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The administration of President Joe Biden has put a temporary hold on several major foreign arms sales initiated by former President Donald Trump. The White House officials said that a massive $23 billion transfer of stealth F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates are among the deals being paused. There are several other massive purchases of US weaponry by Gulf Arab countries, had been harshly criticized by Democrats in the US Congress. The officials didn’t identify the other sales that had been temporarily halted. The US State Department said the new administration is reviewing the sales but hasn’t made any determination about whether they will actually go through. The department said, “The department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending US defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review”.

The State Department called the pause as a routine administrative action that most incoming administrations take with large-scale arms sales. The department said, “This is a routine administrative action typical to most any transition, and demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring US arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners”. Point to be noted that the Trump administration authorized tens of billions of dollars in new arms sales, including announcing plans to send 50 F-35s to the UAE. That announcement came shortly after Trump lost the 6^th November election to now-President Joe Biden. It followed the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE under which the Arab states agreed to normalize relations with Israel.

It is noteworthy that the US Congressional critics have expressed disapproval with such sales, including a major deal with Saudi Arabia, that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed through after bypassing lawmakers by declaring an emergency required it. The critics have alleged the weapons could be used to prosecute Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which is the home of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. US Senators argued the sale of the defense equipment had unfolded too quickly and with too many questions. The administration has billed it as a way to deter Iran, but UAE would have become the first Arab nation, and only the 2^nd country in the Middle East, after Israel to possess the stealth warplanes.