WASHINGTON — US Senator John McCain said on Tuesday a proposed agreement to sell 24 Apache attack helicopters to Iraq should be reconsidered because of a Reuters report that Iran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million. “The Apache sale has got to be on the table. We've got to discuss it,” the Republican Arizona senator said when asked about whether the arms sale would affect the plan to sell the Boeing Co. helicopters to Iraq. “We've got to understand the ramifications of this arms deal. We have to look at it a little more carefully,” he said. Speaking to Reuters outside the US Senate, McCain said he did not know whether any lawmakers as yet planned to stop the proposed sale. Under US rules governing arms sales, lawmakers have until Feb. 26-30 days after the deal was filed with Congress — to hold it up. Reuters reported from Baghdad on Monday that Iran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million, according to documents seen by Reuters — a move that would break a UN embargo on weapons sales by Tehran. Lawmakers and congressional aides said they found the report troubling, but were awaiting more information from President Barack Obama's administration before reacting. They said Congress had not been informed of any such deal. McCain, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees is a frequent critic of Obama's foreign policy decisions. He said the reported arms deal underscored his belief that the United States had withdrawn from Iraq too quickly. “This is a result of our departure from Iraq,” McCain said. The documents obtained by Reuters showed the Iran-Iraq agreement was reached at the end of November. — Reuters
