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“The US stays the UAE’s most popular supplier for superior defence necessities and discussions for the F-35 could also be re-opened sooner or later,” the embassy stated in an announcement.
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 recognise Israel.
President Joe Biden’s administration put the deal on maintain after he took workplace, partially 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 right now.
Additionally included within the deal are 18 superior drone programs and a bundle of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions.
Emirati officers blame an American insistence on restrictions on how and the place the F-35s may very well be used and say they’re a violation of the UAE’s sovereignty.
The State Division stated in an announcement that the administration “stays dedicated to the proposed gross sales…at the same time as we proceed consultations to make sure that we’ve got a transparent, mutual understanding of Emirati obligations and actions earlier than, throughout, and after supply.”
An individual acquainted with the matter stated the US believes the Emiratis’ transfer now’s a negotiating tactic to attempt to transfer the method alongside. The individual, who was not approved to remark and spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated the UAE letter notifying the US of the suspension was written by a comparatively low-level official.
The Wall Avenue Journal first disclosed the suspension of negotiations.
The UAE has lengthy labored with the US on counterterrorism and allowed the entry of individuals fleeing Afghanistan in the course of the chaotic US 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 development on a Chinese language facility at an Abu Dhabi port that America thought-about a navy 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, advised a gathering of the the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “However our place stays the identical, that these services have been not likely navy services.”
He described the discussions between the UAE and the US “as fairly frank”.
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