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UK U-turn on Saudi crimes shows Yemen war illegal: Analyst

Friday, 22 July 2016 9:48 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 22 July 2016 9:49 AM ]

Yemenis walk past the site of a Saudi airstrike that killed a senior Yemeni judge and seven members of his family in the capital Sana’a on January 25, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review from California, about a new statement by the British Foreign Office which says Saudi Arabia and its allies may have breached humanitarian laws in Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Where does this lead the London-Riyadh relationship since the UK sells a considerable amount of weapons to the Saudis?

Weber: Well, this British Foreign Office statement confirms that the world increasingly understands about the harsh and illegal Saudi role in the Yemen conflict. It's part of a steady stream of revelations and news reports in recent months that have seriously degraded Saudi Arabia's public image around the world and this is part of an ongoing trend that's been happening for some time.

Just a few days ago for example a long classified US congressional inquiry report was made public that shows indirect links between Saudi officials and the terrorists of the 2001, 9/11 terrorist attack. This is part of a larger following of Saudi Arabia’s role in the world, its unreliability, its embarrassment increasingly to Britain and the United States and it contributes to a rise in chorus of voices that are calling for an end or at least a reevaluation of the long-standing US role of almost open-ended blank check support for Saudi Arabia. And this also applies to Britain as well.

Press TV: We know this UN report last month was not the first account of the atrocities committed by the Saudis and their allies in Yemen but all this stuff is actually well-documented since march of 2015. So, what's the significance of this sudden realization now by people in London?

Weber: It's more and more difficult to deny any of this. Just last month United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon made public some of the undue pressures that have been applied in an effort to insulate the Saudi kingdom from scrutiny and accountability for its policies. The record of what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen is more and more obvious to everyone. And it's futile for Britain and for anybody else to deny the increasingly obvious Saudi role in Yemen and elsewhere.

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