Two weeks ago the Biden administration notified #Congress of a $650 million #arms sale to #SaudiArabia. This sale comes on top of a $500 million arms deal back in October. That’s over a BILLION dollars in #weapons to a country actively waging a brutal #war and naval #blockade in #Yemen leading to the planet’s greatest #humanitarian #crisis.
In his presidency’s first speech on #ForeignPolicy, Biden announced that the U.S. would end all support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive” operations in Yemen. Yet these arms sales fly directly in the face of that...
The Biden administration's latest sale would give Saudi Arabia 280 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, along with 596 missile launchers, support equipment, spare parts, U.S. #government and contractor engineering, and technical support. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the principal contractor for the sale is #NorthrupGrumman, one of the largest arms manufacturers in the U.S. #MilitaryIndustrialComplex. Rather than brokering an end to the humanitarian #catastrophe in Yemen, Biden is choosing to further line the pockets of war merchants. It truly is #unconscionable.
The situation in Yemen is beyond dire.
- An estimated 11 million children there are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
- Nearly 2 million children are acutely malnourished, and the United Nations forecasts that more than 400,000 Yemeni children under the age of 5 could die of #malnutrition by the end of 2021 alone.
- Almost 10 million Yemenis are considered "one step away from #famine."
With only half of the country's medical facilities fully functioning, almost 20 million people lack access to adequate #healthcare.
- Almost 18 million do not have enough clean #water or access to adequate sanitation.
- Yemen’s fishermen fear being blown out of the water by Saudi-led coalition helicopters. Yet a greater fear keeps sending them back to the water -- #hunger.
