Saudi Arabia exploits the de-escalation opportunity in Yemen to purchase bombs and whitewash its criminal history

Saudi Arabia, since the war in Yemen entered the phase of de-escalation, has started promoting a deceptive campaign abroad to end the isolation the country experienced as a result of its horrifying criminal history in Yemen and its role in Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. To this end, it has spent a lot of money on lobbying and propaganda groups in the US and EU.

Zakaria Al-Sharabi – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

According to information released by the French intelligence magazine Intelligence Online, Saudi Arabia has published more than 200 reports promoting what is described as “intensive diplomacy by Riyadh for peace in Yemen and for the evacuation of citizens of countries from Sudan. Saudi Arabia has also hired a number of political pressure firms in Washington, including six companies that worked with them in May alone.

According to Intelligence Online, a May 4th email from Frederick Beard, the CEO of Of the Hill, to a ten-person congressional delegation that included the Republican senators Charles Grassley, Marco Rubio, Mike Crapo, and Bill Cassidy revealed that the kingdom continues to push for all parties to achieve enduring peace for all Yemenis.

As the French magazine adds, Matt Lauer, the CEO of Corves, registered as a full-time agent for Saudi Arabia on April 30th in accordance with the Foreign Agent Registration Law. The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action (KS Relief) and the government received information from the company on the same day about its earlier efforts this year.

Corvis was contracted to promote the International Humanitarian Relief Conference it was hosting in Saudi Arabia in February. The corporation contacted numerous news outlets, including print and broadcast media outlets like CNN, ABC, The New York Times, Politico, The New Yorker, and The Financial Times, in an attempt to attract interest in the event.

Intensive moves to buy weapons:
Mohammed Said Al Jaber, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, visited Italy last month as part of a deceptive marketing campaign in Europe intended to advance the idea that Saudi Arabia is a peacemaker and that it is mediating to put an end to the war in Yemen.

Al Jaber’s visit was successful in getting the Italian government to decide to end the ban on arms licenses to Saudi Arabia, which was imposed in 2019, 2020, and 2021. It will be able to get various permits with UAE as well as bomb deals that had been contracted with Riyadh for warplanes, totaling 20,000 bombs for Riyadh and 12,500 bombs for Abu Dhabi. The export embargo had already been abolished for the UAE earlier in May.

Also in May, Saudi Arabia and Canada announced the restoration of diplomatic ties that had been broken since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Due to pressure from the people on the government at the time over Saudi and Emirati war crimes in Yemen, the sale of weapons, notably armored vehicles and firearms used by ground forces of the coalition and the forces loyal to them, had been suspended.

Given that Canada is a major supplier of weapons to Saudi Arabia and that supplies from Ottawa to Riyadh during the Yemen War are estimated to have cost tens of billions of dollars, it is anticipated that the restriction on arms sales will be lifted.

In September of last year, Germany ended the embargo on arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE and opened new licenses for refilling Saudi and Emirati stocks with armored vehicles and offensive bombs.