Will Congress Really Cancel U.S.-Saudi Arms Deals? It’s Complicated, But Let Us Explain
Will Congress Really Cancel U.S.-Saudi Arms Deals? It’s Complicated, But Let Us Explain by Joe Gould – Defense News
Have you been wondering whether U.S.-Saudi arms deals can survive allegations the Saudi government killed Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi?
Yeah, so are we.
A growing chorus of U.S. lawmakers, mostly Senate Democrats, say its time to cut the kingdom off. But President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that’s a no-go, with $110 billion in proposed deals hanging in the balance. (Of that total, Saudi Arabia has signed letters of offer and acceptance for $14.5 billion in “helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons, and training,” according to the Pentagon.)
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has a monthslong hold on the proposed sale of U.S. precision-guided bomb kits to Saudi Arabia.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has pointed the finger at the Saudi royal family in Khashoggi’s alleged death and said now’s not the time to ask Congress to approve U.S.-Saudi deals.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is proposing again to end U.S. involvement in Yemen. And in a sign of the shifting politics, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed, said Wednesday the U.S. should stop refueling jets the Saudis use to conduct airstrikes in Yemen — a switch after Reed voted against Sanders’ resolution months earlier…