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Saudi Arabia’s nearly yearlong offensive against Ansarullah fighters in Yemen has continued unabated since the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, backed by the U.S and U.K., began an airstrike campaign and subsequent ground intervention to push back Ansarullah from the capital city of Sana’a.

Yemen’s self-claimed president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi was forced into exile by the Ansarullah-offensive, ultimately taking refuge in Saudi Arabia.

But some hope for the millions of displaced Yemeni civilians came on Thursday when the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia until it complies with international law and its human rights abuses are investigated.

The parliament’s vote of 359 MEPs in favor versus 212 against echoes calls for the EU’s High Representative Federica Mogherini to “launch an initiative aimed at imposing an EU arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, given the serious allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia in Yemen,” according to Middle East Eye (MEE).

In a statement to MEE, MEP Alyn Smith of Scotland said he was “delighted” at the parliament’s passage of the resolution.

“It is the actions of the Saudi-led coalition that have brought us here,” Smith said.

“There is a clear case to answer and as a lawyer by profession, I believe EU-made weapons systems are being exported to Saudi in breach of international and EU law, given concerns over their use in Yemen."

A report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute earlier this month found a composition of European Union countries—including France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain—to be the third largest exporters of arms after the United States and Russia. The same report found Saudi Arabia’s arms imports up a staggering 275% between 2011 and 2015.

In addition to a ruthless air campaign that has directly killed more than 3,000 civilians and internally displaced 2.3 million more according to the U.N., a separate report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN found that approximately 14.4 million Yemenis are food insecure. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, home to some 24 million people.

The crisis is almost entirely a product of the Saudi-led coalition’s upholding of a strict air, land and naval blockade of the country. Because Yemen imports around 90% of its staple food and resources, the blockade has all but paralyzed the country.

Conditions are so dire that the UN in December stated that Yemen is nearing a famine and the World Food Program noted that the country’s food insecurity is at “emergency” levels.

“We and NGOs want more scrutiny,” said Scottish MEP Smith. He highlighted the staggering statistics of the Saudi blockade adding “The humanitarian situation is getting worse, not better [in Yemen]. That message is politically significant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia must show a lot more consideration for civilian lives in Yemen.”

Saudi diplomats pressured the EU parliament into delaying the vote from 4 February, with Saudi ambassador to the EU Abdulrahman al-Ahmed, penning a letter to MEPs urging them to vote against the resolution.

The letter mimics Riyadh’s jockeying against regional rival Iran, blaming the Islamic Republic for backing Ansarullah and thus justifying Saudi intervention in Yemen.

“Saudi Arabia has also answered the call from the West to take a greater role in combating terrorist instability throughout the Middle East and the consequences of our not intervening in Yemen’s conflict would have been far worse than the west could as yet imagine,” wrote the ambassador.

Director of Amnesty International UK’s arms control Oliver Sprague indicated that the Saudi-led airstrikes are in breach of international law, and thus the EU’s continued sale of weapons violates the standard against providing arms used against civilians.

“Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed and injured in devastating and indiscriminate Saudi coalition airstrikes, and there’s strong evidence that further weapons sales to Saudi Arabia are not just ill-advised but actually illegal,” Sprague said.

There are countless confirmed reports of Saudi airstrikes hitting hospitals, among them a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières.