European Parliament calls for Saudi arms embargo

[josephpalazzo]

Finally... hope the EU will follow through...

The parliament's vote is not legally binding but lawmakers hope it will pressure EU governments to agree to an embargo, following a petition of 750,000 European citizens calling for the suspension of weapon sales.


Fellow British lawmaker Alyn Smith, a Scottish Nationalist who grew up in Saudi Arabia, has also written to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini calling for the embargo.


However, any EU embargo would go against U.S. President Barack Obama's policy of bolstering U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia after Washington brokered a deal with regional rival Iran last year to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambitions.


Britain and France are the main European suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia, while Germany also licensed arms exports of almost $200 million to the Sunni kingdom in the first six months of 2015, the latest economy ministry data available.


EU lawmakers warned the vote may prompt retaliation from Saudi Arabia, whose envoy to the European Union held several meetings with EU lawmakers and tried to dissuade the parliament.


"The Saudis said to me they may cut off relations. I hope those are just words," Howitt said, adding that the quickest way to avoid an arms embargo was to end the conflict in Yemen.

                                 

Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-saudi-arms-idUSKCN0VY1K1

[Sal1981]

Don't get your hopes up.

[josephpalazzo]

Yep, too much money involved...

[stromboli]

Yep, too much money involved...

Worked on Saudi jets back in the day. Hill AFB was depot for all of the Saudi Jets. Don't know now, but big money spent in the U.S. The DOD has a tendency to look the other way on shit like that.