President Joe Biden's administration has temporarily paused some pending arms sales to U.S. allies in order to review them, a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.
Reviews of this sort are typical for a new administration, but Donald Trump's administration was doing deals down to the wire, including one for 50 stealthy F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin as a side deal to the Abraham accords inked only moments before Biden was sworn into office.
The Department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending U.S. defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review, the official said.
The F-35 jets are a major component of a $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments from General Atomics, Lockheed and Raytheon Technologies Corp to the United Arab Emirates.
He said he wanted a 'full understanding' of any commitments that may have been made, when asked about F-35 jet sales to the United Arab Emirates and arms to Saudi Arabia.
On a post-earnings conference call with investors on Tuesday, Raytheon's management said 'with the change in administration, it becomes less likely that we're going to be able to get a license' for a direct commercial sale of offensive weapons worth about $500 million to a Middle East customer.
'The UAE will work closely with the Biden administration on a comprehensive approach to Middle East peace and stability,' the UAE ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, said in a statement posted on the Embassy Twitter account.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Joe Biden freezes billions of dollars of arms sales to the Middle East including F-35s to the UAE
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