Lawmakers Taking Steps to Block Future Saudi Weapons Sales
A new bill in the Senate and House could impose one-year bans on the export of certain weapons and defense items to Saudi Arabia. The bill, announced this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., would suspend all new license applications for exports of “any defense articles proposed or submitted to Congress” pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act, including “direct munitions containers; weapon support and support equipment; spare and repair parts; United States Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistical support services; and other related elements of logistical and program support.”
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The bill comes after OPEC+ -- an intergovernmental organization of petroleum exporting countries, including Saudi Arabia, with the 13 in OPEC at the core -- decided to cut oil production in a bid to raise prices. The move was viewed as one that could aid Russia, particularly as countries struggle with high energy prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Saudis must reverse their oil supply cuts, which aid & abet Russia’s savage criminal invasion, endanger the world economy & threaten higher gas prices at U.S. pumps,” Blumenthal said in an Oct. 11 tweet. “We cannot continue selling highly sensitive arms technology to a nation aligned w/an abhorrent terrorist adversary.”
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, threatened to freeze all future Saudi weapons sales overseen by his committee. “There simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict -- either you support the rest of the free world in trying to stop a war criminal from violently wiping off an entire country off of the map, or you support him,” Menendez said. The senator said he will “not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the Kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine.”