Gulf arms sales probe says Pompeo acted lawfully but failed to assess Yemen deaths
The US State Department said on 10 August that a government investigation into an ‘emergency’ arms sale worth more than $8 billion to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East allies had found that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had acted within the law by authorising the deal.
But the report also added that he had failed to ‘fully assess’ the risk of civilian casualties in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are in a devastating proxy war with Iran.
‘The State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) has confirmed in a final report that the Department acted in complete accordance with the law and found no wrongdoing in the Administration’s exercise of emergency authorities available under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) to expedite $8 billion in critical defense systems to key Middle East partners,’ the report said. ‘The transfers were essential to bolster the security of the Gulf region and our ally Israel against the sharp increase in Iranian aggression in 2019,’ it added.
The State Department issued a statement highlighting this portion of the report, but made no mention of the OIG’s other finding that the State Department failed to fully assess the humanitarian risks of arms sales to Gulf nations that are using US-manufactured weapons in their war in Yemen, where some 7,000 civilians are reported to have been killed.
In May, the United Kingdom disclosed that it had logged more than 500 Saudi air raids in possible breach of international law in Yemen.
The New York Times reported that the inspector general had found that the State Department did not take steps needed to reduce civilian casualties and limit possible legal liability associated with selling the arms.
Neither the State Department nor its inspector general’s office, which investigates corruption and waste in the agency, released the final report, so there was no way to independently assess its findings, the New York Times said.
The OIG report also found that the State Department had been selling precision guided munitions (‘PGMs’) in component parts, so that each individual transfer fell below the threshold requiring congressional approval. There were ‘4,221 below-threshold arms transfers involving Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with an estimated total value of $11.2bn since January 2017,’ the OIG reported.
