Dubai: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) does not expect to resume talks with the US on a multibillion-dollar deal to buy F-35 fighter jets, regardless of who wins the US presidential election in November, a senior UAE official said. He said.

The United Arab Emirates plans to resume negotiations to buy F-35s and armed drones if Donald Trump wins a second term as president, a leading media outlet reported on Friday.

Trump signed a deal to allow the purchase in the final days of his presidency in 2021, but the United Arab Emirates broke off negotiations at the end of that year, unable to agree with the current Biden administration.

The UAE has long sought a sophisticated fighter jet built with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection.

If the US approves the transfer, the UAE will become the second Middle Eastern state after Israel to operate F-35s.

A UAE official said on Saturday that the same factors that led to the suspension of talks in 2021 had not changed and that the government had no plans to reopen talks.

“Technical requirements, sovereign operational constraints and cost/benefit analysis led to a reevaluation at the time, and those considerations support our current position.”

The official did not comment on the possibility of new negotiations to buy the armed drones.