The United States should simplify the procedure for negotiating arms deals to attract buyers of US weapons. This point of view was expressed by Donald Trump, answering the journalist's question regarding the supply of certain types of weapons of Saudi Arabia, against which the Congress spoke in the summer of 2019. The US President noted that when "they pay a fortune for the purchase of weapons, the deal must be completed."
“I know that some countries want to purchase weapons from us, but it is so difficult that they eventually have to turn to Russia and China. But under my administration, I’m trying to facilitate this process for friendly countries, ”Trump said.
The head of the White House added that if someone wants to pay the United States billions of dollars for airplanes, missiles and other equipment, then you need to "take this money and quickly make deals."
“If they (other countries. - RT ) want to buy our fighter jets for billions of dollars, and at the same time they have such manufacturers as China, Russia and others to choose from, then we must do (the purchase of our weapons. - RT ) as can be easier. We have to get jobs and money, because it's billions of dollars. Past administrations were so dragging out that they didn’t want to do business with America, ”Trump emphasized.
"Obama's protege"
This statement came in the context of a discussion of the recent dismissal of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. Last week, Trump notified Congress of his decision to relieve Linik, who was appointed to this post in 2013 by Barack Obama, who was then the head of the White House.
The current president of the United States explained his decision by the fact that Linik no longer enjoys his trust and promised to submit to the lawmakers his candidacy for this post.
Recall that the Office of the Inspector General as a separate structure of the State Department is engaged in identifying possible cases of abuse, and also audits the activities of the foreign ministry.
- Steve Linick
- Reuters
- © Jonathan Ernst
In 2016, it was Steve Linick who said that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton violated the mandatory rules of official correspondence while he was in office as the US Secretary of State. From the report of the Inspector General for Congress, it became known that Clinton used her personal mailing address for working correspondence.
Answering journalists' questions about Linik's resignation, Donald Trump said that he was not familiar with him and had never even heard of him.
“Personally, I do not know him and have never heard of him. But I was asked to fire him. To this, as president, I have an absolute right. I asked who appointed him, they answered me that Obama. I said fire him. I don’t know the details of what is happening. Ask Mike Pompeo. But they asked me about it, and I did, I have the right to dismiss inspectors general, ”the US president explained.
However, Trump opponents from the Democratic Party question this argument. According to Eliot Engel, chairman of the House’s Foreign Relations Committee, the real reason for Linik’s resignation is because the inspector investigated last year’s $ 8 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia. According to Engel, Linik has almost completed his investigation.
“I realized that there could be another reason for the dismissal of Mr. Linik. His office investigated, at my request, Trump's hypocritical declaration of a state of emergency so that he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia. We do not yet have a complete picture of the situation, but it is suspicious that Secretary of State Pompeo wanted Mr. Linik to be kicked out before the completion of this investigation, ”Egnel said in an interview with CNN.
Democrat claims were supported by Republican Senator, longtime opponent of trump Mitt Romney. The politician wrote on his Twitter that the dismissal of several inspectors general, including Linik, was unheard of
“The lack of compelling reasons for this undermines the independence necessary to carry out their mission. This poses a threat to democratic accountability and upsets the constitutional balance of power, ”he said.
The firings of multiple Inspectors General is unprecedented; doing so
without good cause chills the independence essential to their purpose. It is a threat to accountable democracy and a fissure in the constitutional balance of power.
In turn, the head of the State Department, Mike Pompeo, denies the connection between Linik’s dismissal and the inspector’s investigation. According to the Secretary of State, at the time of the decision on the resignation of Linik, he did not know anything about this work. Therefore, the dismissal could not be an act of revenge on the part of the leadership of the State Department, explained Pompeo in his public comments.
Billions at stake
Recall that in May 2019, the Donald Trump administration decided to conclude an arms deal worth more than $ 8 billion with the authorities of the Persian Gulf countries, bypassing the congress. The State Department said in a statement that lawmakers have been slowing down the defense deal with Saudi Arabia for a long time. The leadership of the US Foreign Ministry considered that this situation could complicate the situation in the Middle East, as well as cast doubt on the reliability of the United States as an arms exporter and open up new opportunities for Washington’s rivals.
