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Members of the European Parliament vote on 24 October on the ban on the sale of single-use plastic products and the EU budget in Strasbourg, France, on 24 October. (Patrick Seeger / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock)
James McAuley
Correspondent abroad on French and European politics and culture
BRUSSELS – The European Parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding resolution condemning the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and calling for an arms embargo on the EU as a whole against the EU. Saudi Arabia.
The resolution came several days after Germany declared itself the first Western government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the world's largest importer of arms. Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters on Sunday that, given Khashoggi's murder on October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, "arms exports can not take place in the current circumstances."
But it is unclear whether Thursday's resolution will put pressure on the governments of the United States. member states to do the same by abandoning their own lucrative Saudi contracts.
After the United States, Britain and France are Saudi Arabia's two main sources of arms. So far, both have issued scathing sentences for the murder of Khashoggi, but have ignored Merkel's example.
According to the UK Department of International Trade, England exported at least $ 1.4 billion worth of weapons and equipment to Saudi Arabia last year, but the actual figure is probably higher . In 2017, potential sales of more than $ 14.7 billion in France were approved.
In the European Parliament, with a noble rhetoric, an assembly of 751 elected representatives of the 28 US Member States rejected "the explanations provided up to here by the Saudi authorities on the subject as being hardly credible".
They also criticized the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, as an affront to European ideals.
Her assassination, reads the resolution, is "part of a wave of widespread repression against prominent human rights defenders, activists, women, lawyers, journalists, writers and bloggers" in Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began to take charge of the country's security. apparatus.
[Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated in latest reversal]
The statement also denounced the Saudi authorities "claiming the death penalty for many of these activists" and lamented that "surveillance systems and other dual-use items were used to track and trace movements of human rights defenders ".
In addition to a possible arms embargo, the resolution aimed to push the various European countries to impose sanctions on individuals suspected of being involved in the killing of Khashoggi by "targeted measures" such as travel bans in Europe. or the freezing of their assets.
For some lawmakers, targeting specific people could send a small but powerful message. Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal legislator, said before the vote that measures such as visa restrictions and the freezing of Saudi assets could "make shopping in Paris more difficult and sending children into good universities in Europe ".
The vote took place after the Saudi Foreign Ministry admitted that the killing of Khashoggi was a premeditated act, a significant turnaround from earlier statements that he had left the consulate and died after a brawl. hand against security agents.
McAuley brought back from Paris.
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