Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a session of the Shura Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia November 19, 2018. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark has suspended future approvals of weapons and military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist and the kingdom’s role in the conflict in Yemen, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Germany has already suspended issuing future weapons export licenses and has moved to halt all arms sales, while France said on Monday said it will decide soon on sanctions over Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s biggest weapons importers. It heads a military coalition fighting in a civil war in Yemen in which tens of thousands of people have died and caused a major humanitarian catastrophe.

“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,” said Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen in a statement.

Denmark issued ten such approvals last year, according to the ministry. Already given approvals will not be suspended, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised Saudi Arabia for helping to lower oil prices but pressure intensified for the United States to impose tougher sanctions on its Middle East ally over Khashoggi’s murder. </s> Copenhagen — On Thursday, Denmark suspended arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the second country to do so after Germany.

"The foreign ministry is suspending all sales of weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia," foreign minister Anders Samuelsen said.

"I hope that the Danish decision can create additional momentum," he added.

A foreign ministry spokesperson said Copenhagen was not considering other sanctions for the moment.

On Monday, Germany decided to bar 18 Saudis from entering its territory and Europe's Schengen passport-free zone over their alleged links to the murder.

In October, Berlin called for EU countries to follow its lead and suspend arms sales to Saudi Araiba for the time being, prompting a dismissive response from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote for The Washington Post and had been critical of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, killed and reportedly dismembered.

After lengthy denials, Saudi authorities admitted responsibility and said 21 people had been taken into custody. However, a CIA analysis leaked to the US media went further, reportedly pointing the finger at the crown prince.

Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Wednesday that criticism of Bin Salman was a "red line", and that calls for him to be held accountable for the grisly killing would not be tolerated. </s> Finland announced late on Thursday it will block new arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing the murder of a Saudi journalist and the countries' role in Yemen's humanitarian crisis.

The suspension mirrors earlier decisions by Denmark, Norway and Germany to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia for the time being over the killing and over the kingdom's part in Yemen's war which has left 14 million people facing starvation, according to the U.N.

"The situation in Yemen was behind this decision, but of course (the murder of Khashoggi) was part of the overall rationale," Prime Minister Juha Sipila told state broadcaster Yle.

A Saudi and Emirati-led coalition has been conducting air strikes on Yemen since 2015. U.N. investigators have accused the regimes of possible war crimes, including killing thousands of civilians, torturing detainees and recruiting child soldiers.

In September the website News Now Finland uncovered video evidence that Finnish-made armoured vehicles, some fitted with Russian heavy weapons, were being used by Emirati forces in western Yemen, the scene of some of the war's fiercest fighting.

Finland had claimed that all weapons exports to the region were in line with EU rules.

Finnish arms exports to Saudi Arabia totalled 5.3 million euros in 2017, down considerably from 51.4m of sales in 2014, according to the think tank SaferGlobe.

On Thursday Sipila described the situation in Yemen as "catastrophic".

"Any existing licenses (in the region) are old, and in these circumstances we would absolutely not be able to grant any new ones," he said.

At the time, Berlin called for EU countries to follow its lead, prompting a dismissive response from French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, Germany decided to bar 18 Saudis from entering its territory and Europe's Schengen passport-free zone over their alleged links to the murder of the US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post and had been critical of Prince Mohammed, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, killed and reportedly dismembered.

After lengthy denials, Saudi authorities admitted responsibility and said 21 people had been taken into custody. However, a CIA analysis leaked to the U.S. media went further, reportedly pointing the finger at the crown prince. </s> WASHINGTON — The Latest on the fallout from the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (all times local):

Denmark is halting exports of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, citing “the continued worsening of the already terrible situation in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said the kingdom “right now is simply destructive in many fields.” He spoke in a live television interview on Thursday.

Samuelsen says he hoped “the Danish decision can create further momentum and get more European Union countries to support tight implementation of the EU’s regulatory framework in this area.”

The ban would also include so-called dual-use exports of items that can be used both for military and civilian purposes.

In 2017, Denmark’s overall exports to Saudi Arabia were of 5.08 billion kroner ($763 million), according to the Danish Chamber of Commerce.

President Donald Trump’s embrace of Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign policy rift in the Republican Party, as some of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in killing a U.S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences.

