![]() ![]() Wikimedia Commons A Saudi Typhoon fighter plane, built by British company BAE Systems “We are taking this action because we believe the sales aren't just immoral, they are also illegal, and they are playing a central role in the bombardment and devastation which has followed," CAAT spokesperson Andrew Smith told Al Jazeera this week. A decision from the Court of Appeal on CAAT’s case is not expected for some weeks. The appeal was launched by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), seeking to overturn a 2017 High Court judgement that decided the UK government could continue to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen. At stake is whether the United Kingdom should be allowed to continue selling arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in (and over) the territory of Yemen. This is the context for a three-day appeal that concluded yesterday (11 April) in London. Legal appeal by Campaign Against Arms Trade Almost 10 million are at risk of starvation. Over 60,000 people have been killed as a direct consequence of this four-year-old war in the poorest country in the Middle East. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations, Yemen has become the site of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Since the bombing began in Yemen, the UK government has licensed the sale of at least £4.7 billion worth of arms to this repressive regime. Today, Saudi Arabia is by far the largest buyer of UK-made arms. Trump’s first foreign trip as US president was to Saudi Arabia. Instead, permitting – indeed promoting – the sale of British-made fighter aircraft, missiles, cluster bombs, drones, and assorted high tech weaponry to Saudi Arabia for use in the killing fields of Yemen has arguably become the worst foreign policy crime of the UK government.Īnd Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to talk up his ties (and those of his son-in-law Jared Kushner) with the United States’ closest ally, leading weapons buyer and surrogate in the Gulf region. ![]() "If the United States of America and the United Kingdom tonight told King Salman that this war has to end, it would end tomorrow," said Middle East specialist Bruce Riedel.īut neither the US nor the UK ever made that call. A few months after Saudi Arabia began its military assaults in neighbouring Yemen in 2015, a former CIA analyst explained how this genocidal war could be halted. ![]()
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