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Washington plans to sell up to 50 F-35 fighter jets and ammunition to the United Arab Emirates. But the $ 23 billion arms deal could fail. Inter-party resistance has formed in the U.S. Senate: Democratic Senators Chris Murphy and Robert Menendez and their Republican colleague Rand Paul presented a draft resolution in the House of Parliament on Wednesday (local time) to halt the agreement on weapons. However, the obstacles to blocking arms exports are high.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially briefed Congress last week of plans to sell fighter jets in the Emirates. He referred to the normalization agreement between the Emirates and Israel and described the arms sale as part of the US effort to isolate Iran.
“I support the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE, but nothing in this agreement obliges us to flood the region with more weapons and encourage a dangerous arms race,” Murphy said. He referred to reports that arms delivered to the Emirates subsequently appeared in the civil war states of Libya and Yemen.
Up to now, Israel has spoken out strictly against all deliveries of US fighter jets to Arab states. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently indicated that his government had no objection to the new arms deal.
Arms race in the region
The US government unofficially informed Congress in late October of the planned sale of the Lockheed Martin armament company F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates. The arms deal was met with great skepticism among opposition Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives. They fear a weakening of Israel compared to neighboring states and a new arms race in the region.
Last year, Congress attempted unsuccessfully to block a weapons deal between President Donald Trump’s administration and Saudi Arabia. A two-thirds majority is needed in parliament to overrule the president’s veto.
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