According to the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, the Department of Defense is obliged to inform Congress of an upcoming sale of weapons and military technology to a foreign state. Legislators have the right to cancel the transaction if they consider it contrary to the interests of the United States.
- Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017
- Gettyimages.ru
- © Anadolu Agency
However, in emergency situations, the head of state can agree on the supply of arms to a country without the approval of this decision by Congress. A year ago, Donald Trump took advantage of this opportunity to conclude 22 weapons agreements with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE for a total of $ 8.1 billion.
As Mike Pompeo said then, the decision to impose a state of emergency was made allegedly in connection with the growth of Iran's hostile activity.
Such actions of the presidential administration outraged lawmakers. In response to these steps by Trump and his team, four Democratic senators and three Republican senators prepared 22 resolutions prohibiting these contracts. As one of the authors of the initiative noted then, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, introducing a state of emergency, the head of state did not explain exactly what circumstances served as the basis for this decision.
All introduced resolutions were approved by the Senate, three more received the support of the House of Representatives. However, the initiative of lawmakers was blocked by the presidential veto.
As a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Konstantin Blokhin explained in a commentary to RT, Trump’s opponents are now trying to blackmail the presidential administration, again raising the story a year ago.
“But this is unlikely to lead to any consequences for the White House, since huge money and a long-term deal with Riyadh are at stake. Initially, disagreements on the contract arose because Trump signed the agreement, without securing the support of certain forces in the American political elite, and decided to act independently, ”the expert noted.
According to Blokhin, Trump thus wanted to show the public his skills in negotiating and concluding profitable deals.
“Today between the head of the White House and Congress the tug of war continues, the struggle for leadership in the issue of making important decisions. However, the story with Linik is unlikely to turn into a serious political scandal, ”the expert suggested.
“Redistribution of markets”
It should be noted that cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia has a long history. The army of the kingdom is equipped mainly with American weapons, which have been supplied to the country over the past decades. The supply of American weapons to the KSA continued both while the Republican Presidents and their colleagues from the Democratic Party were in the White House.
For a long time, the largest arms deal between Washington and Riyadh remained a contract signed by the parties in 2011 worth about $ 60 billion. As the then Obama administration said, this deal was designed to help neutralize the threat allegedly emanating from Iran, as well as maintain a leading position The US in the arms market amid the growing influence of other powers.
- American paratrooper with anti-tank systems Javelin
- © US Army / Pfc. Josselyn fuentes
True, in 2016 Obama banned the supply of precision guided weapons to Riyadh. Thus, the White House responded to reports that such weapons were used against civilians in the framework of the Yemeni conflict. However, weapons of this type represented only one article of arms supplied to Saudi Arabia, and in 2017, Donald Trump, who replaced Obama as president of the United States, lifted this restriction.
Interestingly, Donald Trump made his first official visit as head of state to Saudi Arabia. The result of the trip was the conclusion of an agreement on the supply of US weapons in the amount of $ 110 billion.
“Trump is positioning himself as a great dealmaker. As for the bureaucracy he complains about, political motives, the desire to interfere with Trump’s plans, rather than real bureaucratic obstacles played a role here, ”Konstantin Blokhin believes.
According to Vladimir Vasilyev, chief researcher at the US and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Trump administration really set itself the goal of crowding out competitors in the global arms market.
“Washington wants to arrange a redistribution of markets in order to squeeze Moscow. This is especially important, because the loss of contracts would mean a blow to the export item of income of the Russian defense industry. In general, the Trump administration initially abandoned the market approach in the issue of arms deliveries, putting national security considerations in the forefront, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.
For example, it was believed that the United States should not sell advanced technologies, but only secondary ones. But the economic crisis forced Trump to reconsider this approach, and now Washington wants to return arms exports to purely market rails, Vasiliev said.
“In fact, Trump’s talk about bureaucracy is an attempt to shift the problem from a sore point to a healthy one, to explain the contradictions in their own policies,” the expert summed up.