Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul described Saudi Arabia as a “frenemy” of the U.S. on Tuesday, days before the Senate is expected to vote on a joint resolution he helped introduce that seeks to reject a pending sale of U.S. arms to the Middle Eastern country.
“I would call them a frenemy. I would say sometimes they’re our ally, sometimes they’re our enemy,” Paul said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I think [New York Times columnist] Thomas Friedman put it well about a year ago when he said they’re both arsonists and firefighters — sometimes they help us, and sometimes they don’t,” he noted.
The Kentucky senator pointed out that many of the weapons Saudi Arabia supplied to rebel groups in Syria have “wound up in the hands” of Sunni terrorist groups such as al Nusra and the Islamic State. “In the end it was very much detrimental what the Saudis had done there.
“I don’t have a great deal of respect for where Saudi Arabia is,” he said. “They’ve been funding radical Islam … both in our country and theirs. They say they want to change their ways, let’s see them do it.”
If passed, the measure backed by Paul, Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Al Franken D-Minn., would block the combined $1.15 billion sale of 130 tanks, 20 armored vehicles and other tactical equipment to Saudi Arabia, which the Obama administration has offered in 42 separate deals.
“I think more broadly I think we have to have a discussion about whether this is the right time to be sending record numbers of arms to the Middle East,” Murphy said in a statement this week.
