Emirates defends its right to buy F-35 fighters from the United States

Winds of change are blowing to the Middle East. The agreement reached between the Emirates and Israel to normalize diplomatic relations has unprecedented economic and military implications. The Emirates has already announced the opening of its embassy in Tel Aviv and new opportunities for trade are opening up. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs himself announced this week that the Gulf country is in negotiations to buy F-35 aircraft from the United States during a virtual event organized by the Atlantic Council, and has asserted that his country can legitimately acquire this type of equipment. 

The normalization of relations between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv opens the door for the United States to establish arms sales with the Emirates. These purchases would diminish the military capacity of Israel, whose army is the most advanced in the region, although it also weakens the military capacity of Iran. 

"The purchase of armaments is something that is on the table, we have legitimate requests that are there, we must obtain them (...) In my opinion, now the whole idea of a state of belligerence or war with Israel no longer exists," said the number two in UAE diplomacy during the virtual event "Frontpage" of the Atlantic Council research center reported by the Efe agency. According to Gargash, the UAE already requested to acquire F-35 at least six years ago. As for the establishment of an emirate embassy in Israeli territory, one extreme announced last week by U.S. President Donald Trump, the deputy minister said the diplomatic legation will be in Tel Aviv and not in Jerusalem.

On August 13, Trump announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to establish diplomatic ties, as part of a broad agreement by which Israeli authorities will halt the annexation of occupied Palestinian territory. However, Gargash acknowledged that a date for the signing of the peace treaty has not yet been decided, an agreement that "is not about Iran", although he insisted that negotiations with Tehran should be opened in the future. "It is a better geopolitical space than the one we are in now," Gargash said.

The treaty between the Emirates and Israel has been widely criticised by the Palestinian authorities, who consider that their vision has not been taken into account, so Gargash has again encouraged them to dialogue with the Israeli side. "We do not negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians, whatever comes up will have to be decided by the Palestinians and Israelis alone. The UAE saw an opportunity, we are delivering a clear promise of a suspension of the annexation," he said. The UAE thus becomes the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, after Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), while the Israelis have also moved closer in recent times to other Persian Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.