|By John Sjoholm and Associated Press Wire – Lima Charlie News

June 12th/1303 ZULU+1

Small arms and light weapons imports in the Middle East rose from $342 million in 2012, to $630 million in 2013, says a report issued by the United Nations. The Small Arms Survey’s Trade Update: Transfers and Transparency, co-written with the Small Arms Survey group in Geneva, was released earlier this week at UN Headquarters in New York, detailing sales of small arms and light weapons worldwide. Data shows a sharp increase in the past few years of sales to Middle Eastern countries, with the United States being both the biggest exporter and importer of weapons, from pistols and military firearms to hunting rifles, ammunition and anti-tank guns.

According to the report, imports flow primarily to countries that are currently battling civil wars, or are engaged in wars elsewhere against an overall civilian population insurgency. The world’s biggest small arms exporters — countries that export at least $10 million per year in such weapons — delivered about $6 billion in weapons and ammunition in 2013 — a nearly 17 percent increase from 2012.

Nocolas Florquin, senior researcher for the Small Arms Survey, said that “the increase in imports of such weaponry to the Middle East coincided with the intensification of conflicts in countries including Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. “This is in addition to where the international community see a lot of proxy purchases, or retransfer purchases, where countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey, buys items and then re-export them to their final destination, which is often war torn nations with a at best fractured government.” For example, “U.N. investigators found ammunition and pistols in Libya that could be traced back to importers in the region — despite an arms embargo,” Mr. Florquin said. “There is evidence that some importing states were involved in unauthorized retransfers of materials in the past, either to conflict zones or even circumvented U.N. arms embargos such as the one in Libya,” he said.

U.S. leading exporter of small arms and light weapons

With over a $1 billion in sales, the U.S. was the leading exporter of small arms and light weapons, followed by Italy and Germany. The three countries accounted for almost 40 percent of exports of such weapons in 2013. Many of these sales go towards allied countries in the Middle East region, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Turkey. The remaining exporters, in descending order, were Brazil, Austria, South Korea, Turkey, the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, Israel, Belgium, Croatia, China, Switzerland, Japan and Spain.

Last week Lima Charlie News MENA desk reported that the U.S. placed a hold on further deliveries of CBU-105 cluster bombs manufactured by the U.S.-based firm Textron Systems to Saudi Arabia due to continuous complaints throughout the past two years by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. These cluster bomb type of weapons were banned in a 2008 international treaty that arms sales giants, including the United States and Russia, refused to sign. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch revealed that Saudi Arabia has dropped CBU-105 munitions in multiple locations around Yemen, including Al-Amar, Sanhan, Amran, and the Al-Hayma port. The United States had concluded a contract for the manufacture of 1,300 CBU-105 weapons to Saudi Arabia in 2013. The total value of the deal is placed at roughly $1.3 billion US Dollars, including the shipments that have already been delivered.

John Sjoholm, Lima Charlie News

John Sjoholm is Lima Charlie’s Middle East Bureau Chief, Managing Editor, and founder of the consulting firm Erudite Group. A seasoned expert on Middle East and North Africa matters, he has a background in security contracting and has served as a geopolitical advisor to regional leaders. He was educated in religion and languages in Sana’a, Yemen, and Cairo, Egypt, and has lived in the region since 2005, contributing to numerous Western-supported stabilisation projects. He currently resides in Jordan. Follow John on Twitter @JohnSjoholmLC

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