Summary: The UAE has never expressed its views on cluster munitions or commented on its position on accession to the convention. It has participated in two meetings of the convention, in 2011 and 2017, but abstained from the vote on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017.

The UAE is not known to have produced cluster munitions, but it has imported them, possesses a stockpile, and may have used them.

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.

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 two meetings of the convention, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017.[1]

In December 2017, the UAEabstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions “to join as soon as possible.”[2] The UAE did not explain why it abstained from voting on this non-binding resolution or from previous UNGA resolutions promoting implementation of the convention in 2015 and 2016.[3]

The UAE has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[4] The UAE has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in March 2018.[5]

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

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

The UAE is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

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

The UAE purchased an unknown number of CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, valued at US$57 million, in 2010.[6] Under US sales of cluster munitions announced in 2006, the UAE received 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] The UAE received 1,800 CBU-87 bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions) from the US in 1999.[8] The UAE received 3,020 TRK-122 122mm unguided surface-to-surface rockets, each containing 56 M85 DPICM submunitions, from Turkey in In 2006–2007.[9]

According to Jane’s Information Group, the UAE air force possesses British-made BL755 bombs and it has received Hydra-70 air-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if they include the M261 multipurpose submunition variant.[10] The UAE is also reported to possess 122mm Type-90 and 300mm Smerch surface-to-surface rocket launchers made in the Soviet Union, but it is not known if the UAE possesses rockets with submunition payloads.[11]

Companies from Egypt and Russia advertised cluster munitions for sale during the IDEX international military trade fair in Abu Dhabi in February 2017.[12]

Use

In 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the Monitor that the UAE has never used or produced cluster munitions.[13]

Since March 2015, the UAE has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led joint military operation in Yemen against Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, which has used cluster munitions. In April 2016, a UAE official told the Monitor that the UAE has not used cluster munitions—including CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons—in Yemen due to the position of the UAE military, adding, “cluster munitions are banned; everyone knows that. We do not use them.”[14]

A December 2016 statement by the coalition forces did not deny the use of cluster munitions and argued that international law does not ban their use.[15]