WASHINGTON
\nThe U.S. State Department said \u200bon Friday it has approved a sale worth $151.8 million to Israel for munitions and \u200cmunitions support, without submitting it for congressional review.
\nU.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined an emergency existed that required an immediate sale to Israel, the State Department said, with the announcement coming a week after the U.S. and Israel started their \u200battacks on Iran.
\nIsrael had requested 12,000 BLU-110A\/B general purpose, 1,000-pound bomb bodies, the State Department \u200bsaid in a statement. The principal contractor will be Repkon USA, located in Texas, it said.
\nThe State Department said on Friday that Rubio had determined that the sale is \u201cin the \u200bnational security interests of the United States.\u201d
\nDemocratic U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks said Rubio\u2019s decision to use emergency authority \u200bto bypass congressional review showed a lack of preparation for the war on Iran.
\n\u201cThe Trump administration has repeatedly insisted it was fully prepared for this war. Rushing to invoke emergency authority to circumvent Congress tells a different story. This \u200bis an emergency of the Trump administration\u2019s own creation,\u201d Meeks said in a statement.
\nThe U.S. and Israel \u200blaunched an air assault on Iran on February 28 and Iran responded with its own attacks in Israel and regional \u200ccountries with U.S. bases.
\nIn the last week, U.S. and Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and thousands more have been wounded, according to Iran\u2019s U.N. ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have also been killed.
\nThe U.S. military has said six U.S. service members were killed in a strike \u200bon a Kuwait facility, while \u200bIsrael has said at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel so far.
\nWashington has maintained strong support for Israel under President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden during the more \u200bthan two years of Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
\nThe Trump administration \u200bhas also previously made military sales to Israel by skipping congressional reviews, as did the Biden administration when it was in power.
\nWashington\u2019s military support has faced scrutiny from rights experts, particularly during Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands, caused \u200ba hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza\u2019s entire population, and led to \u200bassessments of genocide from scholars and a U.N. inquiry.
\nIsrael calls its actions self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 \u200bhostages in an October 2023 attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department said \u200bon Friday it has approved a sale worth $151.8 million to Israel for munitions and \u200cmunitions support, without submitting it for congressional review. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined an emergency existed that required an immediate sale to Israel, the State Department said, with the announcement coming a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-535407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n