Italy blocks arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE over Yemen crimes

Italy has permanently stopped exports of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amid worries over the two regimes’ continued war crimes in Yemen, in what human rights campaigners praised as a “historic” move that sets “an important precedent” for other European countries.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio announced the halt on Friday, citing Rome’s commitment to ending the bloodshed in Yemen and protecting human rights.

“This is an act that we considered necessary, a clear message of peace coming from our country. For us, the respect of human rights is an unbreakable commitment,” Di Maio said in a statement.

In an interview with Italy’s il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, Manlio Di Stefano, undersecretary for foreign affairs, said the decision was made last week after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte gave the green-light to a relevant recommendation made by Di Maio.

The Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament said the decision would block the sale of around 12,700 missiles to Saudi Arabia, which was part of a total allotment of 20,000 missiles worth over 400 million euros agreed in 2016 under the ex-administration.

Andrew Smith from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade told the Middle East Eye online news portal that the Italian decision sets a “vitally important precedent” for other European countries that keep selling weapons to the Saudi regime, despite its atrocities in Yemen.

“The Italian government should not have been arming Saudi forces in the first place. The arms sales they have supported have fueled a brutal war and helped to create a humanitarian catastrophe,” Smith said.

“However, this sets a vitally important precedent from a major European arms exporter,” he added. “The spotlight now has to be turned on the UK, and other arms-dealing governments who have played a central role in enabling the conflict.”

The activist such arms exports must come to an end, “so must the political support that has underpinned them.”

Conte had in 2018 expressed a desire for his government to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia due to its devastating war on Yemen as well as the state-sponsored assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate a year earlier.

Italy’s latest decision followed an announcement by new US President Joe Biden earlier this week that there would a pause in arms exports to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi as his administration reviewed the exports.

The temporary ban will reportedly include the sale of precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia and advanced F-35 fighters to the UAE.

The Biden administration’s decision was welcomed on Thursday by prominent human rights group Amnesty International, which called on the European countries to follow suit.

MG