Media reports: US and Israel fail to reach deal on sale of F-16 jets to Croatia

Igor Soban/PIXSELL

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reach an agreement on the sale of Israeli F-16 fighter jets to Croatia during their meeting in Brazil, news website Axios reported on Wednesday.

Quoting an unnamed Israeli official, Axios reported on Wednesday that the deal is now “stuck in deep bureaucracy.” Netanyahu and Pompeo had met on Tuesday on the margins of the inauguration ceremony of Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro. 

The meeting was seen as a last ditch attempt to resolve the deadlock which delayed the delivery of israeli jets to Croatia, after PM Netanyahu had discussed the matter with former US Defence Secretary James Mattis last week.

According to media reports, the Trump administration has been blocking the deal for months, insisting that the twelve jets, originally sold to Israel by the United Stated, should be stripped of the modernised Israeli upgrades and technology before being handed over to Croatia.

In March the Croatian government had decided to purchase the jets, originally manufactured by the US company Lockheed Martin, for roughly 3.1 billion kuna ($477 million). The aircraft, between 25 and 30 years old, were intended to replace the outdated Soviet-made MiG-21 aircraft currently used by the Croatian Air Force.

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The shorlisted bids considered also included Sweden’s Gripen fighter jets, and another F-16 bid by the United States, which offered a batch of upgraded and more modern version of the planes, but at a price more than three times higher compared to the Israeli bid.

After Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had recently commented that unless Croatia gets the exact planes it agreed to pay for from Israel the deal would be scrapped, the failure of the meeting in Brazil is thought to mean that the purchase has finally fallen through.

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