UAE Signs Last-Minute Deal to Buy U.S. F-35s
DUBAI (Dispatches) – Less than an hour before new U.S. President Joe Biden was sworn into office, the outgoing Trump administration signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to sell the Persian Gulf country 50 of its Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighters.
The jets are part of a huge $23.3 billion weapons sale that includes 18 MQ-9B Reaper drones and a slew of anti-air and anti-surface missiles. While the final delivery schedule is unclear, drafts of the agreement stated deliveries would begin in 2027.
The possibility it might be able to buy the advanced fighter jet was a major part of Washington convincing Abu Dhabi to a historic rapprochement with the Zionist regime last September. In the Middle East, the Zionist regime is the only entity that operates the F-35.
The Trump administration pressed ahead to advance Abu Dhabi’s longstanding request to buy F-35s after the UAE and the Zionist regime signed a controversial normalization agreement at the White House last August.
Under understandings dating back decades, Washington has refrained from Middle East arms sales that could blunt the regime’s "qualitative military edge.” This had applied to the F-35s, which was denied to Arab states.
Sources familiar with the talks told Reuters that the deal gave the green light to the UAE to get 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets and 18 armed drones from the U.S.
"The jets are a major component of a $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp to the UAE announced this fall,” the sources said.
"The UAE and the United States had once hoped to have a deal in place in December, but the timing of jet deliveries, their cost, the technology packages and training associated with the deal extended negotiations,” they added.
The delivery date for the F-35 jets could not immediately be confirmed but the initial proposal sent to the UAE was 2027, according to the sources.
One of the sources said the agreement was signed about an hour before the swearing-in ceremony of Biden, who recently said his administration would build on the accords but would "reassess” Washington’s relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are engaged in a bloody military campaign against Yemen.
The jets are part of a huge $23.3 billion weapons sale that includes 18 MQ-9B Reaper drones and a slew of anti-air and anti-surface missiles. While the final delivery schedule is unclear, drafts of the agreement stated deliveries would begin in 2027.
The possibility it might be able to buy the advanced fighter jet was a major part of Washington convincing Abu Dhabi to a historic rapprochement with the Zionist regime last September. In the Middle East, the Zionist regime is the only entity that operates the F-35.
The Trump administration pressed ahead to advance Abu Dhabi’s longstanding request to buy F-35s after the UAE and the Zionist regime signed a controversial normalization agreement at the White House last August.
Under understandings dating back decades, Washington has refrained from Middle East arms sales that could blunt the regime’s "qualitative military edge.” This had applied to the F-35s, which was denied to Arab states.
Sources familiar with the talks told Reuters that the deal gave the green light to the UAE to get 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets and 18 armed drones from the U.S.
"The jets are a major component of a $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp to the UAE announced this fall,” the sources said.
"The UAE and the United States had once hoped to have a deal in place in December, but the timing of jet deliveries, their cost, the technology packages and training associated with the deal extended negotiations,” they added.
The delivery date for the F-35 jets could not immediately be confirmed but the initial proposal sent to the UAE was 2027, according to the sources.
One of the sources said the agreement was signed about an hour before the swearing-in ceremony of Biden, who recently said his administration would build on the accords but would "reassess” Washington’s relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are engaged in a bloody military campaign against Yemen.