Rights groups ask May to cancel Saudi prince's visit to UK

Rasa - A coalition of human rights group have asked UK Prime Minister Theresa May to withdraw an invitation extended to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit the UK.

News ID: 435850

Date: 17 January 2018 - 22:58

RNA - The coalition, including the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK), sent a letter on Monday to the prime minister saying the visit was not in the UK's interest, nor in the interest of the peoples suffering from the Crown Prince's adventurism.

“The Saudi regime … has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Torture, arbitrary detention, and other appalling abuses are widely documented,” the letter said.

“It shames us as a nation to support and associate with a brutal dictator who uses hunger as a weapon, and has allowed the largest cholera epidemic in history to develop in Yemen,” it added.

May had invited the crown prince and Saudi King Salman in Decemberto visit the UK in 2018 amid the international outcry over Riyadh’s ongoing war crimes in Yemen.

Britain is a major supporter of the Saudi war on Yemen. The May government has been under fire at home and abroad for refusing to suspend British arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid its ongoing war on Yemen.

London, however, has turned a deaf ear to critics as it sees Saudi Arabia as a trading partner that Britain would need after exit from the European Union (EU).

According to CAAT, the UK government has licensed more than £4.6 billion ($6.3 billion ) worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the bombing began in 2015.

The Saudi-led war has so far killed more than 12,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis as well as a deadly cholera outbreak in Yemen.

“British-made jets and bombs have played a major role in destroying civilian targets and the poor nation's [Yemen's] infrastructure,” the rights groups' letter said.

“UK personnel, from the armed forces and BAE Systems, are present in the Saudi operations centre, aiding this catastrophe.”

The letter which also signed by the Bahrain Institute for Human Rights, Sheba for Democracy and Human Rights, Human Rights for Yemen, Iraqi Democrats, and Stop the War Coalition states that Saudi officials have 'supported repression in other states' such as in Bahrain in 2011, during a military crackdown against anti-regime protesters.

Bin Salman, known for his unstable manners, became crown prince when a cousin of his was sidelined nearly seven months ago. Saudi royals are clearly fearful that the young and relatively inexperienced prince’s ultimate access to the throne, which some say would be imminent, will destabilize Saudi Arabia and slide the country into further political uncertainty.

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