Summary: Non-signatory Saudi Arabia has never made a public statement elaborating its views on accession to the convention. It has participated as an observer in all of the convention’s annual meetings, except in 2014. It abstained from voting on a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

Saudi Arabia is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has acquired used them, and maintains a stockpile. Saudi Arabia has been leading an operation  by a  coalition of states against Ansar Allah (Houthi) forces in Yemen since 25 March 2015, which has used air-dropped and ground-launched cluster munitions in attacks that have been widely condemned.

Policy

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Saudi Arabia has never made a public statement elaborating its position on accession to the convention. In April 2012, its diplomatic mission in Geneva informed the Monitor that “the Convention on Cluster Munitions is still under examination by the competent authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”[1]

On 7 December 2015, Saudi Arabia abstained from voting on the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[2] Saudi Arabia did not explain why it abstained from the non-binding resolution, which 139 states voted to adopt, including many non-signatories.

Saudi Arabia participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 as an observer.[3] Yet, Saudi Arabia did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.

Saudi Arabia participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. It has attended every annual Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except in 2014. Unlike other non-signatories, Saudi Arabia did not make any statements at these meetings.

Saudi Arabia has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[4] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently on 1 October 2015.[5]

Saudi Arabia is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Saudi Arabia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Saudi Arabia is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has acquired and stockpiles them.

In late May 2016, the Obama administration suspended all sales and deliveries of (United States) US cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia after reports that Saudi Arabia used them in civilian areas in Yemen[6] (see Use section below).

Saudi Arabia concluded a contract with the US Department of Defense in August 2013 to purchase 1,300 CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons manufactured by US company Textron Defense Systems. The foreign military sale contract specified a completion date for the transfer by December 2015.[7] Another deal to provide an additional 404 CBU-105s for Saudi Arabia was announced in 2011.[8]

According to the US Department of Defense, as recipient, Saudi Arabia must agree that “cluster munitions and cluster munitions technology will be used only against clearly defined military targets and will not be used where civilians are known to be present or in areas normally inhabited by civilians.”[9] This language is required by US law restricting the export of cluster munitions.

Previous US transfers of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia include 1,000 CBU-58 and 350 CBU-71 cluster bombs sometime between 1970 and 1995.[10] In 1991, the US announced its intent to transfer 1,200 CBU-87 Combined Effects Munitions cluster bombs.[11] The US transferred 600 CBU-87 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a larger package of arms sales announced in 1992.[12]

Jane’s Information Group has reported that British-produced BL-755 cluster bombs are in service with the Saudi air force.[13] Saudi Arabia also possesses Hydra-70 and CRV-7 air-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if the stocks include the M261 submunition variant.[14]

Use

On 26 March 2015, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition began a military operation in Yemen against Ansar Allah (Houthi forces) that was continuing as of July 2016, despite a 10 April 2016 ceasefire agreement.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have documented evidence of at least 19 cluster munition attacks in the conflict involving the use of seven types of air-delivered and ground-launched cluster munitions from three countries, as the following table shows.

Cluster munitions used in Yemen since April 2015[15]

None of the states participating in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition—Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, UAE—are party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

HRW could not determine who used ground-launched cluster munitions containing “ZP-39” submunitions in Saada in April 2015, but Saudi Arabia and Houthi forces both possess rocket launchers and tube artillery capable of delivering them.[16]

The first recorded cluster munition attack occurred at al-Shaaf in the western part of Saada governorate, according to a video uploaded to YouTube on April 17.[17] A subsequent visit by HRW researchers to al-Amar village, 30 kilometers south of Saada City, confirmed a cluster munition attack on 27 April, including the presence of explosive remnants.[18] The most recently recorded cluster munition attack was on 15 February 2016 at a cement factory in Amran governornate. These three attacks all involved the use of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, the only cluster munition that the US now exports, and only on the condition that they are not used in civilian areas.[19] Both Saudi Arabia and UAE have received CBU-105 from the US.

