The United States government has stopped an arms deal with the Philippines to sell thousands of assault rifles to the Southeast Asian country amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Manila, a new report says.
According to the deal, the Philippines’ national police would have received some 26,000 assault rifles to push ahead with President Rodrigo Duterte’s battle against drug trade, Yahoo News reported Tuesday, citing Senate aides.
However, the US State Department halted the deal after Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposed it because of what he referred to as Manila’s human rights violations.
According to sources in the Senate, Cardin voiced his opposition to the deal upon receiving a prenotification from the State Department. The department informs Congress of new weapons sales before they are finalized.
The US State Department has refused to comment on the allegations.
The news came days…