US Unveils $1.4BN Weapons Sale To UAE Just Before Trump Visit

Oil, weapons, the United States, and the Gulf Arab monarchies… the foundation of relations, the ‘bread and butter’ going back at least half-a-century which is still going strong. 

With President Donald Trump kicking off his Mideast tour in Saudi Arabia, and set to travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next, the State Department has unveiled a weapons sale of over $1.4 billion to the United Arab Emirates.

“The sale, which the State Department said was approved and notified to Congress, includes $1.3 billion for Chinook helicopters and $130 million for parts and support for F-16 fighter jets,” CNN writes.

The UAE will be the final stop in Trump’s Middle East tour, or what the White House described as his “historic return to the Middle East”.

Of course, major arms sale are also expected for Saudi Arabia – and the UAE and Saudis often act in concert when it comes to defense needs, as was the case during the coalition’s war on Yemen in the last decade.

The Republican-led Congress, meanwhile, hasn’t done much and likely isn’t planning to do much else in the opening months of the Trump administration – other than perhaps rubber stamp these massive Gulf arms deals.

However, there will some scant level of pushback:

“This year, Democratic lawmakers — who are in the minority in both houses of Congress — have opposed arms sales to the UAE,” CNN notes. “In January, Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Sara Jacobs called out the UAE for providing weapons to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan.”

“On Monday, the same day the latest sale was announced, Sen. Chris Murphy said he would seek to block sales to the UAE over an Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm’s $2 billion investment in Trump’s crypto venture,” the same report says.

The UAE arms deal is also expected to include aerial support equipment such as engines, missile warning systems, in-flight refueling capabilities, and mounted machine guns – along with other aircraft parts.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a statement that the arms transfer aims to “support the foreign policy and national security of the United States” by bolstering the defense capabilities of Washington ally, the UAE.