THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Selling arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is "legitimate and right" as autocratic countries have a right to self defence, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister defended military deals with Gulf states, as he launched a major push to equip them with British-made Typhoon fighter jets on a three day visit to the region.
Mr Cameron's candid stance on arms sales - which is un[u]sual for Prime Ministers - was criticised by human rights campaigners. Amnesty International UK's head of policy and government affairs Allan Hogarth said: "Selling arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE should only be considered if there are absolutely watertight guarantees over them not being used to commit human rights violations.
"Saudi Arabia has been the recipient of record-breaking arms deals involving the UK, yet these have been highly secretive and there's been little or no follow-up over how the weaponry was used."
Amnesty said that in 2009 the Saudi air force used "UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in attacks in Yemen which killed hundreds -possibly thousands - of civilians".
But speaking in Dubai before later visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Mr Cameron said: "We have one of the strictest regimes anywhere in the world for sales of defence equipment but we do believe that countries have a right to self-defence.
“We do believe countries have a right to defend themselves. And we do believe Britain has important defence industries that employ over 300,000 people and so that sort of business is completely legitimate and right." » | Monday, November 05, 2012
