Watchdog says US State Department failed to assess risks to civilians in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Emirates

A US State Department watchdog has found that risks of civilian casualties were not adequately assessed by the department when it approved arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the two main aggressor countries in a war on Yemen.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the State Department said in a report sent to Congress on Tuesday that the sales of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) to the two Arab countries — approved by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the invocation of emergency powers last May — did not take into account the threat to Yemeni civilians.

“OIG found that the Department did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns associated with the transfer of PGMs included in the Secretary’s May 2019 emergency certification,” the office said.

Pompeo was accused in May last year of abuse of power after he exploited an emergency declaration to push for the eight-billion-dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE despite opposition from US Congress. He cited alleged threats in the Middle East and accused Iran of fomenting instability in the strategic region to sidestep the congressional review process.

US lawmakers had been blocking weapons sales to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the Saudi-led coalition’s atrocities in Yemen and a litany of human rights abuses perpetrated by Saudi Arabia, including the brutal murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

The watchdog’s report also underlined that the State Department had allowed some smaller sales of precision-guided munition parts to Saudi Arabia without congressional review even before Pompeo’s push in May last year.

In May, US President Donald Trump abruptly fired Inspector General Steve Linick, who was looking into Pompeo’s case, and then appointed Stephen Akard, who also resigned from his post last week after recusing himself from the arms sales investigation.

Linick was the fourth government inspector general removed by the Republican president in recent months.

Fired State Dept. IG pressed not to probe into Saudi arms sales

The State Department’s former inspector general says US officials discouraged him from investigating arms sales to Saudi Arabia before he was fired by President Donald Trump last month.

The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General reportedly cleared Pompeo of wrongdoing in implementing the emergency powers, however.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been waging a war in Yemen with help from its regional allies, and has been using arms supplied by its Western backers.

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An estimated 100,000 people have lost their lives in the war so far.

The war has also destroyed or damaged Yemeni infrastructure, including a large number of hospitals and clinics.

The aggressor coalition has also blockaded impoverished Yemen.

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