"Incredibly dangerous precedent": the administration of the Trump intends to sell weapons to Arab countries, bypassing Congress

The administration of US President Donald Trump decided to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan more than $ 8 billion without the approval of Congress. The corresponding statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was distributed by the US State Department.

“Today I made a decision in accordance with Art. 36 of the Arms Export Control Act and instructed the (State. - RT ) Department to immediately complete work on the official notification of 22 planned arms shipments to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia totaling approximately $ 8.1 billion in order to curb Iran’s aggression and building a partner’s capacity for self-defense. Through these deliveries, our allies will be supported, stability in the Middle East will be strengthened, and assistance will be given to these countries in deterring and self-defense in the face of the Islamic Republic of Iran, ”said Pompeo in a statement.

The US Secretary of State also criticized the position of Congress, which, according to Pompeo, has delayed the implementation of these transactions for many months. According to the diplomat, this situation is unacceptable, as it can only complicate the situation in an unstable region. In addition, the state secretary noted, the delay in previously agreed deliveries calls into question the reliability of Washington as an arms supplier, “opening up opportunities for opponents of the United States.”

Weapons for allies

According to the publication The Hill, referring to the Agency for Security Cooperation with the US Department of Defense, the delivery, which the Trump administration intends to bypass the congress for the UAE, includes 20 reconnaissance drone RQ-21A Blackjack and 331 missile for anti-tank complex Javelin.

• Launch ATGM Javelin
• Reuters
• © Lucas Jackson

In addition, the United States, according to some data, intends to send the UAE 20 004 laser-guided missiles to APKWS and to train the personnel of the Emirates with the forces of the American Marine Corps.

As for Saudi Arabia, only intentions are revealed to carry out maintenance, repair and supply of spare parts for previously acquired US aircraft, including RE-3A electronic reconnaissance aircraft. Information about what equipment and services the United States intends to provide to Jordan is not publicly available.

As Reuters notes, earlier in the course of several months, the Congress did indeed block approval for the supply of arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE because of reports of the use of American weapons by the countries against civilians in Yemen. The murder of journalist Jamal Hashukji in the territory of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year also caused dissatisfaction by American lawmakers, who declared that the supply of weapons was frozen, and even the possibility of imposing sanctions against Riyadh.

In February 2019, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and in March the Senate voted in favor of a resolution calling for an end to military support for the Saudi coalition in Yemen. However, on April 17, President Donald Trump put a veto on the document, stating that it represents an attempt to weaken his “constitutional powers”.

Emergency question

In accordance with the 1976 Arms Export Control Act mentioned by Mike Pompeo, all major American arms sales transactions must be approved by Congress, “if the President does not state in his opinion that there is an emergency requiring the implementation of the proposed export in the interests of US national security” .

• Consequences of the bombing in Yemen
• Reuters
• © Khaled Abdullah

Pompeo's statement is formally published on the State Department website as “a notification in the light of an emergency situation,” which underlines the intention of the Trump administration to use emergency powers delegated to the president to resolve the stated issue.

At the same time, “if the president, in his opinion, declares that there is an emergency situation requiring the immediate approval of an agreement in the interests of the US national security”, the law requires the head of state to “accompany this conclusion with a detailed justification of his decision, describing the emergency circumstances that necessitate an immediate issuing a proposal to conclude a deal, as well as an overview of the interests of national security concerned. ”

Responding to the decision of the executive, US lawmakers noted that in a statement Pompeo lacks the most important thing - a clear explanation of what kind of emergency caused the president not to coordinate arms supplies with Congress.

“Trying to explain this step, the administration did not even tell what legal mechanism it relies on. She told about the malicious activities of Iran, which has been going on for many years, but she did not say what the emergency situation is now. And, which is extremely important, did not explain how the delivery of these complexes, which will take more than one year to be commissioned, could benefit the United States or its allies and therefore requires such hasty measures, ”Defense Democratic senator quoted the Defense News newspaper. .

Another Democratic senator Chris Murphy argues that there is no emergency. According to him, Trump is just trying to push through the deals stuck in the congress.

