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News ID: 34251
Publish Date : 09 December 2016 - 20:25

Call for Saudi Arms Embargo



By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

This just in: Human Rights Watch has called for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia over its atrocious aerial bombardment campaign against Yemen.
The HRW says the United States could be held accountable for "atrocities” being perpetrated against war-stricken Yemenis by providing munitions to the Riyadh regime.
In a report on Thursday, the HRW also says thousands of people have lost their lives as a result of being hit by U.S.-made bombs, which Saudi Arabia and its regional allies dropped on residential neighborhoods across Yemen. It added that U.S. arms were being supplied to the invaders irrespective of the fact that earlier reports had indicated such violations.
This comes as the U.S. has already approved more than $20 billion in military sales to the kingdom in 2015 alone. The U.S. Senate endorsed a military deal with Saudi Arabia worth $1.15 billion in September.
The British government also continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, despite growing evidence of the use of UK-made weapons in Yemen. According to the London-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, the UK has approved £2.8 billion ($4 billion) in military sales to Saudi Arabia since March 2015.
In other words, Yemeni people are dying so that Western arms manufacturers and multinational corporations can lay siege to remaining oil reserves in the Arabian Peninsula. It is at these times that the international community has to ask what its ethics are.
The whole Middle East needs peace. The area has enough horrible problems without a Saudi aggression. The nations of good conscience should force the Security Council to turn its attention to Yemen, demanding the regime stop the aggression immediately.
The Saudis and their cronies have pushed the crisis-prone country to the brink of a full-blown war. A closer examination of this criminal coalition reveals identical regimes that violate human rights too. The world will never forget how the Saudis, joined by hired mercenaries, rolled into Bahrain to help the Khalifa regime crush a peaceful protest movement.
The regime’s reliance on a radical class of Wahhabi clerics to ensure its hold on power has resulted in chaos throughout the world. The Saudis have pushed their violent interpretation of Islam to every corner of the globe. Such indifference toward global stability and peace should never be allowed to go unchallenged.   
The international civil society, therefore, should boycott Saudi oil as well to drain its military capacities, financial reserves and political will. They have been meddling in Yemeni affairs for decades now, often using oil wealth to buy off warring factions.
Into the argument, what plagues Yemen is largely local. It has nothing to do with Iran or its push for influence. The Saudi allegations regarding Iranian aggression are bogus and have created a giant crisis throughout the region. Which is all the more reason for the international community to deescalate the situation and push for negotiations between Yemen’s warring parties.
Stoking sectarian tensions only suits the needs of Saudis, Americans and Israelis, as well as their creations - ISIL and Al-Qaeda. The job of the international civil society is to oppose this policy and allow the Yemenis to decide their own fate.