Saudi Arabia 'largest buyer' of British weapons: Smith

Speaking to madaresharghi in London, Smith said that 60 percent of the UK arms around the last 10 years have gone to the Persian Gulf’s oppressive states, madaresharghi reported.

“It is clear that where humanitarian abuses are taking place there are arms dealers looking to make profit from it. Whether if that is the terrible destruction which has been waged on Yemen over the last three years which the arms companies have made billions of pounds, whether it is in Bahrain where the dictatorship has led a crackdown against the people of Bahrain,” Smith said, madaresharghi reported.

He added, “To the arms sellers …wherever the weapons going they just want to make a profit and to government like the UK, which have been pouring weapons to conflict zone for decades; this is just another business opportunity, another chance to get close to regimes, whether it is in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain or dictators elsewhere in the world.”

Asked “How can the UK government justify its acts” he said, “UK claims to have one of the most rigorous and robust arms export control systems in the world. Of course nothing can be further from the truth. Over the course of the terrible bombing of Yemen, for example, we have seen the worst cholera outbreak on record and one of the most humanitarian crises and still the arms sale continues.”

Smith stressed, “Even British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has referred to the terrible situation in Yemen as the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world but that has not stopped him playing an acting role in promoting arms sales, the same terrible dictatorship which has waged too much of the destruction and damage.”

Citing how the UK government tries to justify selling arms to dictators he added, “They tend to say we do not get involved directly which is not the argument you could use for selling anything.

“UK tends to stand for human right and democracy in the world stage which is what we are always hearing and if that is the case, it cannot be selling weapons to human right abusers and dictatorships.”

Asked “How much is the volume of UK arms sales currently stand at the moment” he said that UK arms worth “about one to 1.5 billion pounds a year in terms of licenses. Largest buyers are Saudi Arabia which we have seen a significant increase over the recent years.

 “Since the bombing began almost three years ago the UK licensed over 4.6 Billion Pounds worth of fighter jets and bombs to Saudi Arabia regime. Apart from Saudi, 60 percent of the UK arm around the last 10 years, have gone to the Persian Gulf.”

Referring to the Persian Gulf as a ‘small region,’ Smith said, “But it plays a huge disproportionate role in UK arms sales.”

“UAE and Egypt are also very large buyer as well. A lot of these regimes which have appalling human right record are also among the largest buyers of UK arms.”

Smith added, “Of the 60 million Pounds arms to Bahrain, a lot of arms are used by the Bahraini police who has an Appealing human right record.”

Bahrain, he said, “Is a terrible dictatorship which the UK has been doing arms trade with, for decades. Government ministers are regularly doing all they can to maximize arms sales to the regime.”