Once again reflecting Saudi Arabia’s remarkable ability to ensure that the rules don’t apply to them, the British government announced Tuesday that they are resuming weapons sales to the Saudi kingdom, just one day after announcing sanctions against them.
The British Court of Appeals had previously blocked arms sales because there had not been any risk assessment for Saudi war crimes committed with those weapons. The Trade Secretary, today, argued sales could resume because they concluded that the Saudis only sometimes violate international humanitarian law with their arms.
British officials are content that this is all the oversight the Saudi sales needed or shall receive. It will be easy, then, to continue thed sales despite sanctions on individuals involved in the Khashoggi murders.
Opposition officials criticized the move, saying it undercut British claims to be a human rights defender. While that’s a problem the world over, those concerns tend to fall away when the cash-rich Saudis are buying.
At the rate Saudi Arabia is going broke, the U.K. will only be able to sell bone saws anyway.
“resume because they concluded that the Saudis only sometimes violate international humanitarian law with their arms”
In a sane world that would have to be a typo.
It is astonishing to see how little attention the public is paying to their governments double standards and hypocrisy.
They make secret and shady deals with some of the worst scums and terror org. on earth, while painting themselves as advocates and defender of human rights, freedom and democracy.
Here are some examples.
The French government who also sells weapons to the Saudis
According to rights group, Amnesty International, a private military training camp set up in France, is training Saudi soldiers on arms used in the war in Yemen. Amnesty claims that the Belgian company running the training camp benefitted from government favours.
A Report ( Declassified UK ) finds UK enabled ‘unlawful’ Saudi-led naval blockade of Yemen, as London resumes arms sales to Riyadh
The United Kingdom has been providing naval training to members of the Saudi-led coalition (UAE) fighting in Yemen, skills which may have been used to impose a widely condemned embargo on the war-torn country.
The Report also tells that Royal Navy officers spent a week in Saudi Arabia, drilling 15 sailors on how to “board and search” vessels in “international waters or territorial seas.”