Saudi ‘using UK weapons in Yemen’

BRITAIN faced calls yesterday to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia amid reports that the kingdom is using them to bomb civilian targets in neighbouring Yemen.

A leaked report by UN experts investigating Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen said air strikes had targeted weddings, schools, markets and refugee camps.

It found 119 alleged violations of international law, raising questions about British arms exports and the shadowy role of British military advisers in the oil-rich country.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of states providing military support for Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is locked in a civil war with both his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn called for an inquiry yesterday, saying there was ‘a clear risk’ British arms had been used ‘in a serious violation of international law’.

He told MPs Yemen was in the grip of a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’, with 7,000 dead, 2.5million people displaced and millions more left without food. Saudi Arabia, which is one of the biggest buyers of UK defence equipment, including 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, confirmed this month that British military advisers were in its control rooms, but only in a training role.

David Cameron said Britain had the strictest rules for arms exports of almost any country and insisted: ‘We are not directly involved in the Saudi-led coalition’s operations and British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes’.