Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on the civil war in Yemen of arms sold by the UK to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK supports the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition military intervention in Yemen, which came at the request of legitimate President Hadi to deter aggression by the Houthis and forces loyal to the former president Saleh. Saudi Arabia and the Coalition have played a crucial role and the priority now is for the Yemeni parties to agree a political solution through UN-facilitated peace talks to end the conflict. The UK is not a member of the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition and UK’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia are made under pre-existing and long-standing government to government arrangements. The UK Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.