The first cracks are showing in the Israeli-UAE agreement over the sale of F-35 advanced jets to the United Arab Emirates by the United States, Walla News reported on Monday.

The UAE canceled a scheduled trilateral meeting in New York on Friday with the UN envoys of Israel, the US and the UAE  due to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks against the US sale of F-35 jets to the UAE. The meeting was intended to be a celebration of the agreement and all the parties had already confirmed their attendance.

The UAE canceled the meeting to send a message to the Israeli prime minister and express their disappointment in his remarks, the report said. Furthermore, the UAE will not hold any further meetings with Israeli until Netanyahu’s position is “clarified.”

Netanyahu has firmly denied that the US sale of F-35 jets was a condition of the normalization of ties agreement between Israel and the UAE and has expressed his opposition to it several times since a Yediot Achranot report said that an arms deal was part of the agreement.

“The historic peace agreement between Israel and the UAE did not include any agreement by Israel to any arms deal between the United States and the UAE,” Netanyahu said. “From the beginning, I opposed the sale of the F-35 and other advanced weapons to any countries in the Middle East, including Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel.”

“I have repeatedly expressed this position to the US administration and it hasn’t changed. The consistent opposition to the sale of F35 jets went into effect on June 2 after the head of the National Security Council spoke, at the request of the Prime Minister, with Israeli Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin.

“The peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates does not include any clause in this matter, and the United States has made it clear to Israel that it will always insist on maintaining Israel’s qualitative [military] edge [QME],” Netanyahu concluded.

However, senior US officials have admitted that discussions are being held with Abu Dhabi about an arms deal.

US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE “should increase the probability” of the US sale of F-35 jets to the Gulf state.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the issue on his visit to Jerusalem on Monday, saying: “The United States has a legal requirement with respect to [Israel’s] qualitative military edge we will continue to honor,” Pompeo said. “But we have a 20-plus year security relationship with the United Arab Emirates as well,” Pompeo said, adding that the US will ensure “we’re delivering the equipment [the UAE] needs to defend their own people from this same threat [of Iran].”

“I’m confident that both of these objectives can be achieved,” Pompeo asserted, referring to maintaining Israel’s military edge in the Middle East.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)