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Home > Will Congress Rubber Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With
Saudi Arabia?
________________________________________
Will Congress Rubber Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With Saudi
Arabia?
By Sarah Lazare [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 13, 2016
As the Saudi-Arabia-led coalition escalates its military assault on Yemen
following the dissolution of a fragile ceasefire, human rights campaigners
are calling on lawmakers to urgently intercede to block a massive U.S. arms
sale to the Gulf monarchy and help stem large-scale war crimes.
The U.S. State Department announced [3] last week that it has approved a
$1.15 billion deal to ship military equipment and weapons to Saudi Arabia,
including tanks, machine guns and grenade launchers. This deal comes on top
of the more than $20 billion in weapons that the U.S. has shipped to Saudi
Arabia since March 2015, when the coalition began its military campaign.
Following state department approval, Congress has only 30 days to block or
change the deal. Given that lawmakers are now in the midst of their summer
recess, this timeline means they will have to act urgently following Labor
Day weekend-if they muster the will to take action all.
Now, the advocacy groups Oxfam, Just Foreign Policy and Code Pink are
pressing members of Congress find that will. Nearly 6,000 people have signed
a petition [4] that calls on Congress to "Force a public debate on U.S.
participation in the Saudi war in Yemen by advocating for blocking the
planned transfer of U.S. tanks and armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia."
If approved without debate, the shipments would be in line with
long-standing U.S. practice. According to a report [5] released by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States
has been the world's top exporter over the past five years, with the Middle
East the top recipient of American arms and Saudi Arabia the number-one
importer.
However, Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, told
AlterNet that there is a slim hope that this deal could go differently.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives came surprisingly
close [6] to barring the transfer of U.S. cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Both Human Rights Watch [7] and Amnesty International [8] report that the
Saudi-led coalition is dropping U.S.-manufactured cluster bombs on civilian
areas, killing and maiming civilians, including children.
"The fact that we almost won two months ago in the House on banning the
transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia suggests that blocking this sale
could be more plausible than a lot of people in the Beltway seem to think,"
said Naiman.
In approving the arms deal, the state department claimed [3], "This proposed
sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the
United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional
partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of
political stability and economic progress in the Middle East."
In reality, the nearly-17-month military assault is unleashing a
humanitarian nightmare on the people of Yemen, this week alone killing [9]
over a dozen civilians at a potato chip factory and bombing [10] the main
bridge between the port city of Hodeidah and capital Sanaa, cutting off a
critical transport line for food and fuel. Throughout the campaign,
coalition bombs have rained down on factories [11], weddings [12] and even a
center for the blind [13]. The Saudi-led coalition is responsible for the
majority [14] of more than 3,500 civilians [15] who have been killed since
March 2015.
Furthermore, all evidence indicates that the coalition attacks have opened
up space for the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to
gain territory and power. Meanwhile, journalist Safa Al Ahmad has unearthed
[16] evidence that elements of the Saudi-led coalition have even fought in
alliance alongside militants affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Scott Paul, a senior policy adviser at Oxfam America, told [17] Foreign
policy that yet another massive sale of arms would signal that the U.S. is
"all-in on a senseless war that has created one of the world's largest
humanitarian emergencies."
To fully address the U.S. role in driving this emergency, it is necessary to
look beyond arms shipments. The Obama administration has deployed troops,
assisted the coalition in identifying bomb targets and conducting
"intelligence" and sent warships to enforce the naval blockade that has
choked off critical imports, contributing to a crisis that has left at least
21 million people [18] in desperate need of food. The U.S. is one of at
least a dozen countries participating in or backing the coalition,
including: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Sudan, United
Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Britain.
The Saudi-led military coalition is waging its attacks armed with U.S.
weapons, as well as with effective immunity from the United Nations. As
recently as June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted that he scrubbed
the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a "list of shame" of armed forces that
violate the rights of children because Saudi Arabia threatened to pull its
funding from key programs as a retaliatory measure.
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for
Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn
Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare [19].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [20]
[21]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/will-congress-rubber-stamp-another-115-billion
-weapons-deal-saudi-arabia
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/sarah-lazare-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/kingdom-saudi-arabia-m1a2s-saudi-abrams
-main-battle-tanks-and-m88ala2-heavy
[4] http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-block-transfer?r_by=1135580
[5]
http://www.alternet.org/world/exporting-death-when-it-comes-arming-planet-am
erica-unrivaled
[6]
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/16/worried-about-stigmatizing-cluster-bombs
-house-approves-more-sales-to-saudi-arabia/
[7]
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cluster-munitions
[8]
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/yemen-children-among-civilian
s-killed-and-maimed-in-cluster-bomb-minefields/
[9] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN10K0SB
[10]
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/yemeni-peoples-ability-to-access-food-thr
eatened-as-main-supply-route-to-sanaa-targeted-by-airstrikes/
[11]
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/15/yemen-factory-airstrike-killed-31-civili
ans-0
[12]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/world/middleeast/airstrikes-in-yemen-hit-w
edding-party-killing-dozens.html
[13]
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/05/saudi-coalition-just-bombed-a-center-for
-the-blind-in-yemen/
[14] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35842708
[15] http://www.voanews.com/a/yemen-civilian-casualties/3370540.html
[16] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/yemen-under-siege/
[17]
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/11/with-yemeni-casualties-rising-gop-senato
r-looks-to-block-big-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia/
[18]
http://time.com/3935125/yemen-humanitarian-aid-united-nations-famine-ceasefi
re/
[19] https://twitter.com/sarahlazare
[20] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Will Congress Rubber
Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With Saudi Arabia?
[21] http://www.alternet.org/
[22] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Will Congress Rubber Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With
Saudi Arabia?
