Trump's son-in-law promoting US armament industry: Analyst

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is promoting the country’s armament industry, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on a report which said Kushner negotiated a massive weapons deal between Saudi Arabia and American weapons manufacture Lockheed Martin.

The $110 billion arms deal signed by Saudi Arabian King Salman and US President Donald Trump on Saturday was a component of $350 billion in economic and military investments between the two countries over the next 10 years, according to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“As an adviser to the president, it’s not unusual for Kushner to play an important role in the weapons sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said Hoenig. “The fact that Mr. Kushner is Jewish should also play no role in this, as the purpose is to promote the armaments’ industry as well as the murderous policy of attacking civilians, from the air, in Yemen.”

“It’s important to note that supplying arms to a country knowing that it’s likely to be used against a civilian population is clearly illegal. If there were an opposition party in Congress this would be upfront and center, but the Democrats are as supportive of arms sales to brutal dictatorships as the Republicans,” the analyst noted.

“If Congress, as a whole, does not see this as a threat to Israel, then their support and silence is guaranteed. Since we heard no public complaints from Israel over this, we can safely assume that they have OK’d this arms sale,” he stated.

Hoenig noted that Saudi Arabia and Israel “have mutual military interests in common: neutralizing Syria and Iran, and supporting ISIS [Daesh] which is targeting these countries.”

The Trump administration has come under fire from human rights advocacy groups for striking the weapons deal with Saudi Arabia without considering the Riyadh regime’s rights record.

Experts say Trump’s selection of Saudi Arabia as his maiden overseas trip signals that he is willing to embrace a country responsible for widespread human rights violations and an escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The Saudi kingdom has been bombing Yemen for over two years and killing thousands of civilians there, while accusing Tehran of intervention in the impoverished country. 

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