Al Dhafra Air Base (United Arab Emirates) (AFP)

White House adviser Jared Kushner on Tuesday visited Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi, where American F-35 fighter jets are stationed that the UAE wants to acquire but Israel, their new partner, grumbles.

The son-in-law of US President Donald Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi on Monday at the head of a US-Israeli delegation from Tel Aviv, on a plane from the Israeli company El AL providing the first direct commercial flight between the two countries which announced on August 13 an agreement to normalize their relations.

Israel, which has received deliveries of F-35s in recent years, denied press reports that the deal depended on the sale of the US stealth aircraft to the Emirates.

Historically, Israel has opposed the sale of F-35s to other countries in the Middle East, including Jordan and Egypt - countries with which it has signed peace agreements - because it wants to do so. maintain its technological superiority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the UAE deal did not include a clause on the F-35, saying he had received "guarantees" from the United States that his country's military "advance" would be maintained.

It is the policy of "Qualitative military edge" (QME) - "qualitative military advantage" - applied since the 1960s by the United States, which even engraved it into law two years ago.

Mr. Kushner assured on Monday that the United States intended to maintain this advantage "while advancing our military relations with the Emirates", specifying that the subject would be discussed in the coming weeks.

- "Common interest" -

The base of Al Dhafra, the largest air base in the Emirates, houses aircraft of the Emirati, American and French forces.

This is the first in the Middle East where the F-35 has been deployed, in 2019.

"May relations with America continue to grow and together, thanks to their strength, (...) grow as we bring more peace and prosperity to the Middle East and beyond," Mr. Kushner on the military site's guestbook.

If the Emirates are the first Gulf country to normalize their relations with Israel, its neighbors have also forged more and more public links in recent years with the Jewish state out of economic and security interests but also, for some, because of 'a common enmity towards Iran.

Welcoming Kushner and US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien to the air base, Emirati Major General Falah Al Qahtani presented his country as a reliable partner in a "complex and unstable" region. .

"Our relationship is based on a common vision of the threat to our common interests. We are friends. We are strategic partners. We are the same," added the one who is deputy under-secretary at the UAE defense ministry.

- Honeymoon -

A feud over the F-35 could be the first pitfall in the two new partners' honeymoon.

Mr. Netanyahu has clearly opposed the UAE being next on the list of buyers.

And he drove home the point on August 24, in the presence of US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo: "I must simply say that this agreement does not include Israel's acceptance of any agreement on arms."

The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, however said that the issue was "on the table", recalling that Abu Dhabi had expressed its interest in the F-35 for six years.

For Yoel Guzansky, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, the issue is indeed at the center of the Israeli-Emirati agreement seen as an accomplishment of the Trump administration.

"Without the possibility of buying the F-35, (the Emiratis) would not have signed the" standardization agreement, "he told AFP.

© 2020 AFP