The Trump administration’s proposal to sell the world’s most advanced and state-of-the-art stealth warplane, the F-35, to the United Arab Emirates, the UAE, is facing a storm.
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Rish, R-Idaho, said the proposed sale and U.S. Has expressed concern about the impact of technology on security and its impact on Israel’s defense.
The Senate recently told the committee that it would continue to advise Congress on its ability to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge in any potential arms sales and to meet other obligations under the Arms Export Control Act.
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“No one takes a rocket scientist to figure out that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has an F-35, or that selling it to someone else does not create that qualitative military edge in the air,” the senator said. Said the senator. Bob Menendez, DNJ, who was skeptical of a possible sale to the UAE and questioned whether it was even allowed under U.S. law.
The proposed sale is the result of a recent agreement in which the Gulf state and Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel. That development has been hailed as a historic milestone for Middle East peace, but some fear that an obscure part of the deal provides the F-35 to the UAE, which has shocked some because of China’s close ties with the defense establishment and Abu Dhabi. Trade with Iran.
“Foreign military sales are a diplomatic tool to advance our relationship, but it cannot come at the expense of our security,” says Joel Rubin, president of the Washington Strategy Group and former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.
“When the U.S. engages in military sales with foreign governments, we do so with the understanding that our military technology will not be used to help our adversaries.”
“In the case of the UAE, as well as any other country, we must be sure that they are protecting our technology – in this case, the crown jewel of the F-35 – and not sharing it with our adversaries like Russia,” China and Iran said. “He says.
Reports say the UAE has extensive ties with the Chinese military, most recently buying Beijing’s low-altitude laser defense system, which can be used to target drones, along with other advanced weapons such as Chinese battle tanks and underwater equipment.
UAE officials say the country needs military supplies to strengthen its security. But as much concern has been raised that only F-35 sales could affect Israel’s defense, the only Middle Eastern nation that now flies aircraft, even if the UAE acquires aircraft, US technology could be compromised.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash last month tried to reassure skeptics.
“Our military is one of the capable Arab armies, it is not a big army, but modernizing this army is an important concern for us, it is an important force prevention for the UAE, and it is logical that our air force will go beyond last year’s virtual During the briefing, he told a small group of reporters that the F-35 has a 20-year-old F-16.
He considered it appropriate to sell it in his country. “
“My view is that the UAE has been a competent partner, a partner that shares the burden with the United States against Kosovo in Afghanistan, anti-ISIS, the ISIS caliphate elsewhere and as a result, it is only logical that these meet the legitimate requirements of the UAE.”
But Rubin says the UAE’s relations with China and others, raise a red flag.
“Both the UAE and Russia and China have a long history of military cooperation, as well as significant trade with Iran, as the UAE is Iran’s largest Gulf state trading partner. These ties create vulnerabilities, if F-35 technology is in their hands, our And for our allies, meaningless like Israel, will give us the superiority of our technology, ”he warns.
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“Selling the UAE’s close military ties with Russia and China without the necessary defense would create a paradoxical security vulnerability for us to sell it to the UAE. We do not want either country to understand how to defeat the F-35. That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. “
Samuel Ramani, a non-resident ally of the Gulf International Forum, warned in Foreign Policy that technology could be recovered from the sale by Russia.
He wrote that the sale of the F-35 to the United Arab Emirates was a sign of Russia’s commitment to the U.S. Will give access to technology and could mislead Israel’s regional military edge.
“Any technology transfer” Moscow to the U.S. “The United States should refrain from exporting F-35s to the UAE until Abu Dhabi takes concrete steps towards displacing them,” he said, adding that missile defense systems that could fire aircraft could be developed.
But others point out that the UAE is a reliable ally that can secure F-35 secrets, just as other nations have acquired warplanes: Australia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea in addition to Israel, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
In 2009, the Obama administration signed the so-called 123 Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UAE, which is considered the “golden standard” of international commitments when it comes to nuclear material. The agreement provides the UAE with nuclear material and knowledge of nuclear power. It is an important security arrangement with Abu Dhabi.
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President Trump has said he “will have no problem selling (the UAE) F-35. I would have absolutely no problem. “
Reuters contributed to this report.
