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29 human rights organizations sign a letter to the US Congress opposing the sale of an arms deal to the United Arab Emirates that includes missiles, fighter jets and drones, valued at $ 23 billion.
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The organizations called on Congress to halt the deal, which includes missiles, fighter jets and drones for the UAE.
29 organizations active in defense of human rights and arms control signed a letter opposing a $ 23 billion deal to sell missiles, fighter jets and drones to the United Arab Emirates, and called on Congress to from the US to prevent the settlement from being completed.
“Our hope is to stop these sales altogether, but if that is not possible in the short term, then this sends an important signal to the next administration of President-elect Joe Biden that there is a diverse group,” said Seth Binder of the Project on Democracy in the Middle East that has embraced these efforts. The organizations are against the delivery of these weapons.
Three members of the United States Senate introduced a bill to stop the deal, which includes drones produced by General Atomics, F-35 fighters produced by “Lockheed Martin” and missiles produced by the company “Raytheon”, as they prepared for a confrontation with US President Donald Trump. A few weeks before leaving the White House.
And it allows US law covering major arms deals for senators to impose a vote on negative decisions. The bill should be approved by the Republican-led Senate, which rarely accepts Trump, and the Democratic-led House of Representatives.
The letter from the organizations, to be sent to lawmakers and the US State Department, said: “The planned arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, which is a party to the conflicts in Yemen and Libya, would increase the continued harm to civilians and would exacerbate these humanitarian crises.
Signatories to the letter include organizations that defend human rights in the region, including the “Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies” and the “Mwatana Human Rights Organization.”
For its part, the UAE embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters: “The highly capable UAE military is a deterrent to aggression and an effective response to violent extremism, which is closely aligned with American values and interests. “
On November 19, US senators representing the Republican and Democratic parties introduced 4 bills to stop the US arms deal with the United Arab Emirates, which includes F-35s, missiles and ammunition worth more than $ 23 billion. They accused him of circumventing Congress to pass the agreement by not giving him time to accept it.
The White House, for its part, announced on October 29 its intention to sell 50 F-35s to the United Arab Emirates.
The arms deal for the Emirates was opposed by “Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on his Twitter account on August 18 that the newspaper “Yediot Aharonot” published false news, “Israel has not given any approval to an arms deal between the United Arab Emirates and the United States. from America”.
The same newspaper had said that what convinced the ruler of the Emirates to normalize relations with “Israel” was an agreement on a deal with the United States for tens of billions of dollars.
Netanyahu emphasized that “the United States has made clear to Israel that it will be willing to preserve Israel’s qualitative advantage.”
And Israeli officials had previously expressed fear that Washington’s sale of the “F-35” to the United Arab Emirates would damage Israel’s qualitative advantage in the region.
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