The sale of the US-made Joint Strike Fighter will arm Israel with a more sophisticated combat aircraft than any nation in the Middle East, amid rising tensions with Iran and after a major US arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

"The most advanced fighter jet in the world today, the F-35 will enhance Israel's ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or combination of threats, from anywhere within the Middle East," Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said in a statement.

Oren called the contract "an event of great strategic and historic significance" and that it would serve the common interests of the United States and Israel.

Pentagon officials confirmed the sale to AFP but offered no further details.

Each F-35 jet costs about 100 million dollars, and Oren said the deal illustrated how his country's purchase of US arms generated "thousands of more jobs, both here and Israel."

Israel spends an estimated 2.25 billion dollars on US defense contracts, he said.

The announcement came less than a month after Washington unveiled plans to sell Saudi Arabia 60 billion dollars' worth of weapons and hardware, including 84 F-15 fighters.

The F-15s are less advanced than the new F-35 aircraft, which are still under development.

US officials had described the vast arms sale to the Saudis as a counter to the threat posed by Iran, citing Tehran's missile arsenal and its disputed nuclear program.

Israeli and US officials have refused to rule out possible military action to stop Iran from securing nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied it is pursuing a clandestine drive to build atomic weapons.

Manufactured by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and its partners, the F-35 is billed as a "fifth-generation" fighter for the United States and its allies, with stealth technology that would allow it to dominate other planes in air-to-air combat while also backing up ground forces.

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