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On January 13th, US President Donald Trump boasted that he made Saudi Arabia pay $1 billion to increase US military presence in the country.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said:
“Saudi Arabia is paying us for [our troops]. We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia. I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.”
He sells troops.
“We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia—I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1B in the bank.” pic.twitter.com/rc1f7heyCP
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) January 11, 2020
The latest deployment to Saudi Arabia took place in October 2019, and consisted of approximately 3,000 soldiers, a Patriot missile defense battery, a THAAD system, as well as warplanes.
This happened after, despite the present Patriot missile defense batteries, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco infrastructure was struck by drones and missiles in September 2019. Washington and Riyadh blamed Iran for the attack, but Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for it.
At the same time, it would appear that despite Trump’s claims, Saudi Arabia hasn’t paid anything.
“While we will not comment on specific bilateral defense agreements, more broadly the United States encourages burden-sharing among partners in support of shared security interests, to include defense of the Arabian Gulf,” a US State Department official said.
The Pentagon also said that Saudi Arabia hasn’t paid anything and negotiations were on-going on what would actually happen.
“The Saudi government has agreed to contribute to the costs of these activities, and discussions are ongoing to formalize these contributions. Contributions of this nature do not lead to the deployment of additional U.S. forces, and they do not drive DOD to take on new missions or responsibilities,” Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told CNN in a statement.
Asked about Trump’s comments Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the payments the President referenced were referring to the concept of “burden sharing.”
“Burden sharing comes in many forms; it includes host nation support. It includes foreign military cells. It includes providing troops on the ground, and, in cases, it provides helping to offset some of our operations maintenance costs, which the Saudis are committed to doing, just as they did offset costs during the 1990 and ’91 Gulf War.”
Reportedly, Saudi Arabia also needs to reimburse the US for approximately $331 million, since in December 2018 it was discovered that the US was refueling Saudi-led coalition warplanes in the intervention in Yemen for free.
Regardless, US President Donald Trump in recent months has attempted to force several US allies to pay for protection, in the end of 2019 South Korea refused to agree and pay the massive “protection fee” Washington was requesting for its military presence in the country.
In recent days, after the US-caused escalation in Iraq, the US has threatened to block a crucial bank account of Baghdad, as well as has requested up to $35 billion for all of the “help” the US and its coalition against ISIS have given Iraq. This was all in response to the Iraqi parliament voting in favor of a non-binding resolution to expel US troops from the country.
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Donald Trump, not telling the truth, I am shocked!!! :P
HAHA SAUDIS MUST PAY THE PIPER & THE KIKER!
How much is Israel paying?
Actually, the money extorted from Arabs and EU is funding the Zionist entity and the expansion of settlements in Palestine. Jews historically are not known to part with any money, whether free or not.
That is American Tax-Payers Money as well
Oh Donald, please Donald, he still fights with Pentagon’s boomer generals as well as his own intelligence community. Everybody in Washington D.C. are against him, because he’s not the man of deep state, aka ruling elite of the US or what he named them as “the industrial-military-media complex” of the US.
against him why? He is bringing in orders for the war industry so why you think are against him?
Because Trump thinks sanctions are working on Iran while industrial-military-media complex thinks they are not working. That’s why there were fake attacks in the gulf in order to blame Iran or sending a global hawk drone into Iranian airspace to make it shot down. Trump neglected all those provocations so ruling elite had to kill Iranian & Iraqi generals w/o asking Trump first.
your conclusions base on how you see things and reality are not one and the same.
You’ll see 2 decades later or perhaps sooner than that, when intelligence releases documents.
I dont think so.
welll………… somebody has to pay
The US Army is a group of fat bandits tasked with securing kings and creating chaos in the Middle East. All taxes paid by poor US citizens are used to finance these bandits to cause trouble in countries far across the ocean. Of course the US citizens were told that their army had a noble duty in the Middle East, no matter how many body bags returned, they would be considered heroes, the heroes who died were not for US interests, thanks to a very effective brainwashing machine ; MSM. Oh.. and of course it will all be free if it relates to Israeli interests, thanks to Zionist lobby. Wake the fck up Yankees.. Your loved ones don’t die to defend your interests.
That sounds more like the local mafia guy selling protection, you cannot refuse…
US is running a typical street thug extortion racket and vassals in NATO and Arab world are the patsies.
TRUMPSTER THE CLOWN
The Guardians of the Two Holy Places calling on Trump for protection. Do these guys have a shred of credibility left?
holy places are for sheeps only
If your army is paid by foreigners, you are a BUNCH OF MERCENARY
I guess this means the PMC trend has come full circle, back to the state. Why beat around the bush with drunken mercenaries when you can just as easily buy CENTCOM on the cheap?