Win Without War
BREAKING: Biden Breaks Promise to Activists,
Awards More Weapons to Saudi Arabia. Now, Congress Must Block It.
WASHINGTON (October 5, 2021) — President Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah they are” for its grievous human rights abuses in Yemen and beyond, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But his administration just announced a $500 million maintenance package for Saudi helicopters — the exact type of assistance champions in Congress have been fighting to STOP for over a year.
Together, we’ve built a coalition of activists who demanded change and successfully got bipartisan majorities of Congress to block weapons sales to Saudi Arabia when Trump did everything he could to arm these human rights abusers. We didn’t think we’d need to with President Biden in office — but it’s clear that it’s up to us force a vote in Congress again. And the window for us to stop this latest arms sale is closing quickly.
Right now, the Saudi-led coalition continues its disastrous intervention, helping the Yemeni government block the delivery of life-saving fuel and other assistance, exacerbating the largest humanitarian crisis in the world — and they’re doing it with US backing.
We thought we’d won a huge victory when President Biden announced he’d end “US support for offensive operations in Yemen, including relevant arms sales” earlier this year.
But now, despite that critical progress, the Biden administration is making it clear that while some US military involvement and support will end, it won’t be ALL.
This is a slap in the face to the people in Yemen, in the United States, and around the world who have advocated for the US government to get serious about peace and stop fueling and arming one side of the conflict — to devastating effects.
Any Senator can force a vote on arms sales by introducing legislation within 30 days of the State Department notifying Congress of a new sale. With just two weeks left on the clock, we’re coming down to the wire to stop this sale.
Three US presidents have now kept in place some form of weapons or other military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, that has made us complicit in the looming famine for millions, and our military has aided and abetted Saudi Arabia’s apparent war crimes.
People laughed at us when we first proposed blocking arms sales, just like this one, to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But we’ve made unprecedented progress by building a broad congressional and grassroots coalition across the ideological spectrum that forced Congress to do its job.
That’s why we can’t stop now – thanks for all you do for peace in Yemen,
Amisha, Kate, Sara, and the Win Without War team
Senators: Block the New Saudi Arms Sale!
President Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah they are” for its grievous human rights abuses in Yemen and beyond, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But the Biden administration just announced a $500 million maintenance package for Saudi helicopters — the exact type of assistance champions in Congress have been fighting to STOP for over a year.
Together, we’ve built a coalition of activists who demanded change and successfully got bipartisan majorities of Congress to block weapons sales to Saudi Arabia when Trump did everything he could to arm these human rights abusers. We didn’t think we’d need to with President Biden in office — but it’s clear that it’s up to us to do it again.
ACTION: Will you demand your Senators pass legislation to block Biden’s new $500 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia?
THE LETTER
To members of the US Senate:
Bipartisan majorities of Congress have opposed arming Saudi Arabia for years, only to be blocked by Trump’s presidential veto. I urge you to take immediate action to support and pass legislation that will finally end all US military support and related arms sales to Saudi Arabia, including the newly proposed helicopter maintenance sale.
Signed,
