Sept 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Wednesday he would not support the sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel over concerns the munitions would not be used in accordance with international law.
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion and including tens of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, according to a U.S. official familiar with the sale.
The leaders of congressional committees review sales under an informal process, but the objection by Meeks, a New York Democrat, alone is not enough to prevent the president from going ahead with the sale if he declares that an emergency requires an immediate sale
Trump has sidestepped Congressional review before to expedite military sales to Israel, reflecting his close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government even before the two countries launched the war on Iran on February 28.
In a statement, Meeks said he is committed to Israel’s security. “But the Trump administration’s proposed sale of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs, some of the most destructive munitions in our arsenal, raises grave, unresolved concerns about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon,” he said.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Ryan Patrick Jones; additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Alistair Bell)
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