The United States’ new Biden administration has frozen defence sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pending a review, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on 27 January.
General Brigadier General Keith Phillips, US defense attaché in Abu Dhabi, exchanges gifts with Brigadier General Sultan al-Niyadi during a joint exercise with US marines and the UAE Presidential Guard at the Al-Hamra Combat Training Centre on 16 January (US Marine Corps)
“Generally speaking, when it comes to arms sales it is typical at the start of an administration to review any pending sales to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives and advances our foreign policy. So that’s what we’re doing at this moment,” Blinken said during a press briefing.
He stressed that the US remains committed to the Abraham Accords that has resulted in the UAE and Bahrain normalising relations with Israel. This paved the way for the US to approve the UAE’s procurement of 50 F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, 18 MQ-9B unmanned aircraft, and a large package of air-launched weapons collectively estimated to be worth USD23.4 billion.
The UAE embassy in Washington confirmed that the letters of agreement for these sales were signed shortly before the Trump administration left office on 20 January.
It also acknowledged the review of the sales, saying it had been anticipated. “The F-35 package is much more than selling military hardware to a partner,” it said. “It allows the UAE to maintain a strong deterrent to aggression [and] take on more of the regional burden for collective security, freeing US assets for other global challenges, a long-time bipartisan US priority.”
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