Why Are We Still Arming Saudi Arabia? 

President Joe Biden‘s senior Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, is headed to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to secure a dangerous and ill-conceived security pact with the kingdom. This visit comes at a particularly awkward time, as Human Rights Watch recently released an account of gruesome rights abuses in Saudi Arabia—the murder of hundreds of Ethiopian refugees by Saudi border guards, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

While the administration now appears to be raising concerns about these revelations, it is not enough. So far, the administration has taken no concrete action against the regime for the killings, or for its efforts to block an investigation. In fact, the Biden administration appears undeterred in its quest to secure a deal with Saudi Arabia that may involve committing the U.S. military to defend the kingdom.

If there are to be any meaningful consequences for Saudi actions, Congress will have to step in.

The new revelations come during a period when Saudi Arabia’s record of destabilizing actions and systematic human rights abuses—from its brutal war in Yemen to the murder of U.S.-resident journalist Jamal Khashoggi—have been treated as if they were ancient history. Whether by purchasing soccer teams and the PGA golf tour or signaling a willingness to normalize relations with Israel, the Saudi regime has been making prodigious efforts to sanitize its image and expand its power and influence.

Read the full piece in Newsweek.