Yemen War: A view from Germany

The war in Yemen continues and so too the catastrophe affecting lives of millions of people. US President Biden stated in February his first foreign policy speech since taking office said stopping the war was a priority. The whole international community, including Britain, must do its part to stop this war, including stopping arms exports to Saudi/ UAE.

By Sevim Dağdelen

Thank you for inviting me to this event. I am very pleased to be part of this transnational discussion about the war in Yemen and the shipment of arms to the Saudi-led coalition. Arms exports are an international problem, and as a movement for peace, we will only be successful if we engage in international networking and dialogue as well.

As a result of the military intervention by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, Yemen is in the grip of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, as the United Nations has confirmed. Nor is there any prospect of an end to the hostilities in the coming months. The humanitarian situation in Yemen has been catastrophic for years and the Covid19 pandemic has made matters worse. According to the United Nations, an estimated 24 million people – roughly 80 per cent of the population – now need humanitarian assistance. The recent decision by the last US administration of Trump to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels a terrorist organisation is also fuelling instability in the Middle East and makes a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen even less likely.

The intervention by the coalition – which includes not only Saudi Arabia but also the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal, with the United States and the United Kingdom providing support for the military offensive – would not be possible without the plentiful supply of arms from Western countries, first and foremost the US, France and the UK but also Germany. The West has entered into an alliance with Saudi Arabia, an Islamist dictatorship which routinely carries out beheadings, and the murderous Muslim Brothers (Hadi).

It is absurd that countries such as Germany and the UK are closing their eyes to the inhumane Islamist ideology of their partners in the Middle East while claiming to be taking steps against this same ideology at home. Equipped with German, British, French and American weapons, the military coalition of Salafists and Muslim Brothers targets its bombing raids against hospitals, schools and infrastructure in Yemen and has killed thousands of civilians.

Since Saudi Arabia first intervened in the civil war in Yemen in 2015, the G20 countries have exported weapons worth more than 31 billion US dollars to the Saudi-led coalition. This is five times higher than G20 spending on humanitarian aid in Yemen, according to an Oxfam report published ahead of last year’s G20 summit, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia.

In the following comments, I would like to focus particularly on Germany’s role and on the lavish government-approved arms exports by German defence companies to the coalition that is waging war in Yemen. In its coalition agreement in March 2018, the German Government under Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Foreign Minister Heiko Maas committed to an embargo on arms exports to all countries that are “directly” involved in the war in Yemen. Before that many years the arms exports of german government was critically commented by us in the press. Whenever an arms  export had happen to Riad, we made it public. After the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in November 2018 they had to do this move finally. Since then, the embargo on arms exports to Saudi Arabia has been extended several times; in contrast to the situation in the UK, it will remain in place until the end of 2021.

However, the embargo is not what it seems, for two reasons.

First, the German Government is still approving arms exports to other countries involved in the war in Yemen. Last year alone, the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than one billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen. Most of the export licences for arms and other defence goods were issued for Egypt, which received German Government-approved shipments of military equipment worth 752 million euros, followed by the islamist- moslembrotherhood in Qatar with 305 million euros, the United Arab Emirates with 51 million euros, and Kuwait and Turkey, both with 23 million euros. Since 2015, the German Government has approved total arms exports worth more than 5.5 billion euros to members of the Saudi-led coalition.

It is utterly irresponsible that the German Government’s arms embargo for Saudi Arabia does not apply to the United Arab Emirates or other countries involved in the war. The United Arab Emirates is just as much of a party to the conflict in Yemen and, together with Saudi Arabia, bears much of the responsibility for what is currently the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Second, the arms export embargo itself has loopholes: although the German Government halted direct arms shipments to Riyadh after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered, apparently on the orders of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, it did not halt the lucrative exports by German defence company and their subsidiary companies in other countries; nor did it stop shipments of components via joint European projects.

Germany’s biggest arms manufacturer, Rheinmetall, for example, is continuing to ship defence goods to Saudi Arabia via its subsidiaries in Italy and South Africa, thereby circumventing the German export embargo. The German Government even approved two shipments from France to Saudi Arabia in 2019. This military equipment was valued at 4.87 million euros and was produced in Germany. In 2020, Germany rubber-stamped a similar shipment from South Korea. In 2019 and 2020, the German Government approved the shipment of parts for Eurofighter and Tornado military aircraft to Saudi Arabia under three collective export licences.

