US Ambassador to Croatia, Robert Kohorst, said on Friday that the US will green-light the sale of Israeli F-16 fighter jets to Croatia only after Israel meets the US’ technical demands.
The United States has been telling Israel for two years what those demands were, which is why this deadlock is surprising, Kohorst said.
The Croatian government had adopted the decision to purchase twelve F-16 C/D Barak fighter jets from Israel back in March, for roughly 3.1 billion kuna ($477 million). However, the contract on the delivery of the jets has not been signed to this day.
The F-16s were manufactured by the US company Locheed Martin and, as the original manufacturer which sold the aircraft to Israel, the US must sign off on the deal before Israel can pass them on to a third party.
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“Even though I’m not involved in the negotiations, I think the Israeli simply don’t have a choice, since this is the intellectual property of Locheed Martin and they are the ones who have to green-light the transfer,” he added.
During the negotiations, the United States had clearly stated the conditions under which the transfer can be approved, the US Embassy to Croatia said on Friday.
When asked whether he thought that Israel had won the bid unfairly by not disclosing they had added their own sophisticated electronic systems to the aircraft, Kohorst said he believed Israel had negotiated in good faith.
Croatia, Israel, and the US are close allies and they should be able to find a solution, he added.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday that Croatia had conducted the process in good will, and that it was up to Israel to get approval for the delivery of the jets.
The Israeli Ambassador to Croatia, Zina Kalay Kleitman, said she was conviced the situation would be resolved, since it was in the “best interests of both the US and Israel,“ adding she hoped the solution would be found by the end of the year.
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