February 23, 2018•Update: February 24, 2018
By Ayhan Simsek
BERLIN
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has slammed Germany's decision to stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia due to its active military presence in Yemen.
"If Germany has a problem with supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia, we would not put Germany under pressure. We don't need your weapons. We would get them from somewhere else," he said in an interview with the German news agency DPA, published on Friday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's caretaker government announced last month that it would stop approving arms exports to all parties involved in the Yemen conflict.
A coalition agreement this month between Merkel's Christian Democrats and Social Democrats also pledged to stop arms exports to countries that were directly involved in the Yemen war.
Al-Jubeir criticized the German government for adopting an "inconsistent" policy on arms sales.
"Will Germany also stop supplying arms to states which are fighting against Daesh in Syria and Iraq? Will Germany stop arms exports to all countries which are fighting against Taliban in Afghanistan?" he asked.
The minister recalled that the Saudi-led coalition had intervened in Yemen only after an invitation by Yemen's legitimate government, which faced a coup staged by the Houthi militia.
"The Yemen war is a legitimate war," he said.
Impoverished Yemen has been dogged by violence since late 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country.
The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a wide-ranging campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.
