French Newspaper Criticizes Paris Military Support for Saudi Arabia in its Aggression against Yemen

The French newspaper “Limanti” criticized Paris for ignoring demands to end its military cooperation with Riyadh, and stressed the need to stop the war in Yemen, which US President Joe Biden said had “created a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe” and announced the end of all kinds of American support for the offensive operations in the aggression on Yemen, including arms sales.

Italy also caused a surprise by suspending the export of missiles and bombs to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. “We consider it a duty and a clear message of peace coming from our country,” said Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. On the other hand, the government continues to remain silent about the use of French weapons in Yemen.

Non-governmental organizations say that the issue of “French complicity” in the violations that take place in Yemen is on the table in light of the continued sale of arms by Paris to Saudi Arabia. It also reviewed the reports of UN experts, which referred to war crimes in Yemen.

French Drills:

The investigation of the French “Media Part” website revealed that many French companies specialized in military training are training soldiers in the Saudi army. These companies have not stopped their activities since the start of the military intervention in Yemen in 2015, not to mention that they have used aircraft, armored vehicles, ships and even missiles that they acquired from France in recent years.

The investigation indicates that Saudi Arabia has acquired “Cesar” cannons made by the French company Nexter during the last ten years, and installed on off-road trucks. And it obtained 132 species, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which stated that Riyadh is waiting to receive further payments before the end of 2030.

It affirms that France has committed to training Saudi soldiers to use these weapons and cannons, which threaten civilians living under these French-made weapons, including about 50 howitzers, according to a confidential report by the French Military Intelligence Agency.

The ‘Defense Consai International’ company supervised the use of French-made Caesar cannons by Saudi soldiers, according to the investigation.

“The international community cannot say that it is not aware of the involvement of weapons used by the Saudis in the killing of Yemeni civilians, including children,” said Ardy Emsis, a law professor at Queen’s University in Toronto and a member of the United Nations expert team.

This prompted some arms-exporting countries to take more precautions, such as Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Quoted from al-masirah website.