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US Senate rejects bid to stop $650 million dollars arms deal with Saudi Arabia

8 Dec 2021 - 11:06

US Senate, on Tuesday, has rejected a bid from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to stop President Joe Biden's administration from selling over $650 million worth of arms to Saudi Arabia.


In a 67-30 vote on Tuesday, the Senate rejected a resolution aimed at prohibiting the sale of the weapons package, which was approved by the State Department as well as leaders of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees.

The package would include 280 AIM-120C-7/C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), 596 LAU-128 Missile Rail Launchers (MRL) along other equipment and support.

Earlier in the day, the Biden administration said it strongly opposed the resolution.

Passage "would undermine the president's commitment to aid in our partner's defenses at a time of increased missile and drone attacks against civilians in Saudi Arabia," the White House Office of Management of Budget claimed in a statement.

The resolution was introduced by Republicans Rand Paul and Mike Lee, as well as Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats.

“We could stop this war if we really had the will to do it,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “All of America should be appalled at the humanitarian disaster caused by the Saudi blockade of Yemen.”

“The United States must do everything in our power to bring this brutal and horrific war to an end,” Sanders said from the Senate floor. “Exporting more missiles to Saudi Arabia does nothing but further this conflict and pour more gasoline on already raging fire.”

Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Patty Murray of Washington were others who were seeking to stop the arms sale.

Backed by the US, the Saudi regime waged a bloody war on Yemen in early 2015 in order to reinstall the former Riyadh-friendly government in the Arab country.

The Saudi aggression has so far killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and dragged the entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine in the process.


Story Code: 529857

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https://www.taghribnews.com/en/news/529857/us-senate-rejects-bid-to-stop-650-million-dollars-arms-deal-with-saudi-arabia

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