No donation to charity will wash the blood from their hands.. and no secret meetings will stop the truth from coming out
website states: “SNP MPs have led the calls for resolution of the destructive conflict in South Yemen.
“Given the clear evidence that munitions supplied by the United Kingdom have been used in breach of international law, there should be an immediate ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending proper investigation.
“And we wi l l urge the UK Government to immediately halt all military support and arms sales to regimes suspected of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”
Ross Greer MSP, external affairs spokesman for the Scottish Greens, claims to have had efforts to reveal public funding of the arms trade repeatedly stalled by the Scottish Government. He said: “The hypocrisy is just stomach churning, when an SNP Government hand public cash to arms manufacturers whose weapons systems are then used to commit war crimes against children in Yemen before giving more public cash to the Yemen Crisis Appeal.
“No donation to charity will wash the blood off their hands and no attempts to keep meetings private or stall Freedom of Information requests will stop the truth from coming out.
“The Saudi war in Yemen has led to a famine of biblical proportions, tens of thousands dead and outbreaks of terrible diseases. SNP MPs are right to point this out when condemning UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, so why do an SNP Government fund those very same arms companies and where are those SNP MPs then?
“Raytheon are the world’s largest guided missile manufacturer. They do not need public mone.
“It ’s not hard to think of hundreds of better ways to use that money than handouts to an industry built on death and destruction across the world.”
The Scottish Conservatives said: “This is classic SNP hypocrisy. The nationalists jump up and down about these matters when the UK Government are involved but behind the scenes they’re doing exactly the same thing.”
Raytheon struck a deal to sell Paveway equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2011.
In 2014, the Sunday Mail revealed the firm’s products had also been used by the Israelis to bomb Gaza.
The Scot t ish Government insisted that cash given to Raytheon was to help the firm – a global leader in the arms trade – branch out into other areas.
They said : “The Scott ish Government and their enterprise agencies do not provide funding for the manufacture of munitions.
“The support provided is focused on helping firms to diversify and develop non-military applications for their technology and ensure Scotland continues to benefit from the thousands of jobs in the defence, aerospace and shipbuilding sectors.
“We are very clear that we expect the UK Government to properly police the export of arms and investigate whenever concerns are raised.
“However, whi le defence is reserved to the UK Government, it remains impor tant to have appropriate defence and security capabi l it ies maintained in Scotland.”
A spokesman claimed that while some ministerial meetings were “non- media”, ministers’ diaries were “a matter of public record”.
Scottish Enterprise said: “We do not provide financial support for the manufacture or export of munitions from Scotland.
“Our widely publicised work with Raytheon involves helping the company diversi f y into nonmilitary, civilian applications.”
Raytheon didn’t respond to requests for comment.