WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has told Congress it is proceeding with more than $ 23 billion in arms sales to the UAE, including advanced F-35s, armed drones and other facilities, as reported this Tuesday by Congress aides.
A State Department spokesman said the administration would move forward with the proposed sales in the UAE, “even as we continue to review details and consult with UAE officials” related to the use of weapons.
The Democratic president’s administration had stopped deals agreed by former Republican President Donald Trump in order to revise them. Sales in the Gulf nation ended just before Trump left office.
The Trump administration told Congress in November that it had approved the U.S. sale to the UAE as a parallel deal to the Abraham Accords, a U.S.-brokered agreement in September in which the UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
In the last months of the Trump administration, Israel reached agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco as part of the agreements.
The $ 23.37 billion package contained products from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp., including 50 F-35 Lighting II aircraft, up to 18 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Systems and an air-to-air and air-to-air package. air ground ammunition.
YEMEN CONFLICT
Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the United Arab Emirates for its involvement in the Yemen war, a conflict considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, and are concerned that arms transfers could violate U.S. guarantees that Israel will maintain a military advantage in the region.
Israel said it was not opposed to sales.
A legislative effort to stop sales failed in December as Trump’s Republican colleagues in Congress backed his plans.
The Trump administration ended the mass sale in the UAE on January 20, about an hour before Biden was sworn in as president.
The Biden administration announced the review in late January and the United Arab Emirates then said it had anticipated the review and welcomed joint efforts to reduce tensions and renew regional dialogue.
A State Department spokesman said Tuesday that estimated delivery dates for sales in the UAE, if implemented, were later than 2025 or later.
The government envisioned “a robust and sustained dialogue with the UAE” to ensure a stronger security partnership, the spokesman said in an emailed statement.
“We will also continue to reinforce with the UAE and all recipients of U.S. defense articles and services that the U.S.-origin defense team must be properly secured and used in a manner that respects human rights and fully complies with the laws of armed conflict, ”statement.
The Biden administration is also reviewing its military sales policy in Saudi Arabia, including some Trump-era arms deals, in light of Saudi involvement in Yemen and other human rights concerns.
You have not published the results of this review. In February, U.S. officials told Reuters that the administration was considering canceling past agreements that raised human rights issues and limiting future sales to “defensive” weapons.
Reports by Patricia Zengerle, additional reports by Mike Stone; Edited by Mary Milliken, Grant McCool and Rosalba O’Brien