US Senator Bernie Sanders has dropped his resolution to force a Senate vote on a $735 million weapons sale to Israel, reported The Hill.
“At a moment when US-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate,” said Sanders at the time, Reuters reported.
The effort by the Vermont Senator was seen as a long-shot to force a vote as he had been told last week that the State Department had already finalized the sale, and the Senate did not have the power to block it.
Sanders was banking on using the Arms Control Export Act that gives Congress the ability to halt an arms sale with a majority vote on a joint resolution of disapproval, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sanders has also reportedly halted a blockage of State Department nominees that he had put in place last week after Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman discussed with him plans the Biden administration has to "address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and across the Palestinian Territories."
According to The Hill, a Sanders aide said that the senator told Sherman that "returning to the pre-war status quo was insufficient," and that Sanders had threatened to "push for greater debate to make sure that US arms sales do not support human rights abuses" before the Deputy Secretary committed to a "continuing dialogue" on the issue.