Local Editor
The chances of London being hauled before the International Criminal Court to answer for war crimes in which UK missiles sold to Saudi Arabia were used against civilian targets in Yemen are low, the chair of international watchdog Uniting for Peace said on Monday.
Last week, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported that in September a factory in Yemen that was not involved in any military activity was destroyed by the Saudi-led coalition using a UK-made cruise missile.
The Independent newspaper argues that these facts are sufficient for the British government to be prosecuted for war crimes.
"It will be absolutely, or even impossible that the UK could be charged in the International Criminal Court, because it is not well-established, secondly, even now the functioning of the ICC is funded by the main Western powers," Vijay Mehta said.
Mehta, who is also the author of "The Economics of Killing: How the West Fuels War and Poverty in the Developing World," added the United Kingdom has been selling arms to Saudi Arabia for over 30 years.
"There is an underlying problem, which is that the US and Western countries buy massive amounts of oil from Saudi Arabia and they sell weapons instead of paying for that oil," he said.
He stressed that were legal proceedings to be brought against the United Kingdom through the International Criminal Court, it would serve as a warning to other countries like the United States and France that they should not bomb other countries.
Since late March, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against Yemen in a bid to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Sources: New Agencies, Edited by Website Team
