Political Quotes

“I am not opposed to these sales if they make sense and pose no threat to U.S. or Israel security in the short and the long term. But these sales require and deserve careful and deliberate consideration within the interagency process and by this Congress. However, that simply has not happened. A little while ago, my distinguished colleague from Missouri, Senator Blunt, asked on the floor: Well, what do you have to do to be a trusted partner? Let me try to answer that question. Following a classified briefing with the administration--the details of which I will not discuss here--there are a whole host of issues that a trusted partner would ultimately have to agree to. One, the United Arab Emirates has been building its military relations with Russia and China. Just a few years ago, the Emiratis and Russia signed an agreement to develop a fifth-generation fighter jet and to purchase Russian Sukhois. Our own Department of Defense inspector general recently indicated that they may be funding the malicious Russian Wagner mercenary forces in Libya. So what is the status of and what specific efforts are we taking to address the UAE's current and future military relationship with China--where they are talking about building an airbase outside the UAE's waters, on artificial land--and Russia? There are no answers to that.…”