Just days after Joe Biden returned from his first trip to the Middle East and shared a controversial fist-bump with the man accused of ordering the murder of a Washington Post columnist, the State Department has announced a major sale of military aircraft to a country accused of detaining the deceased columnist’s attorney.
The State Department notified the relevant committees in Congress on Tuesday that it had issued preliminary approval for a nearly $1bn sale of military aircraft including hardware, software and other logistical support for C-17 military-grade transport aircraft.
In its news release on Tuesday, the State Department declared that the sale would support US military and strategic interests, and labeled the United Arab Emirates a “vital US partner for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East”.
As critics pointed out quickly on Twitter, however, the decision comes less than a week since the arrest and sentencing of civil rights lawyer Asim Ghafoor to three years in prison and deportation for charges that include money laundering. Mr Ghafoor has denied the charges and says a court convicted him in absentia.
Mr Ghafoor previously represented Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi as well as his wife before Mr Khashoggi’s murder in a Saudi consulate by hit men apparently on the orders of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in late 2018.
US officials told reporters over the weekend that there was “no indication” that Mr Ghafoor’s arrest “has anything to do with the Khashoggi issue”.
“We are aware of the arrest of U.S. citizen Asim Ghafoor in the UAE. We have raised his detention at senior levels with Emirati authorities and requested additional information. We are watching his case closely and providing appropriate consular support; consular officers from the U.S. Embassy visited him today,” a State Department spokesperson said about the arrest. “We have conveyed our expectation that Mr. Ghafoor’s rights to a fair and public hearing and to fair trial guarantees be fully respected and that he be treated humanely, as well as that U.S. rights to consular access be fully respected.”
Still, the weapons sale comes at an awkward time given the arrest and the controversy President Joe Biden waded into on Saturday when he greeted the controversial crown prince with a fist-bump and met privately with him after previously saying he would not do so.
A separate issue also emerged when the Saudi ambassador to the US personally contradicted Mr Biden’s claim that he raised the issue of Mr Khashoggi’s murder with the crown prince at the meeting.
