The US State Department on Friday approved an “emergency” sale of 12,000 bomb casings to Israel as the countries engage Iran in an escalating war in the Middle East.
The requested sale of the 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bomb casings, worth an estimated $151.8 million, was approved by the State Department’s Office of Political-Military Affairs, according to a news release.
“The proposed sale will improve Israel’s ability to counter current and future threats, strengthen its homeland defenses and serve as a deterrent to regional threats,” the agency said in a statement.
In addition to munitions, the sale will include U.S. government and contract engineering, logistics and technical support services.
Major US defense companies have agreed to quadruple production of advanced weapons, President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Friday, a week after the US and Israel struck Iran for the first time.
While US arms sales typically require congressional approval, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver that bypasses approval, to the dismay of some elected officials.
“The Secretary of State has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency situation exists that requires the immediate sale of the above defense items and defense services to the Government of Israel is in the national security interest of the United States,” the State Department said, citing the Arms Export Control Act.
Congressman Gregory Meeks, a Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said circumventing congressional oversight of arms sales “reveals a stark contradiction at the heart of this administration’s argument for war.”
“The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that it is fully prepared for this war,” Meeks said in a statement. “The rush to invoke emergency authority to bypass Congress tells a different story.”
“This is an emergency created by the Trump administration.”
