‘It is morally reprehensible’: Five UK opposition parties call for Britain to drop Saudi weapons sales

Since start of war in Yemen, UK government has committed £770 million in aid – compared to £4.7 billion worth of arms licensed to Saudi Arabia.Since the Stockholm agreement on 13 December, it is estimated that eight children have been killed or injured in Yemen every day

Five opposition parties published a letter on Monday condemning the UK’s continued arms trade with the “murderous regime” of Saudi Arabia and calling the government complicit in Yemen’s devastation. The letter, published in full by The Independent, is signed by leaders of the Labour Party, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party’s lone MP.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, is expected in London this week to discuss the redeployment of forces and the opening up of access to humanitarian supplies, especially in the rebel-held strategic port city of Hodeidah. The city’s fragile truce, negotiated in Stockholm in December, continues to hold, but any failure to implement the deal could lead to even greater devastation in a country that is experiencing what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

In their joint letter to the foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, the opposition leaders, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and the SNP leader in the Commons Ian Blackford, said the government continues to profit from the conflict through selling arms that it knows are being used to fuel it... read more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/saudi-arabia-uk-arms-deals-ban-westminster-opposition-snp-labour-lib-dems-plaid-cymru-greens-a8839156.html

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