The Biden administration has transferred a significant
number of Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia in the past several weeks after the
country urgently requested a resupply, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The transfers, which were not formally announced, are to
make sure Saudi Arabia can defend itself against drone and missile attacks from
the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, a senior US official said.
While they would not specifically confirm a significant
number of transfers, a State Department spokesman told The Hill that over
the past several months the administration has been working with Saudi Arabia
and its neighbors to help them strengthen their air defenses in response to a
rising number of aerial attacks from Yemen.
One official told the Journal the Patriot interceptors were
moved from US stockpiles elsewhere in the Middle East.
Washington’s relationship with Riyadh has been
rocky for more than a year after President Biden took office, an
issue that stems from the country’s human rights record and its
involvement in Yemen’s civil war, which has dragged on since 2014 and killed
thousands of civilians.
Biden will not communicate directly with Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman and last year released an intelligence report implicating
him in the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
And the United States in September withdrew some
of its own Patriot defense systems from Saudi Arabia amid
ongoing Houthi attacks.
But Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers,
is also a valuable strategic ally in the region, especially since the US
withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
The US has supplied more than US$100 billion worth of
weapons to the kingdom in the past decade and has used the country to keep a US
force presence in the region amid ongoing tensions with Iran and
counterterrorism missions against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
On Sunday, White House national security adviser Jake
Sullivan condemned the Houthis for a series of major drone and missile
strikes on water treatment facilities and Saudi-run Aramco oil
infrastructure that started a fire at one site and temporarily
reduced oil production at another.
“We will continue to fully support our partners in the
defense of their territory from Houthi attacks. We call on the international
community to do the same,” Sullivan said in a statement.
A person familiar with the transfers told The Hill that
the recent movements of Patriots to the Saudis was not a new
development and that the US has been working for months to bolster Saudi
Arabia against cross-border attacks, which numbered at more than 400 last year,
they said.
Such attacks “affected Saudi infrastructure, schools,
mosques, and workplaces, and endangered the civilian population, including
70,000 US citizens living in Saudi Arabia,” they said.
“With US support, Saudi Arabia has been able to intercept 90
percent of the attacks, but we need to aim for 100 percent,” the person added.
US officials told the Journal that the decision to send the
interceptors had taken so long because other US allies also have a high demand
for the weapons and the need to go through the typical government vetting
process, not due to a delay from the White House.
The decision to green-light the arms transfer is also part
of an administration effort to mend its relationship with Saudi Arabia and
convince the kingdom to pump more oil to offset quickly rising crude oil
prices, according to the officials.
Asked later on Monday about the Patriot deployments,
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby would not confirm the transfers but
said the US military is committed to helping Saudi Arabia defend itself against
threats to its territory from Yemen.
"We're in constant discussions with the Saudis about
this, about this threat environment, and always looking for ways to continue to
help them defend themselves, but I've got nothing to say with respect to that
press report," Kirby said.
No comments:
Post a Comment