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Intel: US rescinds ban on British defense firm implicated in Saudi weapons fraud

The US State Department is rescinding a 9-year-old policy that barred it from doing business with the Saudi subsidiary of a British defense firm, which pled guilty to fraud in a multibillion-dollar arms deal in 2010.

People enter the State Department Building in Washington, U.S., January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RC1D48272C00
People enter the State Department building in Washington, US, Jan. 26, 2017. — REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

The US State Department is rescinding a 9-year-old policy that barred it from doing business with the Saudi subsidiary of a British defense firm, which pled guilty to fraud in a multibillion-dollar arms deal in 2010.

Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper rescinded the policy today at the request of BAE Systems Saudi Arabia, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. The Barack Obama administration implemented the policy of denial in 2011 after BAE Systems’ pleaded guilty to fraud in the 1985 al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

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