Congress on its intention to advance the sale to Riyadh of 300 missiles for the Patriot systems and related equipment
The US announced yesterday, Tuesday, August 2, that it has approved potential sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and THAAD air defense systems worth more than $5 billion.
The State Department said in a statement that it notified Congress of its intention to advance the sale to Riyadh of 300 Patriot missiles and related equipment, worth $3.05 billion.
The sale will allow the kingdom to “replenish depleted missile stocks” for the Patriot systems, which are used to intercept UAVs being attacked by Shiite Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen, the US State Department explained.
Facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, Yemen has been torn apart by war between government forces, backed by a post-2015 Saudi-led military alliance, and Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels. Riyadh’s major rival in the region.
Washington also approved the sale to the United Arab Emirates — a pillar of the military alliance that intervened in the war in Yemen — of two THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) anti-missile systems with 96 missiles, worth $2.25 billion.
The missiles of the Patriot systems are produced by the American group Raytheon. The THAAD systems are manufactured by the Lockheed Martin group.
The sales were revealed on the day the UN announced an extension in extremis for “two additional months” of the ceasefire in force in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, in the hope of “intensifying” negotiations to achieve “lasting” peace in a state of about 30 million inhabitants where war has been raging for eight years.
