U.S. lawmaker holds back support for munitions sale to Gulf allies due to Yemen

FILE PHOTO: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) looks on during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Thursday he cannot support for now a Trump administration plan to sell high-tech munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over concerns about the war in Yemen, a decision that could derail the sale.

Senator Bob Menendez, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration had not satisfied his concerns about the sale to members of a Saudi-led coalition of thousands of precision-guided munitions, or PGMs, which could be used to kill Yemeni civilians.