Report raises questions over how much sales of light weapons and ammunition are fuelling conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Middle East countries have nearly doubled their imports of guns and ammunition within a year, figures on the small-arms trade show, raising questions over how many of the weapons are fuelling conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The latest bulletin of the Small Arms Survey, sponsored by western governments and published on Monday, shows that some of the Arab states that most dramatically increased their imports of handguns, light weapons and ammunition between 2012 and 2013 are also the least transparent in terms of reporting on their arms trading.

Small-arms deliveries to big importers in the Middle East surged from $342m (£237m) in 2012 to $630m a year later, an increase of 84%.

Saudi Arabia almost tripled its gun imports in that period, from $54m to $161m, despite a call from the European parliament in February for an arms embargo in view of the high civilian casualties of Saudi military operations in Yemen.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) more than doubled its imports of small arms from $71m to $168m in the same period. Deliveries of small arms to Qatar grew eightfold, from $2m to $16m.

Meanwhile, some of those same countries were the most opaque about their arms dealing. The UAE came last in a list of 50 countries on a transparency barometer run by the Small Arms Survey, while Saudi Arabia came 49th, below Iran and North Korea.

Ammunition that was sold to Qatar was later found in Libya, in apparent breach of Qatar’s agreement not to re-export it without the permission of the countries of manufacture.

“The near doubling of small-arms transfers to the Middle East from 2012 to 2013 raises important questions”, Eric Berman, director of the Small Arms Survey, said.

“Do states rigorously assess the potential for diversion, destabilisation, or human rights violations before exporting arms? The survey’s recent research, and in particular the results of the survey’s 2016 transparency barometer, indicate that many major exporters are not open regarding such assessment processes or even decisions to authorise or deny a transfer.”

The most transparent arms-trading nations were Germany, the UK, Netherlands and Serbia.

The US retained its long-held position as both the top exporter and importer. It sold a record $1.1bn-worth of small arms in 2013, followed, in terms of exports, by Italy ($644m) and Germany ($557m).

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Together, these three countries accounted for almost 40% of total exports in 2013. At the same time, the US imported $2.5bn-worth of small arms, representing 42% of all imports.

The latest report is published at the beginning of a week of meetings at the UN in New York aimed at developing a programme of action to regulate the global arms trade and make it more transparent.

The Arms Trade Treaty, which came into force in 2014, requires states to exert control of the flow of arms into and out of their territories and to report imports and exports to a treaty secretariat.

Based on official figures, the Small Arms Survey concedes that its analysis “is skewed toward documenting more transparent countries and underestimates the total value and extent of the global trade in small arms”.