Will Congress Rubber Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With Saudi
Arabia?
By Sarah Lazare [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 13, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
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As the Saudi-Arabia-led coalition escalates its military assault on Yemen
following the dissolution of a fragile ceasefire, human rights campaigners
are calling on lawmakers to urgently intercede to block a massive U.S. arms
sale to the Gulf monarchy and help stem large-scale war crimes.
The U.S. State Department announced [3] last week that it has approved a
$1.15 billion deal to ship military equipment and weapons to Saudi Arabia,
including tanks, machine guns and grenade launchers. This deal comes on top
of the more than $20 billion in weapons that the U.S. has shipped to Saudi
Arabia since March 2015, when the coalition began its military campaign.
Following state department approval, Congress has only 30 days to block or
change the deal. Given that lawmakers are now in the midst of their summer
recess, this timeline means they will have to act urgently following Labor
Day weekend-if they muster the will to take action all.
Now, the advocacy groups Oxfam, Just Foreign Policy and Code Pink are
pressing members of Congress find that will. Nearly 6,000 people have signed
a petition [4] that calls on Congress to "Force a public debate on U.S.
participation in the Saudi war in Yemen by advocating for blocking the
planned transfer of U.S. tanks and armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia."
If approved without debate, the shipments would be in line with
long-standing U.S. practice. According to a report [5] released by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States
has been the world's top exporter over the past five years, with the Middle
East the top recipient of American arms and Saudi Arabia the number-one
importer.
However, Robert Naiman, policy director for Just Foreign Policy, told
AlterNet that there is a slim hope that this deal could go differently.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives came surprisingly
close [6] to barring the transfer of U.S. cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
Both Human Rights Watch [7] and Amnesty International [8] report that the
Saudi-led coalition is dropping U.S.-manufactured cluster bombs on civilian
areas, killing and maiming civilians, including children.
"The fact that we almost won two months ago in the House on banning the
transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia suggests that blocking this sale
could be more plausible than a lot of people in the Beltway seem to think,"
said Naiman.
In approving the arms deal, the state department claimed [3], "This proposed
sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the
United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional
partner which has been and continues to be a leading contributor of
political stability and economic progress in the Middle East."
In reality, the nearly-17-month military assault is unleashing a
humanitarian nightmare on the people of Yemen, this week alone killing [9]
over a dozen civilians at a potato chip factory and bombing [10] the main
bridge between the port city of Hodeidah and capital Sanaa, cutting off a
critical transport line for food and fuel. Throughout the campaign,
coalition bombs have rained down on factories [11], weddings [12] and even a
center for the blind [13]. The Saudi-led coalition is responsible for the
majority [14] of more than 3,500 civilians [15] who have been killed since
March 2015.
Furthermore, all evidence indicates that the coalition attacks have opened
up space for the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to
gain territory and power. Meanwhile, journalist Safa Al Ahmad has unearthed
[16] evidence that elements of the Saudi-led coalition have even fought in
alliance alongside militants affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Scott Paul, a senior policy adviser at Oxfam America, told [17] Foreign
policy that yet another massive sale of arms would signal that the U.S. is
"all-in on a senseless war that has created one of the world's largest
humanitarian emergencies."
To fully address the U.S. role in driving this emergency, it is necessary to
look beyond arms shipments. The Obama administration has deployed troops,
assisted the coalition in identifying bomb targets and conducting
"intelligence" and sent warships to enforce the naval blockade that has
choked off critical imports, contributing to a crisis that has left at least
21 million people [18] in desperate need of food. The U.S. is one of at
least a dozen countries participating in or backing the coalition,
including: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Sudan, United
Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Britain.
The Saudi-led military coalition is waging its attacks armed with U.S.
weapons, as well as with effective immunity from the United Nations. As
recently as June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admitted that he scrubbed
the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a "list of shame" of armed forces that
violate the rights of children because Saudi Arabia threatened to pull its
funding from key programs as a retaliatory measure.
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for
Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn
Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare [19].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [20]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[21]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/will-congress-rubber-stamp-another-115-billion
-weapons-deal-saudi-arabia
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/sarah-lazare-0
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/kingdom-saudi-arabia-m1a2s-saudi-abrams
-main-battle-tanks-and-m88ala2-heavy
[4] http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-block-transfer?r_by=1135580
[5]
http://www.alternet.org/world/exporting-death-when-it-comes-arming-planet-am
erica-unrivaled
[6]
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/16/worried-about-stigmatizing-cluster-bombs
-house-approves-more-sales-to-saudi-arabia/
[7]
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cluster-munitions
[8]
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/yemen-children-among-civilian
s-killed-and-maimed-in-cluster-bomb-minefields/
[9] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN10K0SB
[10]
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/yemeni-peoples-ability-to-access-food-thr
eatened-as-main-supply-route-to-sanaa-targeted-by-airstrikes/
[11]
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/15/yemen-factory-airstrike-killed-31-civili
ans-0
[12]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/world/middleeast/airstrikes-in-yemen-hit-w
edding-party-killing-dozens.html
[13]
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/05/saudi-coalition-just-bombed-a-center-for
-the-blind-in-yemen/
[14] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35842708
[15] http://www.voanews.com/a/yemen-civilian-casualties/3370540.html
[16] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/yemen-under-siege/
[17]
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/11/with-yemeni-casualties-rising-gop-senato
r-looks-to-block-big-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia/
[18]
http://time.com/3935125/yemen-humanitarian-aid-united-nations-famine-ceasefi
re/
[19] https://twitter.com/sarahlazare
[20] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Will Congress Rubber
Stamp Another $1.15 Billion Weapons Deal With Saudi Arabia?
[21] http://www.alternet.org/
[22] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
