Britain used secretive system to sell arms to Saudi, probe finds
Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London
A UK-based organization working to end the international arms trade has revealed that Britain’s weapons exports to Saudi Arabia since the 2015 start of the war in Yemen has been three times more than previously thought. The Campaign Against The Arms Trade says the British government has used a secretive licensing system to continue selling arms to Riyadh despite credible evidence of war crimes committed by the kingdom.
In 2019, following a campaign by antiwar activists, a British court of appeal ruled weapons sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, and accused government officials of illegally signing off on a secret arms deal in 2016 without properly assessing the risk to civilians. One of the signatories- Prime Minister Boris Johnson- UK Foreign Secretary at the time.
When asked for an explanation by parliament, the government blamed the sale on procedural errors.
But a year later, Number 10 resumed handing out export licenses to the Middle East kingdom while admitting Riyadh and its allies such as the UAE had used British-made weaponry in their bombing raids in Yemen.
Now in its seventh year, the brutal Saudi-led war has killed nearly nine thousand civilians, and pushed the country to the verge of irreversible catastrophe. Yet despite the devastating human cost, the UK government continues to promote and protect weapons sales. Campaigners against the arms trade say they’re taking the fight to the High Court.
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