Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have arrived in Egypt as part of their Middle East trip aimed at uniting Arab allies against Iran. On Monday, the U.S. officially announced plans to give military aid worth more than $43 billion to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and other Gulf states in an effort to boost its Middle East allies against Iran. Iran responded to the arms deal by accusing the United States of trying to further destabilize the Middle East.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini: “America has always considered one policy in this region, and that is creating fear and concerns in the countries of the region and trying to harm the good relation between these countries, and making an effort to create a chance to sell its arms and impose the export of these arms to countries in the region.”

Condoleezza Rice dismissed Iran’s critique. She said: “There isn’t a doubt that Iran constitutes the single most important single-country strategic challenge to the United States and to the kind of the Middle East that we want to see.”