Local Editor

Britain’s Foreign Minister said it would halt weapons exports to Saudi Arabia if investigations found Riyadh had breached international humanitarian law in the war in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has since March led a brutal aggression against the poor country. 

Amnesty International has asked the United Nations [UN] to investigate information that humanitarian law has been broken during the war. It has said that the vast majority of civilian casualties in Yemen have been caused by the Saudi-led coalition and accused the Arab forces of using cluster bombs, which are banned by most countries.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that he was aware that British-supplied weapons were being used by the Saudis in Yemen, as he told BBC Newsnight on Tuesday. 

"What matters is that they are used legally in compliance with international humanitarian law and we monitor that very carefully", he told the UK broadcaster.

"The Saudis deny that there have been any breaches ... [but] we need to see proper investigations", he said. 

According to a 2013 UK parliamentary report, Britain granted nearly 4 billion pounds [$6.06 billion] of export licenses for arms to Saudi Arabia in the five prior years.

Hammond added that, "We need to work with the Saudis to establish that international humanitarian law has been complied with. We have an export licensing system that responds if we find that it is not. We will then find that we cannot license additional shipments of weapons".

He said he had raised the issue of the use of weapons in Yemen during a recent visit to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States has been carrying out a military aggression on Yemen by launching airstrikes against the country since March 26.

The airstrikes have not been authorized by the United Nations [UN].