Crown Prince and Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud (2nd L) walks past the honor guards during an official welcoming ceremony by British Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson (not seen) in London, United Kingdom on March 09, 2018.
The U.K. expects all arm sales to Saudi Arabia to comply with international humanitarian law, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Wednesday.
Hunt’s remarks came during an urgent session on the situation in Yemen after a question from Alison Thewliss, a Scottish National Party MP.
There were “160 air raids” in Yemen only in October and “60 per cent of those raids targeted civilian infrastructure including hospitals, food storage facilities, water and electricity sites and civilian transport,” Thewliss said.
“How does he expect the Saudis used weapons sold to them this month?” she asked.
Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi was barred from media appearances after criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump in late 2016, according to the State Department.In its most recent report on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the department said Khashoggi moved to the U.S. in "self-exile" in September 2017 and "could face arrest upon returning home" due to his writings.The report said Khashoggi's column in Saudi newspaper al-Hayat had been cancelled under political pressure.“In 2016, authorities purportedly banned him from writing, appearing on television and attending conferences as the result of remarks he made that were interpreted as criticizing the president of the United States, according to multiple media sources."Earlier, in July, authorities reportedly lifted the writing ban against him," said the report. The ban came after Khashoggi appeared at a policy forum at think tank The Washington Institute on Nov. 10, 2016 and made remarks critical of Trump’s Middle East policies, describing Trump's stance on the Middle East as "contradictory".Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.After initially saying he left the consulate alive, the Saudi administration admitted weeks later that he was killed there.Turkey accuses US of turning blind eye to Saudi killing of KhashoggiTrump defends Saudi Arabia despite Khashoggi killingHis body has yet to be returned to his family amid reports that it was chemically dissolved.In a statement Tuesday, Trump defended relations with Saudi Arabia despite the killing of the journalist amid reports that the CIA had concluded with high confidence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's murder.However, the president said the U.S. may "never know all of the facts" and the country will continue its relations with Saudi Arabia in order to pursue American interests."Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!" Trump said in the statement, which was released by the White House.
Saudis banned Khashoggi for criticizing Trump: Report
“We expect all arm sales to comply with international humanitarian law and we have processes in place to make sure there are thorough investigations if we think they have not,” Hunt responded.
Hunt said there is a strategic partnership between the U.K. and Saudi Arabia, but “we are very clear that we are only able to supply them arms… if we are confident that it is in compliance with the international humanitarian law.”
He also said “the entire humanitarian situation in Yemen is totally unacceptable".
“I agree with the shadow foreign secretary [Emily Thornberry] that there needs to be a full investigation for all crimes that had happened," Hunt said.
The urgent question on Yemen was granted to Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry Wednesday afternoon.
The U.K.’s arm sales to Saudi Arabia has been under scrutiny and has recently come under focus again after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.
Thornberry previously called the killing a “disgraceful murder” and said the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman “takes his allies for fools,” mentioning some of the alleged crimes attributed to him.
Urging the U.K. government to use the Magnitsky powers for anyone involved in the murder, including those who ordered it, Thornberry asked for financial penalties on those responsible and the suspension of U.K.'s sales of arms to this country.
Hunt had said the reports about Khashoggi’s death, if they prove true, “are not compatible with our values".
According to the United Nations, Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, around 14 million people in Yemen, or half the total population of the country, are at risk of famine, the UN says.
As many as 85,000 children under the age of 5 in Yemen have starved to death since the war began, Save the Children, a rights group, reported on Wednesday.