Kushner: UAE deal with Israel should ‘increase probability’ it gets F-35s

Jared Kushner, President Trumps’s son-in-law and senior adviser, says the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates “should increase the probability” of Abu Dhabi receiving the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

“It’s something we’re reviewing,” Kushner tells CNN of the prospective arms deal, which has raised objections in Israel, with Netanyahu denying that he had agreed to it under Israel’s new treaty with the UAE.

Last week, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told the Atlantic Council that his country’s request to purchase F-35 stealth bombers from the US was not part of the deal with Israel, but that the agreement should remove “any hurdles” to their acquisition.

For years, the United States has denied requests by Arab states to buy advanced American weapons systems, in part due to a longstanding political doctrine involving Israel.

Following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the US Congress promised to preserve Israel’s “qualitative military edge” in the Middle East by considering Jerusalem’s position before selling advanced weapons to the Jewish state’s neighbors.

Today, Kushner says that Washington will “obviously” look at Israel’s “qualitative military edge” before making a decision, “and we’ll do everything in accordance with the right standards, but it’s something that the State Department and the US military is looking at.”