A group of prominent House Democrats criticized the Biden administration’s decision to move forward with a $650m arms sale to Saudi Arabia, noting that the war in Yemen had brought about a devastating humanitarian disaster.
The announced transfer of up to $650 million in advanced munitions to the Saudi Air Force is intended to serve defensive purposes and protect against further Ansarullah airborne attacks, the group of US lawmakers said in a joint statement.
But the only way to truly protect people in the region is to bring the war in Yemen to an end, according to the statement which added the Saudi-led war has now claimed thousands of lives and remains a devastating humanitarian disaster.
The seven members of Congress, which included Tom Malinowski, Jim McGovern and Adam Schiff, said that while US President Joe Biden announced an end to offensive support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the US “continues to provide logistical support and spare parts” that aid the Saudi Air Force’s operations in Yemen.
That needs to stop, according to the statement which urged the administration to review the efficacy of its offensive weapons freeze and consider additional steps to bring about a cessation of airstrikes against belligerents in Yemen’s war.
The call was echoed by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who said “selling weapons to Saudi Arabia while they continue to slaughter Yemenis is unacceptable”.
Yemen has been since March 2015 under a brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have been injured and martyred in Saudi-led strikes, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
The coalition has been also imposing a blockade on the impoverished country’s ports and airports as a part of his aggression which is aimed at restoring power to fugitive former president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Meanwhile, Yemen is home to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with at least 7 million people on the brink of famine and hundreds of thousands suffering from cholera.
Source: Websites
