Blinken Announces New US Approach to Saudi Arm Sales

By Staff, Agencies

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s military actions against the Ansarullah revolutionaries in Yemen has made ties between the US and the kingdom problematic. The recently revealed intelligence report blaming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi’s murder has become a testing ground for relations between Washington and Riyadh.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken underlined in a press briefing at Virtual Trip to Canada that the US will change its approach to the Saudi kingdom in matters concerning armaments regarding the “policies that Saudi Arabia is pursuing.”

“The US is reconsidering its ties with the Saudi Arabia not to rupture the relationship, but to recalibrate it to be more in line with US interests and values," Blinken noted.

“We have seen results in our own efforts joined, I hope, by Saudi Arabia, to end the war in Yemen. We have seen the new policy approach we have taken to arm transfers and getting back to regular order with Congress,” he said.

Commenting on future weapons sales to the kingdom, Blinken stated that Washington would “remain committed to the defense of the kingdom.”

“There is a very important distinction between our commitments to not engage, not support offensive activities and operations in Yemen, including through the provision of offensive weapons,” he stressed.

Blinken added that the US would ensure “what it provides goes to the defense of the kingdom, not to its ability to prosecute offensive operations.”

As Reuters reported earlier, citing sources in the US state department, Biden’s administration is defining more specifically offensive and defensive weaponry, as well as equipment and training, as it wants to limit the future sales of armaments to the kingdom for "defensive" weapons.

According to the source, the White House wants to end the Saudi military campaign against the Ansarullah in Yemen.

Shortly after Biden took office, he suspended certain arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to reconsider deals that were struck by the Trump administration in the 11th hour of his term. The most recent multi-billion-dollar deal included supplies of precision aircraft munitions to the amount of $478 million.