[ MEMO ] Israel rejects selling Iron Dome defence system to UAE
Israeli security agencies have rejected selling the Iron Dome and David’s Sling Weapons System to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel Hayom and Maariv reported military analysts revealing on Friday.
According to Maariv, military analyst Alon Ben David said that the Israeli security agencies rejected the potentiality to sell developed technologies to its new partners, referring to the Arab countries that have signed Abraham Accords.
Meanwhile, Yoav Limor told Israel Hayom that Israel is afraid that selling this technology to the UAE means secrets could be passed to a third-party state.
“Mossad, which paved the way for the normalisations, has begged the security agencies to stop looking at these countries as ‘Arabs’,” Ben David explained.
According to Ben David, the Israeli Defence Ministry has retracted its decision not to sell defence systems to the UAE: “It has sold cyber technology but refrained from selling air defence systems.”
Therefore, the UAE was obliged to buy North Korean defence systems with Russian technologies.
Ben David estimated that Israel lost $4.5 billion after rejecting military deals with the UAE, suggesting that Israel propose its defence systems to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
DPA Notes: I think its wise to not rush into selling all their cutting edge military hardware as the normalisation of relations is still rather raw (new).
It would be wiser for relationships to be deepened over years of trust, cooperation and partnership before Israel can take a more “relax stance” towards their “new friends”.