US must halt proposed weapons sales to the UAE, HRW

The United States should suspend all proposed and future arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) until the UAE curtails unlawful airstrikes in Yemen and Libya, halts support and weapons transfers to abusive local forces, and credibly investigates previous alleged violations in both countries, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week. 

“In continuing to sell weapons to the UAE, US authorities are ignoring pervasive evidence of airstrikes and other attacks by the Saudi and UAE-led coalition in Yemen that unlawfully killed civilians,” said Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “US officials’ desire to reward the UAE for recognizing Israel should not entail complicity in unlawful deaths in Libya and Yemen.”

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented violations by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), including summary executions, enforced disappearance, torture, desecration of corpses of opposing fighters in eastern Libya between 2014-2018, and more recently during the battle for Tripoli in May, as well as unlawful airstrikes, including an apparently unlawful airstrike on a residential neighborhood of Tripoli in October 2019 that killed civilians. 

The organization has also documented the use of internationally banned cluster bombs and antipersonnel landmines and booby traps by LAAF fighters and affiliated foreign forces in the southern districts of Tripoli during the latest Tripoli conflict.