US weapons sales to Saudi not just for profit: Analyst

The United States’ sale of $1.15 billion worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia is not just aimed at making profit, an analyst says.

Chicago-based author and radio host Stephen Lendman made the comments in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday, while speaking about a bipartisan effort at the US Senate to block the sale.

“This resolution will say to the president that we disapprove of the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia,” said Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, one of the lawmakers behind the resolution of disapproval, set to be introduced on Wednesday.

The administration of President Barack Obama is expected to object to the resolution since it already gave preliminary approval for the sale of weaponry.

According to Lendman, the White House’s inclination towards making the deal with the monarchy, while it is engaged in war crimes in neighboring Yemen, surpasses far beyond just making profit.

“America is already too happy to sell (weapons) to them not just for the profits involved for the corporation, which are considerable, but because Saudi Arabia is involved in fighting America’s war in Yemen,” said the American analyst.

Apart from that, Lendman noted, the US has been engaged in other wars in the region, including assassination drone attacks, amid media blackout.

“All of the wars in the Middle East are US wars with no exception, including the war in Yemen,” he said. “(US) drones have been killing people in Yemen for years and years.”

And it is not only the US that is wreaking havoc in the region as other countries such as Britain and other NATO members are also “actively involved with the Saudis in choosing targets to bomb.”

Saudi Arabia launched a military aggression against Yemen in March 2015 in a bid to bring the country’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, back to power and undermine the Ansarullah Houthi movement.

The new deal between Washington and Riyadh has been strongly censured by human rights activists in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, in which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the main rivals.

According to Lendman, if the Democratic Party can manage to maintain power over the country through Clinton’s presidency, the situation in the Middle East will “get worse.”