The United Arab Emirates is threatening to withdraw from a $23 billion deal to buy American-made F-35 fighter jets, Reaper drones and other advanced munitions, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The report quoted US officials as saying that the Gulf ally complained that the US security requirements were too burdensome.
The F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the US State Department, and the UAE Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Informed sources told Reuters in January that the UAE had signed an agreement with the United States to buy 50 F-35s and up to 18 armed drones.
The UAE, one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East, has long expressed interest in acquiring Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth aircraft, and was promised an opportunity to buy the jets in a side deal when Abu Dhabi agreed to normalize relations with Israel in August. 2020.
On December 4, an official in the UAE Ministry of Defense said that a deal to buy French Rafale combat aircraft would be a complement to the agreement to buy F-35 aircraft, and not a substitute for it.