Dollars keep the arms flowing
randum of understanding on defence co-operation in late 2016. Last year, the South African government sought United Nations Security Council permission to sell Iran R1.5-billion of Umkhonto surface-to-air missiles, according to local media reports.
But, although evidence shows that the Houthis enjoy some Iranian backing and that Iranian materiel is finding its way into Houthi hands, the extent of that support is ambiguous and was “hugely exaggerated” by the Saudis in the lead-up to the war, says Na’eem Jeenah, the director of the Afro-Middle East Centre.
What is clear, however, is that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners are almost entirely dependent on foreign arms for their offensive in Yemen, including an aerial bombing Arabia in recent history has rested on the management of the various factions of the royal family, the religious elite, terrorism, the country’s oil wealth, the economy and its effect on a young, restless, largely unemployed population and its neighbours.
Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi loyalist. He understood the delicate balance at play to achieve political stability in the kingdom. He had close ties to the royal family and, as a journalist, he was embraced in the royal court. This week, Friedman published another column, back-pedalling slightly in his previous admiration of MBS, and confessing that one of the Saudis he had spoken to was Khashoggi.
It was Khashoggi, however, who fell foul of MBS for what Khashoggi thought were overly ambitious plans that would not work. It was a sentiment that would exile him and then kill him.
In his last column for The Washington Post he said: “The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.”
Khashoggi stood for the idea that the voice of the people should be campaign described as “indiscriminate” by Doctors Without Borders, which was forced to evacuate staff after its medical facilities were hit.
There’s no telling who will end up as targets. Saudi Arabia is not a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and has used these weapons in Yemen.
“We have documented the use of cluster munitions in various occasions in the areas of Amran, Hodeida and a lot in Saada”, said Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher for emergencies, Priyanka Motaparthy.
Saudi Arabia is the third-biggest arms buyer in the world. It is also, with the United Arab Emirates, among South Africa’s main weapons customers, with a taste for armoured personnel carriers, mortar heard. He stood for the idea that dissent should be aired. And he had disagreed with previous Saudi regimes several times. He was fired twice for pushing for reform in Saudi Arabia. “It wasn’t that easy but people were not being put in jails. There was a breathing space,” he said.
That breathing space has been suffocated.
It is now believed that MBS ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
And all the people who cheered on MBS as a reformer while he has wreaked havoc must accept some responsibility for this. Not just for the alleged murder of Khashoggi but for the arbitrary detention of women’s rights activists, religious clerics and others the crown prince has deemed to be a threat. They have lent a veneer of legitimacy to a regime that is a threat to its people.
Friedman must accept some responsibility. And Murdoch. And US President Donald Trump. And the businesses that were all too ready to hop on to a plane for “Davos in the Desert”. And the South African government, which is considering giving MBS the keys to an arms factory.
Because Khashoggi has disappeared and probably was murdered. Just as thousands of Yemeni children are murdered by Saudi Arabia with nary a consequence. The rest of the world has never taken a principled stance against Saudi Arabia. Political expediency has always won. Until that changes, people like Khashoggi will just be collateral damage for the supposedly poor aim of Saudi weapons. bombs, high-tech equipment and ammunition.
According to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee reports for 2016 and 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates accounted for between R3-billion to R3.5-billion worth of sales. This included 230 armoured personnel carriers and millions of rounds of ammunition.
According to Defenceweb, in 2014 South Africa concluded a major contract for Yemeni-assembled armoured vehicles.
South Africa delivered four artillery systems to Saudi Arabia, according to Defenceweb.
South African artillery and military hardware, including the G6 howitzer made by Denel, have been spotted on Yemeni battlefields. In 2015 footage showed what appeared to be a Denelmade Seeker II drone shot down over Yemen.
By supplying weapons to the coalition, South Africa may be in breach of its own Conventional Arms Control Act, which states that the government should not export arms to “governments that systematically violate or suppress human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and should “avoid transfers of conventional arms that are likely to contribute to the escalation of regional military conflicts”.
Foreign arms from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France and South Africa have helped Saudi Arabia to cement its status as a rogue state with an appalling human rights record, armed to the hilt and eager to flex its muscles. In Yemen, the coalition has attacked not just with impunity but also with encouraging nods from its powerful Western backers.
The Khashoggi saga may have sent chills down the spines of the kingdom’s international backers, but any line in the sand is unlikely to outlast the lure of arms deals.
Saudi Arabia, flush with petrodollars and lacking in transparency, has long been a magnet for weapons dealers who, says Jeenah, “thrive in opacity”. Its al-Yamamah arms contracts with the UK, initiated under Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1980s, makes South Africa’s controversial arms deal look like a jumble sale.
The cash paid in bribes alone exceeded the total value of the South African deal, which in part explains why the ruling elite in the kingdom is so enamoured with arms companies.
Money from arms deals flow through the royal family — a bureaucracy of thousands of princelings, which is more a ruling caste than a “family”. Khashoggi’s uncle, Adnan Khashoggi, was a notorious arms dealer.
The country’s rulers “never bothered with a big manufacturing sector”, says Jeenah. “They have been happy living off the oil they have as if it will last forever.”
The country has also used its massive arms expenditure — projected this year to be the biggest line item on its budget — to gain diplomatic leverage.
According to Jeenah: “The purchasing of arms is also a way for Saudi to exercise control over the US, UK, and to a lesser extent France.”
The sums involved and the jobs at stake for exporter countries are reasons that countries such as the UK, the US and France, which all have a lot to lose, are reluctant to halt the arms flow to Saudi Arabia.
Spain and Germany publicly announced that they would curtail arms sales to the kingdom but later made U-turns on those decisions.
“In the case of Spain, it was a labour issue — workers for the stateowned ship-builder Navantia raised concerns about job losses,” said Motaparthy.
This, and the fact that arms deals are so thoroughly entwined with high-level diplomacy and alliancemaking (and breaking), gives the Saudis leverage.
The Saudis have such a thirst for armaments that often, before getting bogged down in Yemen, their purchases did not make strategic sense.
Now, with a détente between Iran and some Western countries, and increasing global criticism of Saudi Arabia, its hawkish crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — the real power behind his father’s throne — seems more interested in a homegrown arms industry.
This equation has led the Saudis to explore partnerships with Ivor Itchikowitz’s Paramount Group and a possible equity stake in Denel.
For South Africa, a much-needed cash injection in the struggling stateowned weapons manufacturer is a tempting offer — but at what cost?