Britain’s secret deal to train Saudi air force

As pressure grows for UK to boycott ‘Davos in desert’...

BRITAIN’s relationship with saudi Arabia was under intense scrutiny last night as it emerged the RAF is training their air force.

The Daily Mail can reveal more than 100 British personnel have been deployed to the kingdom over the past four years.

It comes in the midst of international condemnation over the alleged murder of saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, 60, inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

Trade minister Liam Fox is refusing to pull out of a conference in saudi Arabia next week. His office said his diary was ‘yet to be finalised’ despite him being listed as a speaker at the investment event known as ‘Davos in the Desert’.

Major firms such as Google have dropped out, along with bosses of three big banks including HsBC.

The Mail can disclose 111 RAF personnel have been seconded to BAE systems to provide training to Royal saudi Air Force aircrew and engineering support over the last four years, including 21 sent over in the first five months of this year.

In 2015, 34 RAF personnel were

‘We can’t turn a blind eye’

seconded there, with 30 the following year and 26 in 2017.

In a written statement, defence minister Guto Bebb said: ‘These personnel were all seconded to BAE systems to provide training support to Royal saudi Air Force aircrew and routine aircraft engineering support.’

BAE sources stressed they were not involved in military operations.

senior British military advisers are also in control rooms assisting the saudi-led coalition, which has staged bombing raids across Yemen that have killed thousands of civilians.

A handful of UK officers have been providing advice on targeting techniques for several years. According to saudi Arabia they have access to the ‘target list’.

Last night Tory MP Crispin Blunt said the Government should consider its relationship with the saudis. The former chairman of the foreign affairs select committee said: ‘Nothing should be off the table given how serious this is.’

Bob seely, a member of the foreign affairs select committee, said: ‘If we are telling Russians not to kill journalists, we can’t turn a blind eye when our allies do it.’ The row came as Us secretary of state Mike Pompeo flew into Riyadh for talks with King salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin salman, the de facto ruler.

An MoD spokesman said: ‘All UK military personnel in saudi Arabia are under UK command and control.

‘The UK is not a member of the saudi-led coalition and plays no part in setting the coalition policy or in executing air strikes.’

In March this year Britain and saudi Arabia struck a controversial £ 100million aid agreement.