Local Editor

The Obama administration blocked weapons deals with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain over concerns about human rights, but the Trump administration is pushing ahead regardless.

The Trump administration is poised to move quickly to approve major weapons packages for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain that President Obama blocked during his final months in office over human rights concerns in both nations, US officials and congressional sources said.

While the White House declined to discuss its plans, one US official directly involved in the transfers told The Washington Times that a roughly $300 million precision-guided missile technology package for Riyadh and a multibillion-dollar F-16 deal for Bahrain are now in the pipeline ready for clearance from the new administration.

The Pentagon declined to comment in this regard. However, congressional sources said they anticipate the Trump administration will easily overcome resistance on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and some Republicans called for restrictions on sales to Riyadh amid an outcry from human rights groups over large-scale civilian casualties of the Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen.

For its part, Amnesty International charged that the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition waging war against Yemen revolutionaries "appear[s] to have deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals, schools, markets and mosques, which may amount to war crimes."

In this regard, more than 60 members of the House signed a bipartisan letter calling on former President Obama to delay a $1.15 billion sale of battle tanks to Saudi Arabia last summer. In September Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky co-sponsored a bill with Democratic Sens. Christopher Murphy of Connecticut and Al Franken of Minnesota to try to block the sale.

While the bill was tabled by a 71-27 procedural vote, the senators made headlines arguing that Riyadh's indiscriminate bombing in Yemen was feeding extremist narratives and strengthening al-Qaeda and Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] in the war-torn nation.

The Obama administration ultimately approved the Saudi tank deal - a move many saw as part of a pattern to ease security fears of the Saudis and other Arab Gulf states in the wake of the nuclear deal Obama strongly backed with Iran.

Source: The Washington Times, Edited by website team