Belgian FM calls for suspension of arms sales to the Saudi regime

SANAA, May 12 (YPA) –  Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called for the suspension of arms sales to the Saudi regime following the revelation that the arms were used in the ongoing military aggression against Yemen four years ago.

According to France-Press Agency, the Belgian minister asked the three main regions of Belgium (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) to take a decision to stop granting producers of weapons and military equipment export licenses.

Reynders, who also holds the defense portfolio in the federal government, said Philly Porsos, chief executive of Wallonia, should stop exporting arms to Saudi Arabia because of the war on Yemen. “The contracts provide for this,” he said.

Three quarters of the Belgian arms industry is concentrated in Wallonia, where heavy machine guns and FN Herstal assault rifles are produced, while the Saudi regime is one of the largest arms suppliers in the region.

Sources in the French ports sector told the French Press Agency on Friday that the Saudi cargo ship (Bahri Yanbu), which was scheduled to dock at the port of Havre to load a controversial French arms shipment, would not stop at this French port.

For her part, Philly Porsos confirmed that the Wallonia  region “no longer gives any (export) permission to Saudi Arabia” since the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.