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Congress asks Pompeo to clarify keeping Saudi off US child soldiers list

July 4, 2019 at 11:43 am

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a press conference with Kuwait’s foreign minister in Kuwait City on 20 March, 2019 [JIM YOUNG/AFP/Getty Images]

US Congressmen have sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking him to clarify his decision to keep Saudi Arabia off of the US child soldiers list, Al-Khaleej Online reported yesterday.

In January Pompeo blocked Saudi Arabia’s inclusion onto a US list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing expert findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s civil war.

In the letter, the Congressmen said that this opposes the terms of the law regarding recruiting child soldiers ratified in 2008.

READ: UK admits sending child soldiers to Iraq 

They also said that the office which monitors human trafficking had included information about a report related to Saudi’s recruitment of child soldiers.

According to the Congressmen, the report stated that Saudi might have funded Yemeni militias which sometimes used under-age fighters.

The US Congress has reiterated that the US administration is responsible for making sure that Washington does not fund the recruitment of child soldiers.