US Senate votes to support Trump’s weapons sale to Saudi Arabia

Agencies

June 14, 2017

Washington, Jun 14: The US Senate on Tuesday turned back a bipartisan bid to reject President Donald Trump’s plan to sell the Kingdom more than $500 million in precision-guided munitions.

The vote Tuesday was 53-47, clearing the way for the sale to be finalized. The precision munitions are part of Trump’s proposed $110 billion arms package to Riyadh, which the administration said would create US jobs while also improving a key ally’s military capability.

Senators Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, proposed to block the sale, saying they feared the sophisticated weapons could be used in the conflict against Yemeni civilians.

Murphy and Paul were the same authors of a move to stop President Barack Obama in pursuing the sale of more than $1 billion worth of American-made tanks and other weapons to Saudi Arabia. The move was also soundly defeated last September.

Containing Daesh and Iran

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and other senators supporting the sale said the United States can’t deny its Middle East allies the weapons they need to combat Daesh extremists and check Iran’s aggression in the region.

The war in Yemen is pitting the country’s internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said rejecting the sale of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia would be a victory for Iran.

“If you don’t think containing Iran and keeping them from toppling Yemen, Iraq, Syria (and) Lebanon is not in our national interest, you’re making a huge mistake,” he said.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that at least a portion of the votes to block the munitions sale came from senators who wanted to embarrass Trump.

“I’m afraid this vote is somewhat about some members wanting to get a piece of President Trump’s hide,” Corker said.

Trump’s decision to move ahead with the sale appeared to reverse an Obama administration decision to hold sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia’s armed forces .

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Israel launches bloody ground offensive into Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp

News Network

May 12,2024

Israeli military tanks have started to go deeper into the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza as part of a ground offensive months after claiming Hamas had been “dismantled” in the area.

Israeli forces are “carpet-bombing” the eastern areas of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several Palestinians, Al-Jazeara reported citing local sources on Sunday.

Israeli military tanks have advanced further into the Jabalia refugee camp, crossing Salah al-Din Street amidst ongoing battles with Hamas fighters, reports added.

Media quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the tanks are surrounding evacuation centers and residential buildings in the densely populated area, leading to mass evacuations and displacement towards the western part of Gaza City.

Also, Israeli drones targeted ambulances near the clinic run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Jabalia, according to Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the civil defense directorate in Gaza.

Basal stated that emergency crews in Rafah, al-Zaytounm, al-Sabra, and Jabalia have been inundated with distress calls, confirming that these areas were subjected to overnight bombardment.

Shortage of oxygen for patients

Imad Abu Zayda, an emergency doctor in Jabalia, warned of the critical conditions prevailing there due to the recent Israeli aggression in the area.

“No light due to the lack of fuel and there’s no medical supplement available as Israel has expanded their operation in the area. We have no oxygen to give to patients,” he said.

He added that the majority of those injured are children and women, and the medical team is grappling with limited resources to provide essential care.

All hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are now out of service, following a warning from the UN about the risk of running out of fuel in hospitals across the region.

Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing has also prevented aid trucks from entering the area since May 5.

The Jabalia refugee camp, established in 1948 to accommodate Palestinians who were displaced after the Nakba, or catastrophe, which refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, has become the most densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

With over 750,000 Palestinians forcefully displaced, this camp stands as a testament to the birth of Israel in 1948.

Since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israeli forces carried out several attacks on Jabilia camp, leaving it in ruins by intense bombardment.

In early February, Israeli forces withdrew from the camp claiming it had destroyed Hamas as a fighting force in the northern areas.

On Saturday, the Israeli military ordered residents of the Jabalia Refugee Camp to evacuate “immediately”, as it prepares to launch military operations against Hamas.

However, the displaced residents have no place to seek refuge, as the UN reports a severe famine in the region.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 34,971 Palestinians and injured more than 78,641 others, mostly women and children.

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