Qatar has submitted a formal request to the United States to buy stealthyF-35 fighter jets, three people familiar with the deal said, in a deal thatif pursued could strain U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The request for the Lockheed Martin Co jets was submitted by the PersianGulf state in recent weeks, the people said.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said, “As a matter of policy, the UnitedStates does not confirm or comment on proposed defense sales or transfersuntil they are formally notified to Congress.”
The Qatari embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.
Keen to counter Iran in the region, the U.S. helps to arm allies includingQatar, host to the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East, andhome to 8,000 U.S. service members and Department of Defense civilianemployees.
The request follows an August deal between the U.S. and the United ArabEmirates in which Washington agreed to consider giving the Gulf stateapproval to buy F-35s in a side deal to a U.S.-brokered agreement calledthe Abraham Accord to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel.
Israel has signaled stiff opposition to a UAE sale and would likely be justas resistant to one with Qatar, fearing it could undercut its militaryadvantage in the Middle East.
In Washington, a fourth person familiar with the matter said concern aboutQatar’s links to Hamas have frequently surfaced over arms sales to the Gulfstate. But in the case of an advanced warplane like the F-35, it could be adeal breaker.
One of the people said Qatar’s letter of request for the jets, the firstformal step in the legal process of foreign military sale, was not directlylinked to its adoption of the Abraham Accord. Nor has Qatar shown any signit will normalize ties with Israel.
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U.S. and Qatar have close ties. In September Secretary of State Mike Pompeoand Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met inWashington as the U.S. hopes to move forward with naming Qatar as a majornon-NATO ally.
Despite being U.S. allies, both the potential Qatari and UAE F-35 dealsmust satisfy a decades-old agreement with Israel that states any U.S.weapons sold to the region must not impair Israel’s “qualitative militaryedge,” guaranteeing U.S. weapons furnished to Israel are “superior incapability” to those sold to its neighbors.
Saudi Arabia, Washington’s most powerful and closest partner among the GulfArab states, is also likely to oppose the United States supplying F-35s toQatar. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt remainlocked in a three-year standoff with Qatar that the Trump administrationhas tried to end, so far without success.
A formal letter of request typically contains specifications that would beused to furnish pricing data to a customer, but currently the F-35A, afifth generation stealthy fighter jet, costs around $80 million.
Any F-35 sale could take years to negotiate and deliver, giving a new U.S.presidential administration ample time to halt the deals. Any sale wouldalso need congressional approval.
Poland, the most recent F-35 customer, purchased 32 of the jets, but willnot receive its first delivery until 2024.
Courtesy: Yeni Safak
