Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday denied reports that the peace agreement announced last week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates included Israeli consent to an arms deal between the United States and the UAE, calling it “fake news.”
“The historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates did not include Israel’s consent to any arms deal whatsoever between the United States and the UAE,” according to a statement from his office.
Netanyahu’s remarks came in response to a report by Ynet on Tuesday morning that there was a clause in the normalization agreement allowing the United States to sell the UAE advanced F-35 fighter jets and drones.
“For the left and many in the [Israeli] media, it’s difficult to see an Israeli prime minister from the right deliver true peace: ‘Peace for peace’ and not peace for land. So today they created fake news,” Netanyahu tweeted.
Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed to the United States, including as recently as July 7 in his conversation with U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, Israel’s opposition to the sale of F-35s and other advanced weaponry to any country in the Middle East, said the statement from his office. This included Arab states with which Israel has peace agreements, the statement added.
Netanyahu followed up on July 8 with a letter that was given to Friedman and to be transmitted to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which “he reiterated that Israel’s position remains unchanged even following the reaching of peace agreements.”
Netanyahu also instructed Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer to tell Pompeo in a meeting that Israel opposed the sale of F-35s and other advanced weapons systems to any country in the Middle East, the statement said.