Bipartisan group of House representatives introduce legislation formally supporting US-brokered agreements between Israel, UAE and Bahrain.
A bipartisan group of House representatives on Thursday introduced legislation formally supporting the US-brokered agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and calling on other Arab and Muslim states to “support normalization and peace with Israel.”
The resolution also calls to ensure that any weapons sales by the United States to other countries don’t “adversely affect Israel’s ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military”, according to a text quoted by Haaretz.
The bill is sponsored by two Democrats, New York Congressmen Max Rose and Eliot Engel, who serves as the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and two Republicans, Congressman Lee Zeldin, also from New York, and Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas.
The proposed law also stresses “strong support for a negotiated solution to the conflict resulting in two states – a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state – living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.”
Recent reports indicated that, as part of the agreement between Israel and the UAE, the US would be selling F-35s to the UAE
President Donald Trump said during a White House news conference several weeks ago that the UAE was interested in buying F-35 jets.
“They have the money and they would like to order quite a few F-35s,” he added.
A subsequent report indicated that the Trump administration has accelerated a push to sell the F-35 stealth fighter and advanced armed drones to the United Arab Emirates.
After news of the arms sale became public, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu repeatedly denied that he had given assurances to the Trump administration that Israel would not oppose the Emirati arms deal.
A subsequent New York Times report quoted officials who said that Netanyahu privately went along with the plan for the Trump administration to sell advanced weapons to the United Arab Emirates, despite publicly saying later that he opposed the arms deal.
Earlier this week, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomed the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, but also expressed concern over the potential sale of F-35 jets to the UAE.
In a statement, Pelosi vowed to ensure that Israel can maintain its qualitative military edge.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
Content retrieved from: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287573.