Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. His colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has quite correctly described Yemen as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. It is one I have regularly raised in the House. Since 2015 a brutal war has been prosecuted on the Yemeni people by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The death toll around the crisis is truly shocking. A total of 377,000 Yemenis have died due to direct and indirect causes of war. A minimum of 10,000 children have died since 2015. A total of 4 million Yemenis have been displaced by the war, 79% of whom are women and children. A total of 21 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, including 5 million on the brink of famine.

Saudi Arabia has also enforced a criminal blockade, thus preventing vital aid reaching more than 80% of the Yemeni population that depend on it. Every ten minutes a Yemeni child dies due to the cruel blockade. A total of 400,000 Yemeni children are at risk of dying according to the director of the UN World Food Programme. The Minister of State knows the Saudi regime decapitates gay people and dissidents, brutalises women and provides, in the words of Hilary Clinton, clandestine financial and logistical support to terrorists. This is the regime that chopped a journalist into pieces in a foreign embassy and incinerated Yemeni children travelling on a school bus on their way back from a picnic.

I have parsed previous statements by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and they have been carefully worded. There has never been a call for sanctions despite the horrendous actions of the Saudi and UAE governments. What really worries me is that to date I cannot see one statement from the Government explicitly condemning the Saudi dictatorship for its war of terror on Yemen. I am hopeful the Minister of State will change this today with a very clear condemnation.

Then there is the issue of arms sales to Saudi Arabia by the US, Britain and EU countries. In a debate in the Seanad a few years back, the Government went as far as acknowledging that arms sales are prolonging the war in Yemen. Recently, the Minister for Foreign Affairs came out with a much weaker statement. When asked about EU allies selling weapons to the murderous Saudi regime, the Minister said arms exports are a national competence of the EU and it is for each state to make this assessment as a national competence. It is an absolutely disgraceful abdication of a responsibility to condemn the arms sales to this heinous dictatorship. BAE Systems has sold £17.3 billion worth of military equipment since 2015. Does the Minister of State really have nothing to say about this? What will he say about it this morning?

It is not enough for the Government to say how awful the conflict is. We need to take responsibility. We have a seat on the UN Security Council. Unfortunately the Government's stance is even worse than I have described. Two weeks ago, the Government sent a Minister of State to Saudi Arabia to tout for more business. At that time the regime was just preparing to engage in a series of executions. There were 81 executions in one day. We sent a Minister of State to tout for more business even as Saudi Arabia was continuing to bomb the people of Yemen, as it continues to do today.

There is the disgraceful ongoing gift of Shannon Airport by the Government to assist in the ongoing prosecution of this war. At a meeting in the audiovisual room two weeks ago, we were told that every US military adviser helping to train Saudi pilots to drop those bombs on the Yemeni population has come through Shannon.

Will the Minister of State make a clear condemnation of Saudi Arabia for its war on the Yemeni population? Will he make a clear call to the Saudi dictatorship to lift the blockade? Will he condemn arms sales by members of the EU, Britain and the US to Saudi Arabia and the UAE? Will he call for an arms embargo on these countries? Will he use our seat the UN Security Council to take a clear stance for peace?