US approves $8.6 billion arms sales to Israel and other Gulf states, bypassing congressional review

The US Department of State on Friday announced the approval of military sales totalling over $8.6 billion to West Asian allies, including Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. With this, President Donald Trump's administration managed to bypass the congressional review of such sales. The state department's announcement is also coming as the US and Israel's war on Iran continues to rage on for the past nine weeks.

However, it has been more than three weeks since the Iran ceasefire, which remains fragile. It is pertinent to note that Friday's announcement by the State Department included approving military sales to Qatar of Patriot air and missile defence replenishment services costing $4.01 billion and of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) — a laser-guided weapons kit — costing $992.4 million.

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It also entails the approval of the sale to Kuwait of an integrated battle command system costing $2.5 billion and to Israel of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems costing $992.4 million. The State Department also approved a sale to the UAE of APKWS for $147.6 million. The principal contractor in the APKWS sales to Qatar, Israel, and the UAE was BAE Systems, the State Department said in the Friday statement.

Not so kind to European allies

The Department further stated that RTX and Lockheed Martin were the principal contractors in the integrated battle command system sale to Kuwait and in the Patriot air and missile defence replenishment sale to Qatar. Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman was also a principal contractor in the Kuwaiti sale.

It is pertient to note that the sale to the West Asian allies has been approved by the US at a time when Washington has warned European allies, including the UK, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia, to expect long delivery delays, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The sources said that the delays were attributed to the fact that the Iran war is draining American stockpiles.

The Gulf nations have faced the brunt of the war in Iran, with multiple missiles and drones striking the countries' key infrastructure. On Friday, Trump confirmed that he had been briefed about additional military options in Iran, and expressed dissatisfaction with a new ceasefire proposal by Tehran. Hence, it'll be interesting to see which way the war will turn.