U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has spoken out against a decision by the Trump administration to sell American arms including F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates. Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared his opposition during a floor speech in the Senate.
“We are talking about selling the UAE the most lethal most advanced armed drone technology in the world today," Murphy said, "as we speak the UAE is in violation of the arms embargo to Libya fueling that civil war specifically sending drones into that theater.”
He says the UAE, which violated international arms embargoes in civil wars in Libya and Yemen, also "in the past several years transferred our weapons to Al Qaeda-aligned militias."
"Without resolving those issues, is this the moment to be selling, for the first time ever, F-35s armed drones into the heart of the Middle East?” Murphy asked.
Murphy joined fellow Democrat Senator Bob Menedez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in introducing resolutions rejecting the arms sales.
The sales were agreed to by the Trump administration as a side deal to the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and the UAE in September.
Senate Republican leaders have said that Congress will not block the arms sale.