British government dismisses concerns about selling arms to Saudi Arabia

The Government has been accused of being in 'denial and disarray' over the weapons exports

Smoke rises from a food factory in Sanaa, Yemen, where 14 people were killed by a Saudi Arabian airstrike (AP)

The Government has dismissed concerns that it is in “denial and disarray” over its continued sales of arms to Saudi Arabia.

The autocratic petro-state is currently engaged in a bombing campaign in Yemen where it has blown up hospitals, schools, and weddings as part of its intervention against Houthi rebels.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, has said that “carnage” caused by certain Saudi coalition airstrikes against civilian targets appear to be war crimes.

The European Parliament and the House of Commons International Development Committee are among bodies that have called on the Government to stop fuelling the attacks.

British arms sales to the country, which ministers must actively sign off on, have surged since the start of the campaign. The Independent reported last month that the UK had agreed £3.3bn in arms exports in the first year of the bombardment.

Now a major UK aid charity has launched a public appeal to the Government to stop any further sales.

Penny Lawrence, deputy chief executive of Oxfam GB, said the UK was “flagrantly” ignoring its own arms control rule as well as international treaties.

“UK arms and military support are fuelling a brutal war in Yemen, harming the very people the Arms Trade Treaty is designed to protect,” she said.

Theresa May has so far been quiet on the issue of Saudi Arabia (PA)

“Schools, hospitals and homes have been bombed in contravention of the rules of war. The UK Government is in denial and disarray over its arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign in Yemen.

"It has misled its own parliament about its oversight of arms sales and its international credibility is in jeopardy as it commits to action on paper but does the opposite in reality. How can the Government insist that others abide by a treaty it helped set up if it flagrantly ignores it?”

The Government however rejected the claims. A spokesperson said it was satisfied that Saudi Arabia was not breaking licensing conditions – and by implication that the country was not breaking humanitarian law by bombing civilian targets.

“The UK Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world,” she said.

“The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK's export licensing criteria.

“The key test for our continued arms exports to Saudi Arabia in relation to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is whether there is a clear risk that those weapons might be used in a serious violation of IHL. The situation is kept under careful and continual review."

The Government’s confidence in the Saudi Arabian government to uphold humanitarian law was not mirrored by recent statements issued by ministers before the summer break.

In late June the Foreign Office quietly issued a number of corrections to previous ministerial statements in which it was claimed that Saudi Arabia was not targeting civilians or committing war crimes

In many cases ministers had denied war crimes were being committed – statements corrections suggest went too far. Instead, statements were corrected to only suggest the Government had not actively confirmed that war crimes were being committed.