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An arms watchdog Monday urged major weapons exporters, including the United States and France, to cut sales to Saudi Arabia over its actions in Yemen, as a conference on global arms trade opened in Geneva.
The World Trade Organization is hosting the second conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which came into force in 2014 laying out new rules governing the international arms market.
By continuing to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, which has led a 17-month-long campaign against rebels in Yemen, major weapons exporters that signed the ATT are guilty of "the worst kind of hypocrisy," said Anna Macdonald, director of the watchdog Control Arms.
"The ATT has been in force for nearly two years but some States Parties are violating it with impunity," Macdonald added in a statement.
Saudi Arabia has faced fierce criticism over its Yemen offensive in support of the the government of fugitive President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
There have been repeated strikes on civilian targets. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has described the Saudi-led coalition bombings as "indiscriminate."
France authorized $18 billion (16 billion euros) in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia last year, Control Arms said in a report this month.
The United States approved arms deals with Riyadh worth $5.9 billion in 2015, while for Britain the figure was $4.0 billion.
France and Britain have ratified the ATT. The U.S. has signed the deal, but Congress has not approved it.
Control Arms accused those countries of "flouting international law in plain sight by continuing to sell billions of dollars worth of deadly weapons to Saudi Arabia."
The U.S. Navy announced Saturday it had slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition’s air war in Yemen following concerns over civilian casualties.
Saudi Arabia began its deadly campaign against Yemen in late March 2015. The strikes were meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
About 10,000 people have been killed and over 16,000 injured since Riyadh launched the airstrikes. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s facilities and infrastructure.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
