The Middle Eastern countries sharply increased the import of arms from the beginning of deterioration of the situation in the region, The Guardian reported quoting the research.

The report is based on data for 2013. According to it, the supply for the year increased from $ 342 million to a record $ 630 million. At the same time, the UAE and Saudi Arabia became the regional leaders.  It is remarkable that these countries are one of the least transparent from the point of view of the reporting on trade.

As for the exporters, the leader in the sale of light weapons in the world is the US, which sold the firearms for $ 1.1 billion in 2013. Further, there are Italy ($644 million) and Germany ($557 million). Nearly 40% of all world export fell on these states.

Russia is on the eighth place on export of small arms (up to $499 million per year) and on the 11th place — on import (up to $99 million).

According to the newspaper, the data does not show the real volumes of world trade in arms because of the opacity of the buying process. In addition, as the article stated, this makes to think about how the sale of arms exacerbates conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Libya.