US legislators ‘concerned’, vow to review resumed UAE arms sales

The Biden administration has told Congress it was proceeding with more than $23bn in weapons sales to the UAE.

The Democratic chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has said he and other legislators are concerned about the administration of President Joe Biden’s decision to go ahead with a weapons sale to the United Arab Emirates and would review the transactions. The Biden administration has told Congress it was proceeding with more than $23bn in weapons sales to the UAE, including advanced F-35 aircraft, armed drones and other equipment. Rights groups have condemned the sale, saying it would further stoke violence in Yemen, where the UAE is part of a Saudi Arabia-led coalition in fighting that has lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians and what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The sale were made in the last weeks of former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration and finalised only about an hour before Biden took office on January 20.