Saudi Arabia

South Africa has stopped shipping arms to countries including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, in a dispute over a clause in the country's arms shipment protocols which demands that recipients commit to not transferring weapons to third parties.

A new report published by one of WRI's affiliates in Belgium – Vredesactie – expolores the full extent of European arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Experts from the United Nations has identified fragments of laser-guided missile systems used by the Saudi military in Yemen that they concluded could break international law. The fragments were from a guidance unit stamped with the name "EDO MBM Technology ltd", a company based in Brighton.

Civil society organisations in Canada have written to the country’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, demanding an update on a review into a huge sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday 18th June the UK's court of appeal has ruled that arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful in an appeal brought against a previous decision by Campaign Against Arms Trade.

Activists in Germany have disrupted the annual general meeting of arms company Rheinmetall, holding banners protesting the use of tanks manufactured by the company by the Turkish military in Kurdish regions.

French NGO “Disclose” has released details of the use of French weapons by the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen, using leaked documents.

World military expenditure has risen to $1.822 trillion in 2018, representing an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2017, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged Germany to end it’s ban of weapons exports to Saudi Arabia. Hunt has written to his counterpart Heiko Maas, and described how the ban is impacting British companies ability to fulfil their own contracts with Saudi Arabia on a visit to Berlin to discuss Brexit.

Belgian company CMI Defence and French company Thales have announced new agreements with Saudi Arabia, in response to a new Saudi program of investment in industry and infrastructure.

Germany has been joined by Finland, Netherlands, and Denmark in a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The decisions follow the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and announcements by the United Nations that Yemen is experiencing the worst famine the world has seen for 100 years.

Following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arbian embassy in Istanbul on October 2nd, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany will halt all arms sales to Saudi Arabia.