In a 30-67 vote on Tuesday, the Senate rejected a bipartisan effort to negated President Joe Biden’s $650 million arm sale destined for the Saudi government. Moderate Democrats joined in league with Republicans to denounce the effort.
The joint resolution, filed by Senator’s Rand Paul of Kentucky, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Mike Lee of Utah in Nov., would have suspended the transfer of 280 medium range air-to-air missiles, 596 Missile Rail Launchers, weapon and equipment support, as well as spare and repair parts, used by the Saudi regime in its war against the Houthis in Yemen.
The Senate’s dismissal of the joint resolution found praise within the halls of The White House, which had argued before the vote that the sale is “is fully consistent with the Administration’s pledge to lead with diplomacy to end conflict in Yemen.” Senators, voting against disapproval, accepted this line of reasoning as basis for approval. “This is a true defensive weapons sale,” Chris Murphy of Conn., told The Intercept. “And with the increased pace of Houlthi drones coming into Saudi territory, it is actually important for them to have the ability to shoot them.”
Under the current US-Saudi relationship, Washington is committed to resupplying Saudi stockpiles with defensive-based military equipment, purportedly giving the Saudi’s the capacity to fend off drone and missile attacks. Supplementing the $650 million arms sale approved this week, the Biden administration already agreed to another $500 million in military and technical support for the Saudi regime earlier this year. Despite campaign promises to end the war in Yemen and amend Washington’s relationship with Riyadh, Biden has only proved to strengthen ties with bin Salman government.
The war in Yemen has raged since 2015, after Houlthi rebels usurped the Saudi-backed government from power. With American support, the Saudi government has launched an ongoing aerial, land, and sea blockade of Yemen, impeding Yemenis from receiving much-needed humanitarian assistance. According to a recent United Nations estimate, roughly 377,000 Yemenis — 200,000 of whom are children — will have been killed by year’s end.
