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Critics decry US cluster bomb sales to Saudi
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Aug 24, 2013 02:21pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Aug 24, 2013 02:20pm |
| Description | Arms control advocates are decrying a new US Department of Defence announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some $641m.
The munitions at the heart of the sale are technically legal under recently strengthened US regulations aimed at reducing impact on civilian safety, but activists contend that battlefield evidence suggests the weapons actually exceed those regulations.
Opponents say the move runs counter to a strengthening push to outlaw the use of cluster bombs around the world while also contradicting recent votes by both the US and Saudi governments critical of the use of these munitions.
"Both the US and Saudi Arabia have recently condemned the use of cluster munitions by the government of Syria - that’s ironic given this new sale, because a cluster munition is a cluster munition, no matter what kind it is," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a watchdog group here in Washington.
He was referring to the May 15 vote before the UN General Assembly in which both the United States and Saudi Arabia joined 105 other countries in strongly condemning Syria’s use of cluster bombs. |
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