Sale of US bombs to Riyadh approved

WASHINGTON: The US State Department has approved the potential sale of 3 000 precisionguided munitions to Saudi Arabia in a deal valued at up to $290 million (R4.25 trillion), the Pentagon said.

The sale comes in the final days of US President Donald Trump’s term. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest buyer of US weapons, in a bid to pressure Riyadh to end a war in Yemen that has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Members of the US Congress have been angered by steep civilian casualties in Yemen and this year tried and failed to block the sale of F-35 warplanes to Riyadh.