Democratic Senator Says Trump Planning New Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

By Staff, Agencies

The Trump administration is once again looking to sell arms and weaponry to Saudi Arabia, according to one US Democratic Senator.

“The administration is currently trying to sell thousands of additional precision bombs to the president's friend, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” said New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez wrote in a column published on CNN's website this week. 

Last year, Trump pushed through a controversial $8.1 billion contract despite congressional opposition.

The government wants to close the sale, details of which have not yet been made public, “while the Saudis say they want to end their failed and brutal war in Yemen,” he added.

Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recalled how the previous contract to sell various arms to Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates, was blocked by Congress after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

US intelligence services had concluded that the murder had been ordered by the crown prince, “a capricious Saudi despot who thinks he can butcher his critics without consequences,” Menendez wrote.

When Congress blocked that sale last year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo invoked an obscure “emergency” procedure to push it through.

“Today, a year later, there is still no justification for the US to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia,” stated Menendez.

“That is why I am particularly troubled that the State Department has again refused to explain the need to sell thousands of more bombs to Saudi Arabia on top of the thousands that have yet to be delivered from last year’s ‘emergency’”, he continued.

He called on Congress to block the new sale.