COPENHAGEN Denmark has stopped selling weapons to Riyadh in response to the assassination of prominent Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the regimes bombing campaign in Yemen.
With the continued deterioration of the already terrible situation in Yemen and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, we are now in a new situation, Denmarks Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a statement on Thursday.
Samuelsen said the decision was taken following a series of meetings with EU counterparts earlier this week.
Denmark already has a very restrictive policy in this area, but I hope that the Danish decision will generate further momentum and induce more EU member states to support a tougher sets of EU rules on this, said Samuelsen.
The suspension also includes some dual-use technologies, a reference to materials that might have military applications.
The European Parliament (EP) said last week that the European Unions arms exports to Saudi Arabia are stoking the deadly war on Yemen, calling for sanctions on the countries that refuse to respect the EUs rules on weapons sales.
Calls for a suspension of arms sales to Riyadh and its allies have increased, especially after the killing of Khashoggi in Turkey last month, which is blamed on the highest levels of the kingdom.
Since Khashoggis murder, the EU parliament has passed two resolutions urging limits on arms sales and strengthening checks. The calls are non-binding.
According to the EUs annual report on weapons exports, the bloc is the second largest arms supplier in the world after the United States, exporting over a quarter of all global arm.
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