The State Department has authorized the sale of hundreds of ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia for an astounding $3.05 billion, including with the supporting equipment.
The deal takes place barely one month after President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia in an effort to persuade them to raise oil output in order to lower gas costs.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the Defense Department issued the statement that the transaction had been approved. The sale of 300 PATRIOT MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical Ballistic missiles to Saudi Arabia, according to the release, had been approved.
The agreement covers a variety of tools, testing apparatus, and testing programs, spare parts, support from the Quality Assurance Team, and technical help given by the government as well as a group of contractors.
The State Department then claimed that simply disclosing the possible agreement, there would be no military imbalance in the region.
According to the department, the U.S. has already sold Saudi Arabia military equipment worth over $126 billion, making the country one of the biggest buyers of American weapons.
Prior to Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July, House Democrats made an effort to halt the export of arms to the country due to concerns about human rights.
There may be some basis for worry regarding abuses of human rights. Trusting someone in a position of authority in the Middle East seems to be a challenge. There is a lot going on in the background, and government officials are frequently susceptible to bribery.
It’s hard to say how awful the effects of this move may potentially be at this stage because President Joe Biden has a reputation for botching up pretty much whatever he does.
One thing that this sale accomplishes is to remind people about the big, disastrous troop departure from Afghanistan, which will soon be one year old. All the hard work and sacrifice were undone in a matter of days a year ago when the Taliban were able to take over the nation we spent two decades in.
