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Houthi leader attacks UK's Jeremy Hunt over efforts to relax Saudi arms ban
Source: The Guardian
Houthi leader attacks UK's Jeremy Hunt over efforts to relax Saudi arms ban
Exclusive: Yemen rebel chief says foreign secretary ‘cannot be a peace broker and arms salesman’
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Fri 29 Mar 2019 13.13 GMT
The leader of the Houthi movement in Yemen has condemned the British foreign secretary for pressing Germany to relax its arms sales ban on Saudi Arabia, saying it was not possible for the UK to be a peace-broker in the country and an arms seller.
“Britain sending aid does not change the tragic reality of its arms sales. Jeremy Hunt cannot promote peace while at the same time acting as an arms salesman,” said Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the supreme revolutionary committee, in an interview with the Guardian.
His comments are the most direct criticism yet of Hunt, who has been acting as a mediator in the four-year civil war in Yemen.
Germany announced in November that due to the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents it would provide no further arms export licences to Saudi Arabia. It has not formally banned previously approved deals but has urged industry to refrain from such shipments for now.
-snip-
Exclusive: Yemen rebel chief says foreign secretary ‘cannot be a peace broker and arms salesman’
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Fri 29 Mar 2019 13.13 GMT
The leader of the Houthi movement in Yemen has condemned the British foreign secretary for pressing Germany to relax its arms sales ban on Saudi Arabia, saying it was not possible for the UK to be a peace-broker in the country and an arms seller.
“Britain sending aid does not change the tragic reality of its arms sales. Jeremy Hunt cannot promote peace while at the same time acting as an arms salesman,” said Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the supreme revolutionary committee, in an interview with the Guardian.
His comments are the most direct criticism yet of Hunt, who has been acting as a mediator in the four-year civil war in Yemen.
Germany announced in November that due to the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents it would provide no further arms export licences to Saudi Arabia. It has not formally banned previously approved deals but has urged industry to refrain from such shipments for now.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/yemen-houthi-leader-attacks-uk-german-arms-sale-ban-saudi-arabia