Saudi Emir of Mecca, Prince Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz
welcomes David Cameron to the Saudi city of Jeddah in 2012 Getty
Britain is at risk of being prosecuted for war crimes because
of growing evidence that missiles sold to Saudi Arabia have been used
against civilian targets in Yemen’s brutal civil war, Foreign Office
lawyers and diplomats have warned.
Advisers to Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, have stepped up
legal warnings that the sale of specialist missiles to the Saudis,
deployed throughout nine months of almost daily bombing raids in west
Yemen against Houthi rebels, may breach international humanitarian law.
Since March this year, bombing raids and a blockade of ports imposed
by the Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Gulf states have crippled much of
Yemen. Although the political aim is to dislodge Houthi Shia rebels and
restore the exiled President, Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, thousands of
Yemeni civilians have been killed, with schools, hospitals and
non-military infrastructure hit. Fuel and food shortages, according to
the United Nations, have brought near famine to many parts of the
country.
No comments:
Post a Comment