\n
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat, opposed the sale on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He warned “it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party”.<\/p>\n
Other Democratic lawmakers and some American defence officials have raised similar concerns about giving F-35s to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
They said Riyadh might share the sensitive technology with China under a security partnership between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The state department said in announcing the deal on Thursday that it would support US “foreign policy and national security objectives”.<\/p>\n
It said the deal would improve “the security of a major non-Nato ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the Gulf region”.<\/p>\n
“The proposed \u2060sale of this equipment and support will not alter the military \u2060balance in the region,” the state department added.<\/p>\n
Trump has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who visited the White House last November.<\/p>\n
The two also met in May last year in Riyadh, where a $142bn arms sale was sealed \u2013 described by the White House as the “largest defence sales agreement in history”.<\/p>\n
The latest proposed sale announced to Saudi Arabia would include 48 F-35s, which are built by the arms company Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n
This would place the country on a level with Israel, which currently has a fleet of 50 jets.<\/p>\n
However, Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs announced in May, external<\/span> that it would procure another F-35 squadron.<\/p>\nThis deal would double the size of Israel’s F-35 fleet to 100, according to the Jerusalem Post, external<\/span>.<\/p>\nJust one of Lockheed Martin’s F-35A jets costs about $82.5m.<\/p>\n
Congress has previously questioned arms deals with Riyadh after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.<\/p>\n
Former US President Joe Biden’s administration considered supplying F-35s to Saudi Arabia if Riyadh would normalise its \u2060relations with Israel, but that diplomatic effort faltered.<\/p>\n
The proposed sale comes as the Saudis are engaged in fighting with the Houthis, an Iran-backed armed group that controls much of western Yemen.<\/p>\n
The Houthis have recently seized control of swathes of Yemen’s Red Sea coast from Saudi-backed pro-government forces.<\/p>\n
The Saudi crown prince has personally pressed Trump to take military action against the Houthis, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner.<\/p>\n
But Trump has so far declined to involve the US military directly, the sources said.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Sareen Habeshian<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat, opposed the sale on Thursday. He warned “it could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1076,608,4054,1798,219,3203,8954],"class_list":["post-98544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-arabia","tag-controversial","tag-f35","tag-plan","tag-saudi","tag-sell","tag-warplanes"],"yoast_head":"\n
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