A bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill is moving to force a series of votes to block President Trump’s sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, a deal struck after Emirati officials agreed to recognize Israel.
Proponents of the deal to mobilize against such a rare public rebuke endangering a country that by striking a U.S.-brokered deal with Israel has angered Iran. Trump could veto a measure passed by Congress, preventing the sale.
“It has been said in public fora from Iranian officials that just the act alone of signing the accords, just the sheer act of recognizing Israel’s sovereignty, has brought to bear further risk” to the UAE, State Department Assistant Secretary R. Clarke Cooper, who oversees the diplomatic section responsible for foreign military sales, told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “It is incumbent upon us to address it.”
Cooper made his case hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a public call for Republicans to close ranks behind the pact.
“The strategic realities dictate that Congress should not stand in the way of this sale,” McConnell said before touting the Abraham Accords, as the new Arab-Israeli pacts are known. “That step, the first normalization of relations between an Arab nation and the state of Israel in nearly 30 years, cemented an important new chapter in the UAE’s international relations and its close relationship with the United States.”
McConnell’s political firepower came to bear just days before the Friday deadline for Congress to attempt to block the deal or allow the finalization of the approval process. Observers of the process think that the opponents of the deal, who have protested that Trump is making major decisions with insufficient congressional input, could have enough votes to pass the resolution over McConnell’s objections this week.
“A sale this large and this consequential should not happen in the waning days of a lame-duck presidency, and Congress must take steps to stop this dangerous transfer of weapons,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee involved in the effort to pass the resolutions of disapproval.
Such a confrontation in the Senate could humiliate the Emiratis and make a dramatic display of friction within the U.S.-led coalition in the Middle East. And it would force Trump to veto the resolution or cave on the heels of overwhelming congressional opposition to his threat to veto the annual defense policy bill.
“It’s a little baffling to suggest that, now of all times, a protest gesture with no chance of obtaining a veto-proof majority is a valuable use of the Senate’s time,” McConnell said.
The debate over the F-35 sale has proven particularly alarming to Middle East analysts who worry about eroding Israel’s military advantage in the region. Yet Emirati officials argue that the Abraham Accords eliminate “the whole idea of a state of belligerency or war with Israel,” while the threat from Iran and misgivings about future U.S. policies for the region have spurred even Israel to endorse the deal.
“We believe that the UAE is an ally in confronting Iran,” Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer said during a rare joint television appearance with Emirati envoy Yousseff al Otaiba. “What keeps me up at night is actually not the proposed F-35 sale to the Emirates. What keeps me up at night is the idea that somebody would return to the nuclear deal with Iran.”
That’s an apparent reference to President-elect Joe Biden’s stated desire to rehabilitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. UAE officials, however, have said that they won’t scrap their effort to obtain stealth fighter jets if the F-35 sale is aborted.
“We would rather have the best U.S. equipment, or we will reluctantly find it from other sources, even if less capable,” al Otaiba said last week.
McConnell warned Senate Republicans not to drive the Emiratis into a deal with Russia or China. “Senators considering this sale need to consider a reality we cannot escape,” he said. “A significant competition for influence in the Middle East is underway, and China and Russia will be more than happy to meet the demand for advanced capabilities if the U.S. simply takes our ball and goes home.”
