Theresa May’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia is like all her choices: Tragic

Last Updated: April 4, 2017By

A destroyed school in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition has been accused of killing thousands of civilians [Image: Ahmad Al-Basha/AFP/Getty Images].

Now is not the time for a UK Tory government to emphasize its close relationship with a dictatorial Middle East regime – so of course, Theresa May is off on a jolly to Saudi Arabia.

The good news is that, with Scotland Yard investigating possible war crimes by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanding the withdrawal of support from the Saudi regime, the government there might just decide to keep her, in retaliation!

Let them.

Mr Corbyn’s comments are particularly damning – although of course we know it is unlikely any of our mainstream media outlets will publish them; all our newspapers and TV stations are now in thrall to the Tories, it seems.

Vox Political isn’t. Mr Corbyn said:

“The Prime Minister should put human rights and international law at the centre of her talks with Saudi Arabia’s government this week.

“Numerous human rights organisations, including the UNHRC and Amnesty International, have documented the dictatorial Saudi monarchy’s shocking human rights record.

“The Saudi-led coalition bombing in Yemen, backed by the British government, has left thousands dead, 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and three million refugees uprooted from their homes.

“Yemen urgently needs a ceasefire, a political settlement, and food aid, not more bombing. British-made weapons are being used in a war which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Britain must halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia immediately, throw its weight behind a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations and back a full and genuinely independent investigation of the evidence of war crimes in Yemen.

“As it stands, the British-Saudi relationship is damaging to the people of Saudi Arabia, Britain and the wider Middle East, and helping to export insecurity to the rest of the world.

“Unless the Prime Minister challenges the Saudi regime over its abuses this week, it will be clear she is ready to sacrifice human rights and security on the altar of the arms trade.”

So there you have it. Mrs May is “damaging… the people of Saudi Arabia, Britain and the wider Middle East, and helping to export insecurity”.

She is – along with her government – the biggest threat the UK faces.

She will turn the world against us.

Scotland Yard is examining allegations of war crimes by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, the Guardian can reveal, triggering a possible diplomatic row with Britain on the eve of Theresa May’s visit to the Arab state.

The Metropolitan police confirmed that their war crimes unit was assessing whether criminal prosecutions could be brought over Saudi Arabia’s devastating aerial campaign in Yemen.

The force’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit revealed to a London human rights lawyer that it had launched a “scoping exercise” into the claims before Maj Gen Ahmed al-Asiri’s visit to the capital last week.

The revelation comes as May plans to underline Britain’s close relationship with the Saudi royal family on her visit to the Arab state this week, in which tackling the terror threat from Islamic State will be a key factor.

Source: Met police look at allegations of Saudi war crimes in Yemen | World news | The Guardian

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6 Comments

  1. jeffrey davies April 4, 2017 at 11:20 am - Reply

    greed has no bounds

  2. David Woods April 4, 2017 at 12:08 pm - Reply

    And the Saudi’s fund an awful lot of what ISIS does!

  3. Jai Patch April 4, 2017 at 12:17 pm - Reply

    Not tragic. Tragedy is unavoidable hubris… Her visit to Saudi has no mythic dimension; it’s sordid arms marketing, because the Uk benefits from an unsafe and absolutist world. Don’t glorify it with the dimensions of tragedy; reserve that for her taste in shoes…

  4. NMac April 4, 2017 at 12:29 pm - Reply

    May and her nasty Tory cronies would hold hands with the devil if they thought they might be able to make a penny profit out of human brutality and misery.

  5. chriskitcher April 4, 2017 at 1:06 pm - Reply

    Her actions are so typical of the Tory mind. If the opportunity arises a Tory will do anything to make some money however shameful and disgusting the action is.

  6. Roland Laycock April 4, 2017 at 2:32 pm - Reply

    Wonder if she will go to the Yemen to see the damage she as helped to do. When a Yemeni comes to the UK and blows things up we will call him nasty

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