While all eyes have been on Ukraine, the US approved massive foreign military deals to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Kuwait.
By Nick Cleveland-Stout And Taylor Giorno, Responsible Statecraft
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.”
Recent Posts
ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids To Detention In Federal Shelters This Year. It’s A New Record.
Take Action Now This year ICE has sent more immigrant children into the federal shelter system than in the previous four years combined. New data…
The Return Of Nuclear Proliferation
Take Action Now A recent article in the establishment security journal Foreign Affairs makes the case for nuclear proliferation among America’s…
Are Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson Democratic Socialists or FDR Democrats? They Are Both
Take Action Now This is fitting: For more than a century, socialism has been integral to American progressivism, championing early many of the…
Leaders Across EU Deliver Unified Message to the US: ‘No War on Venezuela’
Take Action Now “We condemn in the strongest terms the military escalation against Venezuela,” said progressive leaders from countries including the…