Despite Israel repeatedly dismissing rumours about the planned sale of American F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates being a behind-the-scenes provision in its agreement to normalise ties with the Gulf state, Biden's adviser on foreign policy, Tony Blinken, still thinks that it looks like a "quid pro quo" deal. Blinken believes that the US promised to sell the top stealth fighter jets to the Gulf country in exchange for it agreeing to establish official diplomatic ties with Israel.
The aide recalled in an interview with The Times of Israel that the jets were originally meant to be sold to Israel alone in the region, according to a plan created under the Obama-Biden administration in order to ensure Tel Aviv's military superiority. Blinken stated that should Biden be elected a president on 3 November, his administration would "take a hard look" at the Trump administration's plans to sell F-35s to the UAE, which were recently presented to Congress.
At the same time, Biden's aide, who previously served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, praised the achievements that Trump made in negotiating recognition of Israel by Bahrain, Sudan, and the UAE.
"As a basic principle, encouraging Arab countries to recognize and normalize with Israel is something we supported during the Obama-Biden administration and would support in a Biden-[Harris] administration", he said.
Three Arab States Establish Ties With Israel With US' Help
Following a series of bombshell announcements by US President Donald Trump, two Gulf states, the first to do so, announced their readiness to establish official diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv after years of reported unofficial cooperation. Bahrain, the UAE, and Israel signed the so-called Abraham Accords solidifying the agreements on 15 September, with Tel Aviv promising in exchange to put its plans to extend sovereignty over several West Bank areas on hold.
The countries not only agreed to send official diplomatic missions, but are also planning to cooperate in a whole array of spheres, including culture, tourism, economy, and security. The latter, however, hasn’t changed Tel Aviv’s stance of being opposed to US arms sales to the UAE, but at the same time, Israel has so far stopped short of taking steps from preventing it.
Over a month after signing the accords, Sudan also announced that it had reached an agreement with Israel to normalise relations on 23 October, thus becoming the fifth Arab country alongside Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and the UAE to establish official ties with the Jewish state.
