The battle for the Middle Eastern arms market is heating up

THE FLOW of foreign arms to the Arabian peninsula began in earnest 150 years ago. As European armies adopted modern breech-loading rifles, a stock of old-fashioned weapons was left surplus to requirements. Rivalries among Arab tribes created a ready-made market for ageing arms. A combination of the region’s chronic instability and oil riches has since continued to fuel weapons sales. Most of them still come from the West. Now the shifting sands of geopolitics have left an opening for others.