The decision came in today’s Council of Ministers. Already in 2021, during the Draghi government, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio had communicated that the military intervention of the United Arab Emirates in Yemen was over. Also for this reason, the ban passed in 2019 has been definitively eliminated.
The Council of Ministers chaired by Giorgia Meloni has established that there will no longer be the ban on selling Italian missiles and bombs to the United Arab Emirates. Arms export deals were suspended in July 2019 by the first Conte government. Just a year and a half later, in January 2021, the second Conte government officially revoked the export of missiles and aircraft bombs to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The reason was that the two countries were involved in the conflict in Yemen: an attack on the Huthi group which started in 2015 and led by Saudi Arabia, which over the years has caused thousands of civilian deaths, especially children, especially through bombings. In the years following the start of the war, European states continued to conclude trade agreements for the sale of arms.
The block, as mentioned, arrived in 2021. It was based on one law of 1990, the no. 185, which provides for the ban on selling arms when the sale is “contrary to the Constitution”, but also if it is addressed to “Countries in a state of armed conflict” and to Countries “whose governments are responsible for serious violations of international conventions in human rights issue”.
What cuts in tax breaks will there be in the Meloni government’s tax reform
The government explains: “The situation has improved, the United Arab Emirates are no longer involved in the conflict”
The decision of the Meloni government was accompanied by a press release to explain it: “On 5 August 2021”, reads the note from Palazzo Chigi, “the Council of Ministers received confirmation from the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation ( Luigi Di Maio, ed) of the fact that the UAE’s military engagement in Yemen had ceased”. After that, the situation “continued to evolve positively: since April 2022 military activities in Yemen have slowed down and been limited and diplomatic activity has significantly accelerated”.
According to government findings, the UAE has, between 2015 and 2021, “allocated 5.5 billion euros for the stabilization and reconstruction of Yemena commitment that continued in 2022 with 500 million euros and again last November, with the International Monetary Fund and the Arab Monetary Fund, with a commitment of 1.5 billion dollars over three years”. the Meloni government has decided to allow “the export of military material to the United Arab Emirates” again, although, in the press release, he was keen to underline that the decision is nothing more than the implementation by the previous government”.
From the opposition has arisen the criticism of Nicola Fratoiannisecretary of the Italian Left and deputy of the Green-Left Alliance: “It had already been a shame for the Draghi government to give in to the economic blackmail of the Gulf countries, and it still is even if the Meloni government does it. Evidently for someone to do business , even with weapons, with the regimes of that area it is convenient. And who cares about human rights and civil conscience. But can armaments be the industrial future of our country?”.
UN: “Never have Yemen been so close to peace, but it’s not enough”
Today, the Houthis and Saudi Arabia (which is instead affected by the Italian export ban) claimed to have done progress in the negotiations to reactivate an expired ceasefire and to start talks to resolve the conflict. The Saudi Arabian-led military coalition released 104 prisoners, who were taken back to Yemen. A few days ago, with another agreement, 700 Huthi detainees and another 180 prisoners were released.
The United Nations envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, commented with cautious optimism: “In eight years we have not seen such a serious opportunity to make progress towards ending the conflict,” he said, but the situation could “still change unless the parties take bolder steps toward peace Many aspects of the truce continue to apply beyond its duration and Yemen is experiencing the longest period of relative calm in this ruinous war. However, this is not enough.”