{"id":160290,"date":"2015-06-20T14:04:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T14:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=160290"},"modified":"2015-06-20T14:04:13","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T14:04:13","slug":"mod-confirms-britain-arming-saudi-arabia-yemen-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/mod-confirms-britain-arming-saudi-arabia-yemen-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"MoD confirms Britain is arming Saudi Arabia in Yemen conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RT<\/a>) –\u00a0Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is providing technical support and arming Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war against Yemen, RT has learned.<\/p>\n

An MoD spokesperson said\u00a0the UK\u2019s assistance to Saudi Arabia includes providing\u00a0\u201cprecision guided weapons<\/em>,\u201d but added the British\u00a0government had been assured they will be used in compliance with\u00a0international law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anti-arms trade campaigners condemned Britain\u2019s support for the
\nGulf monarchy, claiming the UK cares more about arms sales than
\nhuman rights and democracy.<\/p>\n

RT contacted the MoD to ask if British weapons are being used in
\nSaudi airstrikes on Yemen and if the UK is providing assistance
\nto the Saudi-led coalition.<\/p>\n

An MoD spokesperson replied: \u201cThe UK is not participating
\ndirectly in Saudi military operations. We are providing support
\nto the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces and as part of pre-existing
\narrangements are providing precision guided weapons to assist the
\nSaudi Air Force<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of these weapons is a matter for the Saudis but we
\nare assured that they will be used in compliance with
\ninternational law<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MoD\u2019s response confirms suspicions held by anti-arms trade
\ncampaigners that Britain is providing support for a war that top
\nYemeni academics based in the West have branded
\n\u201cillegal<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) said:
\n\u201cThe Saudi bombing has created a humanitarian catastrophe and
\nnow we know the UK weapons have contributed to it.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese weapons have not just given military support to the
\nbombardment, they have also provided a strong political support
\nand underlined the closeness between the UK and Saudi
\ngovernments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the destruction of Yemen and the intensifying crackdown
\non dissent in Saudi Arabia, the UK government is sending the
\nmessage that human rights and democracy are less important than
\narms sales<\/em>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

CAAT said the \u201cprecision guided weapons<\/em>\u201d used by the
\nSaudi Air Force are likely to be Eurofighter Typhoons or Tornado
\njets.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has spent an estimated \u00a32.5 billion upgrading its
\nfleet of 73 Tornados as part of a deal negotiated with UK-based
\narms manufacturers BAE Systems.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia and the UK have long had close dealings in the arms
\ntrade. Saudi Arabia is Britain\u2019s largest customer for weapons and
\nthe UK is the Gulf nation\u2019s single biggest supplier, according to
\nCAAT.<\/p>\n

An Amnesty International report found that British fighter jets
\nwere \u201cextremely likely<\/em>\u201d to have been used in the 2009
\nSaudi bombing of Yemen.<\/p>\n

At the time Amnesty called on the UK government to ensure British
\nweapons \u201cdid not facilitate violations of international
\nhumanitarian law, including possible war crimes, by the Saudi
\nArabian air force<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confirmation of Britain\u2019s indirect support for the Gulf
\nkingdom\u2019s war against Shia Houthi rebels comes as the reported
\ntotal casualties pass the 10,000 mark.<\/p>\n

According to UN estimates, 2,288 people have died as a result of
\nSaudi Arabian airstrikes, half of whom are civilians. Another
\n9,755 are reported to have been wounded.<\/p>\n

UNICEF stated in late May that 135 children had been killed and
\n260 wounded since the start of the conflict in March.<\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s humanitarian crisis is also becoming increasingly grim,
\nwith the World Health Organization warning that 8.6 million
\npeople are in need of \u201curgent<\/em>\u201d medical aid.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RT) –\u00a0Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is providing technical support and arming Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war against Yemen, RT has learned. An MoD spokesperson said\u00a0the UK\u2019s assistance to Saudi Arabia includes providing\u00a0\u201cprecision guided weapons,\u201d but added the British\u00a0government had been assured they will be used in compliance with\u00a0international law. Anti-arms trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1615,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-160290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-uk-news","10":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}