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3 US Senators Seek to Stop Trump's $23B in Arms Sales to UAE

Reuters

   WASHINGTON - Three U.S. senators said Wednesday that they would
   introduce legislation seeking to stop the Trump administration's effort
   to sell more than $23 billion of drones and other weapons systems to
   the United Arab Emirates, setting up a showdown with the president just
   weeks before he is due to leave office.

   Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Chris Murphy and Republican
   Senator Rand Paul will introduce four separate resolutions of
   disapproval of President Donald Trump's plan to sell more than $23
   billion worth of Reaper drones, F-35 fighter aircraft and air-to-air
   missiles, and other munitions to the UAE.

   The huge sale could alter the balance of power in the Middle East, and
   members of Congress have chafed at the administration's attempt to rush
   it through, having sent a formal notice to Congress only last week.

   Many lawmakers also worry about whether the UAE would use the weapons
   in attacks that would harm civilians in Yemen, whose civil war is
   considered one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

   When the deal was announced, Amnesty International warned that the
   weapons would be used for "attacks that violate international
   humanitarian law and kill, as well as injure, thousands of Yemeni
   civilians."

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