An F-35 fighter plane flies over the White House on June 12, 2019, in Washington DC. US President Joe Biden administration is sending a team of senior officials to the Middle East this week as the president seeks to ease allies’ concerns over Iranian nuclear talks and address issues involving the United Arab Emirates’ planned purchase of the F-35 joint strike fighter. (ERIC BARADAT / AFP)
The Biden administration is sending a team of senior officials to the Middle East this week as the president seeks to ease allies’ concerns over Iranian nuclear talks and address issues involving the United Arab Emirates’ planned purchase of the F-35 joint strike fighter.
The team of officials from the State Department, National Security Council (NSC) and Defense Department will be led by NSC Middle East policy coordinator Brett McGurk and State Department counselor Derek Chollet, according to several people familiar with the plans. Tentative plans call for visiting Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Jordan, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the trip isn’t public.
The group’s visit comes amid deepening unease among American allies in the region that President Joe Biden will neglect them as he looks to reorient US foreign policy. They’re also worried by his bid to bring the US back into the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that former President Donald Trump abandoned.
An administration official, who asked not to be identified discussing diplomatic matters, said the delegation will discuss important issues tied to US national security and continuing efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. Officials from the State Department declined to comment.
One official said the US has concerns about UAE technology security assurances that need to be addressed or clarified before the jet sale is completed. The stealthy F-35 is the most visible part of a potential US$23 billion arms package that could take years to complete
Other members of the US delegation include Joey Hood, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, according to the people.
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Many of America’s Middle East allies have chafed at Biden’s repeated promise to restore US alliances globally given that some of them – especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel – enjoyed and benefited from close ties with Trump’s administration.
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Biden has kept some of those allies at arm’s length. He waited weeks after taking office before speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and signaled that his administration would recalibrate relations with Saudi Arabia. In one of his early foreign policy moves, Biden declassified and released a report that implicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman — the kingdom’s de facto ruler — in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Prince Mohammed dismissed a question about the status of US ties in an interview with local television on Tuesday night, saying “There will never be 100 percent agreement between two countries” but adding that he thinks the two nations are in accord about 90 percent of the time.
Another element of the Mideast trip is tied to the Biden administration’s decision to proceed with the sale of the next-generation F-35 jet to the UAE.
Upon taking office in January, the administration announced a review of the potential US$10.4 billion, 50-jet sale approved in the final days of the Trump administration, after the UAE and Israel reached a historic peace accord. The administration is allowing the sale to go forward.
Specifically, one official said the US has concerns about UAE technology security assurances that need to be addressed or clarified before the jet sale is completed. The stealthy F-35 is the most visible part of a potential US$23 billion arms package that could take years to complete.
In a sign of the importance of the issue, Biden aide and former Ambassador to the UAE Barbara Leaf is planning a separate trip to the Gulf nation. Leaf has overseen Middle East affairs at the NSC and is Biden’s nominee to become assistant secretary of state for the region.
Senator James Risch, the top Republican on the foreign relations panel, said in a statement that the “US rightly demands serious security commitments from all F-35 international partners, including UAE. I’ll be closely overseeing the implementation of these security arrangements with UAE, and ensuring they live up to their commitments.”
Still, one key US official with a direct stake in the outcome of the UAE sale says he’s satisfied with the Biden administration’s approach.
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“We will depend upon the UAE to exercise the appropriate precaution with the F-35, and I know that our government has been in close negotiations” with the Gulf nation about those procedures, the head of US Central Command, Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, told Pentagon reporters last week. “I am comfortable that we’re in a good place.”