

"The plane also has serious defects that have prevented any country in the world to buy it," the parliamentarian said without elaborating.

The controversy heated ahead of a scheduled meeting between Kuwait's prime minister, Sheik Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmad, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris Friday. French media reported that the Rafale deal was due to figure high on the agenda of talks.

The deal has been scrutinized since Kuwait's parliament voted unanimously last November to ask the independent Audit Bureau to probe three planned arms deal with the United States and France.

The deals include an unspecified number of U.S.-manufactured military transport aircraft, an ammunition factory and the Rafale planes.

Still, the prospective deal and a bilateral defense accord signed recently between France and Kuwait signaled Paris growing defense reach in the Gulf.

Lobbying for France's aerospace giant, Dassault, Sarkozy visited Kuwait last year -- the first visit by a French president since 1991 -- to hopefully clinch the deal.

Months later, in April, the French military, which had come to the aid of Kuwait in its fight for liberation in 1991, had military maneuvers with their Kuwaiti counterparts in the emirate's desert.

Military experts view the prospective sale of Rafale plans to Kuwait as a sweetener that could lure other countries in the region to become Dassault clients.

earlier related report
Israel facing increased isolation as peace process fades
Jerusalem (AFP) April 13, 2010 - The noted absence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the nuclear summit in Washingon underscored Israel's growing isolation as it lurches from one diplomatic crisis to another.

In the year since the hawkish leader took power, Israel's international ties have been plagued by tensions with Arab neighbours, spats with Europeans nations and, critically, a sharp deterioration of relations with key ally the United States.

At the heart of the friction is the failure of efforts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

Many, including King Abdullah of Jordan -- one of only two Arab nations with ties to Israel -- have blamed Netanyahu who completed the first year of his second term in office last month.

"I met Benjamin Netanyahu this time last year. I was extremely optimistic by the vision he had for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Israelis and the Arabs," the king told the Wall Street Journal last week

"However, I have to say that over the past 12 months everything I've seen on the ground has made me extremely sceptical," he said.

Analysts note that Israel's high-profile disputes with Turkey and the United States are rooted in events that occurred before Netanyahu took office -- Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip and the election of Barack Obama.

In December 2008, Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert launched a devastating 22-day attack on the Palestinian territory in a bid to halt persistent rocket fire into Israeli towns.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the fighting. A damning UN probe accused Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers of war crimes.

The war prompted the Palestinians to break off peace talks and Turkey -- Israel's only Muslim ally -- has lambasted Israel.

"Turkey used to be an important regional partner, strategically and diplomatically," said Gerald Steinberg of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies.

"The Gaza war was the excuse it was looking for. Since it realised it can't be a part of Europe, it has had to throw in its lot with the Arab world and move closer to Syria and Iran," he said.

Obama has been more willing to demand greater concessions from Israel than his predecessor George W. Bush.

Netanyahu returned from talks with Obama last month to a wave of derision in the Israeli press, with a showdown over Jewish settlement construction in annexed Arab east Jerusalem unresolved.

When Netanyahu abruptly pulled out of the Washington nuclear summit -- officially because he did not want Muslim nations to make Israel's undeclared arsenal the focus -- many believed that it was actually because he was anxious to avoid Obama.

Netanyahu has not yet answered US demands aimed at paving the way for fresh peace talks with the Palestinians.

Speaking at an event last week to mark a year in office, Netanyahu denied he was to blame for Israel's diplomatic woes.

"There are those who want to put the responsibility on Israel but anyone who looks at matters fully will see this is not the case, and it is not connected to specific steps of this government," he said.

Instead, he said, Israel's international standing was under threat from "the progress of extreme Islam in our region" and the world's failure to confront it.

Still, analysts say Netanyahu and his outspoken foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, have exacerbated events with heavy-handed and aggressive diplomacy.

"An argument could be made that the difference between Netanyahu and his predecessors is not how they behave but how he, and some of his officials, speak," said Mark Heller of Tel Aviv University.

"They either don't know how, or don't want to sugarcoat things, put on some kind of diplomatic gloss," he said.

Under Lieberman's no-nonsense diplomacy, Israel has picked fights with several nations, notably Sweden and Turkey, over their failure to halt perceived anti-Semitic slurs in the media.

Arrest warrants for alleged agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency over the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai have also earned rebukes from Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Ireland, whose faked passports were used in the hit.

Britain expelled a senior Israeli diplomat -- reportedly the Mossad station chief in London -- even though Israel has not acknowledged any involvement.

A resumption of serious talks with the Palestinians would go a long way towards improving Israel's international standing, analysts said.

"If you are speaking about the West, it is true that as long as it appeared there was some kind of viable (peace) process, they were willing to cut Israel some slack," said Heller.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News