MPs call for immediate halt of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia
A child leans on the wreckage of car after the Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes in Sana’a, Yemen [Image: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images].
The £10 million increase in aid to Yemen, in this context, seems to be a sop for ministers’ consciences.
Not only that, but the UK government’s interference in calls for an independent inquiry indicates the Tories have something to hide. This is the government that is always telling benefit claimants that, if they have nothing to fear, they have nothing to hide, yet it seems once again that Tories think they can make one rule for everyone else and another for themselves.
Perhaps the rest of us should try following their example, and see how far we get.
An all-party group of MPs has called for an immediate suspension of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and an international independent inquiry into the kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen.
The call from the international development select committee follows evidence from aid agencies to MPs warning that Saudi [Arabia was] involved in indiscriminate bombing of its neighbour.
The UK government has supplied export licences for close to £3bn worth of arms to Saudi in the last year, the committee said, and has also been accused of being involved in the conduct and administration of the Saudi campaign in Yemen.
In [its] letter to the international development secretary, Justine Greening, it urged the UK to withdraw opposition to an independent international inquiry into alleged abuses of humanitarian law in Yemen.
A leaked UN report last week found Saudi Arabia involved in breaches of humanitarian law, and in response the Saudis set up an internal inquiry, a move welcomed by the Foreign Office.
The committee said it was astonished to hear the extent to which the government had watered down calls for an independent inquiry proposed by the Netherlands last September at the UN.
Source: MPs call for immediate halt of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia | World news | The Guardian
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Selling death! Leaving us wide open to terrorism. The Tory Government is a threat to our National Security. It’s about time we all realised their use of reverse psychology.
Please be fair to them Mike. As long as there is profit in it for them human suffering doesn’t even enter their heads. Look back on how so many of them inherited from their forefathers who made their money out of the slave trade for example. I fear that this trait runs in the genes of so many of them.
Saudi Arabia as chair of the Human Rights Council?
“A leaked UN report last week found Saudi Arabia involved in breaches of humanitarian law, and in response the Saudis set up an internal inquiry, a move welcomed by the Foreign Office.”
“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” ― Oscar Wilde
yes its a continuation of the slavery principle which exists in tory mentality. precisely why they will never deserve political power.
Some hope. Fallon the Foul will see to that.
no harm in hoping but giving up a desire to improve things is no viable option. peace of mind is better than blindly following despicable tories.