“President Trump took advantage of this loophole only because he knows that Congress will approve the deal. There is nothing “extraordinary” that could justify the sale of Saudi Arabia bombs that it dropped on Yemen. This will only lead to the preservation of the humanitarian crisis observed there, ”Reuters quotes him.

State lobbyism

As a military expert, Alexander Mikhailov, said in an interview with RT, the US administration is using the conflict with Iran, which it is aggravating artificially, to expand sales of its weapons to the region. According to the political scientist, these actions are determined by the interests of the American military-industrial complex.

“Trump is aggravating the situation in the region, while sending armaments produced by American corporations there,” Mikhailov said in a conversation with RT.

According to the expert, in this way the United States kills two birds with one stone: on the one hand, they are increasing pressure on Iran by strengthening its regional rivals, and on the other, they derive direct monetary benefits from the situation.

“As a person with a business mindset, he expects to profit from the functioning of his defense machine,” the expert emphasizes. “There is no other logic to harden the situation further, but lobbying is the promotion of private interests at the expense of state mechanisms.”

As Reuters notes, the largest profits from the decision of the American presidential administration to speed up arms sales to Arab countries will be received by the largest corporations of the American defense industry complex: Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric. Also, the beneficiary, as the agency notes, is the American division of the French corporation Thales, which will be able to supply components for laser-guided bombs Paveway IV. British BAE Systems and European Airbus, on whose aircraft exported to Saudi Arabia, these bombs should be installed, also among the winners.

As the Stockholm World Research Institute (SIPRI) reported in March 2019, in 2014–2018, Saudi Arabia was the world's largest importer of weapons, purchasing $ 15.6 billion worth of weapons from the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain and Germany. 68% of Saudi imports of military equipment accounted for the United States.

• Saudi military in Yemen
• Reuters
• © Ali Owidha

Over the past five years, almost half of the list of the world's ten largest importers of weapons are the countries of the Middle East: in addition to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq are among the leaders in terms of purchases, as well as one Arab North African state - Algeria. At the same time, the largest supplier for Abu Dhabi and Baghdad was the United States, for Cairo - France, and for Algeria - Russia. In general, over the last five years, arms exports to the region grew by 87%, SIPRI notes.

In turn, the American magazine In These Times on May 20 brought its statistics. Based on data from open sources, journalists estimate that over the past ten years, the United States sold more than $ 103 billion of weapons to Saudi Arabia. At the same time, at least 434 people, mostly civilians, died from American weapons.

"No man is an island"

However, American lawmakers are concerned not only and not so much about the fate of the inhabitants of Yemen. As stated by Senator Chris Murphy, the decision to speed up arms sales by bringing in the exclusive powers of the president "creates an incredibly dangerous precedent that will allow future presidents to sell weapons without congressional approval."

As noted by CNN, the White House’s decision to bypass the congress in supplying arms to Arab countries was not supported by many Trump supporters from the Republican Party, including Senators Lindsay Graham and Rand Paul. Member of the House of Representatives Committee on International Affairs, Republican Mike McCall, in turn, called the White House decision unsuccessful, calling on the executive to coordinate arms sales with Congress.

It is noteworthy that it is not the first time that the White House uses the president’s emergency powers to circumvent the obstacles that the legislative branch creates. In February of this year, Trump declared a state of emergency in order to receive money for the construction of a “wall” on the border with Mexico.

Trump's way of solving key issues alone, often ignoring the opinion of lawmakers, only aggravates the already difficult relationship between the president and the congress, especially its lower house, which is dominated by democrats, experts say.

“Trump doesn’t pay attention to the American system of checks and balances at all,” said Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, in an interview with RT. “He believes that everything he does is either brilliant or congenial.”

According to Alexander Mikhailov, Trump "got used to fighting on the principle of" one soldier in the field ", he has such a philosophy since working in business." Therefore, according to the expert, the president will continue to ignore the opinion of congressmen and senators on important issues for him.

“The political situation will worsen,” the political analyst believes. - Since the arrival of Trump in the White House in the United States, the situation of diarchy continues. He was not used to coordinating his actions with the congress and is not going to do this in the future. Moreover, Trump shows voters that he keeps aloof from others, truly independent, including from Republicans. ”