OTTAWA — Advocates against the use of cluster bombs say Canada has an obligation to publicly warn Saudi Arabia, its military partner in a bombing campaign in Syria, to refrain from using banned munitions.
The issue has come to light because of a report earlier this month by the U.S. group Human Rights Watch that said a Saudi-led coalition may have used the banned weapons while bombing Shiite rebels in Yemen.
Canada and Saudi Arabia, along with the United States, are among the half-dozen countries in another coalition that is currently engaged in bombing missions against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria.
Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch says Canada has an international legal obligation to speak out because it ratified the United Nations treaty to ban cluster bombs.
The Harper government faced widespread international criticism for undermining the cluster bomb treaty, which it took more than six years to ratify.
