Senator Bob Menendez, the most senior Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Congress), has expressed his expectation that next week members of the House will vote on bills seeking to block a $ 23 billion arms deal that Republican President Donald Trump struck with the UAE.
"We are rallying support for that (the vote) and I think it will be sometime next week," Menendez told reporters.
Menendez and two other members of the Senate, his fellow Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Rand Paul, announced on November 18 that they would introduce legislation seeking to stop the sale of drones, F-35 fighters and other weapons systems to the UAE.
The deal includes products from privately owned General Atomics, F-35 combat aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin Military Industries, and missiles manufactured by Raytheon.
Menendez said he hoped more Republicans would support the bills.
It will take the support of Trump party members, who rarely disagree with the president, in order to pass legislation and override the veto power that Trump is expected to use.
Members of Congress were disturbed by Trump's attempt to speed up approval of this deal with the Emirates, as he did not send an official notification to the Council about it until mid-November.
Many lawmakers fear that the UAE will use weapons in attacks that would harm civilians in the war in Yemen, which is witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.