The Saudi crown prince faced heavy criticism from British opposition figures at the start of a three-day visit to the UK that includes lunch with the Queen and dinner with the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge.
Mohammed bin Salman was accused of funding extremism in the UK, committing human rights abuses domestically, and breaching international humanitarian law in Yemen, where Riyadh has intervened in a war that has killed thousands of civilians and driven the Middle East’s poorest country to the brink of famine.
Campaigners against the war also rallied near parliament and held a protest outside the gates of Downing Street.
In his most unbridled attack yet on Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the three-year Yemen conflict, Jeremy Corbyn said during prime minister’s questions the country was responsible for putting millions at risk of starvation.
The British military was colluding in an unlawfully conducted war, the Labour leader said, claiming UK personnel were directing the Saudi military campaign from Riyadh.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, condemned ministers for rolling out the red carpet and providing the equivalent of a state visit to “a dictatorial head of a theocratic, medieval regime”. He called on the UK government to demand the Saudis end the systematic bombing of civilian targets in Yemen, which the crown prince initiated.
The shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, speaking in the House of Commons, accused ministers of “bowing and scraping” to the crown prince.
Bin Salman, Thornberry said, was “the architect of the Saudi airstrikes and blockade in Yemen, funding jihadi groups in the Syrian civil war, ordering his guards to beat up the prime minister of Lebanon and in the eight months since he became crown prince doubling the number of executions”.
“We are supposed to ignore all that just because he is to allow Saudi women to drive, just as they can everywhere else in the world. The British government pretends to care about human rights and war crimes but when it comes to Saudi Arabia in Yemen there is nothing but a shameful silence.”
The UK government’s sole concern, she said, was how to plug the hole in growth and trade because of Brexit.
Continue Reading: Saudi crown prince's UK visit prompts heavy criticism by opposition
Mohammed bin Salman was accused of funding extremism in the UK, committing human rights abuses domestically, and breaching international humanitarian law in Yemen, where Riyadh has intervened in a war that has killed thousands of civilians and driven the Middle East’s poorest country to the brink of famine.
Campaigners against the war also rallied near parliament and held a protest outside the gates of Downing Street.
In his most unbridled attack yet on Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the three-year Yemen conflict, Jeremy Corbyn said during prime minister’s questions the country was responsible for putting millions at risk of starvation.
The British military was colluding in an unlawfully conducted war, the Labour leader said, claiming UK personnel were directing the Saudi military campaign from Riyadh.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, condemned ministers for rolling out the red carpet and providing the equivalent of a state visit to “a dictatorial head of a theocratic, medieval regime”. He called on the UK government to demand the Saudis end the systematic bombing of civilian targets in Yemen, which the crown prince initiated.
The shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, speaking in the House of Commons, accused ministers of “bowing and scraping” to the crown prince.
Bin Salman, Thornberry said, was “the architect of the Saudi airstrikes and blockade in Yemen, funding jihadi groups in the Syrian civil war, ordering his guards to beat up the prime minister of Lebanon and in the eight months since he became crown prince doubling the number of executions”.
“We are supposed to ignore all that just because he is to allow Saudi women to drive, just as they can everywhere else in the world. The British government pretends to care about human rights and war crimes but when it comes to Saudi Arabia in Yemen there is nothing but a shameful silence.”
The UK government’s sole concern, she said, was how to plug the hole in growth and trade because of Brexit.
Continue Reading: Saudi crown prince's UK visit prompts heavy criticism by opposition
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