UAE suspends talks on $23B weapons deal with US

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WASHINGTON – The United Arab Emirates connected Tuesday suspended talks connected a $23 cardinal woody to acquisition American-made F-35 planes, equipped drones and different equipment, successful a uncommon quality betwixt Washington and a cardinal U.S. state successful the Persian Gulf.

The Emirati embassy successful Washington said it would “suspend discussions" with the U.S., though meetings astatine the Pentagon this week betwixt the 2 sides connected different matters volition determination guardant arsenic planned. “The U.S. remains the UAE's preferred supplier for precocious defence requirements and discussions for the F-35 whitethorn beryllium re-opened successful the future,” the embassy said successful a statement.

The projected merchantability of 50 F-35s to the UAE came astatine the extremity of erstwhile President Donald Trump's administration, emerging from a woody that saw the Emiratis formally admit Israel. President Joe Biden's medication put the woody connected clasp aft helium took office, successful portion owed to disapproval of the UAE and Saudi Arabia implicit their yearslong warfare successful Yemen, which has sparked 1 of the world's worst humanitarian crises and continues today.

Also included successful the woody are 18 precocious drone systems and a bundle of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions.

Emirati officials blasted an American insistence connected restrictions connected however and wherever the F-35s could beryllium utilized and accidental they are a usurpation of the UAE's sovereignty.

The State Department said successful a connection that the medication “remains committed to the projected income ... adjacent arsenic we proceed consultations to guarantee that we person a clear, communal knowing of Emirati obligations and actions before, during, and aft delivery.”

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that U.S. requirements connected the usage of American-made subject instrumentality “are universal, non-negotiable, and not circumstantial to the UAE.”

“The U.S. concern with the UAE is much strategical and much analyzable than immoderate 1 limb sale,” Kirby said.

A idiosyncratic acquainted with the substance said the U.S. believes the Emiratis' determination present is simply a negotiating maneuver to effort to determination the process along. The person, who was not authorized to remark and spoke connected the information of anonymity, said the UAE missive notifying the U.S. of the suspension was written by a comparatively low-level official.

The Wall Street Journal archetypal disclosed the suspension of negotiations.

The UAE has agelong worked with the U.S. connected counterterrorism and allowed the introduction of radical fleeing Afghanistan during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal earlier this year. But tensions betwixt Washington and Abu Dhabi person risen implicit the UAE's increasing practice with China.

Last week, a apical Emirati diplomat acknowledged the UAE stopped operation connected a Chinese installation astatine an Abu Dhabi larboard that America considered a subject base. The Journal archetypal revealed the beingness of the alleged facility.

“We took these American concerns into information and we stopped the enactment connected the facilities,” the diplomat, Anwar Gargash, told a gathering of the the Arab Gulf States Institute successful Washington. “But our presumption remains the same, that these facilities were not truly subject facilities.”

He described the discussions betwixt the UAE and the U.S. “as rather frank.”

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Associated Press journalists Isabel DeBre and Jon Gambrell successful Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani successful Washington contributed to this report.

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