US Congress proposes to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW, 10 Oct – PRIME. In the United States, MPs will introduce a bill in both houses to halt US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and California Democratic Congressman Ro Hanna write in an article for Politico.

Earlier, OPEC+ agreed to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels per day from November. This decision caused a sharp discontent of the American administration.

We will propose on Tuesday a bicameral bill in the US Senate and House of Representatives that would immediately stop all US arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

According to the authors, Saudi Arabia, buying most of its weapons from the United States, is heavily dependent on US defense assistance. They also noted that the kingdom is dependent on American companies to create a local defense industry through large joint ventures.

“Given the early nature of these joint ventures, and the minimal interoperability between Saudi Arabia’s current weapons system and potential foreign replacements, there is little the Saudis can do to respond to this proposed bill other than return to the negotiating table with the US in good faith.” MPs say.

They explained their proposal as a response to the “collusion” of Saudi Arabia with Russia.

“This move by Saudi Arabia cannot be justified by the non-existent global recession that its leaders are referring to,” the authors added.