Democrats Move to Block Over $3 Billion in Weapons Sales to Qatar and U.A.E.
Congressional Democrats are seeking to block more than $3 billion in proposed weapons sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that were announced during President Trump's visit to the Middle East this week.
The Democrats are targeting a $1.9 billion sale to Qatar and $1.6 billion to the Emirates. The packages include Chinook helicopters, armed drones, hundreds of bombs, targeting kits, F-16 aircraft components and other military equipment.
The State Department approved the proposed sales and formally notified Congress shortly before Mr. Trump's trip. However, for the sale to the Emirates, the administration bypassed an informal review period that allows senior lawmakers on foreign affairs committees to raise concerns or negotiate changes before full congressional notification.
Leading the opposition is Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, who on Thursday introduced resolutions aimed at blocking the arms sales to both countries.
Mr. Murphy questioned the sale to Qatar in light of reports that the country had offered Mr. Trump a $400 million luxury Boeing jet as a gift.
'Unless Qatar rescinds their offer of a 'palace in the sky' or Trump turns it down, I will move to block this arms sale,' Mr. Murphy said in a statement. He also pointed to a $5.5 billion real estate and golf course deal involving the Trump family and a firm affiliated with Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The project would involve a Trump-branded beachside golf course and luxury villa project in the country.
Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, all Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, joined in supporting the resolutions, along with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
The group also expressed concerns about the Emirates sale, saying it was improperly connected to recent investment by a state-backed Emirati firm into a cryptocurrency business linked to the Trump family.
Additionally, the lawmakers criticized the Emirates for its role in the war Sudan. U.S. and U.N. officials have accused the Emirates of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese paramilitary group that the State Department, during the Biden administration, determined committed genocide in Sudan.
Mr. Trump's State Department has not made the same determination, though officials have repeatedly condemned the group, including last month after an attack led to the deaths of 300 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
'The U.S. should not be delivering weapons to the U.A.E. as it aids and abets this humanitarian disaster and gross human rights violations,' Mr. Van Hollen said in the statement. 'We must stop this corrupt Trump family crypto-for-arms deal and use our leverage to prevent more suffering in Sudan — and bring its civil war to a peaceful resolution.'
A parallel effort is underway in the House. Representatives Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sara Jacobs of California, the top Democrat on the Africa subcommittee, also introduced resolutions of disapproval targeting the Emirates arms sales.
The Arms Export Control Act gives Democrats a procedural tool to force Congress to debate these issues, one of the few maneuvers lawmakers in the minority have at their disposal to control what is brought up for a vote.
'If a foreign government is participating in this kind of nuclear-grade corruption by directly enriching the president and his family,' Mr. Murphy said, 'we are going to force a full Senate debate on that behavior and a vote on their security relationship with the United States.'
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