The F-35 Diplomacy

Can the issue of the US F-35 fighter deal with the UAE be raised without contemplating the special strategic relationship between both countries, or the Emirates' pivotal geopolitical role? A more important question is whether it is acceptable to politicize this deal by the Biden administration now. Therefore, it wasn't unexpected for the UAE to suspend the negotiations given the US choice to delay its completion.

This complication was described by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in joint press conference in Kuala Lumpur, "We remain prepared to move forward… if that is what the Emiratis are interested in doing… Washington wanted to ensure that Israel maintains its military advantage… We wanted to make ensure the security of any technologies that are sold or transferred to other partners in the region." Secretary Blinken was implying that the technology revision was mainly Israel's superiority edge regionally, while guarding against any cyber infringement by China through the Chinees 5G infrastructure in the UAE. Washington has also demanded that the UAE provides unprecedented purchase guarantees that challenge the buyer's sovereign rights in use or deployment of these fighter.

Notably, the Pentagon and US State Department had previously went through a reargues approval process prior to approving the deal earlier. That had included the technical specifications from the power plants, radar and navigation, advanced communications and data sharing, missile guidance, and weapons bay payloads. The UAE requested specifications are unique to its needs, and another detail that Secretary Blinken have missed, was the fact that the Israeli armed forces has always applied its own modifications to any system the Israel acquires including the F-35's, as they had modified the Israeli Air Force F-15/16 fighter in the past, and the specifications Dolphin class submarines that they had acquired and are acquiring from Germany. Furthermore, the current Israeli government did not express any objection to the deal to go through. Which lead us to conclude that Washington has other motives than the ones stated by StateSect Blinken.

Washington's decision to “complicate” this deal at this point in time could be linked to the faltering Vienna talks with Iran or is it expressing more than a verbal objection to some of the UAE recent regional FP policy steps that Washington disapprove, as have been expressed by several US officials after the UAE's Foreign Secretary Shaikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al-Nahyan's visit to Damascus, or mybe the direct talks with Iran.

Venturing further into US concerns over China's 5G network security risks to the F-35 program, one wonders whether a similar concern was overlooked by Washington when it supplied the UAE with the advanced THAAD air defense system, or has the US Air Force registered any infringement or an attempt to any of highly advanced systems that the US Air Force fields and operate out of Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi?

There are implications to both the shunned UAE demands that Washington passes a verdict regarding the F-35 deal, and the unanswered calls by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud to include the Kingdom in the Iran talks in Vienna. The Biden administration should review its strategic integration and interdependence priorities with its regional allies, to serve the common strategic interests of all, instead of granting primacy to short-term political desires and goals.