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A package of precision-guided missile technology for Saudi Arabia, valued around $300 million, and a $4 billion deal to provide F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain are now ready for clearance from the White House, a US official involved in the transfers told The Washington Times.

During his final months in office, former president Barack Obama had blocked the transfer of precision munitions to Riyadh because of the outcry over large-scale civilian casualties resulting from Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.

The Pentagon has been providing logistics and surveillance support to Saudi Arabia in its military aggression against Yemen, the kingdom’s impoverished southern neighbor, which has killed at least 11,400 civilians since its onset in March 2015, according to a latest tally by a Yemeni monitoring group.

The Obama administration also notified Congress that it would not complete approval for Bahrain to buy as many as 19 F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. until the kingdom could demonstrate progress on human rights.

The US already uses Bahrain as a base of operations for the US Navy in the Persian Gulf. Since 2011, the overwhelming majority of the people of Bahrain took to the streets to demand political reform. The regime, backed by Saudi Arabia, then launched a crackdown on the peaceful opposition that included conducting thousands of arrests and systematic torture.

The arms packages, if approved, would underscore the priorities of the new administration.

“These are significant sales for key allies in the [Persian] Gulf who are facing the threat from Iran and who can contribute to the fight against [Daesh],” the official who spoke with The Times said on condition of anonymity.

“Whereas the Obama administration held back on these, they’re now in the new administration’s court for a decision — and I would anticipate the decision will be to move forward.”

However, the White House will face opposition in Congress where Democrats and a number of Republicans have called for restrictions on sales of weapons to the two monarchies, in particular to Saudi Arabia which has been pounding Yemen since March 2015.

In August, 64 House members signed a letter calling on Obama to delay the sale of cluster munitions to the kingdom, and in September, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced a resolution to block a multi-billion dollar sale of battle tanks and other military equipment to the Saudi regime.

The Obama administration ultimately approved the deal on tanks transfer. However, the former president did not give the final go-ahead to the now-pending package of precision-guided weapons technology.

However, the US official told The Times that the Trump administration was now poised to embrace the deal. “If they’re going to drop stuff, it should be precision-guided rather than dumb.”

Saudi Arabia has purchased billions of dollars worth of American warplanes and other weaponry that it is using in its military campaign in Yemen.

The military aggression has destroyed much of Yemen's infrastructure. It has also claimed the lives of over 11,400 Yemenis, including women and children, according to the latest tally by a Yemeni monitoring group.

*(President Donald Trump has lunch with troops while visiting U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill, AFB, FL, Feb. 6, 2017. Image Credit: D. Myles Cullen/ flickr).