$63 Billion US Arms to KSA Since Start of War on Yemen
Data from the US Department of Defense reveals the continued supply of US weapons to Saudi Arabia, despite US President Joe Biden's former announcements.
Data from the US Department of Defense, cited by Mint Press News (MPN), revealed the continued flow of US weapons to Saudi Arabia since the start of its aggression on Yemen.
The investigation showed weapon contracts worth about $28.4 billion were concluded since March 2015, including about 20 contracts approved by the administration of President Joe Biden this year, amounting to $1.2 billion.
Saudi Arabia spent about $34 billion on weapons from other parties for the same period. Accordingly, Saudi military purchases from US sources and firms are estimated at $63 billion since its aggression on Yemen, adding the collective contracts stipulated with US firms in which Saudi Arabia "was clearly the primary buyer."
[Thread] Searching through 1000s of Defense Dept docs, I found that the US has sold over $28.3 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 since their attack on Yemen 🇾🇪 began. This includes 20 deals inked by the Biden admin.
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 19, 2021
My new @Mintpressnews investigation: https://t.co/w84BP8r2I2
Disturbing data cited by the MPN report is the value of profit for death. According to a recent estimate, the death toll from the conflict at over 560,000. Dividing the sales by that number says that US companies have made about $50,000 in sales per death.
Biden's Sales to KSA
A few days ago, 3 members of the US Senate, Republicans Rand Paul and Mike Lee and Democrat Bernie Sanders, announced that a group of members of the Senate was opposing the administration of US President Joe Biden's contracting an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
It is noteworthy that this deal, which was approved by the US State Department, includes 280 AIM-120C-7/C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM), and 596 Missile Rail Launcher (MRL) launchers. Sales also included containers, support equipment, spare parts, and engineering and technical support provided by the US government and contractors.
The deal comes despite US President Joe Biden's announcement on February 4 of stopping US support for the war on Yemen. In the context of Biden's efforts to control relations with Saudi Arabia, arms sales were previously frozen.