Tag: Saudi Arabia

Senate fails to override Trump veto on Saudi arms sale

The Hill logoThe Senate on Monday failed to override President Trump‘s vetoes of resolutions blocking his arms deal with Saudi Arabia, marking the latest setback for critics of Riyadh.

Senators voted 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41 on the override attempts, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed to nix Trump’s veto.

GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Todd Young (Ind.) voted with Democrats to override each of the three vetoes. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who missed the first two votes, joined them to support overriding the third. 

View the complete July 29 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

House votes to block Trump’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, setting up a likely veto

Washington Post logoThe House voted Wednesday to undo President Trump’s bid to sidestep Congress and complete several arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, sending three disapproval resolutions to the Oval Office, where they are expected to be vetoed.

The Trump administration announced in May that it would invoke emergency authority to push through 22 deals worth more than $8 billion, sales that include missiles, munitions and surveillance aircraft. A bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate — but not a veto-proof majority — objected to the move, which would replenish part of the Saudi arsenal that lawmakers say has been used against civilians in Yemen’s long-running civil war.

Members of both parties also object to the idea of rewarding Saudi leaders at a time when most lawmakers want to punish them for the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

View the complete July 17 article by Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

Trump says he is ‘very angry’ over murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi but again defends Saudi crown prince in the case

Washington Post logoOSAKA, Japan — President Trump on Saturday professed to be “very angry” over the murder last year of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate, but the president again declined to pin responsibility on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he called “my friend.”

Trump said nothing about Khashoggi at a photo op Salman before their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here, ignoring shouted questions about the matter from reporters. In brief remarks, Trump called it a “great honor” to be with the crown prince and noted that “Saudi Arabia is a good purchaser of American products.” Salman returned the compliment.

But asked at a news conference later in the day whether he raised the issue with Salman privately, Trump said Riyadh has prosecuted “13 people” in connection with Khashoggi’s death and suggested more prosecutions were coming.

View the complete June 28 article by david Nakamura and Seung Min Kim on The Washington Post website here.

Trump brushes off calls to investigate Jamal Khashoggi’s death

Days after a U.N. expert called for further investigation of Saudi Arabian officials’ involvement in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, President Trump declined to say whether he would hold the country’s leaders responsible and asserted that it was in the United States’ best interest to “take their money.”

In a Sunday interview on “Meet the Press,” Trump revealed that he recently had “a great conversation” with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which he did not raise the issue of the U.N. report or Khashoggi’s killing in October.

“I think it’s been heavily investigated,” Trump said, when host Chuck Todd asked whether he would order the FBI to investigate, as the United Nations has recommended. “I’ve seen so many different reports.”

View the complete June 23 article by Kayla Epstein on The Washington Post website here.

Senate votes to block Saudi arm sales despite veto threat

Axios logoThe Senate voted 53-45 on Thursday to pass 22 resolutions seeking to block the Trump administration’s sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, despite the White House threatening to veto the packagemoments before the vote.

Why it matters: This marks yet another bipartisan rebuke of the administration’s close relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has come under increasing scrutiny in the months since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi government. In March, the Senate voted to end U.S. supportfor the Saudi-led war in Yemen, a resolution that forced Trump to issue the second vetoof his presidency. Continue reading “Senate votes to block Saudi arm sales despite veto threat”

Senators clinch votes to rebuke Trump on Saudi arms sale

Senators have locked in the votes needed for an initial move to block President Trump’s Saudi arms sales, paving the way for a high-stakes veto showdown.

The Senate is expected to take up the 22 resolutions of disapproval as soon as next week, to block each of the sales, after Trump invoked an emergency provision under the Arms Export Control Act to push through the sales without a congressional review period.

Because lawmakers are challenging the sales under the same law, they need only a simple majority to send the resolutions to the president.

View the complete June 12 article by Jordain Carney and Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Trump Allows High-Tech U.S. Bomb Parts to Be Built in Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON — When the Trump administration declared an emergency last month and fast-tracked the sale of more American arms to Saudi Arabia, it did more than anger members of Congress who opposed the sale on humanitarian grounds.

It also raised concerns that the Saudis could gain access to technology that would let them produce their own versions of American precision-guided bombs — weapons they have used in strikes on civilians since they began fighting a war in Yemen four years ago.

The emergency authorization allows Raytheon Company, a top American defense firm, to team with the Saudis to build high-tech bomb parts in Saudi Arabia. That provision, which has not been previously reported, is part of a broad package of information the administration released this week to Congress.

View the complete June 7 article by Michael LaForgio and Walt Bogdanich on The New York Times website here.

Trump chooses to give a gift to MBS and set a dangerous new precedent

LAST MONTH, a bipartisan congressional majority voted against further U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s disastrous intervention in Yemen, which has failed to achieve its aims while helping to produce the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. President Trump vetoed the resolution, and now he has doubled down on offering unqualified support to the Saudi regime and its allies. On Friday, the State Department notified Congress that it was invoking emergency authority to bypass opposition and complete 22 arms deals to Saudi Arabia and several other countries — including more of the munitions that have been killing civilians in Yemen.

The action was another violation by Mr. Trump of established norms, if not law. The administration’s notification did not explain what “emergency” allowed it to use a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act, which gives Congress authority to review weapons sales. Though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited the need for Arab nations “to deter and defend themselves” against Iran, some of the arms being provided will not be available for years, which means they are not relevant to the civil war in Yemen or rising tensions elsewhere in the region. Some of the materiel is going to Jordan, which is not at war in Yemen or anywhere else.

The maneuver extends Mr. Trump’s defiance of Congress’s rightful role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. Members of both parties had placed holds on sales to Saudi Arabia, because of its repeated and evidently deliberate bombing of civilian targets in Yemen and because of its refusal to hold senior officials accountable for human rights offenses, including the murder and dismemberment of journalist and Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. To permanently stop the sales, Congress would have had to pass legislation; Mr. Trump could have and should have allowed the review process to play out.

View the complete commentary by The Washington Post Editorial Board here.

Secrecy behind Saudi nuclear talks infuriates Congress

Congressional anger is growing over President Trump’s efforts to secure a nuclear energy deal with Saudi Arabia.

Lawmakers first became wary of the plans when the Saudis refused to accept limits preventing them from developing a nuclear weapon.

But that skepticism quickly turned to fury when it was revealed that the Trump administration gave approval for companies to share certain nuclear energy technology with the kingdom without a broader nuclear deal in place.

View the complete April 7 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Saudi Arabia ‘had access’ to Jeff Bezos’ phone: Investigator drops bombshell allegation against the Middle East kingdom

 

Renowned celebrity private investigator Gavin De Becker “concluded with high confidence” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had access to the cell phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

In a new column published by The Daily Beast, De Becker laid out what he learned in his investigation into how the Nationale (sic) Enquirer published salacious details of Bezos’ private life.

“Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,” De Becker wrote. “We did not reach our conclusions lightly.”

View the complete March 31 article by Bob Brigham of Salon on the AlterNet website here.