Trump Officials Bypass Congress to Push Billions in Weapons Aid to Israel

Source: NYT

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"The State Department announced on Friday that it was planning to send Israel more than $6.5 billion of weapons aid that included Apache attack helicopters and combat land vehicles, bypassing a congressional review process.

.... On Friday, the State Department also announced it was sending $9 billion of interceptor missiles to Saudi Arabia for use with U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems. Saudi Arabia is by the far the biggest buyer of U.S. weapons.

.... The State Department made separate announcements of the planned shipments of arms to Israel and Saudi Arabia after 5 p.m. on Friday, a sign that it did not want to draw attention to the statements. In each case, the State Department said it was formally notifying Congress of its plans.

.... President Trump has threatened to attack Iran soon, and the U.S. government has been trying to quickly send more air defense equipment to partners in the Middle East, to better protect those nations and U.S. military sites in the countries against possible retaliation by Iran."



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