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The Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday that the deal was worth £ 290 billion.
Saudi Arabia is the largest buyer of American arms in the Middle East. The United States has been selling these weapons to the country in the last days of President Donald Trump’s term.
US President-elect Joe Biden has called for arms sales to Saudi Arabia to stop. Their goal is to pressure Riyadh to end the war in Yemen. The war has created a terrible humanitarian crisis in the country.
The weapons package will also include 3,000 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb I (SDBI), containers, support equipment, spare parts and technical assistance, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the sale “would increase Saudi Arabia’s ability to deal with current and future threats by increasing its arsenal of long-range surface-to-air weapons.”
The size and precision of the SDBI I will serve as an effective weapon and reduce the number of civilian casualties, he said.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency informed the US Congress on Tuesday about the possible sale of the weapons.
Many members of the United States Congress are outraged by the high number of civilian casualties in the Saudi attacks in Yemen. Earlier this year, they tried to block the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh, but failed.
Despite the approval of the State Department, the circular does not indicate that any agreement has been signed or negotiated between the two countries.
The Pentagon said Boeing was the main contractor for the weapons.
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