How the Saudis ended up with so many American weapons
And why they want more.
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Saudi Arabia and the US have a partnership that’s been in the making for over seven decades. It started after World War II and survived the Iranian Revolution, the Cold War, the Gulf War, September 11, and the proliferation of conflicts across the Middle East. This whole time, the US has been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia — now its number one customer. Saudis bought bombs, tanks, guns, and planes over the years to defend themselves from various threats. The US supplied those weapons because the Saudi’s threats have usually been a threat to the US as well.
Today, there’s a shift in the relationship. Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world – and thrown the Middle East into chaos. The problem is, the Saudis are using US bombs to do it.
Sources:
US-Saudi arms agreements data: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency
Arab-Israeli arms race: Congressional Research Service and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
US-Saudi arms policy: Center for International Policy and the Brookings Institute
Yemen airstrikes: Human Rights Watch
Dahyan, Yemen, school bus bombing: Bellingcat
Additional reading:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/09/a-saudi-princes-quest-to-remake-the-middle-east
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/saudi-military/#graphic-sales
https://www.fpri.org/article/2009/08/the-u-s-and-saudi-arabia-since-the-1930s/
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@Vox
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
As the Middle East has destabilized, the US-Saudi alliance has become more complicated. Read Vox reporter Matt Yglesias' argument for reconsidering the alliance here: http://bit.ly/2S6eAWM
@RayIzuu
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
I’m from the future. We didn’t stop.
@IslamJackson
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
As a Muslim, shame on Saudi and all other nations who have not helped our Palestinian brothers and sisters.
@migojolo2933
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
US milking cows 😂
@orey_gunay
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Who's watching in August 2025
@abdullahdhdi
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
I am Saudi Arabian
It's not thanks to the USA we got all that weapons.
It's thanks to god then to our money and oil.
We have no problems with the soviets at the time we could have bought our weapons from them.. LOL
@ABA_77
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
So will the US actually stop giving weapons for free to Israel 🇮🇱?
@sweethubby4176
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Sha of Iran was a dictator and Saudi are also dictators. These were not representative of people. Saudi killed any one who criticized them
@faisalabdullah5242
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
ابتدأت البرنامج بكذبة استهداف باص نقل طلاب في اليمن و ذكر في المقطع
أنه في اغسطس 2018 بينما الدراسة كانت متوقفة بسبب الاجازة الصيفية و ابتدأ العام الدراسي سيكون في 15 / 9 / 2018 م
إذا ما علمنا أن الحوثي يجند الاطفال في اليمن في حربه غالبا باجبار والديه أو خطفه منهم ندرك جيدا سبب انتشار هذه الكذبة المزورة .
@janjan9874
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
How did Sardis end up with so many American weapons ummm because they bought them🙄
@thomasjcox
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
And they never use them
@Turki_T-K
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
America supports Israel and Israel kills people in Gaza. What do you think? Is this considered a war crime?
@جمعانالدوسري-م4ه
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
🫡🇸🇦🇾🇪🫡
@MateoMPM
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Its funny how arabs are never accountable
Nobody really forces them to buy so many weapons
But hey it's never their fault
@نايفالرويلي-س7ض
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
You fools do you think that without you we wouldn’t be able to buy oil
Saudi Arabia has money and power and that’s the only thing needed to buy weapons whether from China Russia or France
It is America that needs Saudi Arabia to stay strong
Without the petrodollar the US wouldn’t impose taxes on the world so shamelessly
Apple Nvidia and Google wouldn’t sell at the highest prices
And the US Department of Defense wouldn’t have the biggest budget in history
You are the ones who need Saudi Arabia let’s be realistic
@user-in5vb5mo7u
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
More nonsense and lies about the Middle East and Saudi Arabia. It seems that the European media will not stop lying, distorting and demonizing those who do not agree with them. Many of the problems in the Middle East were caused by European countries and their support for revolutions in those countries, such as the revolution called the Arab Spring, and their support and protection of terrorist organizations. Even when the countries in the Middle East tried to eliminate those terrorist groups, they fled to European countries and were protected and supported by those countries. Your countries continue to do this to this day, such as their harboring and support for the terrorist groups that call themselves the Muslim Brotherhood and others.
