Democratic Senator Chris Murphy tweeted:
But he ignored Iran’s role in the Yemen civil war which started in 2014, “when Houthi insurgents—Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government—took control of Yemen’s capital and largest city.”
Weeks ago, Yemen pleaded for the UN, the international community and human rights organizations to “take a clear position on the war crimes and brutal violations committed by the Houthi militia in Yemen.”
Although Saudi Arabia is heavily engaged in the Yemen war, it does not take much insight to observe the Iranian regime’s trajectory if it is allowed to continue pursuing its objectives unimpeded. Iran is a perpetual menace and threat, which is why Trump took a stand against this common enemy by favoring Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Biden administration, on the other hand, is in the process of eroding Trump’s efforts as part of its very different “strategic objectives”; these include a re-engagement of the disastrous Iran deal, while leaving Israel out of the talks. Iran is now waiting for the Biden Administration to lift sanctions.
The Biden administration has in effect continued along the same lines of the Obama administration, which strengthened Iran and weakened Israel and American interests.
Biden administration pauses arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE,” by Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN, January 27, 2021:
Washington (CNN)The Biden administration has paused arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it conducts a wider review of agreements worth billions of dollars made by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told CNN Wednesday.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken confirmed that pending arms sales are under review, as is typical at the start of a new administration, “to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives, and advances our foreign policy.”
He did not reference any specific sales or countries in his remarks, which were made at his first State Department news conference as top US diplomat.
The move to freeze the pending sales to the Gulf allies could signal a change in approach by the Biden administration after the Trump administration approved major sales in the last months of its tenure.
Gulf nations that have sales in the pipeline had expected some sort of pause for the administration to review but the practical impact isn’t clear yet, a source familiar with Gulf nations’ thinking said.
A State Department official earlier described the pause as “a routine administrative action typical to most any transition, and demonstrates the administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring US arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners.”…
Democrats in Congress immediately came out in favor of the move.
“The weapons we sold to Saudi Arabia and UAE have been used to kill schoolchildren, transferred to extremist militias, and fueled a dangerous arms race in the Middle East,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy. “This is the right move. The time is now to reset our relationships with Gulf allies.”….
mortimer says
But Houthis use Iranian-supplied weapons to kill Sunni children and women, don’t they?
The Shia-Sunni split is the basis of the struggle and how is Murphy going to RESET that? He can’t.
peace says
Mortimer, you’re assuming Biden knows the difference between Shia and Sunni
Westman says
Maybe he could borrow Hillary’s reset button which worked so well?
mortimer says
Strong Gulf states will make the Iranian mullahs pause before messing with countries across the Gulf. It would come back to bite them.
Mount Zion says
The new administration reverses the weapon sale to the UAE on grounds that these same weapons “have been used to kill school children…” but it favours the return to the disastrous Iran nuclear deal while Iran to this day threathens to wipe out Israel .No muslim country should be allowed to possess mass distruction weapons and if that is Islamophobic , so be it , I don’t care .
peace says
Biden will let everyone have those nuclear weapons that don’t hurt people …
LEONARD William DUNNET says
Biden will go down in history as the only President to start a major war in his first six months. On the brighter side with his Altzimers he wont remember it.
Brian Hoff says
Many Saudi want to end they government being involve in the civil war in Yemen.
Ecosse1314 says
Yeh demonstrations all over Riyadh…or maybe not
Brian Hoff says
Most sunni and Shiite want to live together in peace. Protest it not allowed in the kingdom doesnot mean there is protest among the people.
Ecosse1314 says
That may be why they are busy bombing each other.
Infidel says
Yeah, right! Try going to any of your islamic homes – Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, and then get back to us (w/o lying) on how swimmingly well they are getting together
Brian Hoff says
Both Iran and Saudi Arabia wanted to be the leader of the Islamist world. Either Turkey or Indonesia or both be leader of the Islamist world.
Ecosse1314 says
Could you translate that into some form of English?
Infidel says
Everybody may want to, but since islam is Arab supremacy codified, there are pretty strict rules that it has to be an Arab country. The only non-Arab caliphate that ever existed was the Ottoman sultanate, so there’s an exception. Turkey has an outside chance, since there are 6 Turkic countries in the world, and much of the history of the spread of islam has more to do w/ the Turks than even the Arabs. But even then, it’ll be a Turkey vs the Arab world face-off
Iran would never be accepted as leader of the islamic world: they can barely be acknowledged as leader of the shi’a world (since the Yemenis are Zaidi, Arab shi’a outside Bahrein and Iraq are mostly Ismailiya while the Iranians themselves are the Twelver). They have 2 strikes against them – non-Arab and shi’a
Indonesia is out of the question: in fact, far fewer Indonesians are actually muslim, and Indonesia as a country makes a default assumption that someone is muslim even if s/he declines to say, or is atheist/agnostic. People who think either Indonesia or Malaysia have any hopes of leading islam are deluded: they’re just useful for pumping up the numbers
Infidel says
Somehow, it just seems that Biden hates American jobs. Every move he’s made in the first week – be it the Keystone pipeline, fracking on federal lands, ANWR drilling, open borders, $15 minimum wage and now this – weapons sales to the Saudis – all seem designed to get more Americans out of work. His goal seems to be to destroy every job created under the Trump administration
As for this arms sales, does he really think that the Saudis won’t be able to buy military hardware from Israel, India, Russia or other countries? The US and Europe ain’t the only manufacturers of weapons
Fred van de Bunt says
What I can remember is that under Obama the USA started to fight against the large amounts of terror cells in the South East and East of Yemen. Also was demanded that the Arab Gulf countries would develop more defenses themselves and buy more weapons themselves. This policy continued under Trump.
Then it appeared those Sunni Gulf despots started to bomb the Houthi’s, that live in the North East, with very great enthusiasm, to put it mildly.
Of course everybody threatens to kill everybody in the Middle East, so everybody has to kill the one that threatens to kill him. This vibrant live style one can observe every day over there.
But since I live in Western Europe, and we have to accept all those refugees, that are the result of this great and vibrant cultural habit in that region, I would not mind a review, to pressure for a change in that great and vibrant kill culture.
Daniel Triplett says
All weapons sales Trump agreed to must be cancelled, so they can now be reworked with Hunter and The Big Guy extorting a large secret payoff first.
Vice-presidential grifting is minor-league ball. Now that Joementia is President and controls US policy for the entire planet, his opportunities for extortion, graft, and Biden Crime Family wealth building are limitless.
He’ll get away with all of it since the media, Democrat Congress, and the Biden controlled DoJ and FBI are all in the tank for him.
very old white guy says
I fear that the democrats will not only start a civil war but a war in the middle east that America cannot win. that will bring china and russia into the equation and it may just be the end.
hammar says
Biden is a socialist and would naturally side with China’s and Russian interests while former President Trump sided with their oppositions and rivals.
Norman Gardner says
We will judge Biden by his actions, as stated the weapons are manufactured in the US providing work for Americans, the Houthis are murdering people and Sen. Murphy needs to realize that the Houthis are the ones who revolted and have been attacking Americans as well as Saudis, if they hadn`t, innocents would not be harmed. At present it seems that Biden is considering our Arab allies in the Gulf as irrelevant and appeasing the Houthis & their sponsor Iran. You have to wonder if he wishes to kill the American economy after his comments on fossil fuels, the Keystone project, military hardware and solar purchased from China. Someone needs to help the US and it sure isn`t Biden.