Denmark joins Germany in the fight against arms sales in Saudi Arabia

BERLIN – Denmark has become the second European country to suspend its arms exports to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, following a similar decision by neighboring Germany earlier. this month. The Danish announcement comes the same week that President Trump supported the Saudi Crown Prince, although the CIA concluded that he had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The ban on Denmark includes goods that can be used for military and civilian purposes, but it is still cheaper than the German measures, which also included already approved sales.

While the Nordic country is a small exporter of weapons equipment compared to larger players such as the United States, Britain or France, its decision will only exacerbate the concerns of the industry. European Armaments Committee in the face of a growing anti-Saudi consensus in the European Union and beyond.

Even though Trump hinted that he would place Saudi arms investment and export earnings above human rights concerns, legislators across the spectrum political and both sides of the Atlantic are alarmed.

In addition to the murder of Washington Post contributor columnist Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, a Saudi-led coalition has been accused of numerous human rights violations in Yemen since 2015. On Wednesday, the international humanitarian organization Save the Children has stated that 85,000 children have died of hunger since the beginning of the intervention.

[85,000 children have starved to death during the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, says new report]

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen confirmed on Danish television on Thursday that "the continuing worsening of the already dire situation in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi" had resulted in the death penalty. export ban. He urged the other US members to re-evaluate their positions.

While Denmark and Germany are praised by human rights defenders for realizing their threat of ending sales to the kingdom, the biggest arms exporters have pointed out that both countries have much less to lose only their national counterparts. And Germany has shown in the past that it is ready to keep its promises every time human rights groups stop lobbying. After the current government had promised to stop all arms sales early in the year, it approved new sales several months later, to stop them again after the murder of Khashoggi.

Last year, the center-right Danish government was also criticized after announcing it approved the sale of sensitive surveillance technology in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The technology was produced by a Danish subsidiary of the British arms company BAE Systems, but its sale was approved by the authorities in Copenhagen in 2016.

The export licenses were granted after Saudi officials claimed that the technology was supposed to be used only to combat criminal activity and terrorism.

Human rights organizations feared that the software would almost certainly be used by Saudi authorities to spy on critics – a concern that has proven justified in the aftermath of Khashoggi's murder, after information has been revealed that criticisms of Saudi leaders have been monitored. online. It is not known if the same Danish technology was used.

For major arms producers, the growing resistance against arms sales to Saudi Arabia may be a problem, even though Britain, France and the United States refrain from imposing prohibitions on export. UK and French producers import a number of components needed to assemble combat aircraft or tanks from other EU countries including Denmark and Germany, the latter still housing one of the largest manufacturing industries in the world. weapons of the world.

If German or Danish lawmakers adopted an even more complete definition of the Saudi sale ban, their decision could also disrupt supply chains in Britain and France, fear companies.

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