Spanish Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia Increased Under Sánchez

The Control Arms Campaign has warned that between 2018 and 2019 arms sales are on the rise and found that the Sanchez government granted more than 20 licenses to export arms to Saudi Arabia in 2019 and that the Spanish prime minister might be “complicit in committing crimes under international law”.

Despite campaigns calling for an end to the sale of weapons to certain countries, successive Spanish governments have allowed the Spanish war industry to continue to increase its sales. In a report released on Friday, the Control Arms Campaign – formed by Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, and FundiPau – has called for “the suspension of arms exports to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel” claiming that “The government might be involved in crimes under international law”.

The organizations expect the Government to account for “a record volume of sales” that between 2018 and 2019 amounted to 21,825 million euros, of which 7,880 million euros have already been exported”.

Although in 2018, the PSOE government denied the export of bombs to the United Arab Emirates and did not approve any arms licenses to Saudi Arabia or sign any new agreements with the country in the second half of the year, Control Arms worries that the rise in sales in 2019 will predict further increases for 2020.