Biden Administration Transfers Patriot Anti-missiles to Saudi Arabia

The Biden administration has deployed a significant number of Patriot antimissile interceptors to Saudi Arabia within the last month as a response to Riyadh's urgent supply request amid heightened tensions in relationships, U.S. officials said.

One of the officials said that the transfer sought to ensure that Saudi Arabia is adequately supplied with the defensive munitions to fend off drone and missile attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the neighbouring country, Yemen.

Since the end of last year, the Saudi military has been appealing to the United States to add Patriot interceptor missiles to shoot down the airborne weapons, warning that its supply is dangerously low.

US officials have said that the decision to send the interceptors took months due to the high demand for the weapons by other US allies and the need to go through normal vetting, not because the White House was deliberately delaying the resupply.

The decision to proceed with the transfer of weapons was part of the Biden administration's efforts to rebuild relations with Riyadh. In particular, the United States wants Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to mitigate rising oil prices, officials said. However, the deployment of Patriot interceptors has not eased all tensions in the relationship.