Israel Concerned after US Approval to Supply UAE with F-35 Jets
World
Tel Aviv - Nazir Magally
A new political crisis erupted in Israel after the US administration approved to sell advanced F-35s and other fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). News has been leaked to the press that military sources in Tel Aviv have expressed concern Israel might have given up its position against selling F-35 aircraft and other modern and advanced weapons to the UAE. Israel had hindered UAE’s earlier attempts to obtain these jets through its lobby in the US, which succeeded in persuading the Congress not to give the green light for the sale of the F-35 warplanes. “The historic peace agreement between Israel and the UAE did not include Israel’s approval of any deal to sell American weapons to the UAE,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office affirmed in a statement. “In the talks (on the UAE normalization deal), Israel did not change its consistent positions against the sale to any country, even those that have peace agreements with Israel, in the Middle East of weapons and defense technologies that could tip the (military) balance,” it added. However, former White House Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt appeared to hint at the possibility of having been a backroom deal for Israel to remove its objections. “Whatever happened behind closed doors I’m sure makes sense, even if it might look more flexible than in the past,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper issued a report citing an Emirati source that Netanyahu was aware of the US deal to sell the UAE giant F-35 jets from the beginning and gave his full approval. In another report, the daily quoted political sources in Tel Aviv and the US as saying that Washington has already approved to sell these weapons to the UAE, and that it will not back down. Washington’s approval was one of the most important incentives for Abu Dhabi to move forward with the agreement with Israel, sources noted. The newspaper also reported that Netanyahu had made the deal behind the back of the Israeli defense establishment and kept Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, both former army chiefs, in the dark about it. Officials close to the army and Gantz accused Netanyahu of giving the green light and reversing his opposition to any potential US sale of F-35 fighter aircraft to the UAE. Gantz issued a statement listing the number of times he had rejected the idea, most recently a few days ago.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2456931/israel-concerned-after-us-approval-supply-uae-f-35-jets
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