In Yemen, HRW has found at least three instances in which CBU-105s malfunctioned as their “skeet” or submunitions did not disperse from the BLU-108 canister and did not explode.[20] Under existing US policy, the CBU-105 is required to have a failure rate of less than 1%. HRW also documented evidence showing the CBU-105’s use in or near civilian areas, also in apparent violation of US export law.[21]

In August 2015, HRW published the results of a research investigation in northwestern Hajja governorate, which borders Saudi Arabia, showing at least seven M26 cluster munition rocket attacks by coalition forces from late April to mid-July 2015 that claimed dozens of civilian casualties.[22] HRW researchers found multiple unexploded M77 submunitions.

On 6 January 2016, coalition forces dropped a US-made CBU-58 cluster bomb containing BLU-63 submunitions on Yemen’s capital Sanaa in an attack documented by HRW, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others.[23] Markings on the bomb remnants indicate that it was manufactured in 1978. In Saada, HRW and VICE News also documented coalition use of notoriously harmful BLU-97 submunitions delivered by CBU-87 cluster bombs.[24]

Amnesty International researchers documented the use of two types of cluster munitions in Yemen since April 2015, apparently by coalition forces. It found the remnants of a Brazil-made ASTROS II cluster munition rocket in Saada from a 27 October 2015 attack and in May 2016, confirmed the presence of UK-made BL-755 cluster munitions remnants in al-Khadra village in Hajja governorate.[25]

Responses to the cluster munition use

The government of Saudi Arabia still has not issued a formal statement to confirm or deny the reports that the Saudi-led coalition used cluster munitions multiple times in Yemen.[26] Its principle military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri has admitted in media interviews to one instance of use of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons in April 2015 in Hajja governorate, but argued it was not in a populated area and they are not prohibited weapons.[27] In February 2016, The New York Times reported that Saudi officials continue to deny ordering the use of cluster munitions in Yemen.[28]

The UAE has denied using CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons in Yemen.[29] No other coalition member has commented on the coalition’s use of cluster munition in Yemen or responded to a CMC letter calling for an end to the use.

Since the convention’s intersessional meetings in June 2015, nations have continued to express concern at or condemn new use of cluster munitions in Yemen.[30] At the First Review Conference in September 2015, States Parties adopted the Dubrovnik Declaration, which affirms: “We are deeply concerned by any and all allegations, reports or documented evidence of the use of cluster munitions, including in Cambodia, Libya, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen. We condemn any use of cluster munitions by any actor.”[31]

On 12 January 2016, the Netherlands in its capacity as president of the convention’s Sixth Meeting of States Parties expressed its deep concern at reported cluster munition use in Yemen.[32] At the Conference on Disarmament on 29 February 2016, the Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders said he was “deeply concerned about reports of the use of cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict,” and called on all countries to “refrain from using cluster munitions.”[33]

The UN, the ICRC, and the CMC have condemned the use of cluster munitions in Yemen. On 25 February 2016, the European Parliament (EP) adopted another resolution condemning the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, including the use of cluster bombs. It adopted a similar resolution on 9 July 2015.[34]

Previous use

Saudi Arabia likely used cluster munitions in Yemen’s Saada governorate in late 2009, when the Saudi air force conducted airstrikes and Saudi armed forces intervened on the ground after fighting between the government of Yemen and Ansar Allah intensified and spilled over the border with Saudi Arabia. Remnants of CBU-52 cluster bombs were filmed near Saada City and broadcast by VICE News in May 2014.[35] In July 2013, the Monitor reviewed photographs taken by mine clearance operators showing the remnants of unexploded BLU-97 and BLU-61 submunitions as well as dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions of an unknown origin.[36]

In 1991, both Saudi and US forces used cluster munitions on the territory of Saudi Arabia in response to an incursion by Iraqi armor units in the prelude to Operation Desert Storm. During the battle of Khafji in January 1991, Saudi Arabia attacked Iraqi forces with cluster munitions fired from ASTROS multi-barrel rocket launchers, which Saudi Arabia had acquired from Brazil.[37] The weapons reportedly left behind significant amounts of unexploded submunitions.[38]