For committing crimes in Yemen, Belgium stops supplying Saudi Arabia with arms

BRUSSELS, March 07 (YPA) – The Council of State in Belgium has decided to suspend four licenses to export weapons from “Wallonia” region in the south of the country to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This came after three Belgian human rights organizations appealed against the decision of the President of the Wallonia region last November to re-issue weapons licenses to Saudi Arabia.

In March and August of last year, the Council of State in Belgium issued decisions suspending these licenses.

The three organizations said, in a joint statement, “It has become urgent for Wallonia region to realize that its decisions regarding granting licenses to export arms to Saudi Arabia are not justified under international law and the law of the region.”

The statement added that despite the decisions of the Belgian Federal Parliament and the European Parliament regarding human rights violations in Yemen, the Wallonia region continued to export weapons to the parties involved in the war.

The organizations called on the Wallonia region and its socialist president, Elio de Robo, to respect its obligations under international law and the law of the region, and to put an end to what they called willful blindness towards the actions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the atrocities committed in Yemen.

YPA