The administration of President Joe Biden is pausing weapons sales to Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as part of a broader review of multibillion-dollar arms agreements made under the Trump administration, CNBC writes.
Biden’s newly confirmed Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the review — which is common for new administrations — as being conducted “to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives, and advances our foreign policy.”
The pause and review itself are nothing unusual. But the arms sales in question are historic: they would represent the most advanced and most classified American weapons systems ever sold to Arab allies.
In the past, lethal drones and the flagship F-35 joint strike fighter jet were off the table for Arab allies in the Middle East because of Washington’s commitment to maintaining Israel’s advantageous qualitative military edge, or QME, in the region — a policy that has been codified in U.S. law for decades. But since the signing of the Abraham Accords in August normalizing relations between the UAE and Israel, acquiring these systems became a real possibility for the Emiratis.
This is still not the case with Saudi Arabia, which has not normalized relations with Israel, but its pending purchase in the broader arms deal includes billions of dollars’ worth of precision-guided munitions.
Analysts interviewed by CNBC note that while Washington’s relationship with the UAE isn’t likely to see significant changes, the one with the Saudis probably will.
“It’s not going to be everybody gets to do whatever they want. The relationship is going to go back to strategic and values-based, which we haven’t done in four years,” a former senior Obama administration official familiar with Biden’s thinking told CNBC.
“It’s not going to be a good relationship between the U.S. and Saudi without some significant changes,” the former official said, speaking anonymously due to professional restrictions.
The relationship with the kingdom during former President Donald Trump’s tenure has been described by many observers as “permissive.” The White House did not pursue penalties against Riyadh for its role, as reported by U.S. intelligence agencies, in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. It also made little mention of its widely reported human rights abuses, which include jailing and allegedly torturing several female Saudi activists.
When a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers voted to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, Trump vetoed them. And in May of 2019, Trump declared a “national emergency” over tensions with Iran in order to bypass congressional approval procedures to push through an $8 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan.
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