Impressively clever, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed has for long worked to strengthen relations with the United States. In order to seek support of this global power, the UAE recently defied its neighbours and normalized relations with Israel. However, the Emirates’ is known to be a seeker of personal benefits, where the UAE-Israel deal, Abraham Accord, has also been a way to acquire long-wished-for F-35 fighter jets from the US.
So far, the deal has been sailing on the waves of extensive criticism and Donald Trump’s careless promise. For a major part, Abu Dhabi war crimes in Yemen and Libya civil wars have prompted the human rights organizations to denounce the US-UAE arms deal. On the other hand, the UAE-supporting president of the US, Donald Trump also lost the elections recently, against Joe Biden.
Despite that, the US State Department has been sending formal and informal notifications to the Congress about potential arms sales to the Emirates. One after the other, it laid plans of a broad arms deal worth $23.37 billion, including F-35 jets, reaper-style aerial drones and other defense equipment.
In an informal notification on November 5, the Congress was notified about a potential sale of 18 sophisticated armed MQ-9B aerial drones, worth as much as $2.9 billion. The deal is expected to be delivered in 2024, where the armed MQ-9B drones are also expected to be equipped with maritime radar. Another similar notification was received by the Congress the following day, regarding a potential sale to the UAE of defense equipment, including precision-guided munitions, non-precision bombs and missiles, worth $10 billion.
Like any other weapon sale to the UAE, these notifications raised concerns among the human rights organizations, who constantly point out the Abu Dhabi war crimes that have been destructing nations like Yemen, Libya and Syria. While the informal notifications were already worrisome issues, the Trump administration made a formal move of fulfilling its promise to the Arab nation.
On November 10, the Congress was formally notified about the Donald Trump’s plans to sell 50 stealth F-35 fighter jets to the UAE. It reflected the desperation of the US’ fired president to provide the Emirates with what has been its major goal of the normalization deal. Besides, the UAE is also reportedly looking to purchase a package of Boeing Co EA-18G Growlers, which come with advance features like jamming radar. However, it is questioned that why the UAE requires such weapons, when it already maintains great military power, which has facilitated severe war crimes in Yemen and Libya.
Why More Weapons Amidst Existing Abu Dhabi War Crimes?
Years of war in Yemen, Syria and Libya has seen the military involvement of the United Arab Emirates, where highly sophisticated and advance weapons have been used in combat operations. Abu Dhabi has been one of the rare nations, which purchases expensive arms and is aware about where it intends to use them.
Using its wealth to purchase advance weapons from different countries, the UAE is known to own arms like 400 French-built Leclerc battle tanks, 3,000 International M1224 MaxxPro MRAPs from US, under 600 BMP-3s from Russia, over 60 French-built Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter jets and others.
Most of these weapons have been used for Abu Dhabi war crimes in different proxy wars. The UAE forces use advance aircrafts, Chinese-made sophisticated Wing Loong drones, corvettes, patrol boats, assault ships and others. The military power of the Emirates has ruined nations, killed thousands of innocents and wrecked lives of several more.
Even without the F-35 jets and aerial drones, the UAE has been involved in severe offensives in Yemen, Libya and Syria. While human lives are already suffering because of the Emirates’ existing military power. The ongoing crisis, especially in Libya and Yemen, force many to question the US efforts of providing more jets and drones to the UAE.
