US House votes to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia

[Aptrgangr]

US House votes to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia

by Maxim Kniazkov Sun Jun 24, 1:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives has voted to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia, despite repeated assurances by the Bush administration that the desert kingdom is cooperating in its "war on terror."



The ban is contained in a little-publicized amendment quietly slipped by a bipartisan group of lawmakers into a 34.2-billion-dollar bill that finances US foreign operations in the 2008 fiscal year.

The massive bill, featuring a wide range of humanitarian programs, was approved by lawmakers in the middle of the night on Friday.

Similar measures on aid to Saudi Arabia have been passed before by the House. But the current one goes a step further by closing a legislative loophole that in the past had allowed the administration of President George W. Bush to waive these bans by invoking requirements of its war on terror.

The amendment, championed by New York Democratic representative Anthony Weiner, a strong supporter of Israel, states that "none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available" by the foreign operations bill "shall be obligated or expended to finance any assistance to Saudi Arabia" or "used to execute a waiver."

While oil-rich Saudi Arabia has never been a large recipient of US aid, the Bush administration channeled a total of more than 2.5 million dollars to the kingdom in fiscal 2005 and 2006 as part of their partnership in the war on terror, congressional officials said.

Mohammed al-Zulfa of Saudi Arabia's consultative Shura Council said the US action "represents one method out of several that the US Congress has used to pressure the Saudi government into carrying out reforms, whether in the fields of human rights or religious freedom."

"The US Congress and other US organizations are mistaken if they think this method has any value," he told AFP.

The Shura Council is a 120-strong consultative body that has no legislative authority. Its recommendations are referred to the king and must be approved by the government.
US administration officials have not publicly commented on the vote.

The amendment's sponsors are particularly upset by what they described as Saudi Arabia's support for the anti-Israeli Palestinian group Hamas, which has seized control of the Gaza Strip.

In a media fact sheet, the lawmakers said that Hamas received more than half of its financing from Saudi Arabia, and last May alone the Saudi government planned to send 300 million dollars to the Islamist group.

Weiner said that Riyadh was in fact actively working against US interests.
"By cutting off aid and closing the loophole we send a clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that they must be a true ally in advancing peace in the Middle East," the congressman said.

The sponsors of the measure also accused the Saudi government of undermining US military efforts in Iraq by making "no official move" to stop about 3,000 Saudis allegedly fighting US troops in the country.

As many as 61 percent of all suicide bombers in Iraq are of Saudi Arabian descent, they claimed.

The lawmakers also argued that Saudi clerics continued to preach hate towards the United States, Israel and their allies.

"By continuing to promote and finance acts of terrorism, including those targeting innocent families, the Saudis are actively undermining our efforts to promote democracy and bring stability to the Middle East," said Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democrat and another sponsor of the ban.

Saudi Arabia provides about 20 percent of total US imports of crude oil. It is also the largest US export market in the Middle East.

US House votes to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia - Yahoo! News

[meadhbh]

We want you to be our allies so we're going to deny you the aid you ask for. Because that sound resoning.

[NatVox]

Denying 2.5 millions dolars of aid to Saudi Arabia is not something that the Saudis are going to worry much about. You only have to contrast that figure with the 300 million dolars aid from Saudi Arabia to Palestine.

And well, it was no secret to anyone that the Saudis have been supporting Islamism all along. But so have been the U.S. through retarded international policies, at least until the aid that they had provided served to blow the seats right under their arses.

I honestly don't care if the U.S. and the Islam blew up each other. The World would be a better place if they did. But I worry that Europe ends up in the middle of it.