Trump vetoes resolutions blocking Saudi, UAE arms sales
Resolutions were meant to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia due to civilian casualties in Yemen
ANKARA
U.S. President Donald Trump has vetoed three joint congressional resolutions meant to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In his veto on Wednesday, Trump called the resolutions "ill-conceived and time-consuming".
"The United States is very concerned about the conflict's toll on innocent civilians and is working to bring the conflict in Yemen to an end," he said.
He warned they would "weaken America's global competitiveness" and "damage the important relationships the U.S. share with its allies".
This is the third time Trump exercised his veto power during his presidency, and the second time he used it to shield Saudi Arabia from congressional action.
Congress is unlikely to be able to reach the two-thirds majority needed to override Trump’s vetoes.
In May, the Trump administration invoked an emergency provision of the law governing arms sales to push 22 pending transfers to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan.
Congress conducted a process for more than a year to block the arms sales due to concerns about civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen’s civil war. Lawmakers have also been furious at Saudi Arabia over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia initially denied any knowledge of his whereabouts after he went missing but later attempted to blame his death on a team of rogue operatives carrying out a botched rendition operation.
That explanation, however, has flown in the face of international and U.S. assessments of the killing, which places the blame for the murder on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Impoverished Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014 when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa and Al-Hudaydah province.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains and shoring up the country’s pro-Saudi government.
The violence has devastated Yemen’s basic infrastructure, including its health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.
