WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three U.S. senators on Wednesday said they would introduce legislation seeking to halt the Trump administration’s effort to sell more than $23 billion of drones and other weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates, a showdown with the president two months before he is due to leave office.
Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Chris Murphy and Republican Senator Rand Paul announced they would introduce four separate resolutions of disapproval of President Donald Trump’s plan to sell more than $23 billion worth of Reaper drones and other munitions, F-35 fighter aircraft and air-to-air missiles to the UAE.
The lawmakers said the Trump administration, seeking to rush the sale of the sophisticated weaponry, circumvented the normal congressional review process. They said the State and Defense Departments also refused to respond to inquiries about how the administration would deal with national security risks associated with the proposed sales.
The weaponry involved includes the world’s most advanced fighter jet, more than 14,000 deadly bombs and munitions and the second-largest sale of U.S. drones to a single country, the senators said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Diane Craft and Tom Brown)
