Netanyahu privately condoned U.S. plan to sell arms to UAE

Zionist regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went along with Washington's plan to sell advanced weapons to the United Arab Emirates behind closed doors, despite his public opposition to the arms deal, The New York Times reported late Thursday, citing officials familiar with the negotiations.

The newspaper reported that Netanyahu willingly chose not to try to block the deal while taking part in the effort to establish diplomatic ties with the UAE at the same time, the sources said. U.S. President Donald Trump announced the normalization deal with Israel last month, without mentioning the arms sale discussions that were taking place between the U.S. and the Emirates concurrently.

The New York Times' sources told the newspaper that Netanyahu lied when he said last month that the agreement to normalize relations with the UAE does not include an Israeli agreement for weapons sales between the Gulf state and the U.S. “The peace agreement with the UAE does not include any clauses on the matter, and the United States clarified to Israel that it will always safeguard Israel’s qualitative edge,” Netanyahu said at the time.

Netanyahu stopped publicly complaining about the sale of weapons to the UAE after meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Al-Quds in August. According to the Times, officials said that Pompeo had brought Netanyahu "back in line."

According to the report, in addition to F-35 fighter jets and Reaper drones, the deal also involves the sale of EA-18G Growler jets, an electronic warfare plane that can jam enemy air defenses. The only other country that possesses the Growler is Australia, the newspaper said.