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UK role in Yemen war driven by money: Commentator

A picture taken on October 8, 2016 shows a general view of the destruction following airstrikes by the Saudi air-planes on a building in the capital Sana'a. (Photo by AFP)

Britain has come under intense criticism for providing military training and selling arms to Saudi Arabia at a time when the Arab monarchy is waging a bloody military aggression against its southern neighbor Yemen. Liberal Democrats have criticized London’s complicity in the devastating war, after acknowledgement surfaced that the British military was training Saudi pilots bombing Yemen. Press TV has asked investigative journalist Tony Gosling what he thinks about the British role in this war.

Gosling said the Liberal Democrats are not the first ones in the UK who are worried about the “slaughter” of civilians in Yemen, adding that other opposition parties have already warned the government against supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons. As an example, he mentioned the Scottish National Party which questioned Prime Minister Theresa May last week over the issue.

“What the UK government is doing is actually a money-making exercise,” Gosling underscored. “3.3 billion pounds a year being made by British companies by selling arms to Saudi Arabia. And now we hear as well [about] supporting and the training of the pilots that are doing the killings that many believe is a war crime.”

"So, what is behind Saudi [Arabia's] slaughter in Yemen? Many people around the world, except maybe the British government and the British people [because] this is not reported properly in Britain, are asking what is behind it?"

Gosling went on, "The Middle East is being Balkanized and destabilized and this is happening to every sovereign country that does not follow [the] US and Israeli orders."

In recent months, London, one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to Riyadh during the past 40 years, has come under fire for its continued sales of weapons to the kingdom during its war on Yemen.

Charity group Oxfam accused the British government of being in a state of “denial and disarray” over its arms supplies to Riyadh.

Earlier this year, Amnesty International also found a banned British-made cluster bomb used by Saudi forces in Yemen. The unexploded device was a BL-755 cluster bomb.


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