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Senate to Vote on Blocking $23 Billion UAE Arms Sale

Although unlikely to survive a presidential veto, the vote signals growing activism within Congress on foreign weapons sales.

By Colm Quinn

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to the media on Dec. 8, 2020.

December 9, 2020, 6:06 AM

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: The U.S. Senate votes on whether to block an arms sale to the UAE, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet for last-ditch Brexit talks, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Azerbaijan.

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Senate Votes on Whether to Block UAE Arms Sale

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote today on whether to block a $23 billion arms and ammunition sale to the United Arab Emirates, in a further sign of strained ties between the U.S. Congress and U.S. allies in the Middle East. The vote was spurred after the White House informed Congress of the sale—which includes 50 F-35 fighter jets—in November. The deal follows the White House-brokered Abraham Accords, in which the UAE and Israel normalized ties.

Responding to a tweet by Sen. Chris Murphy on Dec. 3, the UAE’s Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba summed up why he believes the sale is necessary. “In the world’s most dangerous neighborhood, it is critical for our protection and for our shared interests and values with the U.S.,” he wrote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made his views clear. “It’s a little baffling to suggest that, now of all times, a protest gesture with no chance of obtaining a veto-proof majority is a valuable use of the Senate’s time,” he said, adding that “the strategic realities dictate that Congress should not stand in the way of this sale.”

In the face of a Senate revolt, the White House has reportedly launched a late lobbying effort to convince lawmakers to reject the resolution, with one Democratic aide telling CNN, “the fact that the White House is doing such a full-court press suggests they are nervous about vote count.”

Mattis as lobbyist? And in a week where former generals and their influence on U.S. defense policy is in the spotlight after President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for secretary of defense, another former Pentagon chief and military officer is weighing in. The Huffington Post reports that James Mattis, President Donald Trump’s first defense secretary, has been drafted by the UAE ambassador to assuage senators’ concerns about the deal.

External criticism. Outside of Congress, the deal has come in for bipartisan criticism. Writing in the American Conservative, Daniel Larison called the sale “outrageous,” accusing the UAE of being “reckless and destructive in its regional conduct.”

“A vote for the F-35s to the UAE is a vote for endless war for a very simple reason: The UAE doesn’t need F-35s to protect itself—it needs them to oblige the U.S. to defend the UAE and to sustain its military dominion over the Mideast,” Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, said in a statement.

Regional issues. The vote also comes at an awkward time for the UAE and its relationship with the U.S. defense establishment. A report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General for counterterrorism operations in Africa issued in late November said that the UAE was apparently financing Russian mercenaries in Libya. FP’s Amy Mackinnon and Jack Detsch reported on the claim, which Amb. Otaiba described as “vague and unsubstantiated.”

What comes next? If the House and Senate do not approve the weapons sale, Trump can always use his veto power to revive it. Whether the Senate has the votes to override that veto will become clearer following today’s vote. Similar measures to block support for Saudi Arabia and the UAE failed in 2019 after Congress failed to override a presidential veto.

What We’re Following Today

Last-ditch dinner. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called the likelihood of reaching a deal between his government and the European Union “very, very difficult” ahead of a make-or-break dinner meeting in Brussels with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today. The prime minister’s trip comes as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told a closed-door meeting of the bloc’s ministers that it was now more likely that the United Kingdom would exit the Brexit transition without a trade deal.

The British government has shown signs of a desire for compromise after it dropped controversial clauses in legislation that would have breached the initial Brexit terms. “Hopefully this is a signal that the British government is in deal-making mood,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

Erdogan in Azerbaijan. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Azerbaijan for a two-day visit, beginning with a victory parade in the capital of Baku. The celebratory atmosphere in Azerbaijan after their successful military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh is a contrast to the scene in Armenia, where hundreds filled the streets of the capital Yerevan on Tuesday, continuing calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Opposition parties advised Pashinyan to resign by noon on Tuesday or face widespread unrest, a deadline that Pashinyan has ignored.

Eritrean troops in Ethiopia? Eritrean forces have crossed the border into Ethiopia to assist in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, according to a Reuters report. The report, citing unnamed regional diplomats, said that Eritrean forces entered Ethiopia through three border towns in mid-November. The alleged incursion would back up the justification the TPLF used while launching rocket attacks against the Eritrean capital of Asmara in November. Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed has dismissed the report as “propaganda.”

Keep an Eye On

Paying the price of a pandemic. A policy proposal that could become attractive for governments in wealthy countries has emerged in the United Kingdom as a group of tax experts and economists has called for a one-off wealth tax on households worth more than £1 million (about $1.3 million) in order to offset the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The group, brought together by the London School of Economics and Warwick University, calls for a 1 percent levy on assets above £1 million, which could raise £260 billion over five years. The gap between rich and poor during the pandemic has been seen in some purchasing trends. For example, sales of luxury jewelry have increased over the course of the pandemic.

Hackers target cyber firm. FireEye, one of the world’s leading cybersecurity firms, has been hacked by what it called a “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.” Hackers reportedly gained access to cyber tools used by the company to detect vulnerabilities in their client’s networks. The company has been hired by companies following large-scale security breaches, such as in the cases of Sony and Equifax, and had also consulted with the U.S. government following intrusions by Russian hackers in 2015. FireEye did not name which country may have been responsible for the hack, but the New York Times reports that the case has been referred to Russia specialists at the F.B.I.

Netanyahu rival leaves Likud. Gideon Saar, a onetime party rival to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resigned from Likud in order to form his own political party, potentially becoming a spoiler if Israel decides to hold elections in the new year. In announcing the move, Saar equated support for Netanyahu among Likud supporters as a “personality cult.” A Likud statement said Saar’s departure was due to his poor performance in a leadership primary last December, when Netanyahu handily defeated Saar by a 42 percent margin.

Odds and Ends

Although it’s not quite as bad as the mayor of Austin, Texas advising residents on coronavirus safety from a beachside resort in Mexico, it appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin might have also embraced the freedom of remote working—with a twist. A report from Russian outlet Proyekt Media claims that Putin has been spending time at the Black Sea resort of Sochi without attracting public notice by working out of an office identical to his one in Moscow. Proyekt analyzed flight tracking data and compared images of the alleged twin offices in making the claim. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rubbished the report, calling it “stupidity.”

That’s it for today.

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