3-5-2018 the UK government has licensed the sale of vast additional consignments of military equipment without requirement for public scrutiny. Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Labour MP who sits on the influential arms export controls select committee (CAEC), told MEE that government ministers had refused to reveal the names of arms firms linked to open licence applications:
"Open licences in effect give a carte blanche to UK arms companies to transfer as many arms under a named category as they like to a specific country. Only the firm knows how many weapons are being sent. The public doesn't know, not even CAEC knows and we are supposed to be the parliamentary body tasked with scrutinizing the the government." https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-huge-rise-britains-secret-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-2114276785
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10-18-18 Open licences, known as Open Individual Export Licences--OIELs, have been described as "secretive" by campaign groups because they allow an uncapped number of items to be sent to another country for five years. There is currently no obligation on the government to publish the total value of the licence when it ends. In 2017 the number of open licences more than doubled-- from 21 in 2016 to 44 the following year. https://news.sky.com/story/uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-rose-by-two-thirds-in-2017-11528624
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5-11-18 Reuters reported in November that Saudi Arabia had agreed to buy $7 billion in precision-guided weapons from U.S.-based companies Raytheon and Boeing. Raytheon was “courting lawmakers and the State Department to allow it to sell 60,000 precision-guided munitions to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” according to the New York Times.
The State Department has briefed staff on the House and Senate Foreign Relations committees about the sale but has yet to release details of the package to members of the committees, according to three aides who were not authorized to speak on the record. Once the chair and ranking member of the committees give the nod, the State Department can formally notify Congress about the sale, which could happen as early as next week.
Under the Arms Export Control Act the State Department reviews potential arms sales to make sure they align with U.S. foreign policy goals and decides whether to issue export licenses. It then notifies Congress about sufficiently large sales, giving Congress a 30-day window to review and potentially block them.
The sale in question is a direct commercial transaction between Raytheon and the Gulf countries, which does not require the government to publicly announce the sale at the time of congressional notification. That means it will be up to Senators to decide how many of the details to make public. https://theintercept.com/2018/05/11/american-saudi-arabia-weapons-deal-yemen-uae/
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10-24-18 Madrid will proceed with a delivery of 400 laser-guided bombs to Riyadh. The Spanish Parliament voted against a proposal blocking arms sales (worth $10 million) to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, according to a report by Haaretz. The proposal to stop the sales over the ongoing scandal around Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death was introduced by a mixed group that included deputies from smaller parties but was rejected by a joint vote by the ruling Socialists and the opposition People's Party.
The vote puts Spain and Sweden, whose Prime Minister Stefan Löfven also announced his decision not to stop Sweden's arms sales to Saudi Arabia Tuesday, into the club of countries that have decided not to cut their arms contracts with Riyadh over the ongoing Khashoggi scandal. France and the UK, which are considered Riyadh's two biggest suppliers (after the US), have also declined to cut arms sales so far. Germany, the fourth-biggest exporter of weapons to Saudi Arabia however announced Sunday that it would halt its arms sales to the kingdom.
The Danish, German, Dutch and Finnish governments have now joined other countries in halting the sale of weapons to the autocracy, as the UN warns of “the worst famine in the world in 100 years” (in Yemen due to Saudi-led war against Yemen). ...
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “There must also be action from countries like the US and the UK, which have licensed billions of pounds worth of arms to the Saudi regime, including the fighter jets and bombs that are playing a central role in the destruction. After almost four years of war the need for a political solution could not be greater. The humanitarian crisis is the worst in the world and Yemen is on the verge of famine. It is time for all governments to push for a ceasefire and to stop prioritising arms sales over the rights and lives of Yemeni people.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/saudi-arabia-arms-embargo-weapons-europe-germany-denmark-uk-yemen-war-famine-a8648611.html
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~85,000 Yemen children may have died during the Saudi-Yemen war. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/11/21/yemen-save-the-children.cnn
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