{"id":51950,"date":"2021-01-12T15:39:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T15:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/12\/lawsuit-threatens-23b-weapons-sale-to-uae\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:47:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:47:44","slug":"lawsuit-threatens-23b-weapons-sale-to-uae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/01\/12\/lawsuit-threatens-23b-weapons-sale-to-uae\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit threatens $23B weapons sale to UAE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 A small, 2-year-old nonprofit think tank has taken a step that most advocacy organizations never dare try: It has sued the U.S. State Department to derail a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/mideast-africa\/2020\/11\/10\/uae-purchase-of-f-35-mq-9-officially-cleared-by-state-department\/\" target=_blank>$23 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a legal claim announced last month, the New York Center For Foreign Policy Affairs asserted that the Trump administration failed to provide a reasonable explanation for its decision to sell F-35 fighter jets and other weapons to the UAE, which places it in breach of the Administrative Procedure Act. It has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to find the sale invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case is unusual, as is the theory of the case, but so is the Trump administration\u2019s approach to the sale, said Brittany Benowitz, a legal expert on human rights and arms trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such legal challenges rarely succeed, but if this one does, it could halt the deal even if Washington and Abu Dhabi follow through with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/mideast-africa\/2021\/01\/08\/uae-f-35-contracts-expected-to-be-signed-before-end-of-trump-admin\/\" target=_blank>plans to sign contracts in the waning days of the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you can say this deal was executed improperly and the contractor was on notice of that, which they are, then I think you can say it\u2019s possible to stop the sale before delivery,\u201d Benowitz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The State Department declined to comment on the pending litigation, in line with its policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new lawsuit against the State Department came after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/12\/09\/amid-veto-threat-senate-rejects-ban-on-trumps-big-uae-arms-sale\/\" target=_blank>failed attempt in Congress<\/a> to block the sale of 50 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 aircraft, 18 General Atomics-made MQ\u20139B Reaper drones and Raytheon Technologies-made munitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/01\/11\/incoming-foreign-relations-chairman-is-foe-of-trumps-massive-mideast-arms-sales\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1150817582.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Incoming Foreign Relations chairman is foe of Trump\u2019s massive Mideast arms sales<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, who clashed with the Trump administration over its arms sales in the Mideast, rejection of Cold War arms control treaties and its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, is poised to become the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senate narrowly rejected a challenge to the sale amid arguments from the administration that the sales would make the UAE more interoperable with partners and defend itself from \u201cheightened threats from Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Opponents said the fast-tracked process was incomplete, leaving questions about the security of U.S. weapons technology, the potential of sparking a Middle Eastern arms race, and the potential for the weapons to be used in Yemen and Libya; these arguments were echoed in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The State Department came under scrutiny for irregularities in a previous sale. Its inspector general, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/09\/16\/state-department-defends-firing-of-ig-who-probed-saudi-arms-sales\/\" target=_blank>later fired<\/a>, found that a separate \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2019\/05\/24\/trump-pushes-through-bomb-sales-over-congress-objections-dems-warn-of-repercussions-for-industry\/\" target=_blank>emergency<\/a>\u201d sale of $8 billion in precision-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE failed to \u201cfully assess\u201d or mitigate the risk of civilian casualties in Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To boot, Saudi Arabia and the UAE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/05\/22\/world\/state-department-uae-arms-sale-yemen-intl\/index.html\" target=_blank>reportedly<\/a> breached arms sale agreements with the U.S. by transferring American materiel to al-Qaida-linked fighters and other militant factions in Yemen. Lawmakers have also called for an an investigation into reporting that the UAE may have transferred American-made Javelin anti-armor missiles to the Libyan National Army in violation of a United Nations arms embargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re saying is that the State Department rushed this through without congressional oversight, they didn\u2019t follow their own rules and they didn\u2019t apply the same metrics that would guide approval to others,\u201d said Justin Russell, the director of the New York Center For Foreign Policy Affairs. The organization conducts advocacy and research on the conflicts in Libya and Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCongress tried to block [the sale] on the same merits and when that legislation failed, we said, \u2018Wait a minute, we\u2019ve got to stand up and do something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Administrative Procedure Act allows a court to \u201chold unlawful and set aside any agency action &#8230; found to be in arbitrary, capricious, an abseils of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here, the lawsuit argues the State Department didn\u2019t find, as required under the Arms Export Control Act, that the sale \u201cwill strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace\u201d \u2015 or present \u201ca reasoned explanation\u201d for its actions as required by the Administrative Procedure Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2020\/10\/09\/will-trump-sell-f-35s-to-uae-congress-wants-him-to-show-his-work\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1272677693.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Will Trump sell F-35s to the UAE? Congress wants him to show his work.<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The US F-35 sale to UAE is moving at &#039;breakneck speed,&#039; but it may slow to a halt on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2019, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade won a U.K. Court of Appeal ruling to ban new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The government has since renewed sales, and CAAT applied for judicial review into the legality of the U.K. government\u2019s decision to renew arms sales to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the U.S., there has not been a successful court case of targeting government-to-government sales in recent years, according to Benowitz. What\u2019s also unusual about the New York Center For Foreign Policy Affairs\u2019 approach is that it doesn\u2019t rely on a human rights argument but rather points to aberrations in the process \u2015 particularly past end-use violations that ought to have have disqualified the UAE, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere have been court challenges to arms sales in the past on human rights grounds, but this challenge on national security grounds under the Administrative Procedure Act is unprecedented,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s rare because we have never had a record of irregularities like the one we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Benowitz\u2019s reckoning, if a finalized deal is invalidated in the courts and it is found that the deal never should have been entered in the first place, its unlikely the U.S. could be penalized financially by the UAE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo get a remedy, or damages, under contract law, you have to have \u2018clean hands,\u2019 so it would be difficult for the Emiratis to recoup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A small, 2-year-old nonprofit think tank has taken a step that most advocacy organizations never dare try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,11,47,36,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446],"class_list":["post-51950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-newsletters","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4YL5AE4VWVGJJNI4EWRU4JFWCY","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2021\/01\/12\/lawsuit-threatens-23b-weapons-sale-to-uae\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lawsuit threatens $23B weapons sale to UAE - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A small, 2-year-old nonprofit think tank has taken a step that most advocacy organizations never dare try.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawsuit threatens $23B weapons sale to UAE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A small, 2-year-old nonprofit think tank has taken a step that most advocacy organizations never dare try.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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