The Trump administration is pursuing another arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a top Democratic senator Bob Menendez said Wednesday, amid a previous controversial arms sale coming under new scrutiny, The Hill writes.
In an op-ed published on CNN’s website Wednesday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Menendez said he has received a draft document that shows the administration is pursuing a previously undisclosed sale.
“Before we went into pandemic lockdown, I received draft State Department documentation that it is now pursuing this previously undisclosed sale — details of which have not yet been made public — even though the Saudis seemingly want out of their failed and brutal war in Yemen, and despite the fact that a bipartisan majority in Congress rejected previous sales of these weapons,” Menendez wrote.
“The administration has refused to answer our fundamental questions to justify this new sale and articulate how it would be consistent with U.S. values and national security objectives,” he added.
The State Department declined to comment on the op-ed, with a spokesperson saying that “as a matter of policy, we do not comment upon or confirm proposed defense sales until they have been formally notified to Congress.”
Menendez’s op-ed comes as a 2019 arms deal with the Saudis and other Gulf allies is under new scrutiny following President Donald Trump’s firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. After Linick was fired, congressional Democrats revealed he was investigating the sales and suggested his ouster was related to the investigation.
The 22 arms sales, worth $8.1 billion, were controversial because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo invoked little-used emergency authorities to push them through without a 30-day congressional review period.
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