UAE Freezes F-35 Purchase Talks, Washington Says End-user Requirements Nonnegotiable

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has frozen talks with the U.S. over its $23bn deal to buy 50 F-35 fighter jets besides General Atomics drones over American conditions that forced Abu Dhabi to ‘re-assess’ the planned acquisition.

An Emirati official said in a statement to select international media that Abu Dhabi had informed Washington that “technical requirements, sovereign operational restrictions and cost-benefit analysis led to the reassessment.”

Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said today, “We will always insist, as a matter of statutory requirements and policy, on a variety of end-user requirements. That’s typical. And these end-user requirements and protection of U.S. defense equipment are universal, nonnegotiable and not specific to the UAE.”

Kirby further said, “the joint military dialogue was set to start tomorrow between us and the Emiratis, and we’re looking forward to that meeting.  And the meeting wasn’t designed to talk about a military sale; It was designed talk about the broad scope of our defense relationship with the UAE.  But I would anticipate that this would be something that we would take advantage of the opportunity to talk with them about their concerns, as well as sharing our concerns about the sale.”