50 F-35 fighter jets and 18 Reaper drones with Emirates Washington are questioning the $ 23 billion deal under discussion.
For the United States it was not the agreement of the century, but the agreement of that year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the United Arab Emirates is threatening not to sign a $ 23 billion deal with the United States to buy 50 F-35 fighter jets, 18 Reaper drones and weapons.
According to WSJ, The reason may be indirectly related to the tensions between the United States and China. Abu Dhabi hopes that “these security requirements will be very strict to protect high-tech security equipment from Chinese intelligence.”
Is it a homeopathic remedy to reduce the size of the contract or to cancel? Nothing will allow us to know.
“Emirates has raised concerns. It is not uncommon for large arms sales to go back and forth like this, and we hope these issues can be resolved,” a U.S. official said.
The Raphael Agreement?
But the news comes just days after the signing of a deal with France for 80 Rafale fighter jets. These models, in the F4 standard, are designed for joint combat and Cooper missions. They therefore compete directly with the F-35. After initially bidding for 60 devices, the number was raised to 20 after a year of negotiations.
Emirates, one of Washington’s key allies in the Gulf, has long been interested in buying F – 35s, and received the green light from the Trump administration in August 2020 in response to the normalization of relations with Israel.
An official from the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense assured Reuters that the purchase of the Raphael would be in addition to the F-35 and not an alternative to US aircraft.
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