Why It Matters

U.S.-UAE relations are facing several simultaneous pressures. The UAE hosts U.S. forces, has purchased more than $33.5 billion in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) since 1950, and in 2025 was the largest U.S. trading partner by value in the Middle East and North Africa region at roughly $39 billion, with a U.S. trade surplus of $23 billion, according to a new Congressional Research Service report.

The Big Picture

Nearly 90 percent of the high-purity aluminum used in the United States to manufacture certain defense equipment, including fighter aircraft, comes from the UAE, and Emirates Global Aluminum's main smelter requires an estimated $400 million in repairs, with a return to full operation not expected until 2027. Iran also struck Al Dhafra Air Base, used by U.S. and French forces, and damaged the U.S. Consulate General in Dubai.

For Congress, the CRS report describes a conflict between the strategic value of the defense partnership and United Nations sanctions monitors that have implicated the UAE in backing Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In the 119th Congress, Rep. Sara Jacobs and Sen. Chris Van Hollen reintroduced legislation, H.R. 2059 and S. 935, that would restrict arms export licenses to the UAE until the Trump administration can certify that the UAE is not supplying arms to the RSF.

The UAE joined Pax Silica, the State Department's multilateral AI and supply-chain security initiative, in January, and in July the Bureau of Industry and Security issued a rule upgrading the UAE's export-control status, under which UAE AI companies may no longer need individual export licenses for U.S. AI chips and servers. The Gulf conflict that began in February has exposed vulnerabilities in the UAE's AI industry and, according to the report, may have temporarily set back U.S.-UAE AI partnerships.

Iran damaged an Amazon Web Services facility in Abu Dhabi associated with the planned Stargate UAE project, and OpenAI had not yet signed a lease there as of the report's publication date. The UAE is reportedly considering dispersing data centers and moving some facilities underground.

On Iran sanctions, the UAE Foreign Ministry announced in August the suspension of all trade activity, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran until further notice, a shift the report calls particularly significant given that the UAE accounted for approximately one-third of Iranian imports as of 2024. The CRS report says the change reportedly came at the behest of the United States, and it separately states that the UAE has aligned itself with the U.S. Operation Economic Outcast. At the United Nations General Assembly in September, UAE diplomatic advisor Anwar Gargash said, "Geography leaves us no alternative to engagement."

Since February, about $8.6 billion in possible Foreign Military Sales (FMS) has been notified to Congress, according to the report, including a radar with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense integration valued at $4.5 billion and Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) valued at $1.22 billion. The report also states that the UAE Air Force withdrew its Letters of Acceptance for the F-35 and MQ-9 in 2021 and that the Trump administration's September proposal to sell 48 F-35s to Saudi Arabia may revive Emirati interest in the platform.

The Bottom Line

The CRS report describes a Bureau of Industry and Security rule issued in July that may let United Arab Emirates artificial intelligence companies obtain certain U.S. chips and servers without individual export licenses. It also considers the Iranian damage to an Amazon Web Services facility in Abu Dhabi and to aluminum smelters, and examines bills H.R. 2059 and S. 935 that would restrict arms-export licenses to the UAE until the administration certifies it is not supplying arms to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces.

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