Rights groups object to Macron’s arms deals with the UAE
International human rights organizations have criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s conclusion of military deals with the UAE, a country involved in armed conflicts in several countries in the region.
Macron announced that the UAE had purchased 80 modern Rafale warplanes in a deal that the French Defense Ministry said amounted to 16 billion euros (18 billion US dollars).
Another deal was also announced with the UAE to buy 12 Airbus combat helicopters, which may represent the largest French arms export contract ever after the collapse of a $66 billion contract with Australia to buy 12 French submarines, which eventually went to the United States.
France has deep relations with the UAE, which Macron visited a few months after his presidential elections. Paris has a naval base in the UAE, and warplanes and soldiers are stationed at a major facility outside the capital, Abu Dhabi.
In an interview with journalists in Dubai, Macron said that the signed contracts are “important to deepen defence cooperation between France and the UAE, maintain stability in the region, and strengthen the joint fight against terrorism.”
“These contracts are important for the (French) economy and create job opportunities in France. This is, of course, good for French men and women, I defend it passionately,” dismissing human rights activists’ fears that French arms sales in the Gulf could fuel conflicts in the region.
According to Reuters, the UAE will receive the first French warplanes in 2027, creating about 7,000 jobs in France.
Organizations have expressed fears that Abu Dhabi may use the weapons France supplies in “unlawful attacks or even war crimes” in Yemen and Libya.
“France is moving forward with these sales despite the UAE playing a leading role in the brutal military operations led by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
The Disclose website stated that France delivered tens of thousands of bombs to the UAE and Saudi Arabia during the reign of President Francois Hollande in 2016, despite knowing that they would be used in the war in Yemen.
And the investigative website quoted “secret defence documents” that “since 2016, the French state has allowed the delivery of about 150,000 shells” to its two Gulf allies.
Documents belonging to the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security show intense discussions between the teams of then-defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Hollande was the one who settled them, according to the site.
The Disclose wrote that “the French industrialists demanded permission to export tens of thousands of missiles and missiles to the Saudi and Emirati armies. The total amount of contracts: 356.6 million euros.
The conflict in Yemen has been raging since 2014, between the Iranian-backed Houthi militia and an authority backed by an Arab coalition established and led by Saudi Arabia since 2015.
The United Nations says the war will have killed 377,000 direct or indirect victims of the conflict by the end of 2021, and millions of people have been displaced by the war.
