clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Israel rejects selling Iron Dome defence system to UAE

January 29, 2022 at 10:15 am

A picture taken on August 5, 2021, shows an Iron Dome defense system battery, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, in the Hula Valley in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. [JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images]

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 South 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.

The Iron Dome, Israeli military systems which intercept missiles - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The Iron Dome, Israeli military systems which intercept missiles – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

READ: The pro-Israel lobby sees more Palestinian activists walk free from court

This article was corrected on 31 January 2022. ‘North Korean’ was corrected to ‘South Korean’