Joe Biden has approved a $1 billion arms sale to Qatar, despite the country’s longstanding ties to terror groups. The sale, which was announced by the State Department on Tuesday, will aid Qatar by “providing electronic and kinetic defeat capabilities against Unmanned Aircraft Systems.”
The move is likely to anger members of Congress who have long accused Qatar of supporting terrorist groups, including the Taliban and al Qaeda. In fact, it seems that it already has. Qatar is also home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, which has been used as a launching pad for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“Qatar has openly housed Hamas leaders, Taliban leaders, and has several individuals who have been sanctioned by our U.S. Treasury Department, and it has failed to prosecute them,” former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said during testimony. “At least one high-ranking Qatari official provided support to the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks against our country, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.”
While the arms sale may come as a surprise to some, it’s actually not that out of character for Biden. Biden has a long history of cozying up to countries with questionable records on human rights and terrorism. It was just last month that he decided to turn a blind eye to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
What’s more shocking is that Biden would approve an arms sale to Qatar given his past statements on the country’s terrorist ties. In 2016, he delivered a speech criticizing Qatar for its “historical support” for groups like al Qaeda and the Taliban. “No country should support or finance terrorism,” he said at the time. “We cannot—and we will not—tolerate state sponsors of terrorism.” Apparently, Biden has had a change of heart since then. Or maybe he’s just trying to make some quick cash before he leaves office? We may never know for sure.
It looks like Joe Biden isn’t too worried about arms sales falling into the wrong hands, and why would he after what he did with basically handing over billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Taliban last year?