The bipartisan campaign to block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia is growing, both within and outside the government.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-California, introduced a new bill on Tuesday morning that would block a $1.15 billion U.S. weapons deal with Saudi Arabia.
“The reason we’re doing this is because there is now overwhelming evidence that war crimes are being committed in Yemen and that most of them appear to be done by Saudi Arabia-led air strikes,” Lieu told Salon in an interview on Monday.
He noted that U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition attacks on civilians have been thoroughly documented in an array of independent reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, the United Nations and other organizations. [...]
Explaining the motivation behind their joint resolution, all four senators cited the atrocities committed by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and how the destructive campaign there has strengthened extremist groups like al-Qaida and ISIS. [...]
Despite the enormous civilian casualties and destruction, the U.S. has stood behind the war in Yemen. The Pentagon is still refueling coalition planes and providing intelligence to the Saudi-led coalition. The State Department has stressed that Saudi Arabia, a repressive theocratic monarchy that has exported radical Islamist ideology throughout the Arab and Muslim world, “remains a key ally and partner” and that the “United States continues to support a strong defense and security relationship with Saudi Arabia.”
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