US spends $255 billion per year to protect Saudi Arabia, tyrannical monarchies: Scholar
The US government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually to defend Saudi Arabia and other “tyrannical monarchies” in the Persian Gulf region, a Saudi scholar in Washington says.
“The United States has been spending $255 billion a year since the 1970s, an average of $255 billion a year to protect the [Persian] Gulf monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain,” said Ali al-Ahmed, a critic of the Saudi monarchy.
“This amount of money makes up 40 percent of the annual American defense budget and it’s greater than the combined budgets of the states of California and Florida,” said al-Ahmed, the founder and director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs, an independent think tank in Washington, DC.
“I think it’s really a way for America and the American people to stand against their government policy of supporting the tyrannical and absolute monarchies in the [Persian] Gulf countries,” he added.
The scholar made the comments after US presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted Riyadh for "ripping off" the US, saying the regime wouldn’t exist without US assistance.
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, the Republican said Saudis are making “a billion dollars a day” because of the US assistance and called on Riyadh to share its vast oil wealth with Washington in exchange for the American favors.
“Saudi Arabia, if it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be here,” Trump said. “They wouldn’t exist.”
Trump suggested that the United States should consider ditching Riyadh because Washington is increasingly getting less dependent on the Saudi Arabian oil.
Trump currently leads the 17 Republican candidates vying to represent their party in the November 2016 presidential election.
On Saturday, the TV personality and business magnate said he is willing to spend $1 billion on his campaign if that is what it takes to win the White House.
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