By: Kayhan Int’l
Better late than never is the phrase to describe the courageous move by Italy on Friday to permanently stop all weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two countries engaged in the slaughter of the people of Yemen over the past almost six years with state-of-the-art armaments supplied by the US and West European countries.
The decision announced by Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will mean cancellation of supply of a total of 12,700 bombs and 20,000 missiles, the agreement of which was inked in 2016.
Imagine the destruction these lethal weapons could have wrought in Yemen where the Saudis and the Emiratis have destroyed the infrastructure and so far killed over a hundred thousand men, women, and children.
Kudos to the government of Italy for waking up to the realities and having the courage amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and the current economic slowdown to cancel orders worth 105.4 million euros ($128m) from Saudi Arabia and 89.9 million euros ($109.1m) from the UAE.
It will be interesting to see what the other chief culprits in Europe, that is, Britain and France, would do following the Italian initiative which has been welcomed by the Yemeni people.
It brought a positive response from Mohammad Abdus-Salaam, the spokesman for the Sana’a based legal government led by the popular Ansarallah Movement, who said: "Italy’s announcement to stop selling weapons to countries that launch aggression against Yemen is a positive step, which contributes to protecting civilians and supporting the peace process.”
Earlier, last week, the new US administration of Joe Biden had spoken of a pause in arms exports to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which meant a temporary ban on supply of weapons that include the sale of precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia and advanced F-35 fighters to the UAE.
Rome’s rightful decision has caught not only London and Paris, but also Washington on the wrong foot.
Human rights advocates in the said countries have long been calling for end of military support to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, but their demands were ignored by the regimes of Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, and Boris Johnson.
It seems these three countries, along with the illegal Zionist entity, love wars, bloodshed and destruction in Muslim countries, and consider the billions of petrodollars they receive from the reactionary and rootless regimes of the Persian Gulf more important than human rights.
Peace needs practical moves and the taking up of courageous steps, and once the merchants of death realize the worth of human life, they will have no choice but to change their policies.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in contrast to Yemen, which produces most of its weapons, have no local arms manufacturing units, and if the West were to completely halt its weapons exports to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, these anti-people regimes would have no choice but to end the fratricidal war in Yemen.
The decision announced by Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio will mean cancellation of supply of a total of 12,700 bombs and 20,000 missiles, the agreement of which was inked in 2016.
Imagine the destruction these lethal weapons could have wrought in Yemen where the Saudis and the Emiratis have destroyed the infrastructure and so far killed over a hundred thousand men, women, and children.
Kudos to the government of Italy for waking up to the realities and having the courage amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and the current economic slowdown to cancel orders worth 105.4 million euros ($128m) from Saudi Arabia and 89.9 million euros ($109.1m) from the UAE.
It will be interesting to see what the other chief culprits in Europe, that is, Britain and France, would do following the Italian initiative which has been welcomed by the Yemeni people.
It brought a positive response from Mohammad Abdus-Salaam, the spokesman for the Sana’a based legal government led by the popular Ansarallah Movement, who said: "Italy’s announcement to stop selling weapons to countries that launch aggression against Yemen is a positive step, which contributes to protecting civilians and supporting the peace process.”
Earlier, last week, the new US administration of Joe Biden had spoken of a pause in arms exports to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which meant a temporary ban on supply of weapons that include the sale of precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia and advanced F-35 fighters to the UAE.
Rome’s rightful decision has caught not only London and Paris, but also Washington on the wrong foot.
Human rights advocates in the said countries have long been calling for end of military support to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, but their demands were ignored by the regimes of Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, and Boris Johnson.
It seems these three countries, along with the illegal Zionist entity, love wars, bloodshed and destruction in Muslim countries, and consider the billions of petrodollars they receive from the reactionary and rootless regimes of the Persian Gulf more important than human rights.
Peace needs practical moves and the taking up of courageous steps, and once the merchants of death realize the worth of human life, they will have no choice but to change their policies.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in contrast to Yemen, which produces most of its weapons, have no local arms manufacturing units, and if the West were to completely halt its weapons exports to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, these anti-people regimes would have no choice but to end the fratricidal war in Yemen.
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