Five UK opposition parties called on the government to impose an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, citing its contribution to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, local media reported on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2019) Five UK opposition parties called on the government to impose an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, citing its contribution to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, local media reported on Monday.
The leaders of the Labour Party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Liberal Democrats party, the Plaid Cymru party, advocating Welsh independence, and the Green Party of England and Wales signed the letter to UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, The Guardian newspaper specified.
"It is morally reprehensible that the UK government is not only not considering changing its policy, but is actively lobbying other foreign governments, as it did with Germany, to resume arms sales to Saudi," the letter, quoted by The Guardian, read.
The authors of the letter said that Germany, Spain, Denmark, Canada, the United States, the UN Human Rights Council and the European Parliament had already called for a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The opposition leaders called on the UK government to follow suit and urge Saudi Arabia to "abide by basic human rights laws" by imposing the embargo.
"This cross-party letter must serve as a wake up call for the foreign secretary that the UK government must urgently recognize the devastating reality of the war in Yemen, get its act together and bring this conflict to an end," Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in the lower chamber of the UK Parliament, said, as quoted by the newspaper.
The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in the civil war in Yemen since March 2015, when it started to carry out airstrikes against the Houthis at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Yemeni civil war has claimed over 7,000 lives, while over 20 million people in Yemen currently face need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN estimates.
