PM: Biden’s decision to suspend sale of F-35 to UAE won’t harm peace deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Thursday on US President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend various arms deals with the United Arab Emirates, saying he does not think that will affect Abu Dhabi’s newly-formed relations with Jerusalem.

“I think we are at a point of no return,” Netanyahu said while visiting a Clalit Health Services clinic in Ar’ara, an Arab town in the Wadi Ara region in northern Israel.

“Everyone understands [that] now, after [UAE Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Zayed and Bahrain’s king made the historic step [to normalize ties with Israel], as well as the king of Morocco and Sudan,” he stressed.

“Everyone understands that there are huge benefits [to having ties with Israel]. I think [the arms deal] will go through.”

On Wednesday, the Biden administration suspended the sale of advanced F-35 stealth warplanes to the Gulf state pending further investigation.

The move came on the back of the UAE’s landmark decision to normalize its ties with the Jewish state, brokered by former President Donald Trump, as government sources told Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal that the arms deal is now under review.

On Israeli concerns that the Biden administration will rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Netanyahu asserted that “returning to the existing agreement is a mistake.

“It did not prevent Iran from taking all the money and relief in favor of an occupation campaign in Yemen and Iraq, Syria and Africa. It did not bring us peace but only a brutal occupation and a lot of terrorism. We mustn’t go back to this agreement, it would be a mistake and I hope it will not happen,” Netanyahu stipulated.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.