@GM-yd8vf
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
نريد تقرير من هذه القناة المنحازة عن كمية الاسلحة الكبيرة جدا المفتوحة الى دولة الكيان اسرائيلي منذ الاحتلال البريطاني ثم الدعم الامريكي اللا محدود لدولة المارقة عن النظام الدولي اسرائيل. لازال الاعلام الامريكي يمارس النفاق والازدواجية في التقارير الاعلامية .
@Abdulaziz-qr4hf
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Oh, selling weapons to Saudi Arabia is bad because they killed 40 people. What about Israel, which killed 55,000 civilians in a year?
@yahyamohammed9938
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
the world's worst humanitarian crisis is in Palestine, caused by Israel.
@ash3663
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
How about America’s wrong doings I don’t see anyone taking responsibility hmmmm 🧐
@joerustamov8846
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
And when sa switches sides to russia how america gonna deal militarily with their own weapon
@R34_NSX
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
You talk about humanity as if you don't see what is happening in Gaza. I hate your double standards
@sowonkun
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
This is one of the usual Democrat propagandas endorsed by Israel during every Republican president's term. It stopped during Biden's term and is now back during Trump's second term
@ozzdlg7300
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
It’s 2025 Saudi just bought billions of United States weapons 😮
@SenZ-mt
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
We all know that Israel does worse than Saudi with American weapons
@naveedmomand7092
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
i bet he cant make such a video about isreal
@HshHahsh-m4f
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
This is a lie
@bsshreyas3170
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
So the moral of the story is- USA 🇺🇸 gets cheap oil at the end of the day and supplies weapons which is another revenue wow keepers of world peace ✌️ more like how the British divided and ruled India for 200 years is what’s happening .
@Abdullah-fn1kz
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
This is really strange, because as of now 2/3/2025, the US is the one doing the bombing. Does it called a war crime? Well… no, and I wonder why
@Arrak111
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
You must provide evidence for the allegations , this is bolshit
@haydavinoo
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
united states of lgbtq and saudi ben salman are allies to keep middle east in war condition all the time
@abd_l1298
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
i love vox documentaries but i have noticed how Palestine is labelled as Israel.
@subramaniansivasubramanian8527
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
USA and NATO dont need Saudi Arabia anymore as its against the NWO goals. They used Saudi Arabia to control oil. Without Saudi Arabia US Dollar, Euro, Pounds have not got this much value. NATO forged enmity between Saudi Arabia and other middle east countries because it was decided before World War 1 to eliminate all religious ideologies. They dont like Islam growing.
@_m9-
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
As a Yemeni , most of this talk is wrong and has no connection to reality. In fact, the bus that was bombed was in the Taiz region of Yemen, not in Sana’a, and the perpetrators of this crime were the Houthis, not the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
@M.FARAJ1990
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
So when Vox is gonna do a report about US weapons used on civilians in Gaza?
@Azzamzzz
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
It is funny when Americans talks about war crimes. While they are killing thousands of civilians in Gaza.
@Thashi_01
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
BRICS, KSA Is evolving! 🩶💥
@KSA-j5
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
إن الاختيار الاول لدينا في المملكة العربية السعودية هو الولايات المتحدة
ولاكن ليس الاختيار الوحيد
فلدينا خيارات أخرى مثل
الصين
روسيا
بريطانيا
فرنسا
و غيرها الكثييير
لاكن الخيار الاول دائما هي الولايات المتحدة
@valverde890-f3h
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
The West is still making the same mistakes in distributing and spreading its weapons and inventions easily.. Now it is also spreading the inventions and conquests of artificial intelligence easily! .. There is a rule, whatever makes you different in a positive way, keep it
@leuxvitrus
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
What could 1 resource(s) cost so much trouble?
Vox:
@youtubetim3577
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
Middle East is unstable oh yeah 2022 says hold my beer
@omaralbik2652
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
It's always the interests of the USA that starts everything
@Soulzzzzz
September 30, 2025 at 11:36 pm
its not an alliance, its business
Comments are closed.