The vicious circle of the arms race
Article by Vera Polycarpou, Head of the International Relations and European Affairs Bureau, member of the C.C. AKEL
Sunday 13 May 2018, “Haravgi” newspaper
Going through the SIPRI (The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) list for the 2016 military expenditure database, one finds that Saudi Arabia ranks fourth with a military budget amounting to $ 63.7 billion, or 10% of its GDP. The recent arms deal worth almost $110 billion signed between Saudi Arabia and the US are bound to feed even more this course. It is therefore easy to conclude that both the timing and volume of these agreements are linked to the ongoing Saudi-led war against the people of Yemen, which in turn is part of its proxy conflict with Iran. The latest developments surrounding the US pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), following Israeli Government’s demands, are part of the same decisions and plans.
The war waged against Yemen was launched by the US on the justification of the “war on terror“. Three years later the Yemen tragedy can no longer be hidden, given that international organizations report that 50,000 children are “expected” to die from hunger. Members of the US Senate saw the link between this tragedy and US arms exports to Saudi Arabia, although they were unable to stop them. Similar revelations were also made about the ongoing arms trade between Britain and Saudi Arabia which in 2017 included military agreements providing for the export of 707 military and dual use items.
Saudi Arabia has also stated its intention not only to attain the possibility of producing nuclear power, but nuclear weapons as well, giving as a justification Iran’s nuclear capabilities. However, these capabilities are being fully controlled as the President of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has assured. One wonders – why didn’t they cite Israel which already possesses nuclear weapons, albeit undeclared and without Israel having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? It seems that Saudi Arabia no longer has any hesitation whatsoever to reveal that it has for some time forged an alliance with Israel, forgetting the occupation of Palestine and the US decision to transfer its Embassy to Jerusalem.
The termination of the JCPOA (hopefully the rest of the parties will be able to keep it in force) lets loose a terrible threat hanging over the entire region. This, in any case, also seems to be the ultimate goal, that is to say the complete destabilization and “constructive chaos” of the region that “American geostrategists” have called the plan for the “Greater Middle East“. And this perhaps comes to complete their plans for the “Project for a New American Century” which they were demanding from Clinton to adopt, in order to reverse the US defence and foreign policy, leading it again to the option of world domination. Of course, the main element was the strengthening of the US war industry which generates vast lucrative profits.
And what about the role of the European Union? With the programmes for the development of the European defence industry, the targets for the development of a full “Defence Union” by 2025, the 38.5 billion Euros which are being earmarked for this section for the period 2021-2017, together with the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), brings the EU into full alignment with NATO and distances it completely from the role of the “global player for peace” which it declares to serve. When they are moreover saying that this will generate jobs reducing unemployment in a period of crisis, we can only compare it to the darkest moments that Europe experienced and which led to the Second World War. We cannot observe idly this vicious circle of arms race that will wipe out peoples and fill up the pockets of the merchants of war.
