EU Parliament Urges Arms Embargo on Saudi

Brussels, MINA – The European Union Parliament urged its member countries to impose an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen.

The EU arms export report on Thursday, they urged all bloc members to “follow Germany, Finland and Denmark, which limit their arms exports to the Saudis.”

Documents show that weapons exported to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the Saudi-led coalition in the war have been used in Yemen, AlJazeera reported.

The report also urged other EU countries to impose similar sanctions to prevent further suffering of civilians in the Yemen conflict.

Khashoggi, 59, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed by a group of Saudi executors shortly after he entered the state consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October 2018.

Earlier this month, the Riyadh Criminal Court commuted the death sentence and sentenced the defendants to up to 20 years in prison, saying they were pardoned by Khashoggi’s family. They were sentenced to death last year.

Meanwhile, Yemen has been in internal violence and chaos since 2014. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched an air operation aimed at stopping the Houthi rebels.

Tens of thousands of Yaman people, including civilians, are believed to have died in the conflict, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises with 3.65 million people displaced and 15 million in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. (T/R7/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)