"The situation with both Saudi Arabia and UAE is: How do we provide them the Foreign Military Sales to defend themselves? And really the heart of all this is being responsive in this high threat environment; and then secondarily, if they don't buy from the US, of which we're a very strong partner, then they for security reasons need to go to either China or Russia," Shanahan said on Tuesday.
The senators said the manner in which the Trump administration has moved forward with the arms sales is unprecedented and at odds with longstanding practice and cooperation between Congress and the executive branch.
The United States has an $8.1 billion arms package concluded with Saudi Arabia that includes 120,000 precision-guided bombs, support for Saudi F-15 fighter jets, mortars, anti-tank missiles and .50-caliber rifles.