Monarchies’ supply of East European arms to Syria in question

While a majority of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) governments have been keen to emphasise their commitment to bringing peace to Syria – thereby helping to defuse wider regional tensions – the record says otherwise. Legwork by investigators in the Balkans – a region sensitive to the external involvement of Gulf states given their own experience of conflict in the 1990s – suggests that GCC and other regional governments have bought close to €1bn ($1.1bn) worth of weapons from eastern European suppliers since 2012.