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The UAE's decision to suspend the purchase of F-35 fighters is another sign that Washington's allies are trying to reduce their dependence on US military power, which is dwindling due to stress in a multipolar world, according to several analysts.
Abu Dhabi earlier this week suspended talks over a $23 billion deal to buy 50 F-35 stealth aircraft, as well as drones and advanced munitions. It was said that strict US restrictions to protect the plane from Chinese espionage were the main motivation for the UAE's decision.
A US administration official told reporters last Friday that the two sides were still trying to resolve concerns about the agreement, including some requests made by the UAE during the Trump administration.\
Former UK ambassador to Syria Peter Ford said Washington's "arrogant" demands, such as disabling any capability the plane might have that could harm Israel, gave the UAE good excuses to walk out of the deal.
He added that the UAE hates the threads the US wants to attach that would ensure "even in theory" that the acquisition would not diminish Israel's military superiority.
"The Emiratis, rich but not stupid, used this gaffe as an excuse to stop the deal," Ford said.
Moreover, Ford added, the UAE is not willing to pay a high price for the combat aircraft while modern wars are now about drones, as evidenced by the Iranian attack on a Saudi oil facility in 2019 and Turkey's use of advanced drones to stop the Syrian government from advancing in Idlib last year.
“Even if the deal goes ahead, I would expect the price of the plane now to drop significantly,” the former ambassador said.
A multipolar world Ford also said the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is another development that likely helped change the UAE's thinking about the F-35 deal. “The withdrawal has forced all the Gulf states to realize that making their security entirely dependent on the United States is unwise, and that a détente with Iran is a better way to ensure their security than becoming more and more beholden to the United States,” Ford said.
Historian and political analyst Dan Lazar believes that the main problem for the United States is "imperial overextension" - a fact that allies like the UAE are beginning to fully realize.
Lazar explained that the US military was theoretically equipped to fight a war on two fronts on both sides of the globe. However, he warned, the United States now faces the prospect of fighting on three fronts: the South China Sea / The Taiwan Strait, the Persian Gulf, and in and around the Black Sea. "The weakness of the United States is increasingly evident and other countries are starting to make alternative arrangements in response," Lazar told Sputnik.
Lazar said India's agreement to meet with Russia and China and its recent decision to produce 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles under a Russian license are two examples of this phenomenon. He said recent security talks between Russia and Indonesia fall into the same category, as do the emerging Sino-Iranian military partnership and the new alliance between China and Nicaragua. “All of these are examples of small to medium-sized countries waking up to the fact that the United States is no longer the only player and that they are now free to look for partners elsewhere,” Lazar said.
Unipolarity fades, whether the United States likes it or not.” US tensions with the UAE over F-35s and drones reflected the same general trend. In fact, Lazar said, the UAE has long pursued a relatively independent policy toward the United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia. “This is how Abu Dhabi bucked Washington by supporting [President] Bashar al-Assad in Syria and [Marshal] Khalifa Haftar in Libya and by siding with Russian foreign policy in both countries as well,” Lazar said. It intervened in Yemen and supported the military “coup” in Sudan, both of which are causing panic in Washington.
Lazar cautioned that negotiations over the F-35 sale would certainly continue for the time being, but the UAE's statement this week marked a real change in Washington's standing in the region. He concluded, “There is no doubt that the talks will continue as the two sides try to reach an interim settlement. But the message is clear: Multipolarity has arrived, and the Persian Gulf is no longer an American lake.
https://www.defense-arabic.com/2021/12/19/لماذا-ألغت-الإمارات-صفقة-طائرات-إف-35-بق/