Many Republicans — even Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their views on the matter with the president — have denounced Trump’s decision not to levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday that he was “astounded” by Trump’s statement and likened it to a press release for Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump’s decision, saying the U.S. has already placed sanctions on 17 Saudi officials suspected of involvement in the Oct. 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist, who had been critical of the royal family. </s> But the Nordic country is a tiny arms exporter on the world map when compared with players such as France, the UK or the United States — Saudi Arabia's largest source of arms.

Copenhagen's decision will likely get European states discussing the matter especially after the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution last month pressing for a European Union-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia.

Denmark's decision follows Germany's announcement on the suspension of future weapons export licences earlier this month and has moved to stop all arms sales to the Middle East kingdom.

Which European countries supply the most arms to Saudi Arabia?

France exports the most weapons to Saudi Arabia, according to the most recent figures (2016) from the European Union.

Germany, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria all made sales of over €100 million to Saudi Arabia, according to the value of licences issued in 2016.

The table below shows the top 10 values of arms exports sent to Saudi Arabia from EU countries in 2016.

Are other EU countries considering suspending arms exports to Saudi Arabia?

French President Emmanuel Macron last month refused to take questions about halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite Germany's calls on its EU partners to follow its example and suspend exports to the kingdom.

But France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday Paris would impose sanctions against 18 Saudi citizens over the killing of Khashoggi. The 18 Saudis will be put on the country's entry ban list, Le Drian said.

Saudi Arabia is France’s largest market in the Middle East, even without arms sales. French exports to the Gulf nation totalled almost €4 billion ($4.61 billion) between September 2017 to August 2018, according to economy ministry data.

Previously the top exporter of arms to Saudi Arabia, the UK government has faced mounting pressure over their sales to the Middle Eastern country in previous years.

Despite issuing a joint statement with France and Germany on Sunday condemning the killing of journalists as unacceptable, the UK has not announced an arms freeze.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said it was a "terrible case" but that Britain would not "overreact" and was “not throwing our hands in the air” because thousands of jobs depended on relations with the country.

Spain, has also not suspended exports to Saudi Arabia, despite expressing "consternation" over Khashoggi’s death.

Saudi Arabia was Spain’s third-best weapons customer in the 2013-2017 period, according to the El Pais newspaper.

Back in September, Defence Minister Margarita Robles attempted to halt the sale of 400 guided missiles over concerns about their potential use in the Yemen War.

Yet the prime minister demanded that the transaction go ahead after Riyadh threatened to retaliate by ending a €1.8-billion contract with Spain. Workers also took to the streets in protest demanding their jobs be defended.

Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Greece have also announced the suspension of arms exports to Saudi Arabia over concerns around the Yemen conflict, Rasha Abdul Rahim, an arms control researcher at Amnesty International told Euronews.

"This is welcome news as vast amounts of arms and military equipment have contributed to serious violations by the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition, including possible war crimes," Rahim said.

Will the United States suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia?

Donald Trump's response to Khashoggi's death comes in stark contrast to Germany — shortly after news of the journalist's death, the US president said he did not want to ruin a "tremendous order" of weapons from Saudi Arabia, and that "some form of sanction" would be preferable.

Trump has heralded Saudi Arabia's purchase of $110 billion worth of US arms in 2017, although experts claim this figure was inflated and some parts of the deal appear to still be up in the air.

The President condemned the killing of Khashoggi last month and said Saudi officials had engaged in the "worst cover-up ever."

Trump's administration imposed a penalty on Saudi Arabia, revoking visas for the agents implicated in the killing.

How did Saudi Arabia respond to Khashoggi's killing?

The killing of Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government and a columnist at The Washington Post, sparked an international concern over Saudi Arabia's conduct and raised questions about whether the kingdom's crown prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, was involved in the plot.

Last month, the Saudi Press Agency released photos of the Saudi monarch, King Salman, and the crown prince with Khashoggi's son and another member of his family.

The kingdom's foreign ministry wrote on Twitter that Saudi Arabia's leaders shared "their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of Jamal Khashoggi, may God rest his soul.”

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Foreign Minister, said last month the kingdom was committed to "a comprehensive investigation" into Khashoggi's death. </s> LONDON: Halting weapons sales to Saudi Arabia will only benefit Iran, Adel Al-Jubeir said Wednesday, after the British government announced it would suspend issuing new licenses for the sale of arms to the Kingdom.

