Arms Sale Resolution

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, over the last 4 years, we have seen a series of encouraging developments in the Middle East--a place where there isn't a long trend line of positive developments.

We have destroyed the ISIS caliphate. We have brought down dangerous terrorist leaders like al-Baghdadi and, of course, the head of the IRGC, Soleimani, who was personally responsible for American blood on his hands, particularly providing explosives that penetrated our armor in Iraq.

Through congressional action and the work of the Trump administration, we strengthened bilateral ties with our closest friends and allies, including Israel and Jordan. This summer, the administration helped forge historic peace deals between Israel and Arab nations in the region. The United Arab Emirates became the third Arab country and first Gulf State to recognize and normalize relations with Israel by the signing of the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement. It was only a matter of days until Bahrain followed suit and announced its agreement with Israel to open formal diplomatic negotiations.

These historic breakthroughs represent serious progress in our efforts to fight terrorism and establish lasting peace and stability in the Middle East. While more work obviously remains, it is great to see the mounting pressure against Iran--the region's greatest antagonist and largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Last month, the Trump administration announced that it intended to sell arms to our friends in the United Arab Emirates--a move that I support. This will help the UAE work with the United States and our friends to deter and defend these threats from Iran and other hostilities in the region. What it seems to me is that it focused everybody's attention on the recognition that Iran represents the single biggest destabilizing and dangerous influence in the Middle East today, and it is the recognition that they are the common adversary of not only the Arab nations in the region but also the United States and our ally Israel that has, I think, brought them to the negotiating table.

As Iran grows increasingly belligerent toward the United States and our allies, these military assets that we will sell to our friends in the UAE will serve as a stabilizing force, a force multiplier, and a source of protection for the United States and our security interests. We have learned a hard lesson that American boots on the ground is something we want to do as a last resort. But if we can work by, with, and through our friends and allies to provide that security and stability against a common enemy, we should do it.

The arms sale will allow greater military cooperation between the United States, the UAE, and Israel and strengthen a growing coalition of aligned forces in the region. It will also make sure the United States remains the partner of choice.

It is not as if the United States is the only one that has a say. Obviously, if we don't provide them the military equipment they need, they will go looking for other sellers, and that would certainly be less desirable for us and for them because we are their partner of choice in the region. Russia and particularly China have sought to increase their malign influence in the Middle East, and they would be more than happy to fill the void left by any refusal on the part of the United States to make this sale. So blocking this sale would only strengthen the position of China and Russia, while significantly weakening our own.

As we continue to make progress in the decades-long quest for peace and stability in the Middle East, I support the administration's strategic decision to sell arms to the UAE. This would provide the UAE with critical national security assets, such as access to the F-35 fifth-generation fighter, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other advanced munitions to act as a deterrent, and if worse comes to worse, it actually gives them a comparative advantage with other countries in the region.

The Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, perhaps summed it up best when he said:

What keeps me up at night is actually not the proposed F-35 sale to the Emirates. What keeps me up at night is the idea that somebody would return to the nuclear deal with Iran

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