WASHINGTON (AP) — The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday suspended talks on a $23 billion deal to buy American-made F-35 planes, armed drones and different gear, in a uncommon dispute between Washington and a key U.S. ally within the Persian Gulf.
The Emirati embassy in Washington stated it might “droop discussions” with the U.S., although conferences on the Pentagon this week between the 2 sides on different issues will transfer ahead as deliberate. “The U.S. stays the UAE’s most well-liked supplier for superior protection necessities and discussions for the F-35 could also be re-opened sooner or later,” the embassy stated in a press release.
The proposed sale of fifty F-35s to the UAE got here on the finish of former President Donald Trump’s administration, rising from a deal that noticed the Emiratis formally acknowledge Israel. President Joe Biden’s administration put the deal on maintain after he took workplace, partly as a consequence of criticism of the UAE and Saudi Arabia over their yearslong struggle in Yemen, which has sparked one of many world’s worst humanitarian crises and continues as we speak.
Additionally included within the deal are 18 superior drone methods and a package deal of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions.
READ MORE: Biden administration places maintain on international arms gross sales, together with F-35s to U.A.E.
Emirati officers blame an American insistence on restrictions on how and the place the F-35s could possibly be used and say they’re a violation of the UAE’s sovereignty.
The State Division stated in a press release that the administration “stays dedicated to the proposed gross sales … at the same time as we proceed consultations to make sure that now we have a transparent, mutual understanding of Emirati obligations and actions earlier than, throughout, and after supply.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby informed reporters that U.S. necessities on the usage of American-made army gear “are common, non-negotiable, and never particular to the UAE.”
“The U.S. partnership with the UAE is extra strategic and extra complicated than anybody weapon sale,” Kirby stated.
An individual aware of the matter stated the U.S. believes the Emiratis’ transfer now’s a negotiating tactic to attempt to transfer the method alongside. The individual, who was not licensed to remark and spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated the UAE letter notifying the U.S. of the suspension was written by a comparatively low-level official.
The Wall Road Journal first disclosed the suspension of negotiations.
The UAE has lengthy labored with the U.S. on counterterrorism and allowed the entry of individuals fleeing Afghanistan throughout the chaotic U.S. withdrawal earlier this yr. However tensions between Washington and Abu Dhabi have risen over the UAE’s rising cooperation with China.
Final week, a high Emirati diplomat acknowledged the UAE stopped building on a Chinese language facility at an Abu Dhabi port that America thought of a army base. The Journal first revealed the presence of the alleged facility.
“We took these American issues into consideration and we stopped the work on the services,” the diplomat, Anwar Gargash, informed a gathering of the the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “However our place stays the identical, that these services have been probably not army services.”
He described the discussions between the UAE and the U.S. “as fairly frank.”
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Related Press journalists Isabel DeBre and Jon Gambrell in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.