Senate Amendment Would Block US Bomb Sales for Saudi War

Sens. Murphy, Paul Seek Saudi 'Promises to Take Precautions'

by Jason Ditz

A bipartisan amendment at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is seeking to halt all sales of bombs and other air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia until the Kingdom promises to take precautions to limit the number of civilians they kill.

The amendment, co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Murphy (D – CT) and Rand Paul (R – KY), also calls on the Saudis to agree to combat al-Qaeda as part of the Yemen War, which they launched in March of 2015 in an attempt to reinstall former President Hadi.

Sen. Murphy noted that the US involvement in the Saudi War is damaging their credibility internationally, and says that “every single civilian death inside Yemen is attributable to the United States” so long as the US continues to take part.

At the same time, Murphy conceded that there likely would not be enough support to stop US involvement in the war outright, but hoped that the amendment would see Congress exercises at least some oversight on the conflict.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/06/10/senate-amendment-would-block-us-bomb-sales-for-saudi-war/