TEHRAN, Feb 06 - Amnesty International accused the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday of diverting arms supplied by Western and other states to 'unaccountable militias accused of war crimes' in Yemen.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - “Emirati forces receive billions of dollars’ worth of arms from Western states and others, only to syphon them off to militias in Yemen that answer to no-one and are known to be committing war crimes,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The proliferation of these fighting forces is a recipe for disaster for Yemeni civilians who have already been killed in their thousands, while millions more are on the brink of famine as a direct result of the war,” the human rights group added according to Reuters.
The UAE government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Amnesty statement.
The UAE has trained and armed thousands of Yemeni fighters, mostly in southern provinces and western coastal areas, as part of the forces battling the Houthis, who control most urban areas including the capital Sanaa and the main port of Hodeidah.
Saudi Arabia, with the support of the United States, the United Arab Emirates and several other countries, has engaged in military aggression against Yemen and ground sieges, naval and air strikes since March 2015. The war initiated by Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen has killed more than 16,000 Yemeni people, injuring tens of thousands more, and displacing millions of Yemenis.
The United States, and major European countries, including the UK and France, provide Saudi Arabia with various types of support, most importantly arms sales to Riyadh.
Many countries, including Iran, have condemned Saudi war crimes in Yemen.
Source: Iran Press
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