The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is threatening to pull out of a multibillion-dollar arms deal with the United States over complaints that the deal’s security requirements are too stiff.
UAE officials complained to the United States that security requirements meant to guard against Chinese espionage are too stringent and put at risk the UAE’s sovereignty, according to The Wall Street Journal. The UAE’s embassy in Washington confirmed to Defense News that the Emirate government had moved to “suspend discussions” with the U.S. on the arms deal.
“The U.S. remains the UAE’s preferred provider for advanced defense requirements and discussions for the F-35 may be re-opened in the future,” the embassy told Defense News in a statement.
The $23 billion would have seen a fleet of American-made F-35 fighter jets, drones, and munitions traded from the U.S. to the Emirates. Former President Donald Trump’s multilateral agreement between the UAE and Israel, designed to strengthen ties between to the two U.S. allies, laid the foundation for the arms deal.
Emirate officials’ chief concern was over the U.S. retaining authority over how and where the F-35s are used. As Reuters reported:
A person briefed on the negotiations said for several months sticking points between the United States and the UAE revolved around how the stealthy jets can be deployed and how much of the sophisticated F-35 technology the Emiratis will be allowed to take advantage of. The person asked not to be identified by name or by association with either country.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the arms deal requirements “are universal, non-negotiable, and not specific to the UAE,” according to Defense News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a Wednesday news conference in Malaysia, where Blinken was meeting with members of the Malaysian government, that the U.S. remains committed to the arms deal.
“We’ve wanted to make sure, for example, that our commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge is ensured, so we wanted to make sure that we could do a thorough review of any technologies that are sold or transferred to other partners in the region, including the UAE,” Blinken said.
Some U.S. officials suspect that the Emirates’ resistance to the deal is more of a negotiating tactic and not an existential threat to the deal itself. As WSJ reported:
The letter communicating the threat was written by a relatively junior official in the government, suggesting the overture was a negotiating tactic heading into the meeting, U.S. officials said. Other officials said that while the U.S. has legitimate security concerns, there was a scramble to salvage the sale of weapons to a Gulf partner.
“We remain committed to these sales, and the Emiratis have raised some concerns,” a U.S. official told WSJ. “Frankly, we have some questions of our own. This sort of back-and-forth is not unusual for significant arms sales and we are hopeful we can work through these issues and we think the joint military dialogue will give us an opportunity to do so.”