By Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil, for Reuters
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a roundtable at the White House. Photo: AF/ Brendan Smialowski
The US State Department says it has approved a sale worth US$151.8 million {NZ$258.4m) to Israel for munitions and munitions support, without submitting it for congressional review.
US 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 US and Israel started their attacks on Iran.
Israel requested 12,000 BLU-110A/B general purpose, 1000-pound (453kg) bomb bodies, the State Department said. The principal contractor would be Repkon USA, located in Texas.
The State Department said that Rubio had determined the sale was "in the national security interests of the United States".
Democratic US Representative Gregory Meeks said Rubio's decision to use emergency authority to bypass congressional review showed a lack of preparation for the war on Iran.
"The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted it was fully prepared for this war," Meeks said. "Rushing to invoke emergency authority to circumvent Congress tells a different story.
"This is an emergency of the Trump administration's own creation."
The US and Israel launched an air assault on Iran on 28 February, and Iran responded with its own attacks in Israel and regional countries with US bases.
In the last week, US and Israeli attacks have killed at least 1332 Iranian civilians and thousands more have been wounded, according to Iran's UN ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have also been killed.
The US military said six US service members were killed in a strike on a Kuwait facility, while Israel said at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel so far.
Washington has maintained strong support for Israel under President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden during more than two years of Israeli wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
The Trump administration has also previously made military sales to Israel by skipping congressional reviews, as did the Biden administration, when it was in power.
Washington's military support has faced scrutiny from rights experts, particularly during Israel's assault on Gaza that killed tens of thousands, caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population, and led to assessments of genocide from scholars and a UN inquiry.
Israel calls its actions self-defence, after Hamas-led militants killed 1200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.
- Reuters
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