Saudi Arabian forces have been waging an illegal war in Yemen, and the UK has been arming them. Now, a new court ruling has suggested it might be illegal for us to support an illegal war. This means we’ll actually have to review each contract – something we weirdly haven’t been doing up until now.
Although, to be fair, it’s only weapons of considerable destruction we’ve been selling.
Indefensible
Defence secretary Penny Mordaunt argued:
There’s really no need for us to investigate whether our weapons are being used in illegal activities. The people running this unlawful war assured us that whenever they commit an atrocity, they put down their British weapons and use something else.
She added:
If we can only sell arms to people who aren’t committing grave acts of injustice, that will put us at a real disadvantage. We won’t be able to sell weapons to ourselves for a start.
Whitewash
The problem with the government having to review these things is that it’ll be the government who’s reviewing them. Our criminal overlords rarely hold themselves accountable for their own criminality. Especially not when there’s blood money to stain their hands with.
Featured image via Wikimedia – Vasily Vereshchagin
