According to The Wall Street Journal, the US State Department delayed Qatar’s request over a year ago to buy four MQ-9B Predator (Reaper) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The paper wrote as “The Qatari government made a formal request more than a year ago to buy four-armed MQ-9B Predator drones, but the State Department has yet to act on the request.”
“The frustration from our perspective is that there is no clear indication as to why there is a delay on our request,” the newspaper quoted one official as saying on 24 October. The Qatari government emphasises that it has assisted in the evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and has supported American counterterrorism operations in the Middle East.
Until last year, the US forbade to sell armed UAVs to governments that were not recognised allies under the Missile Technology Control Regime.
In November 2020, the State Department stated that it had approved the sale of MQ-9Bs to both the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Taiwan. The planned sale of 18 UAVs to the UAE and related weaponry and equipment was valued at USD2.97 billion, compared to USD600 million for the four Taiwanese UAVs.
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence stated in July that a deal for the UAVs had been inked. A deal with the UAE, on the other hand, has yet to be confirmed.
