UAE to restart F-35 talks with US if Trump elected as president: Report

The deliberations underscore how Persian Gulf states are eyeing the end of President Joe Biden’s tenure at the White House.

Middle East Eye reported previously that Arab Persian Gulf states started outreach to Trump surrogates as Biden’s reelection bid faltered. The race has tightened substantially since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden on the Democratic Party’s ticket, and most analysts consider it a toss-up.

Trump approved the sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE along with MQ-9 Reaper drones and munitions in recognition of the UAE’s move to normalise ties with Israel in 2020.

In 2021, however, the UAE said it was suspending talks on finalising the deal after the Biden administration sought to impose new restrictions on the sale, citing concerns about the UAE’s use of China’s Huawei 5G technology and the risk it posed to providing Beijing access to sensitive US defence information.

But Barbara Leaf, the Biden administration’s top Middle East official at the State Department, told Congress in 2022 that the disagreement with the UAE went beyond 5G, which was “just one of several, one of a list of things, that needed much greater clarity”.

The UAE already operates the US F-16 and French-made Mirage 2000-9s fighter jets. But it has also purchased Chinese “light attack” jets.

In July, the UAE and China conducted joint military drills in China’s Xinjiang province.

The UAE’s openness to military ties with Beijing was underscored by leaked US intelligence documents which suggested that in December 2022 China had resumed constructing a military base in the UAE despite the US urging the Emiratis against the project a year earlier.

The F-35 is just one file where the Biden administration and Abu Dhabi fell out.

More recently, the US has criticised the UAE for allowing Russia to evade western export controls imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

Trump enjoyed generally good ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. During Biden’s time in office, the ties came under pressure amid Biden criticising Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and also failing to respond to Iran-backed Houthi attacks.

Emirati officials were shocked in 2022 when the US asked Abu Dhabi to pay for the military assistance it received in the aftermath of a Houthi drone attack on its oil facilities, according to Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords And The Reshaping Of The Middle East, a book by Axios reporter, Barak Ravid.

While the US’s European partners quickly embraced Biden after his election victory, Persian Gulf states always kept the door open to his predecessor. Jared Kushner, Trump’s Middle East negotiator and son-in-law, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, were hosted by Qatari officials at the 2022 World Cup.