by Murad Abdo
ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Friday decided to block exports of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following similar decisions taken by other European countries, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, in an attempt to allegedly to prevent using weapons in violation of human rights in war-ravaged Yemen.
Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in a statement on Friday that "this is an act that we considered necessary, a clear message of peace coming from our country. For us, the respect of human rights is an unbreakable commitment."
However, Yemeni political observers and analysts believe that such decisions of freezing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE cannot affect a significant change in the trajectory of Yemen's military conflict.
Yaseen Tamimi, a Yemeni political writer and analyst, told Xinhua that "the decisions taken by some European countries to maintain arms sales to Saudi Arabia will leave no tangible impacts on the ongoing Yemeni conflict."
He said that "the coalition representing Saudi Arabia and the UAE is no longer the main party in Yemen's military battle as it stopped involving actively or largely in the war."
"The ongoing battles in Yemen are occurring between several internal parties equivalently using weapons mostly manufactured by Russia," said Tamimi, adding that "so the role of Saudi and UAE-led coalition won't be largely affected by the decisions of stopping the flow of arms to the two countries of the coalition."
Last week, the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced that it is beginning to review arms deals that former President Donald Trump struck with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Several American media outlets reported that Biden's administration had put a temporary freeze on billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi or UAE officials responding to Biden's decision to temporarily suspend arms sales to the Gulf countries.
Mahmoud Al-Taher, a Yemeni political expert, told Xinhua that the new presidential administration of the United States did not truly decide to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a result of Yemen's military conflict.
He pointed out the suspension is just "a routine procedure" and "may be resumed later through other negotiations" because Saudi Arabia is one of the largest buyers of U.S. weapons.
Al-Taher said that "the Americans are fully aware that such a decision will make Saudi Arabia move to other options including diversifying weapons sources, and it may head to deal with Russia, and this may pose major problems to Biden's administration."
Fares Albeel, a college professor and political commentator, told Xinhua that "members of the international community recently have shown a real desire to end Yemen's conflict, but their perceptions regarding this war and its solutions seem to be deficient or far from the core of the issue."
"Yemen's conflict is not related to the arms embargo on Saudi Arabia or the UAE because most of these weapons imported from abroad do not come to the Yemeni regions or used in the ongoing fighting," said Albeel.
He urged "the international community members to understand the dimensions of Yemen's complicated issue as permanent peace in Yemen won't be achieved through such partial decisions or measures."
The professor dismissed the arms sale restriction imposed by some Western countries as "nothing more than a media stance or an attempt to appear as a humanitarian defender who is worrying about the Yemenis."
The Houthis aligned with Iran launched a large military campaign and seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to the southern port city of Aden.
Subsequently, the pro-Houthi forces backed by armored vehicles attacked Aden and shelled Hadi's Republican Palace, forcing him to escape again to neighboring Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily and began bombing the Houthi-controlled Sanaa in March 2015, in response to an official request from Hadi to protect Yemen and roll back Iran's influence.
The ongoing fighting between the two warring rivals with daily Saudi-led airstrikes plunged the most impoverished Arab country in the Middle East into more chaos and violence.
Three-quarters of the population, or more than 22 million people, urgently require some form of humanitarian assistance, including 8.4 million who struggle to find their next meal. Enditem
