UH-60M Blackhawk Helicopter (Lockheed Martin Corp)

BEIRUT: The US is moving forward with its $23.3 billion arms sale to the UAE, as well as with deals to sell modified UH-60M Blackhawk helos and THAAD batteries to Saudi Arabia.

This is a clear sign that the review of all arms sales to the region was a cautionary move at the start of a new administration, officials tell Breaking Defense. However, Washington has yet to prove its commitment to help allies in the region defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity “with as much offensive as defensive weapons,” they add.

The State Department temporary halted weapons sales to the region back in January,, including F-35 fighter jets and MQ-9 Reaper drones to Abu Dhabi. That deal was approved by Washington as part of the Abraham Accords, as was the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh.

Back in September 2020, a joint peace deal was signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the United States – known also as the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement – which includes a full normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Today, the administration plans to proceed with the sale of 50 stealthy fighters and 18 battle-ready drones to the UAE as it “continues reviewing details and consulting with Emirati officials” related to the use of the weapons, a State Department spokesperson said on April 14.

“We will also continue to reinforce with the UAE and all recipients of US defense articles and services that US-origin defense equipment must be adequately secured and used in a manner that respects human rights and fully complies with the laws of armed conflict,” the statement added.

For Saudi Arabia, things look less clear. Back in February, it was reported that the Biden administration was considering halting transfer of offensive arms to the Kingdom, based on concerns about Saudi human rights violations in Yemen.

But the US is now moving forward with arms sales, including the THAAD ballistic defense missile and Blackhawk choppers.

“First, there is the question of the nature of the arms, how and what purpose do they serve,” Yasmine Farouk, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told me in an interview.

“Second, the U.S. continues to systematically state its commitment to the defense of Saudi Arabia so I don’t think arms transfers in general will completely stop, not only for political, security and strategic reasons, but also for economic reasons.”

It is also clear that President Biden has backed off his pledge as a presidential candidate to treat the Saudis as “the pariahs that they are”.

“Saudi Arabia has taken actions to show it is ready to change the policies that provoked condemnation over the past few years, and this administration, like all previous ones, wants to continue working with Riyadh, at least for now,” Farouk added.

The Pentagon recently awarded Lockheed Martin a nearly $1 billion contract to begin work on a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ballistic missile defense package for the kingdom, including 44 batteries and 360 missile interceptors. It has also approved the sale of 25 modified UH-60M helicopters for the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG), worth $99 million under a previous FMS contract to sell a total of 57 helos to the Kingdom.

Bilal Saab, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and former Pentagon official in charge of security cooperation in the Middle East, believes that selling only defensive weapons makes no sense, strategically speaking.

“The way we and our NATO allies do it is focus on deterrence, and to actually establish an effective deterrence you need to pair your defensive capabilities with offensive capabilities,” he told me. “Why should we expect the Saudis to do it any differently?”

Farouk agrees. “I believe that the Biden administration’s emphasis on values and human rights in foreign policy means that countries in the region have to avoid gross human rights violations and aggression in their domestic and foreign policies if they want to continue enjoying U.S. security cooperation,” she said.

“But there is a tension between the administration’s emphasis on those values and its de-emphasis of the Middle East as an area where the U.S. will be actively engaged, beyond the stated objective of countering China and Russia, as well as Iran,” she added.

Another important fact is that the US continuously aims at being the biggest provider of sales in the region. “The decision to resume arms sales falls directly in line with their arms sales race with other countries,” Saab said.

Just recently, Rep. Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, stressed the fact that Russia is entering into a “disturbing number of arms sales and strategic agreements” with African nations, while China is using its Belt and Road Initiative to extract African natural resources.

“The Chinese Communist Party is building its first overseas military base on the strategically import Horn of Africa.  Alarmingly, it’s only a few miles away from our own base,” he said in a statement. “Given the increased role China and Russia are playing in Africa, and its geostrategic importance, it is imperative we continue to make investments there.”

Knowing how the US has sold arms for more than 40 years in the Middle East, Saab’s suspicion is that there is no policy shift here, but rather a preference that is couched in political terms. “The industry is too powerful and the system is so robust and rigid that it really doesn’t allow for significant changes,” he said.

The decision to sell weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia is is also a clear message to Iran to prod it get to engage in talks over its nuclear file.

“Tehran does not seem in a hurry to return to the negotiating table so we find president Biden tending to find a major political statement to present to the American public after Tehran’s delay in accepting any initiative from Washington,” Abdullah Al Jenaid, a Bahraini strategic expert and political researcher, said. Hence, “the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan in September and authorize arms deals for both the UAE and KSA.”