{"id":13804,"date":"2015-10-25T17:16:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T22:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13804"},"modified":"2015-10-25T17:16:39","modified_gmt":"2015-10-25T22:16:39","slug":"deal-defies-global-call-for-arms-embargo-over-mounting-evidence-of-the-saudi-dictatorships-war-crimes-in-yemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13804","title":{"rendered":"Deal defies global call for arms embargo over mounting evidence of the Saudi dictatorship\u2019s war crimes in Yemen."},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/theantimedia.org\/us-approves-11-billion-dollar-deal-to-sell-combat-ships-to-brutal-dictatorship\/\" target=\"_blank\">Deal defies global call for arms embargo over mounting evidence of the Saudi dictatorship\u2019s war crimes in Yemen.<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Defying the international call for an arms embargo over war crimes concerns, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced Tuesday it has approved an $11.25 billion deal to sell combat ships to Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a military assault against\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/yemen\" target=\"_blank\">Yemen<\/a>\u00a0for more than six months.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe selling of arms in the middle of a war will obviously send the message that the Saudis can do whatever they want and get away with it,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Farea Al-Muslimi, Beirut-based Yemeni writer and visiting scholar with Carnegie Middle East Center, told\u00a0<em>Common Dreams<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which is part of the DoD,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dsca.mil\/major-arms-sales\/kingdom-saudi-arabia-multi-mission-surface-combatant-mmsc-ships\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday that is has rubber-stamped the export of four \u201cMulti-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) Ships and associated equipment, parts and logistical support for an estimated cost of $11.25 billion\u201d to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security goals of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic regional partner, which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,\u201d the U.S. agency stated.<\/p>\n<p>The ships will replace older naval models, also built in the United States. While the transfer is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-10-20\/u-s-said-to-approve-saudis-buying-11-billion-in-littoral-ships\" target=\"_blank\">being reported<\/a>as a U.S. effort to bolster Saudi Arabia\u2019s defenses in the wake of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2015\/07\/14\/opening-historic-possibility-peace-world-powers-clinch-iran-deal\" target=\"_blank\">nuclear deal between world powers and Iran<\/a>, the arms sales are part of an ongoing trend. The\u00a0<em>IHS Jane\u2019s 360<\/em>\u00a0report, released in March,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.janes.com\/article\/49809\/saudi-arabia-replaces-india-as-largest-defence-market-for-us\" target=\"_blank\">found<\/a>that Saudi Arabia was the \u201cnumber one\u201d defense trading partner with the United States in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Congress now has 30 days to block sale of the ships before the deal goes into effect. While both Lockheed and Austal Ltd. manufacture such vessels, the deal applies to the \u201cFreedom\u201d versions produced by Lockheed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deal defies global call for arms embargo over mounting evidence of the Saudi dictatorship\u2019s war crimes in Yemen. Defying the international call for an arms embargo over war crimes concerns, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced Tuesday it has approved an $11.25 billion deal to sell combat ships to Saudi Arabia, which has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8350,10214,1319,7669,10211,522,701,827,834,10212,10213,901],"class_list":["post-13804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-anti-media","tag-armament-sales","tag-armaments","tag-common-dreams","tag-global-arms","tag-middle-east","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-us-department-of-defence","tag-us-dod","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13806,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13804\/revisions\/13806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}