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US arms sales to Israel, Saudi Arabia double standard: Pundit

Saturday, 15 October 2016 5:56 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 15 October 2016 5:58 PM ]

Demonstrators with CodePink protest weapon sales to Saudi Arabia outside the Hart Senate Office building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 7, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

James H. Fetzer, professor emeritus at University of Minnesota Duluth, says the United States is exerting a “double-standard” with regard to its arms sales to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“The United States is standing with Israel, protecting Israel, issuing vetoes in the Security Council to protect Israel which has a vast arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which of course has refused to sign,” the academic told Press TV.

“The United States in terms of its own foreign policy guidelines cannot be sending foreign aid to a nation that has undeclared weapons of mass destruction which is the case for Israel,” he added.

This comes as Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the UN has warned against continued sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia and Israel, saying they are in violation of other territories as well as humanitarian laws.

Israel, which has refused to sign the NPT or allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities, keeps an estimated stockpile of some 200-400 nuclear warheads.

Fetzer further noted the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group was a creation of the United States to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on behalf of Israel.

He went on to say the United States has broken diplomatic relation with Russia over negotiations for a ceasefire in Syria, adding that the situation is very “grave”.

“Russia is taking a principle stand. Everyone else is acting in a violation of international law in corrupt ways to try to bring about the destabilization of Syria,” he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Fetzer said it is clear that the United States is assisting Saudi Arabia in its military aggression against Yemen.

He also argued the United States used the issue of targeting one of its guided-missile destroyers as an excuse to attack three mobile radar sites on Yemen’s Red Sea coast which apparently the Saudis desired.

The academic concluded by saying that the situation in the Middle East is at a “critical stage” expressing hope sanity prevails because a world war is at risk here.

Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstall a former ally as president. The war has killed more than 10,000, according to UN figures in August.

The US continues to sell arms to the Riyadh regime, approving more than $20 billion in military sales in 2015 alone, despite increasing recognition that the kingdom may use the weapons unlawfully.

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