UK targeting Saudi market for arms sales: Report

The United Kingdom is targeting Saudi Arabia for top contracts, notably militarily ones, amid an outcry over the Al Saud's human rights violations, a new report says.  

Citing government documents, a Sunday report released by the British newspaper Guardian  revealed that the kingdom is a “priority market” for British companies, which encourage them to bid for its military, health, security and justice contracts.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that ministers are bent on ever-closer ties with the world’s most notorious human rights abusers… Ministers must urgently come clean about the true extent of our agreements with Saudi Arabia,” said Maya Foa, the director of Reprieve’s death penalty team.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, UK has licensed nearly four billion pounds of arms sales to Riyadh and some 240 military staff and civil servants from the UK Ministry of Defense work both in UK and the kingdom to support the contracts. The latest of military contracts includes delivery of 22 British Hawk jets which is worth £1.6 billion.

UK is Saudi Arabia’s largest arms supplier, “responsible for 36% of all Saudi arms imports,” the report said.

Moreover, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), a government department working with UK-based businesses to assist their success in international markets, has played a major role in encouraging those companies that sell security equipment to target Saudi Arabia for selling their products.

London has entered into other agreements with Riyadh, including UK National College of Policing secret memorandum of understanding to help modernize the Saudi Interior Ministry and a 2011 healthcare memorandum.

“It seems ironic for the UK to be working on healthcare with the Saudi regime at the same time as selling them the means to suppress and kill their own people,” said Andrew Smith, from the UK-based organization of Campaign Against Arms Trade.

“The Saudi regime has an appalling human rights record, yet it remains the world’s largest buyer of UK weapons. How many more people will be tortured and killed before the UK government finally says enough is enough?” Smith added.

On Tuesday, London was forced to cancel a controversial $9-million contract to provide training for Saudi Arabia's penal system amid growing human rights concerns.

Following the announcement, Justice Secretary Michael Gove stated that even though the government had "profound concerns" over human rights in Saudi Arabia, it would continue to work closely with the Arab country.

On October 7, Amnesty International called on the UK to stop arms trading with Saudi Arabia after evidence emerged of widespread civilian casualties in Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.

Earlier, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn had denounced the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is also under pressure for supporting Saudis.

Saudi Arabia has faced massive criticism from the international community for its growing number of beheading and other forms of execution, cracking down on political dissidents and launching an unabated war against impoverished Yemen, which has claimed the lives of at least 6,400 people so far.

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