US to crawl back to Saudi Arabia on arms sale?
Saudi Arabia faces a dilemma. Where to buy weapons to improve and modernise its army with the threats of war growing around its borders?
The United States under President Joe Biden is making a U-turn in blocking the sale of weapons to the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates.
The Saudi’s have all the money that can buy all the weapons they want, but there is an international treaty on arms sale and the Biden fuss that’s stopping them.
Will this push them to fund the illegal arms trade? May be and no one will ever know until the weapon is used in some wars where children are casualties.
This is how it goes, though. There are many other countries, including India and Israel, and the United Kingdom or France that will sell arms to the Saudis and their allies.
Reports are saying Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will likely seek alternative arms suppliers if the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden follows through on cancelling arms shipments.
But there is also the lobby business in the big swamp that former President Donald Trump wanted to cut down in Washington. With Biden now in power, the swamp is back and business will boom for the Pentagon.
Lobbyists will likely push for a no-blockade of sales to Saudi Arabia. They will lose a lot of bucks. They will argue that the US will also lose clout in the Middle East if Iran is growing its weapons arsenal while the US blocks the Saudis and their allies.
This argument will be strategic to the lobbyists and there are people in the administration that will listen to these talks while the Pentagon will also press for the money-making machine to continue to roll the dice in Saudi Arabia.
GIVING YEMEN TO IRAN
Nevertheless, to recap, in Biden’s first major foreign policy speech on Feb. 4, he announced the end of American military support for Saudi and Emirati intervention in Yemen.
He also announced the termination of offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia, weapons that could be used to conduct their operations in Yemen.
But it is not a blanket ban because his speech specifically mentioned some offensive systems, which shows the Americans are still keen to sell ‘defensive’ weapons.
This tactic from the US is equivalent to a victory for the Iranians because cutting Saudi attack plans will practically mean the US is pressing Ryadh to capitulate in Yemen and hand it over to Iran.
Which is not going to end the war in the country but will make the Saudi frontiers with Yemen even more vulnerable. This could be a strategy to press the Saudis to buy more defensive weapons from the US, thus maintaining their sales agenda.
Supposedly end the war in Yemen to sell more of the ‘less’ criticized weapons?
Biden is tying the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi with his government’s plan to end the war in Yemen.
He announced the appointment of a new envoy for Yemen. This is veteran diplomat Timothy Lenderking and his job is to help the UN-led diplomatic process to end the civil war in the country.
“The weapons we sold to Saudi Arabia and UAE have been used to kill schoolchildren, transferred to extremist militias, and fueled a dangerous arms race in the Middle East,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy. “This is the right move. The time is now to reset our relationships with Gulf allies.”
The Yemenis are divided between the Houthi movement and the internationally recognized President Mansoor Hadi. They have been at war for a very long time and the Saudi’s are not in favour of a Houthis-led Yemen.
Biden will also remove the Houthis from the list of terror organisation which will make it easier for them to get offensive weapons to fight the ‘recognised’ government in Yemen. Thus potentially sparking more wars and casualties and no peace in the country.
FRENCH OFFENSIVE?
Nevertheless, the American move will also possibly start a French offensive in weapons sale in the region. France is a major stakeholder in the Qatari weapons overhaul. The French will not necessarily listen to the Americans in the arms sale directions because this is their industry and they make money from it. Last year, reports say 9.1 billion euros of weapons were sold by France in 2018. Most of it was from a sharp increase in sales to France’ European allies. France sold about 1 billion euros worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, with the main item being patrol boats used partially to help the Saudi’s in a blockade of ports in Yemen later decried as a means to starve the Houthis.
France sold more than naval vessels. They sold tanks, artillery and munitions to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This increased their sale of weapons to the Middle East in 2018 to 4 billion euros.
The bulk of those sales came from Qatar, which ordered Rafale-fighter jets and helicopters accounting for about 2.4 billion euros. Qatar is a rival of Saudi Arabia and is not part of the coalition fighting in Yemen, says Reuters.
THE UK IS BACK
The United Kingdom signed off on arms exports worth nearly 1.4 billion pounds ($1.9bn) to Saudi Arabia between July and September 2019. This follows the lifting of a ban on weapons sales to the Gulf country. In the three-month period following the restart, the UK authorised weapons exports worth 1.4 billion pounds which includes missiles and bombs accounting for 1.36 billion pounds ($1.88bn) of the sales.
Hence, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies will either spark a frenzy on the illegal weapons market (but they cannot buy heavy weaponry there) or seal some deals with the French, British, Germans and others!