A controversy suddenly broke out in Israel yesterday over a report that the Israel-U.A.E. normalization deal includes a secret clause allowing the U.A.E. to buy the F-35 stealth fighter from the U.S.. “The clause lifts long-standing Israeli opposition to the sale of the strategic weapons systems to other countries in the region, according to U.S. and Emirati sources,” reported Ynetnews (the publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth) yesterday morning.
The story was immediately denounced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The peace agreement with the U.A.E. does not include any clause of this kind, and the U.S. has made clear to Israel that it will always ensure that Israel has the qualitative advantage,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement tweeted by Netanyahu, who also denounced the Ynet report as “completely fake news.”
Ynet then ran another story claiming that a senior official in the U.A.E. confirmed the existence of the clause. According to the source, Israel, the U.S. and the U.A.E. agreed to improve the military capability of the kingdom as part of the peace agreement, Ynet reported.
