Financial Times: US expected to lift embargo on arms sales to Saudi Arabia
The United States is expected to lift a ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, possibly in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The Financial Times quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying Washington had already signaled to Riyadh that it was ready to lift the embargo.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, US President Joe Biden adopted a firmer stance on the Saudi campaign against the Iran-aligned Ansar Allah group in Yemen, which has taken a heavy toll on civilians, and on Riyadh’s human rights record, especially the murder of political dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The restrictions have angered the kingdom, the largest US arms customer, by freezing a type of arms sales provided by previous administrations in Washington over decades.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States and Saudi Arabia were very close to concluding a set of agreements in the fields of nuclear energy and security and defense cooperation, as part of a broader normalization agreement between Riyadh and Israel.
The Financial Times said the lifting the ban on offensive arms sales wasn’t directly linked to those talks.
