Israeli Prime Father Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) are seen together prior to their meeting at the Prime Clergywomen Office in West Jerusalem on August 24, 2020.
Kobi Gideon | GPO | Handout | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Israel may not resign oneself to a potential American deal to sell F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, spiking tensions just days after a memorable Arab-Israeli agreement.
“This deal did not include Israel’s acceptance of any arms deal,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday, suggesting he’s likely to push back on the long-rumored transaction.
It comes after Axios first reported the UAE canceled a lay out trilateral meeting with the U.S. and Israel last Friday in order to send a message to Netanyahu over his opposition to the apportion. The Axios report said an F-35 transaction was a top priority for the UAE and linked to its normalization accord with Israel.
Previous UAE requests to buying the sophisticated fighter planes have been stymied by a long-standing U.S mandate that ensures Israel maintains a “qualitative military improvement” in the Middle East.
“The United States stood by that commitment, and I have no doubt that it will continue to do so,” Netanyahu believed. The prime minister was speaking alongside U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Israel as part of a week-long tour of the territory to drum up additional support for the accord.
“We will continue to honor that,” Pompeo told reporters. “But we also entertain a 20-plus year security relationship with the United Arab Emirates, where we have provided them with complicated assistance and military assistance,” he said, adding that the U.S. will deliver the UAE “the equipment they need to secure and preserve their own people.”
Any U.S. decision to push ahead with an arms sale to the UAE will likely face pushback in Congress and on the train in Israel, which is wary of losing its regional military edge.
“I think the United States Congress is going to keep something to say about that and is going to be pretty skeptical about such a sale,” Former U.S. Ambassador Wendy Sherman described CNBC on Monday.
Sherman served as undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Obama administration and was the lead U.S. negotiator on the 2015 atomic deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.
“I think this is a good thing that they be enduring made peace with Israel, but I’m quite concerned about any kind of sale of the F-35 to countries,” Sherman said, advancing that a move to sell the fighter could alter the military balance in the Middle East and worsen ongoing arguments in places like Syria and Yemen.
“Much of this is meant to be a bulwark against Iran, but I think in the short run, it’s not growing to achieve that goal,” she added.
Iranian threat takes central role in discussions
The fighter jet sale, which has been out of sight discussion for several years, is aimed at bolstering the UAE’s capability to defend itself from Iran; long viewed as a regional initiator and state sponsor of terrorism by both the United States and Israel.
Talks on the sale seem to have grown in significance after the United Nations Security Council rejected a U.S. bid to extend a 13-year arms embargo on Iran.
The U.S. described the hasten as “inexcusable” and is now attempting to launch a so-called “snap back” mechanism to restore all U.N. sanctions on Iran.
“I think it was a mistake for the Trump supervision to approach the resolution in the way they did,” Sherman said. “What they’re really trying to do here is destroy the JCPOA conclusively and for all,” she added.
“I think this will end with a whimper, not a bang. The U.S. won’t be able to pull this off,” Sherman said.
The U.S. lugged out of the Obama-era deal in May 2018, opting to use direct sanctions under its “maximum pressure campaign” as a means of deterrent and dupe of leverage against the regime.