US Democratic senator Ben Cardin of Maryland expressed his support to the announcement of Republican senator and Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Bob Corker, who said he will withhold approval of US weapons sales to members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), until there is a path for settling the crisis in the region resulting from the siege laid by Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain on Qatar.

In a quote reported by the 'New York Times', Cardin said that he shares: "Senator Corker's concern that the current GCC dispute distracts from our shared, most pressing security challenges defeating ISIS."

In a letter sent to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and circulating in different media outlets, Corker said that the GCC countries must put in more effort to stand up to terrorism. He noted that the recent conflicts can only harm efforts to fight ISIS. US law states that major arms sales are subject to preliminary approval by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate and House committees overseeing foreign affairs before a statutory, 30-day congressional review process begins.

The American newspaper said that the letter came one day after a statement by Tillerson, intending to bolster the secretary's diplomatic efforts to settle the disagreement. The paper added that Tillerson and Corker have forged a strong working relationship in the secretary's first few months on the job, and congressional and administration officials said the senator's letter was a high-profile example of how Congress could use the arms-sales notification process to influence policy.

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