By supplying arms on such a colossal scale to the Saudi-led coalition, the German Government is not only breaching its own coalition agreement; it is also putting millions of lives at risk for the sake of domestic industry profits and geostrategic interests. My party, the Left Party, is therefore calling for the arms export embargo to be extended to all countries that are members of the coalition. A ban on arms exports by foreign subsidiaries of German defence companies and on shipments of parts and components within the framework of joint European projects is also long overdue.

In the longer term, the Left Party is working for a general ban on arms exports and for a broad-scale conversion programme for the defence industry. Only then can Germany fulfil its historic responsibility as an advocate for peace in the world, instead of fuelling conflicts with its arms exports.

I look forward to our discussion and am excited to learn more about your campaign and the situation in the United Kingdom. Thank you for listening.

In Detail:

2000 to 2019: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than eleven billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen

– 4.2 billion to Saudi-Arabia,

-3.1 billion to the United Arab Emirates,

– 2.3 billion to Egypt

– 500 million to Kuwait

– 165 million to Jordan

– 70 million to Bahrain

Since 2014: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than 5.5 billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen, 1.6 billion to Saudi-Arabia, almost 1 billion euros to the United Arab Emirates

2020: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than one billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen

An example of important transnational protest actions is the strike of dock workers in Genoa, Italy, in the French port of Le Havre or in Santander, Spain. They declared the strike to prevent the shipment of arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

In Germany, there is a growing peace movement of different campaigns aiming at a stop of arms exports to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and a general ban on arms exports. They try to create publicity by numerous actions, especially by making public the controversial deals of German arms manufacturer with autocratic states.

We, as a transnational movement for peace, should exchange more closely to learn from each other. In a globalized world with a rising number of arms exports, we need to foster transnational action to be successful.

This is the text of the speech Germany Left Party’s Sevim Dağdelen’s gave to Liberation’s public meeting in January.

The war in Yemen continues and so too the catastrophe affecting lives of millions of people. US President Biden stated in February his first foreign policy speech since taking office said stopping the war was a priority. The whole international community, including Britain, must do its part to stop this war, including stopping arms exports to Saudi/ UAE.

Thank you for inviting me to this event. I am very pleased to be part of this transnational discussion about the war in Yemen and the shipment of arms to the Saudi-led coalition. Arms exports are an international problem, and as a movement for peace, we will only be successful if we engage in international networking and dialogue as well.

As a result of the military intervention by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, Yemen is in the grip of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, as the United Nations has confirmed. Nor is there any prospect of an end to the hostilities in the coming months. The humanitarian situation in Yemen has been catastrophic for years and the Covid19 pandemic has made matters worse. According to the United Nations, an estimated 24 million people – roughly 80 per cent of the population – now need humanitarian assistance. The recent decision by the last US administration of Trump to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels a terrorist organisation is also fuelling instability in the Middle East and makes a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Yemen even less likely.

The intervention by the coalition – which includes not only Saudi Arabia but also the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal, with the United States and the United Kingdom providing support for the military offensive – would not be possible without the plentiful supply of arms from Western countries, first and foremost the US, France and the UK but also Germany. The West has entered into an alliance with Saudi Arabia, an Islamist dictatorship which routinely carries out beheadings, and the murderous Muslim Brothers (Hadi).

It is absurd that countries such as Germany and the UK are closing their eyes to the inhumane Islamist ideology of their partners in the Middle East while claiming to be taking steps against this same ideology at home. Equipped with German, British, French and American weapons, the military coalition of Salafists and Muslim Brothers targets its bombing raids against hospitals, schools and infrastructure in Yemen and has killed thousands of civilians.

Since Saudi Arabia first intervened in the civil war in Yemen in 2015, the G20 countries have exported weapons worth more than 31 billion US dollars to the Saudi-led coalition. This is five times higher than G20 spending on humanitarian aid in Yemen, according to an Oxfam report published ahead of last year’s G20 summit, which was hosted by Saudi Arabia.

