Summary: The UAE has not publicly commented on cluster munitions or its position on joining the convention. It has participated in one meeting of the convention, in 2011, and abstained from the vote on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

The UAE is not known to have used or produced cluster munitions, but it has imported them and has a stockpile. The UAE told the Monitor in 2011 that it has not used cluster munitions. Since March 2015, the UAE has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led military operation in Yemen that has used cluster munitions.

Policy

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The UAE has never made a public statement articulating its views on cluster munitions or its position on joining the convention.

In December 2016, the UAE abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions “to join as soon as possible.”[1] The UAE did not explain why it abstained on this non-binding resolution or on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[2]

The UAE did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The UAE has participated as an observer in one meeting of the convention, the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2011.[3]

The UAE has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[4] The UAE has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in March 2017.[5]

The UAE is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Transfer and stockpiling

The UAE has a stockpile of ground-fired cluster munitions rockets and missiles as well as air-delivered cluster bombs imported from the United States (US) and other countries.

The US delivered an unknown number of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, valued at US$57 million, to the UAE in June 2010.[6] In 2006, the US announced a sale to the UAE of 101 M39A1 ATACMS missiles (each containing 300 M74 submunitions), 104 M26 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) rocket pods (each pod contains six rockets, each rocket contains 644 M77 dual-purpose improved conventional munition [DPICM] submunitions), and 130 M30 GMLRS DPICM rocket pods.[7] In 1999, the US sold the UAE 1,800 CBU-87 bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions).[8] In 2006–2007, Turkey sold to the UAE 3,020 TRK-122 122mm unguided surface-to-surface rockets, each containing 56 M85 DPICM submunitions.[9]

According to Jane’s Information Group, British-made BL755 bombs are also in service with the UAE air force.[10] It also lists the UAE as possessing the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if this stockpile includes the M261 multipurpose submunition variant.[11]

The UAE is also reported to possess 122mm Type-90 and 300mm Smerch surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the UAE possesses rockets with submunition payloads.[12]

Companies from Egypt and Russia advertised cluster munitions for sale during the IDEX international military trade fair in Abu Dhabi in February 2017.[13]

Production and Use

The UAE is not known to have produced cluster munitions. In September 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor that the UAE has never used or produced cluster munitions.[14]

Since March 2015, the UAE has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led military operation with a coalition of states against Houthi forces (Ansar Allah) in Yemen that has used cluster munitions. During a CCW meeting in April 2016, a UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor that the UAE had not used any cluster munitions—including CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons—in the Yemen operation. He affirmed this is military policy and said, “cluster munitions are banned; everyone knows that. We do not use them.”[15]

That position is not reflected in a statement by the “Coalition Forces Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen” published by the Saudi Press Agency in December 2016 that states:

“International law does not ban the use of cluster munitions. Some States have undertaken a commitment to refrain from using cluster munitions by becoming party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Neither the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia nor its Coalition partners are State Parties to the 2008 Convention, and accordingly, the Coalition’s use of cluster munitions does not violate the obligations of these States under international law.”[16]

Policy

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, although it has, on occasion, expressed interest in joining. In November 2007, a UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the ICBL that the UAE planned to join the treaty in the near future.[1]

The UAE has not attended a Mine Ban Treaty Meeting of States Parties since the twelfth meeting in Geneva in December 2012. The UAE has never submitted a voluntary Article 7 report.

The UAE voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 71/34 in December 2016, calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has for all previous pro-ban resolutions since 1996.

The UAE is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and has adopted CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, but not Amended Protocol II on landmines.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The UAE has stated that it has not produced, used, or exported antipersonnel mines.[2] While some officials have said that the UAE does not have a stockpile of antipersonnel mines, the Monitor has received conflicting information from another governmental source.[3]