Saudi Arabia has mounted an intense lobbying campaign to try to prevent members of the European parliament voting for an arms embargo because of the Saudi military action in Yemen that has resulted in heavy civilian casualties.
As part of a concerted campaign, Saudi representatives have been meeting MEPs to try to persuade them not to back an amendment on Thursday that calls for a EU-wide embargo following “the serious allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in Yemen”.
The Saudi ambassador to Brussels, Abdulrahman al-Ahmed, sent a letter to parliamentarians on Sunday in which in he pleaded with them not to vote for the amendment and defended his country’s military intervention.
In the four-page letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, he blamed the intervention mainly on Iran and insisted much of Saudi’s action had involved humanitarian aid. He added that the Saudi intervention was partly in response to concern in the west about Yemen-based terrorists, including al-Qaida and Islamic State.
“Saudi Arabia has also answered the call from the west to take a greater role in combating terrorist instability throughout the Middle east and the consequences of our not intervening in Yemen’s conflict would have been far worse than the west could as yet imagine,” the ambassador wrote.
Riyadh has been stung by the increasing criticism of its conduct in the Yemencivil war. Normally, its diplomats try to maintain as low a profile as possible, conducting business through discreet lunches and dinners rather than mounting such high-profile lobbying exercises.
The vote was originally scheduled for 4 February but was postponed until Thursday, a delay campaigners for the embargo attributed to Saudi pressure.
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