Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Some 108 countries signed the treaty and 38 of them have already ratified it. Among these societies, are former users, producers and victims of cluster munitions.
Three regimes are notorious for their absence in this honorable list: The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US and Israel happen to be Saudi Arabia’s main allies AND suppliers of such weapons in the ongoing war on Yemen. It is hardly surprising:
- Reliable evidence shows Saudi Arabia has used US-supplied cluster munitions in its deadly airstrikes against Yemen. According to Human Rights Watch, photographs, satellite imagery, video and other evidence indicate Saudi forces are dropping the banned munitions on civilians.
- The new report by the rights group states: “The images show the remnants of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons made by the Textron Systems Corporation and given to Saudi Arabia by the US in recent years.”
Clearly, the US and Saudi Arabia are violating the global standard that bans cluster munitions because of their long-term threat to civilians. The use of these outlawed munitions goes against international law and charges should be filed against Riyadh and Washington at the International Criminal Court.
- Cluster munitions hold hundreds of bomblets, which blow up after spreading out over a wide area, often as large as a football field. Many bomblets often do not explode, becoming de facto landmines.
Israel used extensively cluster bombs artillery with US made M77 sub-munitions during the previous wars with Lebanon and Gaza, where unexploded bomblets still pose a threat. Today, history is somewhat repeating itself; it’s no coincidence that the same threat now exists in Yemen.
- Nearly all the countries that have not signed the treaty abide by its provisions. Even so, the Cluster Munition Coalition reports they have been used in the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts. So this is not their first rodeo. As Human Rights Watch maintains, the cluster bomb use in Yemen is part of the broader dehumanizing effects of those conflicts.
Taken together, the use of cluster bombs is immoral, insane and monstrous. It risks becoming a dangerous powder keg in Yemen, and shows while most countries have banned these weapons, some actors still flout international norms and standards.
Their use by the US-Israeli-Saudi bloc is a sign of lawlessness too - oblivious to the chain reaction it could precipitate in a region racked by instability. It adds yet another layer of complication to an already impossible situation.
In this marriage made in geopolitics heaven, the worst place to be civilian is Yemen, where the bombing campaign is turning into the most lawless conflict in the entire region. In this dangerous game, there are no principles left, no norms left, and certainly every intention to bypass international law.
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