The Senate on Tuesday gave a bipartisan vote of confidence to the Biden administration’s proposed weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, Politico reports, overcoming criticisms from some Senators on both sides.
The Senate handily defeated an effort to block a $650 million sale of air-to-air missiles and related equipment to Saudi Arabia with a 67-30 vote.
Bipartisan agreement in either house of the U.S. Congress is increasingly elusive as rancor is pervasive on Capitol Hill. But even a few strong critics of Saudi Arabia, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn), did not back the effort to stop the sale. As The Intercept noted, Murphy partnered with Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who sponsored the bill to block the current sale, in November 2018 to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to prohibit U.S. participation in the Saudi bombing offensive in Yemen.
“This is a true defensive weapons sale,” he told The Intercept ahead of the vote. “And with the increased pace of Houthi drones coming into Saudi territory, it is actually important for them to have the ability to shoot them.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed.
“Saudi Arabia is literally surrounded by violent threats conceived, funded and orchestrated by Iran,” McConnell said. “A vote to block the sale of defensive military systems to Saudi Arabia would undermine one of our most important regional partners.”
Over the past several months, Saudi Arabia has been attacked by nearly a dozen ballistic missile and drone strikes launched each week by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels, U.S. and Saudi officials said.
