Summary

Non-signatory Saudi Arabia has not commented on the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions or taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Saudi Arabia has participated as an observer at meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2019. Saudi Arabia abstained from voting on the key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Saudi Arabia is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but has imported them and possesses a stockpile. Saudi Arabia used cluster munitions in 2015–2017 in Yemen, during its military operation against Ansar Allah (Houthi) forces.

Policy

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

Saudi Arabia has shown interest in the convention, but has not taken any steps to accede to it. In 2017, Saudi Arabia acknowledged the humanitarian rationale behind the convention, and said that the government was considering its position on joining.[1]

Saudi Arabia attended several meetings of the Oslo Process, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008, as an observer.[2] Yet Saudi Arabia did not participate in the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 or explain why it did not sign the convention.

Saudi Arabia has participated as an observer at meetings of the convention, most recently attending the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.[3] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Saudi Arabia abstained from voting on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Saudi Arabia has not explained why it has abstained from the vote on the annual UNGA resolution since it was first introduced in 2015.

Saudi Arabia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[5]

Saudi Arabia is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty, but is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production and transfer

Saudi Arabia is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but has imported them.

The United States (US) suspended its sales and deliveries of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia in May 2016, after evidence that Saudi Arabia had used cluster munitions in civilian areas of Yemen.[6]

Stockpiling

Saudi Arabia has not provided information on the quantities and types of cluster munitions in its stockpile, which includes cluster munitions manufactured in Brazil, the United Kingdom (UK), and the US.

Saudi Arabia purchased 1,300 CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons manufactured by US company Textron Defense Systems in 2013, after concluding a previous deal in 2011 for 404 CBU-105s.[7] Other US transfers of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia include 1,000 CBU-58 and 350 CBU-71 cluster bombs between 1970 and 1995.[8] In 1991, the US concluded agreements to provide 1,200 CBU-87 Combined Effects Munitions cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, and to provide another 600 CBU-87 cluster bombs in 1992.[9]

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) has UK-produced BL-755 cluster bombs in service, according to Jane’s Information Group.[10] Saudi Arabia also possesses Hydra-70 and CRV-7 air-to-surface rockets, but it is not known whether its stocks include the M261 submunition variant.[11]

Use

Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions, most recently in 2015–2017 in Yemen, during the military operation it led against Ansar Allah (Houthi) forces.[12] There has been no evidence of cluster munition attacks in Yemen by Saudi Arabia since then, including in 2021 and the first half of 2022.

Previous use in Yemen

From 2015 to 2017, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states used seven types of air-delivered and ground-launched cluster munitions in Yemen. The cluster munitions were manufactured and exported by three countries.

Cluster munition attacks in Yemen (April 2015 to February 2017)[13]

Note: UAE=United Arab Emirates; UK=United Kingdom; US=United States.

A December 2016 statement by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition did not deny using cluster munitions in Yemen and argued that “international law does not ban their use.”[14] Saudi Arabia’s spokesperson said the coalition used a CBU-105 once, in April 2015, but claimed that they are not prohibited weapons.[15] The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also stockpiles CBU-105s, but denied using them in Yemen.[16]

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s use of BL755 cluster munitions marked the first recorded use of UK-made cluster munitions since the Convention on Cluster Munitions—to which the UK is a State Party—took effect in 2010.[17] The last UK transfer of BL755 cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia occurred in 1989.[18] Saudi Arabia committed to stop using BL755 cluster munitions in December 2016.[19]

In September 2016, States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions issued a joint declaration stating that they “condemn any use by any actor” and expressing deep concern at “any and all allegations, reports or documented evidence of the use of cluster munitions, most notably in Syria and Yemen in the past year.”[20]

Other use

The RSAF conducted airstrikes and Saudi military forces intervened on the ground in late 2009 in Saada governorate, after fighting between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels intensified and spilled over the border into Saudi Arabia.[21] Remnants of CBU-52 cluster bombs were filmed near Saada city.[22]

In 1991, both Saudi and US forces used cluster munitions on the territory of Saudi Arabia in response to an incursion by Iraqi armored 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.[23] The weapons reportedly left behind a significant number of unexploded submunitions.[24]

Policy

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Saudi Arabia has made no recent statements regarding its intentions toward the Mine Ban Treaty. In July 2008, Saudi Arabia told the Monitor that it “is still in the process of studying” the treaty.[1] In 2004, Saudi Arabia stated that it supports the humanitarian objectives of the treaty.[2]

Officials have previously stated that Saudi Arabia does not want to forego its option to use antipersonnel mines in the future.[3] In October 2010, the government stated, “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks the elimination and destruction of anti-personnel mines. The Kingdom has contributed over 4.5 million U.S. dollars to this cause.”[4] In December 2010, a Saudi official told the Monitor that “his country policy on landmine[s] has not changed.”[5]

Saudi Arabia abstained from voting on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/61, which calls for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, on 12 December 2019. Saudi Arabia has abstained from voting on the annual resolution since 1996.[6]

Saudi Arabia attended as an observer at the treaty’s Fourth Review Conference in Oslo, Norway in November 2019, but did not make any statements. Saudi Arabia has participated as an observer in most recent meetings of the treaty, including the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the online intersessional meetings in June–July 2020.

Saudi Arabia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has yet to join its Amended Protocol II on landmines. Saudi Arabia is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Since 2016, sporadic reports of mine use and mine seizures have surfaced in southern Saudi Arabia along its border with Yemen, in Aseer and Jazan provinces. Saudi Arabia has attributed the use of mines on its borders to Yemeni Houthi rebels as well as smugglers.[7] In the majority of news reports, there is no attribution for the mine use. However, in December 2013, representatives of Saudi Arabia stated to the ICBL that they were not using mines on their border with Yemen.[8] In some cases, significant quantities of landmines have been seized.[9]

In 2008, Saudi Arabia stated to the Monitor, “the Kingdom has not produced nor exported any type of mines…The Kingdom possesses a stockpile of old anti-personnel mines however; these mines have never been used. There are no stockpiles of American-owned anti-personnel mines inside the Kingdom.” It went on to note that it has “a number of legislations and procedures…that regulate importing, producing and storing anti-personnel mines.”[10] Previously, in February 2002, a Saudi official confirmed for the first time that the country maintained a stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no details were provided.[11]

Landmine Monitor has previously reported that Saudi Arabia is not known to have produced, exported, or used antipersonnel mines, but that it stockpiles a small number of mines which were imported in the past.[12]

In 2014, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed US$100,000 to mine action activities in Afghanistan through the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action (VTF).[1] No mine action contribution from Saudi Arabia was reported in 2013.

In 2012, Saudi Arabia provided US$1,000,000 in mine action funding to Lebanon and $100,000 in Afghanistan through the VTF.[2]

Casualties in 2017

One landmine casualty was reported in Saudi Arabia in 2017. On 15 June a soldier from the Saudi border guards was reported to have been killed when a landmine exploded in the southwestern province of Jazan on the border with Yemen.[1]

Five casualties were reported on the border with Yemen in 2016. In a border guard was been killed by a landmine in Jazan in May 2016.[2] In July 2016 a Saudi soldier was killed and three were injured by a landmine explosion in Jazan.[3]

In June 2015 a Saudi soldier was killed by a landmine in the area of Jebel Towaileq in Jazan.[4]

No mine/ERW casualties were reported in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2018. Casualties, however, continued to be reported in 2019. In January a 10-year-old child was killed and three people injured, two children and a 29-year-old woman, in a landmine explosion in the Al-Arda governorate in Jazan province. It was reported that the landmine, originally planted in Yemen, was washed within the borders of Saudi Arabia by rain.[5]