{"id":274106,"date":"2016-10-19T21:47:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T21:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/despite-slaughter-at-yemen-funeral-middle-east-minister-still-justifies-uk-saudi-arms-sales\/"},"modified":"2016-10-20T18:51:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T18:51:03","slug":"despite-slaughter-at-yemen-funeral-middle-east-minister-still-justifies-uk-saudi-arms-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/despite-slaughter-at-yemen-funeral-middle-east-minister-still-justifies-uk-saudi-arms-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite slaughter at Yemen funeral, Middle East minister still justifies UK-Saudi arms sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        Britain\u2019s minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, has justified the UK\u2019s sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, saying the Saudi-led coalition is fighting a \u201clegitimate war\u201d in Yemen, despite making some \u201cmistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\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\/362636-yemen-britain-war-crime\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.10\/thumbnail\/57ff7413c36188cc288b45f8.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Khaled Abdullah \"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Britain has come under frequent criticism for continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia in the face of repeated atrocities in Yemen. The UK has made more than \u00a33 billion ($3.6 billion) from arms sales since the military campaign began.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe do sell arms to Saudi Arabia, this is a legitimate war that\u2019s taking place, endorsed by the UN resolution 2216,\u201d<\/em> Ellwood told the BBC on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt\u2019s important to recognize that Saudi Arabians have made mistakes, but they have also put their hand up to it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Almost two weeks ago, the funeral of the father of a prominent Houthi leader was attacked in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, killing 140 people and injuring 534. Witnesses say nothing was left at the site but <em>\u201ca lake of blood.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Rebel leaders accused the Saudi-led coalition of deliberately targeting the funeral.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia initially denied responsibility for the bombings. However, over the weekend it admitted one of its warplanes had <em>\u201cwrongly targeted\u201d<\/em> the funeral gathering.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry team found: <em>\u201cBecause of non-compliance with coalition rules of engagement and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information, a coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.\u201d<\/em><\/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\/361217-arms-trade-government-caat\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2016.09\/thumbnail\/57ee7a5bc46188b37e8b4675.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Reuters\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ellwood said it\u2019s now thought the airstrike was a <em>\u201cdeliberate error\u201d<\/em> made by an <em>\u201cindividual.\u201d<\/em> Riyadh had ordered for the attack not to take place, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The individual who <em>\u201cbreached\u201d<\/em> procedure would now be disciplined, he added, saying that compensation would be offered to the victims.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI went to Riyadh last week to tell them that they need to come out with a report immediately, they did that, it was released on the weekend and they put their hand up and said this was a gross breach of standard operating procedure,\u201d<\/em> Ellwood said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSomebody will now fall on their sword. We have disciplinary actions taking place, we also now have compensation coming to the victims.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Britain also assists Saudi Arabia in other ways. It has staff in control rooms advising the Saudi-led coalition bombing raids across Yemen, and provides essential diplomatic protection through the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vWQP7e11n-U\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemen in an attempt to restore Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi \u2013 the internationally-recognized Yemeni president who fled to Riyadh after he was chased out of his country by rebels from the northern Yemen Houthi movement.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-month war has left more than 3 million people displaced. According to the UN, 14 million are suffering hunger and malnutrition \u2013 almost half the population.<\/p>\n<p>Children are the worst hit, with hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation. More than 370,000 children are suffering severe malnutrition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/363334-yemen-saudi-arms-ellwood\/?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>Britain\u2019s minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, has justified the UK\u2019s sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, saying the Saudi-led coalition is fighting a \u201clegitimate war\u201d in Yemen, despite making some \u201cmistakes.\u201d Read more Britain has come under frequent criticism for continuing to supply arms to Saudi Arabia in the face of repeated atrocities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,1615,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"category-uk-news","9":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}