It puts human rights aside to make a buck.
President Trump has just announced the sale of a whopping $110 billion to Saudi Arabia which includes “tanks and helicopters for border security, ships for coastal security, intelligence-gathering aircraft, a missile-defense radar system, and cybersecurity tools...” The deal had been in the works for some time, but the White House evidently pushed hard to finalize the deal in time to announce it during the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia.
Back in September, the Obama administration approved a more than $115 billion arms deal with the Saudis. But as the death toll and reports of human rights violations in the Saudi-led war on Yemen began to rise dramatically, the Obama administration nixed the sale of the precision-guided munitions it had originally agreed to put in the deal to try to coerce the Saudis into curbing those atrocities. Now those munitions are back in the Trump arms package — which speaks volumes about this administration.
...In fact, the entire deal paints a vivid picture of the Trump administration — an administration that is willing to bend over backwards to make deals with important friends, that doesn’t let human rights concerns get in the way of doing business, and where personal relationships with those closest to the president can prove highly lucrative.
And though relations between the two countries were strained during the Obama years due in large part to the administration’s overtures to Iran, it was still the biggest deal ever offered in the history of the US-Saudi alliance. But it came with another price.
The Saudis, with support of the US and several other regional allies, have led a two-year campaign against the Houthis, an Iranian-backed armed group that is trying to dislodge the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The war has been brutal and has produced a humanitarian catastrophe on a staggering scale: at least 10,000 people have been killed and over 3 million displaced since the war began in March 2015. Millions more are currently at risk of famine.
The Obama administration increasingly tried (although not hard enough to make any noticeable difference) to use its leverage over the Saudis — in particular, US military support and arms sales — to compel the Saudis to stop these sorts of flagrant human rights violations. Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t prioritize human rights or values in his foreign policy. He claims his foreign policy is solely based on the national interest. As he stated during the campaign, the United States will “finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests and the shared interests of our allies” should he become president.
Trump seems more than willing to cast aside the growing evidence of the kingdom’s brutal actions in Yemen in order to pass an arms deal — especially if he thinks he can get something out of it in return.
And that’s precisely why Saudi Arabia — and numerous other countries who have been lectured about human rights by the Obama administration for the past eight years — are so happy to have Trump in the Oval Office now. It’s much easier to commit massive human rights abuses when the people selling you weapons don’t particularly care how you use them, as long as you pay up.
https://www.vox.com/2017/5/20/15626638/trump-saudi-arabia-arms-deal
President Trump has just announced the sale of a whopping $110 billion to Saudi Arabia which includes “tanks and helicopters for border security, ships for coastal security, intelligence-gathering aircraft, a missile-defense radar system, and cybersecurity tools...” The deal had been in the works for some time, but the White House evidently pushed hard to finalize the deal in time to announce it during the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia.
Back in September, the Obama administration approved a more than $115 billion arms deal with the Saudis. But as the death toll and reports of human rights violations in the Saudi-led war on Yemen began to rise dramatically, the Obama administration nixed the sale of the precision-guided munitions it had originally agreed to put in the deal to try to coerce the Saudis into curbing those atrocities. Now those munitions are back in the Trump arms package — which speaks volumes about this administration.
...In fact, the entire deal paints a vivid picture of the Trump administration — an administration that is willing to bend over backwards to make deals with important friends, that doesn’t let human rights concerns get in the way of doing business, and where personal relationships with those closest to the president can prove highly lucrative.
And though relations between the two countries were strained during the Obama years due in large part to the administration’s overtures to Iran, it was still the biggest deal ever offered in the history of the US-Saudi alliance. But it came with another price.
The Saudis, with support of the US and several other regional allies, have led a two-year campaign against the Houthis, an Iranian-backed armed group that is trying to dislodge the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The war has been brutal and has produced a humanitarian catastrophe on a staggering scale: at least 10,000 people have been killed and over 3 million displaced since the war began in March 2015. Millions more are currently at risk of famine.
The Obama administration increasingly tried (although not hard enough to make any noticeable difference) to use its leverage over the Saudis — in particular, US military support and arms sales — to compel the Saudis to stop these sorts of flagrant human rights violations. Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t prioritize human rights or values in his foreign policy. He claims his foreign policy is solely based on the national interest. As he stated during the campaign, the United States will “finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests and the shared interests of our allies” should he become president.
Trump seems more than willing to cast aside the growing evidence of the kingdom’s brutal actions in Yemen in order to pass an arms deal — especially if he thinks he can get something out of it in return.
And that’s precisely why Saudi Arabia — and numerous other countries who have been lectured about human rights by the Obama administration for the past eight years — are so happy to have Trump in the Oval Office now. It’s much easier to commit massive human rights abuses when the people selling you weapons don’t particularly care how you use them, as long as you pay up.
https://www.vox.com/2017/5/20/15626638/trump-saudi-arabia-arms-deal
