The United States has approved additonal $7 billion in weapons for the United Arab Emirates.
The State Department is supposedly not required to announce publicly under U.S arms export rules, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
This comes on top of over $16.5 billion in arms sales to three West Asian countries, announced earlier Thursday.
The unannounced deals include $5.6 billion in Patriot PAC-3 missiles and $1.32 billion in CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the UAE, per the Journal, citing U.S. officials, sales were kept quiet as expansions of prior agreements, as per Reuters.
The Trump administration has greenlit nearly $23 billion in arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan, per a Wall Street Journal report.
These include over $16 billion in air-defence systems, munitions, and radar gear, plus an extra $7 billion in weapons for the UAE.
Some deals bypassed standard disclosure by invoking the emergency clause in U.S. arms control law.
This provisional arms sale aims to strengthen Gulf nations’ defences amid Iran’s expanded attacks on regional energy sites, retaliation for Israel’s strikes on its gas facilities this week.
The proposed sale would enhance the countries’ ability to counter current and future threats while boosting interoperability with U.S. Joint Forces and regional allies, per State Department notices, as per a CNBC report.
The United States invoked the U.S. emergency clause, letting the executive branch skip the standard 30-day congressional review, per the report for arms deals.
Earlier, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon sought White House approval for a $200B+ congressional request to fund the Iran war.
Nearly three weeks into U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran—aimed at dismantling Tehran’s “security apparatus”, American forces have hit over 7,800 targets, flown 8,000+ combat sorties, and destroyed 120+ Iranian vessels, per U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The first week alone cost $11 billion; adding the proposed $200 billion request could push total U.S. spending beyond half of Iran’s $356.51 billion 2025 GDP as per Worldometer data.
