With Israelis Near, U.S. War Jets in UAE Become Thorny Prop
With Israelis Near, U.S. War Jets in UAE Become Thorny Prop
(Bloomberg) --
As Israel and the United Arab Emirates meet for their first round of peace talks, the Gulf nation is using the occasion to shine a spotlight on the U.S. stealth fighters it wants to buy over Israeli objections.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, who are in the UAE in support of the normalization efforts, attended briefings with Emirati military officials at the Al Dhafra air force base on Tuesday. The facility hosts U.S. jets, including Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 combat plane, which the Emiratis say they’ve been trying to buy for six years.
Israel says such a sale would erode its regional military dominance, and its objections haven’t been swept away by the rapprochement with the UAE, which has roots in a shared distrust of Iran. While American officials have reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining Israel’s weapons edge, the optics of senior U.S. advisers visiting an Emirati air base where an F-35 is parked didn’t lend a boost to the Israeli cause.
In remarks to journalists at the base, Falah Al Qahtani, a major general in the U.A.E. air force and an assistant under-secretary at the Ministry of Defense, touted the alignment between U.S. and Emirati interests and the countries’ close ties.
“Our relation is based on a common view of the threat to our common interest,” he said. “We are friends, we are strategic partners, we are allies.”
Kushner delivered a similar tribute to the alliance in a message he left in the base’s guest book.
“May the relationship with America continue to grow and together, through strength many will benefit as we bring more peace and prosperity to the Middle East and beyond!” he wrote.
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