Edited by: Fern Sidman
The Senate on Wednesday voted on two resolutions of disapproval, failing to block the Trump administration’s planned sale of more than $23 billion in military equipment to the United Arab Emirates, according to a VOA report.
The resolutions failed, with the Senate, splitting mostly along party lines, voting 47-49 and 46-50, short of the 51-vote majority needed for passage. VOA reported that President Trump was expected to veto the resolutions had they passed.
On November 18th, The Hill reported that Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced four separate resolutions that would kill the administration’s plan to sell the UAE F-35 fighter jets, armed drones, missiles and bombs.
“As I tried to warn the Trump administration, circumventing deliberative processes for considering a massive infusion of weapons to a country in a volatile region with multiple ongoing conflicts is downright irresponsible,” Menendez said in a statement in mid-November, as was reported by The Hill.
“There are a number of outstanding concerns as to how these sales would impact the national security interests of both the United States and of Israel,” Menendez said in his November statement. “As a result, Congress is once again stepping in to serve as a check to avoid putting profit over U.S. national security and that of our allies, and to hopefully prevent a new arms race in the Middle East.”
“The Emiratis are an important security partner, but their recent behavior indicates that these weapons may be used in violation of U.S. and international law,” Murphy said in a statement in November. “The UAE has violated past arms sales agreements, resulting in U.S. arms ending up in the arms of dangerous militia groups, and they have failed to comply with international law in Libya and Yemen.”
The Hill reported that in early November, the Trump administration notified Congress that it approved selling the UAE up to 50 F-35 fighter jets worth $10.4 billion, up to 18 MQ-9B drones worth $2.97 billion and a package of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions worth $10 billion.
The formal notification kicked off a 30-day period in which Congress can block the sales with resolutions such as the ones introduced, according to The Hill report.
VOA reported that the bipartisan group of senators who introduced the resolutions say the administration did not go through the proper congressional review process for a sale of that magnitude, and that there are unanswered questions about the purpose and security of the transfer.
“On this sale in particular, the consultative process was really important, because this sale is as big and as hairy and as complicated as you get,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on the Senate floor Wednesday, according to the VOA report. “We are for the first time selling F-35s and MQ-9 Reaper drones into the heart of the Middle East. Never done before.”
Issues of perpetuating a Middle East arms race and having Israel maintain both a qualitative and quantitative military edge were also concerns that were raised,
According to The Hill report, Israel had initially continued to express opposition to selling the UAE F-35s after the Abraham Accords signing. But last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said their country would not oppose the U.S. selling Abu Dhabi “certain weapons systems” after Washington agreed to unspecified upgrades for Israel’s military.
VOA reported that the UAE and Israel signed the Abraham Peace Accords earlier this year, opening the way for a normalization of relations between the two countries.
The Hill reported that Murphy said in November that while he supports the normalization agreement, “nothing in that agreement requires us to flood the region with more weapons and facilitate a dangerous arms race.”
VOA reported that the human rights group Amnesty International has criticized the U.S. sale of drones and other weapons to the UAE, saying they will be used in the conflict in Yemen.
“The United States must resolutely refrain from supplying weapons that could be used in the conflict and not transfer weaponry to the UAE, or risk complicity in likely war crimes in Yemen,” Amnesty said in a November statement.
VOA reported that in a statement announcing the sales last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the accord “offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to positively transform the region’s strategic landscape. Our adversaries, especially those in Iran, know this and will stop at nothing to disrupt this shared success.”
Pompeo said the proposed sale “will make the UAE even more capable and interoperable with U.S. partners in a manner fully consistent with America’s longstanding commitment to ensuring Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge.”
“We are clear-eyed about the threat Iran continues to pose to U.S. national security interests. But we have yet to understand exactly what military threat the F-35 or armed drones will be addressing vis-a-vis Iran,” Sen. Bob Menendez, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday, according to the VOA report. (sources: VOA News & The Hill)
