Photo credit: EPA
Tactics Institute for Security and Counter Terrorism is inviting United Kingdom parliamentarians to back our call for the UK to cease arms sales and diplomatic support to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and their allies in light of the their appalling recent record in committing war crimes in Yemen.
Between 2012 and 2016, the UAE rose rapidly to become the third largest importer of UK arms (Saudi Arabia being the largest). This sudden increase in sales to the Emirates was been prompted by the UAE’s prominence in the war on the Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest country, where an estimated 85,000 children have died from starvation as a direct result of Emirati-Saudi policy.
The war on the Yemen began in 2015 and is described by the United Nations as the “world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster”.
There has been a political cost to the these countries bloody involvement in Yemen: In the US, a Congressional review of the legality of the sales forced President Trump to declare a “national security emergency” in order to fulfil $8.1 billion of arms sales to the UAE and its Saudi partner.
In France, the Foreign Minister has described the war on Yemen as a “dirty war”. And in the UK, the main opposition Labour party has vowed to stop arming repressive regimes if it comes to power.
Who the UK is Arming
The UAE and their Saudi allies arm unaccountable militias and terrorist groups in Yemen including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Salafi militias, factions linked to Iran and even a Yemeni commander who is named on the US government’s terrorist list.
UAE funding of terror has a longer history than the war on the Yemen, with the the Emirates identified in the 9/11 Commissioner’s report. Money laundering in the UAE is also a huge problem, with the government offering very weak regulatory oversight, which has led to the funding of groups including the Taliban, and other terror groups in the Middle East.
Transparency International has dubbed the UAE a “money laundering paradise”.
This is not an issue confined to the Middle East. Recent years have seen major terrorist attacks in European cities. At a time when the UK is investing heavily in reducing the terrorist threat at home, it is simultaneously increasing the threat by supporting an unjustifiable attack on an impoverished country.
We believe that this immoral and failed War on the Yemen will impact the UK as it will radicalise more people across the Middle East and Europe.
Tactics calls on UK parliamentarians to put their name to our call to:
– Stop arms sales to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and their allies
– End political support for War on Yemen
Signatories
Emma Dent Coad MP
Dr David Drew MP
Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP
Douglas Chapman MP
Lord Hylton
