Britain Admits Selling 500 Cluster Bombs to Saudi Arabia, Some Used in Yemen

Rasa - An official report shows that Britain exported 500 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s which may have been used in the current war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

News ID: 426434

Date: 10 January 2017 - 22:31

RNA - It is the first time the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed how many of the British-made devices have been exported to Saudi Arabia, RT reported.

In a letter to the Conservative MP Philip Hollobone, seen by the Press Association, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “The UK delivered 500 BL755 cluster munitions under a government-to-government agreement signed in 1986. The final delivery was made in 1989.”

Fallon said the UK had not been able to carry out any surveillance of the weapons until 2008.

Last month, Fallon said although the UK had not supplied such weapons to Saudi Arabia since 1989, a “limited number” of cluster munitions from the UK were being dropped by Saudi-led forces in Yemen.

The defense secretary said he had asked the Saudis to destroy their remaining stock of UK-supplied cluster munitions, to which they reportedly agreed.

He told a House of Commons inquiry he did not know how many had been exported, but was satisfied the use of the bombs had not breached international law.

The revelations are likely to pile more pressure on the UK to stop selling arms to the Saudis.

In November, Britain refused to stop selling arms to Riyadh, rejecting calls by two parliamentary committees and human rights groups.

The UK is a signatory to the 2010 Oslo treaty banning cluster munitions, which are designed to release dozens of smaller bombs over a wide area. The smaller munitions do not always explode, posing a future risk to civilians.

The UK has also been involved in training Saudi forces in air warfare skills and artillery.

The prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government has accused the UK of war crimes for supplying arms to the coalition, which is conducting military operations to restore the regime overthrown last year.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since last March to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 12,800 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has drove the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster.

The UN stated in August that the Saudi-led coalition is responsible for a majority of the civilian deaths, while calling for an international investigation into the coalition’s violations in Yemen.

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