On Wednesday, three US senators look forward to introduce legislation that can halt the Trump administration’s effort to sell more than $23 billion of drones and other weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates, right before a few days that he is due to leave the office.
Four separate resolutions, disapproving President Donald Trump’s plan to sell more than $23 billion worth of Reaper drones, F-35 fighter aircraft and air-to-air missiles and other munitions to the UAE would be introduced by Democratic Senators Bob Menendez, Chris Murphy and Republican Senator Rand Paul.
This sale could strengthen the balance of power in the Middle East and the members of Congress are not for the administration’s attempt to rush it through, having sent a formal notice to Congress only last week.
Lawmakers are worried about the safety of the civilians in Yemen because their civil was is disastrous and they feel that UAE might use the weapons in attacks.
Right after the deal was announced, Amnesty warned that these weapons would be used for “attacks that violate international humanitarian law and kill, as well as injure, thousands of Yemeni civilians.“
Products from privately held General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp F-35s and missiles made by Raytheon are included in the sale.
These resolutions grab the attention to lawmakers’ questions about the massive sales, and they could delay them and they would mostly stop them.
US law that covers major arms deals allows senators force votes on resolutions of disapproval. For this to go through, the resolutions must pass the Republican-led Senate and it seems to rarely disconnect from Trump.
Further, they also must pass the Democratic-led House of Representatives and survive Trump vetoes.
Predicting the final outcome and keeping security concerns in mind, incoming President Joe Biden could stop them for reasons of national security.
According to the senators, the Trump administration wants to rush the sale as it brokered a peace deal between the UAE and Israel. They said that State and the Pentagon failed to respond to their inquiries.
The world’s most advanced fighter jet comprising of 14,000 bombs and munitions is a part of the weaponry. Further, it is the second-largest sale of U.S. drones to a single country.
Reviewing and attempt to block weapons sales is only possible to be done by the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees.
The House and Senate with Bipartisan support, allowed the past measures to block arms sales over concerns about Yemeni casualties. However, they failed to get enough support from the Republican to override Trump’s vetoes.
Lawmakers are worried that the UAE sales would contravene a longstanding agreement with Israel that any U.S. weapons sold in the Middle East would not impair its “quantitative military edge” over neighboring states.
If democrats take control of the Senate in Georgia runoff elections in January, then Menendez(the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), is in line to become chairman next year.
