The Pentagon says the State Department has approved the possible sale of 3,000 guided weapons to Saudi Arabia in a 290 billion deal.
It should be noted that this sale came in the last days of the tenure of US President Donald Trump.
On the other hand, President-elect Joe Biden called on Riyadh, the Middle East’s largest buyer of US weapons, to put pressure on Riyadh to end the war in Yemen, which is causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to Reuters. So Saudi Arabia has promised to stop arms sales.
The Pentagon says the package will include 3,000 GBU 39 small diameter bombs (SDBI1) weapons, containers, accessories, spares and technical assistance.
“This proposed sale will increase Saudi Arabia’s long-range stockpile of surface-to-air weapons and improve its ability to deal with current and future threats,” he said in a statement.
“The size of the SDB1 and its ability to hit the right target help reduce the damage caused by the war,” the statement said.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale.
Members of Congress are outraged by the continued killing of civilians in Yemen, which earlier this year tried to stop the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh but failed.
It should be noted that the Inspector General of the US State Department had submitted a report in August in which he had said that the State Department did not fully assess the risk of civilian casualties in Yemen when it sold arms to Saudi Arabia in 2019.
It should be noted that the US Congress, ignoring the Trump administration’s congressional review, declared an emergency on the issue of tensions with Iran and requested an investigation into the May 2019 decision to sell $ 8 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The US Secretary of State submitted a written response to the report instead of an interview.
It should be noted that the US House of Representatives and the Senate had opposed the sale of arms worth 8 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allies and had passed resolutions to stop it.
However, US President Donald Trump rejected the resolutions.