In the following comments, I would like to focus particularly on Germany’s role and on the lavish government-approved arms exports by German defence companies to the coalition that is waging war in Yemen. In its coalition agreement in March 2018, the German Government under Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Foreign Minister Heiko Maas committed to an embargo on arms exports to all countries that are “directly” involved in the war in Yemen. Before that many years the arms exports of german government was critically commented by us in the press. Whenever an arms  export had happen to Riad, we made it public. After the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in November 2018 they had to do this move finally. Since then, the embargo on arms exports to Saudi Arabia has been extended several times; in contrast to the situation in the UK, it will remain in place until the end of 2021.

However, the embargo is not what it seems, for two reasons.

First, the German Government is still approving arms exports to other countries involved in the war in Yemen. Last year alone, the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than one billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen. Most of the export licences for arms and other defence goods were issued for Egypt, which received German Government-approved shipments of military equipment worth 752 million euros, followed by the islamist- moslembrotherhood in Qatar with 305 million euros, the United Arab Emirates with 51 million euros, and Kuwait and Turkey, both with 23 million euros. Since 2015, the German Government has approved total arms exports worth more than 5.5 billion euros to members of the Saudi-led coalition.

It is utterly irresponsible that the German Government’s arms embargo for Saudi Arabia does not apply to the United Arab Emirates or other countries involved in the war. The United Arab Emirates is just as much of a party to the conflict in Yemen and, together with Saudi Arabia, bears much of the responsibility for what is currently the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Second, the arms export embargo itself has loopholes: although the German Government halted direct arms shipments to Riyadh after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered, apparently on the orders of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, it did not halt the lucrative exports by German defence company and their subsidiary companies in other countries; nor did it stop shipments of components via joint European projects.

Germany’s biggest arms manufacturer, Rheinmetall, for example, is continuing to ship defence goods to Saudi Arabia via its subsidiaries in Italy and South Africa, thereby circumventing the German export embargo. The German Government even approved two shipments from France to Saudi Arabia in 2019. This military equipment was valued at 4.87 million euros and was produced in Germany. In 2020, Germany rubber-stamped a similar shipment from South Korea. In 2019 and 2020, the German Government approved the shipment of parts for Eurofighter and Tornado military aircraft to Saudi Arabia under three collective export licences.

By supplying arms on such a colossal scale to the Saudi-led coalition, the German Government is not only breaching its own coalition agreement; it is also putting millions of lives at risk for the sake of domestic industry profits and geostrategic interests. My party, the Left Party, is therefore calling for the arms export embargo to be extended to all countries that are members of the coalition. A ban on arms exports by foreign subsidiaries of German defence companies and on shipments of parts and components within the framework of joint European projects is also long overdue.

In the longer term, the Left Party is working for a general ban on arms exports and for a broad-scale conversion programme for the defence industry. Only then can Germany fulfil its historic responsibility as an advocate for peace in the world, instead of fuelling conflicts with its arms exports.

I look forward to our discussion and am excited to learn more about your campaign and the situation in the United Kingdom. Thank you for listening.

In Detail:

2000 to 2019: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than eleven billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen

– 4.2 billion to Saudi-Arabia,

-3.1 billion to the United Arab Emirates,

– 2.3 billion to Egypt

– 500 million to Kuwait

– 165 million to Jordan

– 70 million to Bahrain

Since 2014: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than 5.5 billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen, 1.6 billion to Saudi-Arabia, almost 1 billion euros to the United Arab Emirates

2020: the German Government approved arms exports valued at more than one billion euros that were destined for countries waging war in Yemen

An example of important transnational protest actions is the strike of dock workers in Genoa, Italy, in the French port of Le Havre or in Santander, Spain. They declared the strike to prevent the shipment of arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

In Germany, there is a growing peace movement of different campaigns aiming at a stop of arms exports to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and a general ban on arms exports. They try to create publicity by numerous actions, especially by making public the controversial deals of German arms manufacturer with autocratic states.

We, as a transnational movement for peace, should exchange more closely to learn from each other. In a globalized world with a rising number of arms exports, we need to foster transnational action to be successful.

This is the text of the speech Germany Left Party’s Sevim Dağdelen’s gave to Liberation’s public meeting in January.

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