US reinstates sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia amid escalating tensions with Iran, Houthis in Yemen

Announcement is culmination of Biden administration's course reversal toward Saudi Kingdom

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The Biden administration decided to end the three-year ban on sales of offensive weapons to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. State Department announced on Friday.

The ban was meant to pressure the kingdom to wind down its war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“Our administration froze the sale of certain classes of offensive weapons, while also maintaining sales of systems to the kingdom required to defend itself from attack,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

“We also always made clear that the freeze on certain classes of weapons was conditional, and it was based on Saudi Arabia’s policy towards Yemen and efforts to improve civilian harm mitigation measures.”

After Saudi airstrikes killed thousands of Yemeni civilians over several years of war, both parties entered a truce, negotiated by the United Nations, in March 2022.

“We also note the positive steps that the Saudi Ministry of Defense have taken over the past three years to substantially improve their civilian harm mitigation processes, in part thanks to the work of U.S. trainers and advisors,” Patel added, noting there had “not been a single Saudi airstrike into Yemen and cross-border fire from Yemen” has stopped.

“The Saudis since that time have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours.”

While Patel denied that the lifting of the ban was linked to the administration’s ambitious plan to combine a post-war Gaza roadmap with Israel-Saudi normalization and a defense agreement with the kingdom, most observers and media outlets suspected it was the primary motivation.

“Saudi Arabia has remained a close strategic partner of the United States, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership,” Patel said.

When U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he reversed the course of the Trump administration, which had worked closely with Saudi Arabia to enable the Abraham Accords peace agreements, which were signed by the Saudi Kingdom’s close allies, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Citing the large civilian casualty numbers in the war against the Houthis, Biden implemented a tougher approach toward the Saudis, symbolized by the cool fist bump with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in a meeting in 2022.

However, regional circumstances forced the administration to gradually return to the course charted by its predecessor, culminating in a warm handshake between the leaders a year later.

In the months leading up to the Gaza War, the Biden administration worked intensively behind the scenes to prepare a broad agreement for normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and establishing a Saudi-U.S. defense alliance. However, this effort was hindered by Israel’s refusal to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, among other factors.

During a remarkable English-language interview in September 2023, MBS said the agreement was getting “closer every day” – but these hopes were dashed just weeks after by the Hamas invasion and massacre on Oct. 7.

The Saudi Kingdom has taken a role behind the scenes of the Gaza War and has not been directly involved in the mediation efforts surrounding a hostage and truce deal.

However, its old enemy in Yemen has ramped up its attacks on international shipping in a show of support for Hamas, and tensions between Israel and Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran have escalated.

Last April, the Saudi government joined several other Arab nations to actively assist Israel in thwarting a large-scale Iranian drone and missile assault.

In addition, Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly mentioned their desire for the kingdom to play significant role in the Gaza Strip after the war, and talks of Saudi-Israeli normalization have continued, as well.