U.S. to lift ban on offensive weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, says a report

WASHINGTON, D.C. / RIYADH— The Financial Times reported that the U.S. is expected to lift ban on offensive weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, in the coming weeks.

Quoting an informed source, the newspaper stated that the U.S. has already hinted to Riyadh that it is ready to lift the ban.

Shortly after taking office in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden adopted a firmer stance on the Saudi campaign against the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, which caused heavy civilian casualties, and on Riyadh’s human rights record, especially the murder of political dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The restrictions have angered Saudi Arabia, which is the U.S. biggest arms customer, after freezing some arms sales.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken declared that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are very close to concluding a set of agreements in the fields of nuclear energy and security and defense cooperation, as part of a broader normalization agreement between Riyadh and Israel.

The Financial Times stated that the ban lifting on sales of offensive weapons is not directly tied to those talks.