WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism and a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Thursday released the following statement on immediate steps the U.S. should take to recalibrate our military assistance to Saudi Arabia:
“I support calls to freeze new military aid to Saudi Arabia. We should also take swift steps in the near term that will provide immediate help to Ukraine and our allies in eastern Europe. The U.S. should suspend the sale of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to Saudi Arabia and repurpose these missiles to Ukraine, which could use them with the newly provided National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to protect its territory and population from Russia’s criminal bombardments.
“For several years, the U.S. military has deployed Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia to help defend oil infrastructure against missile and drone attacks. These advanced air and missile defense systems should be re-deployed to bolster the defenses of eastern flank NATO allies like Poland and Romania—or transferred to our Ukrainian partners.
“Policy decisions have consequences, and these steps would right-size with relationship with Saudi Arabia and help Ukraine.”
Ahead of President Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, Murphy authored an op-ed for Foreign Policy to lay out why the United States needs to rethink its relationship with Saudi Arabia. Earlier this week, Murphy joined CNN’s State of the Union to discuss the OPEC+ announcement that it would cut oil production by two million barrels a day.
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