Local Editor
The Saudi foreign minister is to brief British MPs personally to urge them not to ban UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia in light of UN accusations that British weapons were used to conduct indiscriminate attacks in Yemen on hospitals, markets and cities.
The Westminster briefing by Adel Al-Jubeir on Wednesday comes hours before the select committee on the control of arms exports meets to decide whether to call for a ban on arms sales, a move that would represent a seismic shift in Middle East policy.
The foreign office minister, Tobias Ellwood, on Monday apologized to the Commons for inaccurate answers given by ministers. They said the government had assessed that the Saudis had not breached international humanitarian law in Yemen. He said the error, acknowledged just before the summer parliamentary recess in July, was not part of a plot to mislead of MPs.
The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, also published a written statement to MPs insisting arms sales to Saudi Arabia could continue because there was no evidence of a serious risk that the international humanitarian law would be violated if the UK continued to supply arms.
For its part, the Campaign against the Arms Trade said the UK had licensed more than £3.3bn worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the aggression against Yemen began in March 2015.
Source: The Guardian, Edited by Website Team
