The Trump administration approves arms deals for 3 Arab countries .. Will they change the military balance in the region?

The outgoing US administration approved potential arms deals worth billions of dollars to three Arab countries, amid the tense atmosphere in the Middle East region.

The US Defense Department said on Tuesday that the State Department had approved the possibility of selling 3 thousand precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, in a deal worth up to $ 290 million.

The deal comes in the final days of Donald Trump's presidential term.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is the largest buyer of American weapons in the Middle East.

With this pledge, Badin is trying to pressure Riyadh to end the Yemeni war, which has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

The Pentagon said that the deal will include 3,000 small diameter bombs, "GBU-39", containers, support equipment, spare parts and technical support.

"The proposed deal will improve Saudi Arabia's ability to face current and future threats by increasing its stockpile of long-range surface-to-air guided munitions," he added in a statement.

"The size and accuracy of the small diameter bombs allow for effective munitions that cause less collateral damage."

Notify Congress

On Tuesday, Congress received a notification of the deal from the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Members of Congress were outraged by the heavy civilian casualties in Yemen and this year they tried to stop the sale of the F-35 fighters to Riyadh, but to no avail.

Despite approval by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the notification does not indicate the signing of a contract or the conclusion of negotiations.

The Pentagon said Boeing is the primary arms contractor.

Potential deals included Apache helicopters for Kuwait, at a cost of $ 4 billion.

The Trump administration also agreed to sell Egypt the "LAIRCM" air system that Cairo requested to protect the presidential plane, and the value of the deal amounts to 104 million dollars.

And the Pentagon's Security Cooperation Agency stated that the equipment covered by the deal will not change the basic military balance in the region.