France’s right groups have on Tuesday sought to block the arms shipment to Saudi Arabia, as an investigation website has reported the loading was “howitzer munitions” onto a Saudi Arabia’s vessel docked in southern France.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, the Paris-based ACAT (Christians for the Abolition of Torture) has said in an official statement it had lodged a legal challenge in order to prevent the ships from taking arms deliveries of its cargo.
“The Bahri Tabuk is due to load French weapons for Saudi Arabia, one of the main belligerents in the Yemeni conflict. ACAT is … mobilizing and calling on civil society and local networks to prevent these munitions from going to Saudi Arabia,” it said.
Another Saudi vessel, Bahri Yanbu, flee French northern coast around two weeks ago without weapons cargo after dockers threatened to bar its arrival at Le Have port.
ACAT also lodged a legal challenge to prevent consignment from being loaded, arguing it violates a United Nations (UN) pact as the arm weapons might be used in the Yemen war against civilians.
Saudi’s Bahri Tabuk has on Tuesday afternoon docked and was due on Wednesday to load its cargo, dockers union official Laurent Pastor has told Reuters News Agency.
“It is out of the question that we load weapons or munitions for any war,” Pastor said. He added saying initially, the cargo had been due to include electrical transformers and that the union would check it again on Wednesday.