Amnesty Urges France to Halt Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

Local Editor

Amnesty International urged France yet another time to suspend its arms sales to Saudi Arabia, due to Riyadh's war crimes in Yemen and the display of its disrespect for human rights, following the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish capital.

Director of Amnesty International France's Program for Responsibility, Yves Prigent, said on Tuesday that a number of serious human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been observed since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen in 2015.

In further details, Amnesty International France has long been calling on France to halt arms sales to the Saudis, on account of Paris being a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates the international trade in conventional arms.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly said her country exported 11 billion euros [$12.6 billion] to Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2017, a figure which was crucial for French jobs.

"These arms exports are extremely supervised and analyzed very meticulously. They are authorized by an inter-ministerial commission placed under the authority of the prime minister, which follows a case-by-case evaluation which takes into account numerous criteria, among which is the nature of exported materials, the respect of human rights, and the preservation of peace and regional stability," Parly told a senate foreign policy commission hearing.

"More and more, our industrial and defense sectors need these arms exports. And so we cannot ignore the impact that all of this has on our defense industry and our jobs," she added.

France is one of the five biggest arms exporters to Saudi Arabia in past years, Amnesty International said, in the same category as the United States and Britain. It sells firearms, parts, ammunitions, artillery and maintenance services.

In April, France managed to sign 20 major agreements with Saudi Arabia worth $18 billion, sources revealed at the end of a trip by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Paris.

The French companies have always been among the main suppliers of modern weaponry to Saudi Arabia and Paris has already reached military deals worth around 20 billion with the Saudis.

Most of those weapons have been used in Saudi Arabia’s more than three years of war on its southern neighbor Yemen. Rights groups have repeatedly called on Paris to stop the provision of arms and instead impose pressure on Saudis to stop the carnage.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team