UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to stop criticizing the country’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, saying such criticism “is not helpful.”
Speaking before the House of Commons defense committee about a delayed fighter jet deal with the Riyadh regime, Fallon said Wednesday that criticism by some MPs was harming this and other major weapons sales to Saudis.
“I have to repeat, sadly, to this committee that obviously other criticism of Saudi Arabia in this parliament is not helpful and … I’ll leave it there,” he said.
While the UK managed to sell 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Qatar in September, Fallon’s trip around the same time to Jeddah in order to strike a similar deal yielded only a largely meaningless joint military agreement.
“But we need to do everything possible to encourage Saudi Arabia towards batch two. I believe they will commit to batch two,” he told the panel.
The…