The UK’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox announced the decision in parliament after a court ordered the government to “reconsider” the sales because of their humanitarian impact in Yemen.

Fox said he disagreed with the judgement and would seek permission to appeal.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said the deployment of weapons in Yemen was legitimate.

“The decision by the court in the UK has to do with procedures for licensing, not any wrongdoing that took place,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told reporters in London.

“The coalition is an ally of the West and the coalition is fighting a legitimate war at the behest of a legitimate government to stop Iran and its proxies from taking over a strategically important country - so the only beneficiary of a cut-off of weapons to the coalition is going to be Iran.”

The court ruling does not halt Britain's arms exports but means the granting of new licences will be paused.

Leading British defence firm BAE Systems said it would continue to support the UK government “in providing equipment, support and training under government to government agreements between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia is part of the Arab coalition fighting to support the internationally recognized government in Yemen which was driven from the capital Sanaa in 2014 by Iran-backed militants.

Saudi Arabia accounted for 43 percent of Britain's global arms sales in the past decade, Reuters reported.

The legal action against the British government was brought by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

Meanwhilw, a State Department official said the US must stand with Saudi Arabia as a key security partner, when asked about the Thursday's court ruling in the UK.

 Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Clarke Cooper said both the US and Britain had long-standing bilateral ties to Saudi Arabia.

 "They are carrying a significant amount of equity to protect US interests and US persons, and it is incumbent upon us to stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners, especially when they are on the front line for our interests," he said. </s> Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen is to summon the Saudi ambassador over the death of dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Samuelsen decided to call the meeting after Khashoggi was confirmed as having been killed during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi disappeared during a visit to the Istanbul consulate on October 2nd. Riyadh initially denied anything had happened to him.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an address to the parliament in Ankara on Tuesday, rejected the later Saudi explanation that Khashoggi died in a fight in the consulate.

Erdoğan said that Khashoggi’s “savage” murder was premeditated and called for an independent investigation in Turkey.

“After hearing Erdoğan’s speech, which concludes that it was planned, and there are still many unresolved questions, I think it is fair to give the Saudi ambassador the opportunity to explain, and we will get the chance to ask a few questions,” Samuelsen told Ritzau.

In accordance with protocol, a senior Danish official will meet the ambassador before reporting back to Samuelsen, the ministry confirmed.

The minister did not comment on whether Denmark was planning any further measures against the Saudis.

“It is far too early to make conclusions. There is evidence that international pressure, which Denmark is part of, is working,” he said.

“We have gone from a situation where Saudi Arabia completely denied what happened to their admission that he was killed,” the minister added.

On Sunday, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her country was freezing weapons exports to the Middle Eastern nation.

German finance minister Peter Altmaier subsequently stressed the need for a united EU position over the issue.

But Samuelsen said he would take three initial actions before any further steps.

“We are now sending a signal by not attending the investment conference, we are summoning the Saudi ambassador to a meeting and we are continuing international pressure,” he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday that neither the ministry nor the Danish embassy in Saudi Arabia would participate in the Future Investment conference in Riyadh this week. </s> Copenhagen also recalls ambassador to Tehran as it accuses Iran of plotting assassination on Danish soil

Denmark has recalled its ambassador from Tehran and called for fresh EU sanctions against Iran after its security services accused Iranian intelligence service of plotting an assassination on Danish soil.

The Danish intelligence chief, Finn Borch Andersen, said on Tuesday that the alleged murder plot had targeted the exiled leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), a separatist group that has a history of carrying out attacks in Iran.

“We are dealing with an Iranian intelligence agency planning an attack on Danish soil. Obviously, we can’t and won’t accept that,” Andersen said.

Danish bridges closed due to 'major police operation' Read more

A Norwegian national of Iranian background has been arrested in Sweden and since extradited to Denmark in connection with the foiled attack, according to officials.

The announcement came as Tehran scrambled to muster European support before the US re-imposes stringent sanctions on the country early next month. The European Union, Iran, China and Russia have set out a plan to sidestep those unilateral US sanctions.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, dismissed the allegation and said that the timing of the accusations was suspicious. “This is a continuation of enemies’ plots to damage Iranian relations with Europe at this critical time,” he said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Andersen revealed on Tuesday that a massive police operation that cut off Copenhagen from the rest of Denmark for several hours last month was triggered when police noticed a stolen, Swedish-registered car near the home of an Iranian opposition activist.

