Australia Sells 500 Weapons Mounting Systems to Saudi Arabia, What about Victims of Saudi War on Yemen ?!!

YemenExtra

SH.A.

The Australian government continues to approve sales of weapons systems to Saudi Arabia, despite growing international concern over alleged war crimes in Yemen.

Defense chiefs were questioned at a senate estimates hearing on Wednesday as to why they had not stopped the weapons sales or applied sanctions to the kingdom.

Senator Richard Di Natale asked if the weapons systems would be used in Yemen and also mentioned the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the Saudi regime.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that she wants to wait until the Turkish investigation into Khashoggi has been completed before she comments, but that the Saudis certainly had questions to answer.

In terms of the arms exports, Ms Payne said that the government is keeping the matter ‘under review’ and ‘reserves the right to exercise options’ in relation to the exports.

Defence officials confirmed they have granted export permits to an Australian company that sold 500 weapons mounting systems to Saudi Arabia.

Countries such as Italy, Denmark, Germany, and Finland have already announced they would ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the growing human rights concerns.

Saudi-Led Coalition’s war on Yemen has made three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian assistance and pushed the country to the brink of famine, while the United Nations has considered the crisis facing the Arab country as the worst in the world.

After 4 years of a brutal war, the spokesman of Yemen’s Salvation Government has declared that the number of civilians killed till last year it amounted to be 15359 people, while the number of injured is 24121, in a total of 39480 people between killed and injured; in addition to more than 22 million are in vital need of humanitarian aid.

The US forces have been supporting the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen since 2015 against Sana’a government.

Also according to statistics from UN bodies and organizations, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, with many more suffering from deteriorating humanitarian conditions, outbreaks of disease and epidemics, especially cholera, and a decline in the volume of cash reserves.