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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
U.S. Arms Deal Rewards ‘Saudi War Crimes with Weapons’
Posted by:
VoteStrike
()
Date: May 29, 2017 10:45PM
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a multi-billion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia on Saturday during his maiden overseas tour, making clear his intention to secure the Kingdom’s dominance in the region despite its appalling human rights record. Since 2011, the United States has sold ten percent of all arms exports to Saudi Arabia, its largest buyer.
The arms deal, together with other joint investments, could total up to $350 billion, and will include tanks, helicopters, ships, intelligence-gathering aircraft, missile defense radar systems, and cyber security tools. It is the largest bilateral military pact ever signed between the two countries.
The Obama administration had offered a similar package to Saudi Arabia, but it was halted in late 2016 after a Saudi airstrike on a funeral in Yemen killed over 140 people. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and regional allies have led a merciless war on Yemen, the region’s poorest country, killing 10,000 civilians, displacing three million, and bringing the country to the brink of starvation. Human Rights Watch described the recent U.S. arms deal as rewarding “Saudi war crimes with weapons.”
Trump’s visit to the Kingdom, which was the first stop on his maiden overseas tour, is setting the foreign policy tone for an administration for whom human rights is no barrier to lucrative trade and arms deals. Acutely aware of Trump’s philosophy, Saudi Arabia welcomed him with pomp and pageantry.
Addressing forty heads of Arab and Islamic states at a summit in Riyadh on Sunday, Trump signaled his intent to reset Obama’s foreign policy and restore the historic U.S.-Saudi alliance, which was supposedly overshadowed in recent years by his predecessor’s rapprochement with Iran. He launched a blistering attack on the Iranian government, blaming it for fueling the “fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” and urging its international isolation.
A day before Trump arrived in the Saudi Kingdom, Iranians had elected reformist candidate Hassan Rouhani in a landslide victory, with 75% voter turnout, a clear indication of the country’s openness to global engagement and dialogue. The event clearly made little difference to the U.S. president.
As his speech made clear, realigning the United States with Saudi Arabia, Gulf allies, and Israel has been central to Donald Trump and his administration. Indeed, thanks to Trump’s presidency, Saudi Arabia has re-secured pride of place with the United States, a reflection of the deep economic and military interests between Trump’s cabinet, private military companies, and the world’s largest energy provider.
Courting Saudi Arabia will only accelerate continuing U.S. violence in the region. A record arms deal for a country actively engaged in committing war crimes will result in further death and instability and embolden human rights violations in the region, while also increasing domestic repression and fueling sectarian politics.
Source: https://muftah.org/us-arms-deal-saudi-arabia-war-crimes/#.WSy1Hdy1vIU
The arms deal, together with other joint investments, could total up to $350 billion, and will include tanks, helicopters, ships, intelligence-gathering aircraft, missile defense radar systems, and cyber security tools. It is the largest bilateral military pact ever signed between the two countries.
The Obama administration had offered a similar package to Saudi Arabia, but it was halted in late 2016 after a Saudi airstrike on a funeral in Yemen killed over 140 people. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and regional allies have led a merciless war on Yemen, the region’s poorest country, killing 10,000 civilians, displacing three million, and bringing the country to the brink of starvation. Human Rights Watch described the recent U.S. arms deal as rewarding “Saudi war crimes with weapons.”
Trump’s visit to the Kingdom, which was the first stop on his maiden overseas tour, is setting the foreign policy tone for an administration for whom human rights is no barrier to lucrative trade and arms deals. Acutely aware of Trump’s philosophy, Saudi Arabia welcomed him with pomp and pageantry.
Addressing forty heads of Arab and Islamic states at a summit in Riyadh on Sunday, Trump signaled his intent to reset Obama’s foreign policy and restore the historic U.S.-Saudi alliance, which was supposedly overshadowed in recent years by his predecessor’s rapprochement with Iran. He launched a blistering attack on the Iranian government, blaming it for fueling the “fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” and urging its international isolation.
A day before Trump arrived in the Saudi Kingdom, Iranians had elected reformist candidate Hassan Rouhani in a landslide victory, with 75% voter turnout, a clear indication of the country’s openness to global engagement and dialogue. The event clearly made little difference to the U.S. president.
As his speech made clear, realigning the United States with Saudi Arabia, Gulf allies, and Israel has been central to Donald Trump and his administration. Indeed, thanks to Trump’s presidency, Saudi Arabia has re-secured pride of place with the United States, a reflection of the deep economic and military interests between Trump’s cabinet, private military companies, and the world’s largest energy provider.
Courting Saudi Arabia will only accelerate continuing U.S. violence in the region. A record arms deal for a country actively engaged in committing war crimes will result in further death and instability and embolden human rights violations in the region, while also increasing domestic repression and fueling sectarian politics.
Source: https://muftah.org/us-arms-deal-saudi-arabia-war-crimes/#.WSy1Hdy1vIU