In February, the State Department approved almost $26 billion in foreign military sales. While escalating conflict in Ukraine forced difficult decisions, including the $6 billion sale of tanks to Poland, the lion’s share of these sales have nothing to do with the current crisis.
The State Department has approved more foreign military sales this month than in any month since November 2020. More than $5 billion of February’s arms sales went to the Middle East, contradicting the administration’s stated intention to pivot away from the region.
Publicly, Biden maintains an image of diverting U.S. attention from the Middle East. Yet, these quiet arms sales suggest Biden’s Middle East policy is more of a continuation of the same. Before taking office, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he “envisioned a Biden presidency would do ‘less not more’ in the region.” The interim national security guidelines released early in the Biden presidency laid out a similar vision, claiming that "we will not give our partners in the Middle East a blank check to pursue policies at odds with American interests." A close Biden adviser said early in his presidency that “If you are going to list the regions Biden sees as a priority, the Middle East is not in the top three…It’s Asia-Pacific, then Europe, and then the Western Hemisphere.”
This week’s arms sales, however, include the construction of a $1 billion defense headquarters for the Kuwait Ministry of Defense. According to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the proposed sale will support U.S. national security objectives by “helping to improve the infrastructure of a Major Non-NATO ally that has been an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.” The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the creation of the project, which is estimated to take up to seven years. If the Middle East is truly not a top priority, the United States would not tie itself to a defense industrial complex project for the better part of a decade.
Troubling missile sales and maintenance support to Saudi Arabia also contradict the Biden administration's supposed human rights-based foreign policy and stated goal to pivot away from the Middle East. According to its 2020 World Report, Human Rights Watch documented at least 90 alleged unlawful Saudi-led airstrikes that deliberately killed civilians and targeted civilian objects, in flagrant violation of international law. One of Biden’s key foreign policy promises was to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, as he explained during the November 2019 presidential debate:
“And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. [...] And I would also, as pointed out, I would end -- end subsidies that we have, end the sale of material to the Saudis where they're going in and murdering children, and they're murdering innocent people. And so they have to be held accountable.”
Yet here we are, a year later, with at least three approved major weapons sales to the Kingdom and no accountability for its role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen. In September, the State Department approved continued maintenance support for the Saudi Royal Air Force, ensuring its fleets can continue unlawful airstrikes against civilians. Escalating U.S. involvement in the war, the State Department approved the sale of $650 million worth of air-to-air missiles in November. This sale appears to have emboldened Saudi Arabia to go on the offensive in Yemen, and brings the United States closer to the country Biden once decried as a pariah.
Despite congressional efforts to halt the sale of weapons to the Kingdom this fall, the State Department approved the sale of $24 million worth of Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Low Volume Terminals for Saudi Arabia on February 3. The press releases justify these sales on the grounds that they “will support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic growth in the Middle East.” This is the exact same language that was used to justify arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the Trump-era, word-for- word. These terminals will enable the Saudis to continue their relentless blockade in Yemen, and many more hundred of thousands of Yemenis will suffer as a result.
These arms sales don’t enhance our national security, but they do inflate the pockets of defense contractors. Lockheed Martin, for example, will rake in more than $4.2 billion for 12 F-16 C Block 70 aircraft, four F-16 D Block 70 aircraft, and related equipment in a sale to Jordan approved February 3. Last month, the State Department also approved a $2.2 billion sale to Egypt for twelve of Lockheed Martin’s military transport aircrafts, C-130J-30 Super Hercules Aircraft. In total, the Biden administration has approved almost $10 billion in foreign military sales that will put profits directly into the pockets of defense contractors and further entrench the United States in Middle East conflicts for years to come.
Defense industry CEOs both openly cast deteriorating global security as a boon for employees and investors during recent earnings calls. In January 2022, Raytheon’s CEO told investors that rising tensions are “opportunities for international sales,” including a drone attack in the UAE claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels last month. Those opportunities for international sales have come to fruition, and the administration’s decision to quietly approve these sales while all eyes are on Ukraine deeply contradicts their stated foreign policy.
The massive influx of arms and approved seven-year commitments actively undermines claims of national security by diverting resources to further entrench our military involvement in the Middle East. The true winners will be the coffers of weapons suppliers and bad actors who continue to avoid accountability unless the Biden administration makes good on its promise to end these arms sales.
