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Washington plans to sell up to 50 F-35 fighter jets and ammunition to the United Arab Emirates. But the $ 23 billion arms deal could fail. Cross-party resistance has built up in the United States Senate: Democratic Senators Chris Murphy and Robert Menendez and their Republican colleague Rand Paul brought a draft resolution to the House of Parliament on Wednesday (local time) to stop the deal of weapons. However, the barriers to blocking arms exports are high.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially briefed Congress last week on plans to sell fighter jets to the Emirates. He referred to the normalization agreement between the Emirates and Israel and described the arms sales as part of the US effort to isolate Iran.
“I support the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, but nothing in this agreement forces us to flood the region with more weapons and encourage a dangerous arms race,” Murphy said. He referred to reports that weapons handed over to the Emirates later appeared in the civil war states of Libya and Yemen.
Israel had previously spoken out strictly against all deliveries of American fighter jets to Arab states. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently indicated that his government had no objections to the new arms deal.
Arms race in the region
The United States government had unofficially informed Congress in late October of the planned sale of F-35 fighter jets from the Lockheed Martin weapons company to the United Arab Emirates. The arms deal was met with great skepticism among opposition Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives. They fear a weakening of Israel compared to neighboring states and a new arms race in the region.
Last year, Congress tried unsuccessfully to block an arms deal between the administration of President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia. A two-thirds majority in parliament is required to override the president’s veto.
