The Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman said the killing of Saudi journalist and writer Jamal Khashoggi in his country's consulate in Turkey should be met with swift and decisive action.

"The West has allowed Saudi Arabia to be involved in killings for a very long time," Karman said in an article in the Newsweek magazine.

Karman called for an independent and credible investigation into Khashoggi's death and accountability for the perpetrators and called for a halt to arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

"The best way to honor Jamal Khashoggi's commitment to freedom and justice is to ensure that the violence he is subjected to will not be repeated," Karman said. "Work is the only way we want to honor it.”

On the situation in Yemen, Karman said that peace will come only if the United States and the United Kingdom lead the way by stopping the supply of weapons that fuel this conflict.

As the main arms suppliers to Riyadh are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and other leading Western countries, they bear a major responsibility to prevent further attacks on millions of innocent civilians in Yemen and to call for the release of unjustly imprisoned activists in Saudi Arabia, including women's rights activists.

Karman stressed that keeping the situation in Yemen as it is will also be a clear signal to the Saudi leadership, as well as to many other repressive regimes, that they can continue to silence the opposition voices relentlessly, without any punishment. 

 

To read full article in newsweek click here