The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Amnesty International condemns weapons sales to Israel, Iraq, Syria

Amnesty International called on the global community to stop war crimes by halting arms shipments to countries such as Iraq, Syria and Israel that could use them to commit “mass atrocities.”

“Huge arms shipments were delivered to Iraq, Israel, Russia, South Sudan and Syria in 2014 despite the very high likelihood that these weapons would be used against civilian populations trapped in conflict,” said Anna Neistat, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International.  

“When ISIS took control of large parts of Iraq, it found large arsenals, ripe for the picking. The irresponsible flow of weapons to human rights abusers must stop now,” said Anna Neistat. 

Amnesty issued this call in its annual report, “the State of the World’s Human Rights,” which examined human rights abuses in 160 countries. 

According to the 414-page report, Israel was one of 18 countries along with Syria, Iraq and Libya where war crimes were committed by the government or armed groups, said researcher Marek Marczynski of Amnesty International.

Armed groups committed abuses in at least 35 countries in 2014, more than 1 in 5 of the countries that Amnesty International investigated, the report said.

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