Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says Saudi Arabia and Qatar will also ask for, and receive, the F-35 fighter “sooner or later.”
Israel’s agreement to the US sale of the advanced fighters to the United Arab Emirates after the normalization agreement between them has been controversial in the country.
Steinitz tells Ynet such sales are inevitable. “The Americans in the past sold the most advanced F-15s and F-16s. They sold AWACS planes, even though Israel didn’t like it,” he says.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 29, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
“The Russians and the Chinese also build stealth fighters. In the end, if the Saudis and Emiratis don’t buy from the US, they’ll buy from them.
“In the end, there are American interests, and they take care of them.”
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