US approves possible $5.4bn missile sale to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia could be allowed to purchase $5.4bn worth of missiles, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The announcement came after the US State Department approved the possible sale, with the Defence Security Cooperation Agency saying that the sale of the PAC-3 Missiles would benefit a crucial US partner in the region. Riyadh is a long-term US ally and has been a key partner in the US-led anti-Islamic State group coalition currently bombing parts of Syria and Iraq. 

"Lockheed Martin [which makes the missiles] is supporting the US government and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as they discuss the potential sale of additional PAC-3 Missiles as part of the upgrade of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force," Lockheed said in a statement.

The State Department also approved a possible sale of $500mn worth of ammunition which it said would be used to protect Saudi Arabia’s southern border.

The announcement comes as Riyadh continues its more than five-month aerial campaign against Houthi forces in Yemen. The latest unilateral ceasefire announced by the Saudi-led coalition last week quickly collapsed with no end in sight to the fighting which has claimed more than 1,900 civilian lives including at least 202 in the last 14 days, the UN said on Tuesday.

The expected multi-billion-dollar sale also comes weeks after the US and five other world powers at long last penned a deal with Iran, aimed at ending sanctions against the country in exchange for it curtailing its nuclear programme.

Tehran’s longstanding-foe Riyadh has been highly sceptical about the deal but seems to have tentatively accepted it after repeatedly seeking “reassurances” from Washington that the deal would not jeopardise their safety.

Despite pushing through with the deal and seeking to end a decades-long diplomatic spat with Iran, the administration of US President Barack Obama has proven itself very willing to sell US arms to Saudi Arabia despite concern from human rights groups about internal repression as well as possible war crimes in Yemen.

In the first five years of his term, Obama presided over the signing of $46bn worth of military contracts to Saudi Arabia, far exceeding the $30bn sold during the full two terms of his predecessor George W. Bush

This “means that the Obama administration has approved more arms sales than any US administration since World War II," William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Centre for International Policy, told Democracy Now earlier this year.