US Congress aims to obstruct the supply of arms to Saudi Arabia
While Saudi Arabia continues to request US arms supply, members of Congress are trying to pressure the American administration to ban arms sales to the kingdom.
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US Congress aims to obstruct the supply of arms to Saudi Arabia.
Three members of the US Senate announced that a group of members oppose the first major arms deal to Saudi Arabia during President Joe Biden's administration, due to the Kingdom's participation in the Yemen war.
Republican members of the House of Representatives Rand Paul and Mike Lee, as well as independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is close to the Democrats, introduced a bill to block a proposed $650 million arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
"This deal could precipitate an arms race in the Middle East and endanger the security of Washington's military technology," Rand Paul said.
In turn, Sanders argued that "as the Saudi government continues to wage its devastating war in Yemen and oppress its people, America should not reward it with more arms sales."
In early November, the US State Department agreed to sell Saudi Arabia air-to-air missiles and related equipment in the $650 million deal, at a time when lawmakers refused to approve many arms deals for the kingdom, without assurances that US equipment would not be used to kill civilians.
Earlier, Rand Paul, along with two US senators, Mike Lee and Bernie Sanders, announced that a group of members of the Senate opposes the administration of US President Joe Biden to sign an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
An investigation clarified that the arms contracts previously signed are estimated at $28.4 billion since March 2015, including about 20 contracts approved by President Joe Biden administration this year, worth $1.2 billion.
Saudi Arabia has often spent with other countries more than $34 billion on US weapons during the same period, and accordingly, Saudi military purchases are estimated at $63 billion since its aggression on Yemen until now.
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The victims of Saudi-led war on Yemen.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi government urgently appealed to the United States, its allies in the Gulf, and the European Union, to re-supply it with the ammunition used in its confrontations with the Ansar Allah movement in Yemen, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper pointed out that American and Saudi officials said that the ammunition that Saudi Arabia uses for defense will soon run out and that the arsenal of interceptor missiles has seriously decreased, which has alarmed Riyadh officials and prompted them to request weapons quickly.
