State Department officials testify before Congress on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the May 2019 sale did not warrant an emergency certification, but a State official cited the threat from Iran.
State Department officials defended the May 2019 arms sale to Gulf countries in Congress today, but some House members continued to take issue with the department’s actions.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said many in Congress thought that the US arming of Saudi Arabia led to unnecessary civilian deaths in Yemen but that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disagreed.
“Many of us here in Congress saw the situation on the ground in Yemen and said, 'Enough,'’’ the New York Democrat said during a hearing today. “Pompeo’s State Department didn’t see it that way.”
The hearing focused on the firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in May. Congressional Democrats are concerned that Linick was fired for looking into the Trump administration's weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as allegations that Pompeo improperly used the department’s resources for his personal benefit. In May 2019, Pompeo issued an emergency certification to allow the arms sales in question to go through. This bypassed a hold Congress placed on them due to concerns over civilian casualties.
