WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden’s government has told Congress it will continue with more than $ 23 billion in arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, including advanced F-35 aircraft, armed drones and other equipment. congressional assistants said Tuesday.
A State Department spokesman said the government would continue with the proposed sale to the UAE, “even if we continue to review details and consult with Emirati officials” regarding the use of the weapons.
The Democratic president’s government has suspended transactions agreed to by former Republican President Donald Trump. The sale to the Gulf nation was completed just before Trump left office.
The Trump administration told Congress in November it had approved the U.S. sale to the UAE as a side agreement with the Abraham Accords, a U.S. mediation agreement in September in which the UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel .
In the last months of the Trump administration, Israel has reached an agreement with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco as part of the agreements.
The $ 23.37 billion package includes products from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp., including 50 F-35 Lighting II aircraft, up to 18 MQ-9B unmanned aerial systems and a package of air-to-air and air-to-air to- ground ammunition.
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Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the UAE for its involvement in the war in Yemen, a conflict that is considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, and are concerned that the transfer of weapons could violate U.S. guarantees that Israel is a military advantage in the region.
Israel said it did not object to the sale.
A legislative effort to stop the sale failed in December because Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress backed his plans.
The Trump administration completed the massive sale to the UAE on January 20, about an hour before Biden was sworn in as president.
The Biden administration announced the review in late January and the UAE said it expected the review and welcomed the joint efforts to ease tensions and for renewed regional dialogue.
The State Department spokesman said on Tuesday that the estimated delivery dates on UAE sales, if exported, would be after 2025 or later.
The government expected a strong and sustained dialogue with the UAE to ensure a stronger security partnership, the spokesperson said in an email statement.
“We will also continue to work with the UAE and all recipients of U.S. defense articles and services to ensure that U.S. defense equipment is adequately secured and used in a manner that respects human rights and fully complies with the laws of armed conflict,” he said. the statement said.
The Biden administration is also reviewing its military sales policy to Saudi Arabia, including a number of Trump-era arms deals, in light of Saudi involvement in Yemen and other human rights interests.
The results of the review were not disclosed. In February, US officials told Reuters that the government was considering canceling past transactions involving human rights and restricting future sales to ‘defensive’ weapons.
Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Additional Reporting by Mike Stone; Edited by Mary Milliken, Grant McCool and Rosalba O’Brien