The State Department has notified Congress that it is moving ahead with issuing a license to sell precision guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to The Hill.
The license, the advance of which was first reported by Bloomberg News, would allow Raytheon to sell directly to Saudi Arabia 7,500 of its Paveway “smart” air-to-ground pumps for an estimated $ 478 million.
Asked to comment, a State Department spokesman told The Hill that federal law and regulations prohibit the department from “commenting or confirming specific export licensing cases in defense of direct commercial sales”.
The government is moving ahead with the approval of the license in the last days of President Trump
Donald TrumpMcCarthy offers UC request to revisit foreign spending on Senator GOP omnibus over Trump forgives: “This is rotten to the end” Trump forgives Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner in the last round MOREthe government’s mandate against the objection of Democratic lawmakers.
Legislators from both parties have increasingly opposed the sale of Saudi weapons amid thousands of civilian deaths in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Many lawmakers also reached their limit with the Kingdom when a Saudi squad killed and quartered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Sen. Bob Menendez
Robert (Bob) Menendez End-of-year agreement creates Latin American, women’s history museums Lawmakers call for inclusion of creation of Latin and women’s history museums in Trump’s end-of-year spending agreement offered $ 0 million to victims of terrorism to save the Sudan-Israel agreement MORE (DN.J.), the senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, previously warned of an impending arms sale to the Saudis in a May article for CNN in which it required the State Department to justify it.
“The government is trying to sell thousands of precisely guided bombs to the president’s ‘friend’, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” wrote Menendez.
“The government has refused to answer our fundamental questions to justify this new sale and articulate how it would be consistent with US values and national security objectives,” he added.
Trump has made arms sales to the Kingdom an integral part of his foreign policy, arguing that they are necessary to contain Iran and increase jobs at U.S. arms manufacturers.
Paved bombs were also part of the Trump administration’s controversial $ 8.1 billion “emergency” arms sale in 2019 to the Saudis, which Democrats accused of circumventing Congressional oversight. Congress ended up passing bipartisan resolutions to block these sales, but Trump vetoed them.
The inspector general of the State Department later met the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Mike PompeoTrump’s administration advances bomb sales to Saudis Trump makes threats after the biggest rocket attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad since 2010 Trump imposes new sanctions on Belarus for electoral fraud and human rights abuses MORE he was within his authority to promote sales, but he blamed him for not ensuring that American weapons were not used against civilian populations.
President-elect Joe Biden
Joe BidenTrump administration advances bomb sale to Saudis Klobuchar: Trump ‘trying to burn this country on its way out’ NIGHT ENERGY: EPA refuses to tighten air quality standards for air pollution | Green groups sue Trump’s offer to open Alaska’s Tongass forest to extract MORE promised to review the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, although the license for Paveway bombs could be issued before he took office on January 20.