State Department approves potential sale of 300 Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia

The State Department has approved the potential sale of 300 Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia for about $3.05 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Tuesday. 

The sale would replenish Saudi Arabia’s “dwindling” stock of missile defense systems.

“These missiles are used to defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s borders against persistent Houthi cross-border unmanned aerial system and ballistic missile attacks on civilian sites and critical infrastructure in Saudi Arabia,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.

It comes after President Biden visited Saudi Arabia last month and met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Said and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about human rights and energy security.

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Reuters reported just days before the trip that the Biden administration is considering lifting the ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, a decision that is dependent on the country ending its proxy war in Yemen against Iran. 

The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that a truce in Yemen’s civil war was extended on Tuesday through October.