US Republican Senator Rand Paul is pushing legislation that would block President Donald Trump’s multi billion weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
Paul who is was expected to introduce the measure on Wednesday, says the arms deal would make Washington complicit in the Saudi’s regime of ongoing war crimes in Yemen.
Press TV reports:
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The Kentucky lawmaker is hoping for a vote in early June. The Arms Export Control Act allows Paul to bring up the measure in the Senate after 10 calendar days.
Trump signed the $110 billion deal during the first leg of his maiden overseas trip in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
Reportedly brokered by the Republican president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the massive package includes American missiles, bombs, armored personnel carriers, Littoral Combat Ships, terminal high altitude area defense (THAAD) missile systems and munitions.
“That was a tremendous day,” Trump said after signing the deal on Saturday. “Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Unnamed administration officials say the deal might grow in size to more than $300 billion over the next decade.
Human rights advocacy groups have blasted Trump for pushing ahead with the arms sale without considering Saudi Arabia’s unprovoked war against Yemen, which has killed thousands of Yemeni civilians since its onset in March 2015.
This is not Paul’s first attempt to scuttle a major arms deal with the Riyadh regime on the same grounds.
In September, the Senate voted 71-27 against a joint effort by Paul and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy to block another military deal with Saudi Arabia worth of $1.15 billion, signed by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