Fearing that an attack was imminent, Danish authorities closed the Øresund bridge linking Denmark and Sweden and the Great Belt bridge between the islands of Zealand and Funen. Hundreds of Danish police and soldiers used cars, sniffer dogs and helicopters to hunt for the rental car.

The incident came shortly after Tehran summoned UK, Dutch and Danish envoys and urged Denmark and the Netherlands to extradite Iranian exiles who they said were responsible for a terrorist attack on September 23 in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, which killed at least 24 people, including children. The ASMLA initially took responsibility for the attack, but later withdrew its claim.

The Danish foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen, said the foiled attack was “completely unacceptable” and that his government “will respond to Iran and is speaking with European partners on further measures”.

France has also recently accused Iran of plotting attacks on European soil. In October, French diplomatic sources said that they had concluded that Iran’s ministry of intelligence was behind a foiled bombing attack that targeted a rally organised by an Iranian opposition group near Paris in June.

An Iranian diplomat was among six people who were arrested for allegedly plotting the bombing of the event, which featured among its guests senior US politicians including Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s attorney.

Tehran denied the allegations, which it called a conspiracy to “sabotage Iran’s ancient and longstanding relations with France and other significant European countries”.

Mike Pompeo claims Iran carrying out 'assassination operations' in Europe Read more

In May, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was carrying out “assassination operations in the heart of Europe”, an allegation that at the time bewildered security experts, given that there had been no recent killings in Europe officially attributed to the Iranian state. Since then, France and now Denmark have directly blamed Tehran.

The most recent killing of an Iranian dissident took place in The Hague in November last year, when a gunman shot Ahmad Mola Nissi, who was also a former leader of a group closely linked to the ASMLA, which had claimed responsibility for several attacks in Iran.

Relations with Europe are vital to Iran’s bid to weather out US-imposed sanctions. Unlike the US, which has withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal, the EU has remained adamant that it wants to preserve the deal. Trump’s first set of sanctions – hitting the country’s access to dollars, gold and precious metals – were reimposed in August.

They are to be followed by a set of even more stringent measures by 4 November, including an embargo on the imports of Iranian oil and sanctions on its banking sector. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, saying there is a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, swept aside objections from Congress and cleared the sale of $8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The Trump administration informed congressional committees on Friday that it will go ahead with 22 military sales to the Saudis, United Arab Emirates and Jordan, infuriating lawmakers by circumventing a long-standing precedent for congressional review of such sales.

In documents sent to Congress and seen by Reuters, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed a wide range of products and services that would be provided to the three countries. They include Raytheon precision-guided munitions (PGMs), support for Boeing Co F-15 aircraft, and Javelin anti-tank missiles, which are made by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Corp .

Some lawmakers and congressional aides had warned earlier this week that Trump, frustrated with Congress holding up weapons deals like the sale of the Raytheon-made bombs to the Saudis, was considering using a loophole in arms control law to go ahead by declaring a national emergency.

Lawmakers had been blocking sales of offensive military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for months, concerned about the huge civilian toll of the two countries’ air campaign in Yemen and human rights abuses like the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Congressional sources said Friday’s order included all the defense equipment that members of Congress had been blocking.

“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the Trump Administration has failed once again to prioritize our long-term national security interests or stand up for human rights, and instead is granting favors to authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia,” Senator Bob Menendez said in a statement.

Menendez is one of the members of Congress who reviews such sales because he is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Another, the Republican Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Jim Risch, said he had received formal notification of the administration’s intent to move forward with “a number of arms sales.”

In a statement, Risch said, “I am reviewing and analyzing the legal justification for this action and the associated implications.”

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In his memorandum to Congress justifying the sale, Pompeo listed years of actions by Iran. “Iranian malign activity poses a fundamental threat to the stability of the Middle East and to American security at home and abroad,” he wrote, and cited “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Tehran.

Congressional aides questioned the contention that the weapons had to do with Iran, saying the equipment and services listed by the administration includes large amounts of offensive weapons, like the PGMs and tank ammunition.

They said lawmakers have not been blocking defensive equipment such as Patriot missile defense systems that have been sold to the Saudis.

“This is all materiel that arguably could be used in the Yemen military operation. The defensive stuff we’ve cleared,” one congressional aide said.
Denmark suspends future weapons export licenses to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.