Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The United States foreign affairs committee chairman has said on Wednesday he heard stressful reports of Saudi Arabia supplying and transferring armed weapons to the extremist militant groups in Yemen and questioned whether the US Congress should further consider imposing some more restrictions over weapon sales to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

According to Reuters news reports, the committee voted 25 to 17 in favour of the war power resolution preventing the American military from offering any help to Saudis and other countries waging war in Yemen’s civil war on Iranian backed Houthi rebels.

On Monday, CNN reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have supplied US-manufactured armed weapons to fighters and other groups linked to al-Qaeda, and also that several of its weapons have been used by Iranian backed Houthi rebels while exposing sensitive technologies to Iran.

At a hearing, the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee chairman Democratic Eliot Engel said, “These reports are very troubling and the Trump administration must investigate further and work to prevent this from happening again.” Engel, who hold the right of foreign weapons sales, asked: “Should Congress pursue greater restrictions on offensive weapons to the Saudi coalition?”

The US state department said it was under the process of investigating the allegations. The department official said, “We are aware of these reports and seeking additional information.”

Though, the US President Donald Trump’s administration opposed many bills, praising its weapon sales as an important source of American jobs and calling the Saudis main regional partners.

However, none of the bills turned into a law, but Engel said its committee would continue to pressurize Saudi for response to casualties in war-torn Yemen country, the imprisonment of women’s rights activities and journalist Jamal Khashoggi murder. He said, “It can no longer be business as usual. We need to push for a real change in Saudi behavior.”

Committee’s top Republican Michael McCaul called Khashoggi’s murder a “major setback” in the Saudi-US ties and deplored casualties in Yemen.

McCaul, who opposed war powers resolution seeking to halt US weapon sale to Saudi-led coalition, said it “could disrupt U.S. security cooperation with partners around the world”.

If Trump refused to sign the resolution, the measures would have to need two-thirds of majority support in both the Senate and the House to pass.

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