Finland Suspends Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia, UAE over Conflict in Yemen

The Finnish government announced on Thursday it will also stop exporting arms to the United Arab Emirates, Yemeni News reported.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the coalition countries heavily involved in the war in Yemen, where it regularly takes part in bombing raids.

In a statement, the Nordic country cited ‘the alarming humanitarian situation in Yemen’ as the reason for halting arms exports to both Arab countries.

The country announced that it was "complying with the European Union's arms export criteria, which take particular account of human rights and the protection of regional peace, security and stability".

It comes after Danish authorities decided to suspend approvals of arms and military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia.

“With the continued deterioration of the already terrible situation in Yemen and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we are now in a new situation,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a statement, adding that the decision was taken following a series of meetings with EU counterparts earlier this week.

“Denmark already has a very restrictive policy in this area, but I hope that the Danish decision will generate further momentum and induce more EU member states to support a tougher sets of EU rules on this,” Samuelsen stressed.

German Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier had urged the member states of the EU to follow in Berlin's footsteps and stop arms exports to Riyadh due to questions surrounding the death of the Saudi journalist.

The European Parliament (EP) stated last week that the European Union’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia are stoking the deadly war on Yemen, calling for sanctions on the countries that refuse to respect the EU’s rules on weapons sales.

According to figures compiled by the Middle East Eye, European countries have approved arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE worth more than $86.7 billion since 2015.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement.

Official UN figures say that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began in March 2015. But the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) believes that at least 56,000 people have lost their lives in the war. The violence has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid amid an ongoing strict naval and aerial blockade. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

Save the Children, a charity, has reported that more than 84,700 children under the age of five may have starved to death in Yemen since the Saudi regime and a coalition of its allies launched the brutal war on the already-impoverished nation.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.

A number of Western countries, the US, the UK, and France in particular, are accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

an Oxfam representative stated that the US, UK, and French governments are behind millions of people starving in Yemen because they are “supporting this war".

“We have 14 million people starving,” Richard Stanforth, Oxfam UK’s regional policy officer for the Middle East, told RT, adding that "British, French, American governments are all behind this, they are all supporting this war".

A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.

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