Activists hold protest in London to reject British arms sales to Saudi Arabia

LONDON, Feb. 02 (YPA) – Activists in UK organized a mass protest in front of the High Court in London, calling on their government stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which are used in the aggression on Yemen.

Participants in the demonstration held up billboards reading that Britain was breaking the law by allowing the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the war against Yemen, despite evidence that the Saudis have committed repeated violations of human rights law and international law there.

The activists, who dubbed themselves a “campaign against the arms trade”, said the London government had made a mistake in its 2020 decision to resume issuing permits to supply military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

The campaign stressed that granting licenses to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia is illegal. There is a clear risk that weapons could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law against the Yemeni people.

The campaign called on the British High Court to rule on the illegality of the government’s decision to continue granting export permits to Saudi Arabia and refuse to suspend existing permits.

The US-backed Saudi-led coalition has been waging an aggression against Yemen since March 2015, during which it committed thousands of crimes that killed tens of thousands, not to mention the economic blockade that brought the country to the point of famine and to become the largest humanitarian disaster in the world according to the United Nations.

E.M