Tactics Institute For Security and Counter Terrorism organized a seminar at the Italian Parliament, the Senate House in partnership with local Italian NGOs and news agencies.

Italian Senators Luigi Nave ed Enza Aloisio hosted and participated at the event which featured different speakers and experts.

Alessandro Rubino, Partner & Head of cybersecurity and Law division in AT agency, Enza Morlando, Political scientist and journalist as well as Daniele Naddei , journalist participated at the event.

Speakers called on Italian Government to halt arms export to both countries due to their ongoing involvement in the war in Yemen and other regional conflicts.

They also argued that Arms and military equipment manufactured and licensed in Europe and sold to third countries provokes forced displacement and migration. This arms trade is motivated by how highly lucrative the industry is and current control and monitoring mechanisms facilitate rather than curtail problematic licensing and exportation.

Bring Back the arms export Ban

Speakers also said that Italy’s old arms ban must be brought back against UAE. The arms export agreements to the UAE had been partially suspended by the First Conte government in 2019, only to be revoked in January 2021, under the Second Conte government. In July 2021, under Mario Draghi’s government, the ban on arms exports to the UAE had been softened for light weapons but not for heavier armaments such as missiles and bombs.

In 2021, the Italian government, led by then-Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, halted arms sales to the UAE over the Gulf country’s involvement in Yemen.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The arms trade is political and is driven by profit but is under-regulated. Although other sectors, such as food and agriculture, do not undermine the fundamental right to life and other human rights in the same way that the arms trade does, they are far more stringently regulated.

It is possible to methodically trace arms, military equipment and technology, from the point of origin and export to where these were eventually used, and document their devastating impact on the local population. The report confirms beyond any reasonable doubt that European arms are directly used not to defend populations or to enhance local or regional security as is often claimed, but to destabilize entire countries and regions.

The arms industry is involved in clear violations of non-transfer clauses and end user agreements (EUAs) despite a supposedly robust system of controls. The evidence shows that once arms are traded, and although they may be traced, it is virtually impossible to control how they may eventually be used. Furthermore, although importing countries were known to have breached EUAs, EU member states continued to sell them arms and military equipment.

Regardless of whether arms were exported to official state security forces or were eventually used by non-state armed actors, or whether EUAs and other control mechanisms were respected, the result was the same — European arms were used in military operations that led to destabilization and resulting forced displacement and migration. The destabilization, facilitated by arms supplied by Europe, then contributed to Europe hugely expanding its border security apparatus to respond to the apparent threat posed by refugees attempting to arrive and seek asylum.

Speakers affirmed that Italian and European countries are among the top exporters of lethal arms equipment worldwide, comprising approximately 26% of global arms exports since 2015. The top five European arms exporters are France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK — together accounting for 22% of global arms exports in the 2016–2020 period.