TUESDAY, AUG 30, 2016 06:58 AM PDT
Rights group blasts U.S. “hypocrisy” in “vast flood of weapons” to Saudi Arabia
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/30/rig...-to-saudi-arabia-despite-war-crimes/#comments
Amnesty International has accused the U.S. of “deadly hypocrisy” for its massive arms deals with Middle East governments that have carried out war crimes and other violations of international law.
“One of the unspoken legacies of the Obama administration is the extraordinary uptake in the amount of U.S. weapons and military aid that are provided to major U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt that have terrible records when it comes to human rights,” explained Sunjeev Bery in an interview with Salon.
Bery, the advocacy director for Middle East and North Africa issues at Amnesty International USA, called on the Obama administration to “do an about-face on its current policy of providing vast arms sales and military aid to repressive allies in the Middle East.”
Israel has for
decades been the largest recipient of U.S. military aid. It averages more than $3 billion a year, although this figure may soon increase. Egypt comes in second, with $1.5 billion. In 2014, these two countries received about
three-fourths of U.S. foreign military aid.
In the past few years, however, one of the most repressive countries in the world has become a key customer for U.S. weapons: Saudi Arabia.
Since President Obama took office, the U.S. government has done a staggering
$110 billion in arms sales with the Saudi monarchy — amounting to an unprecedented increase. Like Israel and Egypt, Saudi Arabia has long been a close U.S. ally, but the U.S.-Saudi military alliance has grown dramatically since 2009.
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/30/rig...f-weapons-to-saudi-arabia-despite-war-crimes/
