KATHMANDU: The United States has decided to temporarily halt the arms sales to US allies, including the F-35 sales to United Arab Emirates, on Monday.
US President Joe Biden's administration has decided to pause the arms sales in a bid to review the deals made by the country's previous administration. The Trump administration had made a deal with the UAE to sell 50 Lockhead Martin stealth F-35 jets as a part of $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments.
The US State Department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending US defence transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow the incoming leadership an opportunity to review, a state department official told Reuters.
Following the decision by Biden administration, UAE's ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba in the embassy's official twitter, said "Welcoming joint efforts to de-escalate tensions and for renewed regional dialogue, the UAE will work closely with the Biden Administration on a comprehensive approach to Middle East peace and stability."
"The F-35 package is much more than selling military hardware to a partner. Like the US, it allows the UAE to maintain a strong deterrent to aggression. In parallel with new dialogue and security cooperation, it helps to reassure regional partners, ambassador Otaiba said. "It also enables the UAE to take on more of the regional burden for collective security, freeing US assets for other global challenges, a long-time bipartisan US priority, the statement further said.
"The UAE has always fought alongside the US. And through hundreds of joint missions and participation in six US-led Coalition efforts, we have learned that the key to military coordination is interoperability," Otaiba reiterated.
