President Donald Trump said Tuesday he'd have "no problem" selling U.S. F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates after its deal with Israel, as "selling our stuff is good for our country" in terms of jobs.
"They are very wealthy countries for the most part," Trump told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" about countries in the Middle East. "Some are extraordinarily like the UAE, and they would like to buy some fighter jets and I personally would have no problem with it. Some people do, they say well maybe they go to war."
Trump said he knows the UAE's Mohammed Bin Zayed "very well" and he has "absolutely no problem" selling him the warplanes.
"I view it as an asset, not a liability, plus, it's tremendous jobs at home," said Trump. "You're talking about a large number of planes."
Trump's comments came before Tuesday's signing at the White House of historic diplomatic deals between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain.
He told Fox News there are many other countries that want to come to the agreements.
"For years and years, these clowns that like to criticize me, well, we disagree," said Trump. "They've been fighting for peace in the Middle East, and then when I came I was told it was an impossible thing."
He added that with all the peace deals happening, the Palestinians will eventually join, and then there will be peace in the Middle East "without being stupid and shooting everybody, and killing everybody, and having blood all over the sand."
If the Palestinians don't come in on a deal, all of their other supporters are, so they will be "left out in the cold" if they don't join, said Trump.
Part of the strategy, he agreed, is to put pressure on the Palestinians.
"The Palestinians are very difficult to deal with and we paid them a tremendous amount of money for many decades," said Trump. "It was bribe money and it was foolish, and I took it away ... they want to make a deal and I'll tell you who else wants to make a deal, Iran wants to make a deal."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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