WASHINGTON — Reacting to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen, 64 US lawmakers are asking that a $1.15 billion US arms sale to Saudi Arabia be delayed.
Criticism of US support for the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi militias has grown louder in recent weeks, after United Nation-brokered peace talks collapsed and the coalition airstrikes hit a school and a hospital, killing dozens of civilians. According to the UN, more than 3,700 civilians have been killed during the 18-month conflict.
In a letter to President Obama on Tuesday, the bipartisan group cited a recent Saudi airstrike that killed 10 children, and said the Saudi-led coalition’s allegedly deliberate targeting of civilian facilities “may amount to war crimes.”
“This military campaign has had a deeply troubling impact on civilians,” reads the letter, which was first reported by the magazine Foreign Policy. “Any decision to sell more arms to Saudi Arabia should be given adequate time for full deliberation by Congress.”
Spearheaded by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., the letter expressed concern the White House’s notification to Congress about the sale Aug. 8 was timed to coincide with Congress's summer recess. Congress, the letter reads, “has little time to consider the arms deal when it returns from recess within the 30 day window established by law.”
“The actions of the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen are as reprehensible as they are illegal. The multiple, repeated airstrikes on civilians look like war crimes,” Lieu said in a statement.
The House Armed Services Committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., did not sign on, but he issued a statement Monday expressing concern over mass civilian casualties and that Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen may have “caused, or exacerbated,” the humanitarian crisis there.
Smith said the US needs to work with Saudi Arabia to ensure Yemen does not become a haven for terrorist organizations to include Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State, or a proxy for malign Iranian activities.
“Ultimately, this situation will be resolved through political reconciliation, and we must work to support a diplomatic resolution of this crisis,” Smith’s statement said.
“The use of military force by Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners must strictly adhere to international humanitarian law and prioritize the protection of Yemeni civilians,” he said. “As we consider U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, particularly the sale or provision of weapons that may be used in Yemen, there should be demonstrable evidence that Saudi Arabia is confronting this critical issue and revising its approach to restoring peace and stability in the country.”
The proposed US sale includes 153 M1A1/A2 tanks for conversion to 133 M1A2S Saudi Abrams-configured main battle tanks, along with 20 replacements for vehicles damaged in battle; 20 Hercules ARVs; 153 M2 .50 caliber machine guns, 266 7.62mm M240 machine guns and 153 smoke grenade launchers.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale would aid US national security by improving the security of a strategic regional partner. It also would increase the Royal Saudi Land Force’s interoperability with US forces and “conveys U.S. commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces modernization.”
Lieu, who sits on the House Budget and Oversight committees, is a military prosecutor and colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. In April, he introduced legislation to provide limitations on the transfer of air-to-ground munitions from the United States to Saudi Arabia as a companion to a Senate bill offered by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chris Murphy. D-Conn.
Both Murphy and Paul, who have criticized Riyadh’s conduct of the war, said after the latest sale of guns and vehicles was announced that they want to work with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to block it.
"Saudi Arabia is an unreliable ally with a poor human rights record. We should not rush to sell them advanced arms and promote an arms race in the Middle East,” Paul said in statement earlier this month.
The US in November cleared a sale of more than 10,000 advanced air-to-ground munitions for Saudi Arabia, a week after key allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council raised concerns over dwindling supplies of weapons. The value of the sale — which includes tens of thousands of laser-guided bombs — is $1.29 billion.
Signatories to Tuesday’s month’s letter include a mix of Republicans and Democrats, including Reps. Lieu, Justin Amash, R-Mich.; Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; Chris Van Hollen,D-Md.; Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and Jared Polis, D-Colo. The House Armed Services Committee members included Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C.; Niki Tsongas, D-Maine, and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
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