{"id":307689,"date":"2017-05-11T14:15:38","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T13:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-arabia-is-just-defending-itself-when-it-bombs-yemen-claims-uk-defense-secretary\/"},"modified":"2017-05-11T14:15:38","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T13:15:38","slug":"saudi-arabia-is-just-defending-itself-when-it-bombs-yemen-claims-uk-defense-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-arabia-is-just-defending-itself-when-it-bombs-yemen-claims-uk-defense-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia is just \u2018defending itself\u2019 when it bombs Yemen claims UK Defense Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 11 May, 2017 13:05 <\/time><\/p>\n<p>        UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has claimed Saudi Arabia is just defending itself by bombing famine-threatened Yemen, arguing the Gulf state is entitled to ask its allies for help.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>Fallon had been asked if the Conservatives would consider suspending arms sales to the Saudis, given the serious concerns raised by international observers about the war in Yemen.<\/p>\n<p>UK military personnel have been providing Saudi forces with airstrike and artillery training and Britain has sold billions of pounds\u2019 worth of arms to the Gulf theocracy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/385660-uk-missiles-role-gaddafi-saudi-yemen\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.04\/thumbnail\/58fabfb4c36188b42b8b456f.jpg\" alt=\"Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon \u00a9 Ints Kalnins\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>With Yemen\u2019s main port blockaded there are fears the impoverished state could slide into famine unless the war is halted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Saudi Arabia is being attacked by Houthi rebels across its southern border with Yemen. It\u2019s had its towns and villages shelled by the Houthis,<\/em>\u201d Fallon told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Saudi Arabia is fully entitled to defend itself and it\u2019s fully entitled to call on its friends in so doing.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fallon said the UK gains from a close relationship with Riyadh, calling it \u201c<em>an enormously important trading partner, a commercial partner, but also a defense partner.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We share intelligence with Saudi Arabia about terrorism. We gain from that relationship. Every arms export application is very carefully looked at and judged by our criteria \u2014 some of the toughest in the world. But Saudi Arabia, equally, is entitled to defend itself.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fallon\u2019s comment came a day after the head of UK arms giant BAE Systems told peace activists the firm\u2019s staff are working in Saudi Arabia but would not say precisely what they were doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We supply equipment and we maintain equipment, but we are not involved in any military action,<\/em>\u201d CEO Roger Carr told activists from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).<\/p>\n<p>However, he admitted that BAE workers are \u201c<em>looking after the aircraft to make sure they can perform to the specification.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We are not arbiters, we are suppliers of equipment under a contract,<\/em>\u201d Carr said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/387982-micheal-fallon-yemen-saudi\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 11 May, 2017 13:05 UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has claimed Saudi Arabia is just defending itself by bombing famine-threatened Yemen, arguing the Gulf state is entitled to ask its allies for help. Fallon had been asked if the Conservatives would consider suspending arms sales to the Saudis, given the serious concerns raised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":307690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-307689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307689","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=307689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}