The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended talks with the US over procuring 50 F-35 fighter jets that were part of a $23 billion arms deal, expressing concerns over a restrictive end-user agreement, according to media reports.
The plans to procure the 5th generation fighter jets have been sent for “re-assessment”, an unnamed UAE official told Reuters on Tuesday, confirming earlier reporting by the Wall Street Journal on a potential breakage of the deal.
“Technical requirements, sovereign operational restrictions, and cost/benefit analysis led to the re-assessment,” the official said, adding that Washington still remains “the UAE’s preferred provider for advanced defense requirements and discussions for the F-35 may be re-opened in the future.”
The country has been reportedly seeking to “address mutual defense security conditions for the acquisition,” namely what it deemed an over-restrictive end-user agreement. The requirements have been reportedly set up by Washington over the cozy relationship Abu Dhabi enjoys with China, seeking to protect the cutting-edge planes from possible “espionage” attempts by Beijing.
The US has been very ambiguous on the fate of the deal, with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stating earlier that Washington’s ties with the Gulf nation was a strategic matter, spanning far beyond simple arms trade. At the same time, Kirby said the US was seeking to address the questions raised by Abu Dhabi, but referred further questions on the arms trade to the State Department.
“We will always insist, as a matter of statutory requirements and policy, on a variety of end use requirements,” Kirby said.
An unnamed State Department official, who spoke with Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said Washington was seeking to iron out the outstanding issues to make the deal succeed. “We are hopeful that we can work through any outstanding issues,” the official said.
The sale of 50 F-35 jets comes as a part of a $23 billion arms deal that the US and the UAE reached in the last days of Trump’s administration. The agreement also involves a sale of 18 MQ-9B Reaper attack drones, as well as other high-tech munitions.
The deal was off to a rocky start, as it got suspended shortly after inking, as the new US administration sent Trump-era arms deals for re-assessment shortly after Joe Biden took over the White House.
BEIJING, Dec 14 (IPS) – The COVID-19 pandemic has moved us farther away from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Data shows that the pandemic has pushed a further 124 million people into extreme poverty. Global poverty is now expected to be at 7% by 2030 – only marginally below the level in 2015.
If Australia is fine with the extradition of its citizen Julian Assange from Britain to the US, it would be equally OK for some nation to hand over an Australian Koran insulter to Saudi Arabia, a senior government official wrote.
The rebuke of the US claim on Assange, authored by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who also leads the National Party of Australia, stands out. Canberra has distanced itself from the prosecution of the WikiLeaks co-founder.
Assange is currently held at a top security prison in the UK, fighting a legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, where he is facing an espionage trial that could result in an effective life sentence.
In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, Joyce called on people to go beyond the identity of Assange and examine a broader context of the case. What the US seeks appears to be a violation of the basic rights to liberty and habeas corpus of an Australian citizen, he argued.
The US accused Assange of being an accomplice of Chelsie Manning in her theft of confidential files of the US military. Assange is alleged to be criminally guilty because he encouraged Manning to find more material for WikiLeaks to publish and advised her how to avoid being caught. He was on foreign soil when the exchanges took place.
Washington’s extradition case is based on its claim that the US government was the injured party in the crimes it alleges – a claim Joyce believes is flimsy.
The question is then: why is he to be extradited to the US? If he insulted the Koran, would he be extradited to Saudi Arabia?
Joyce said he personally never met Assange and disliked him from what was reported about him, but insisted it was irrelevant to his position. He said he hoped that the British justice would take the right decision in the case.
“They should try him there for any crime he is alleged to have committed on British soil or send him back to Australia, where he is a citizen,” the official wrote.
Australia is not seeking to get Assange extradited from the UK and has not publicly offered to take him in to serve a prison term, should he be tried and found guilty by the US. The American government offered assurances that the latter option would be granted as it was convincing the High Court of London to overturn a ruling of a magistrate court.
The earlier ruling refused to extradite Assange to the US due to abysmal prison conditions in the country and concern that the publisher could take his own life, if he were handed over to Washington. Last week the High Court agreed to overturn that decision, reopening the door for an extradition.
