Contrary to Netanyahu’s Claim, Trump Says F-35 Sale to UAE ‘Under Review’
After Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vehemently denied he had withdrawn Israel’s longstanding objection to the United States selling F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates as part of the accord signed by the two countries, US President Donald Trump admitted on Wednesday that such a sale was in fact “under review” after the UAE “made a great advance in peace in the Middle East.” According to trump, the Emiratis “have the money and they would like to order quite a few F-35s.” Several sources inside the White House confirmed to The New York Times that the administration is advancing the transaction, naming senior adviser Jared Kushner as a vocal supporter of the deal. Yet the sources refute the claim that the sale of the advanced warplanes to the UAE, refused for decades by the US at the behest of Israel, constitutes a quid pro quo as part of the Israel-UAE accord. On Tuesday, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed that Netanyahu had greenlit the sale of F-35s to the UAE in order to help clinch the peace deal, an agreement that overturns Israel’s historic policy of maintaining military supremacy in the Middle East and was done without the knowledge of Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz.