UAE suspends multi-billion dollar weapons deal in sign of growing frustration with US-China showdown

"And these end-user requirements and protection of US defense equipment are universal, nonnegotiable and not specific to the UAE," he added.The suspension of the landmark deal comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met the UAE's de facto chief, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, in the UAE capital. It was the primary offical go to was the primary by an Israeli chief to the Gulf state. "As we recently confirmed at the Dubai Air Show, the Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to the proposed sales of F-35 aircraft, the MQ-9B, and munitions even as we continue consultations to ensure that we have a clear, mutual understanding of Emirati obligations and actions before, during and after delivery," a State Department spokesperson mentioned. The US authorities has repeatedly pushed the UAE to drop China's Huawei Technologies Co. from its telecommunications community, and claimed that the expertise might pose a safety danger for its weapons techniques. "The F-35 is our crown jewel of the United States, of our air force and so we need to be able to protect the technology security for all of our partners," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security Mira Resnick advised CNN's Becky Anderson final week, responding to a query about whether or not the UAE must select between Huawei and the F-35s. "These are the conversations we have with the Emiratis about the choices they can make now to be sure they can be part of the F-35 program," Resnick added. But UAE officers have been skeptical about US claims concerning the potential safety breach and have expressed nervousness about getting caught up in a "new cold war" between a high buying and selling accomplice and its foremost strategic ally. "What we are worried about is this fine line between acute competition (between China and the US) and a new Cold War," Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE management, mentioned in remarks to the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington final week. "Because I think we, as a small state, will be affected negatively by this, but will not have the ability in any way to affect this competition even positively really."

"But our position remains the same. That these facilities were not really military facilities," he added. "But then again, you had the concerns of your major ally, and I think it would be foolish for you not to address the concerns of your ally." A navy delegation from the UAE is scheduled to go to the Pentagon tomorrow, in accordance with Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. Though the assembly wasn't purported to be concerning the sale of F-35s, it's going to nearly definitely come up, he mentioned."The meeting wasn't designed to talk about a military sale," he mentioned. "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."