UK military 'working alongside' Saudi bomb targeters in Yemen war
Saudi foreign minister confirms claims that British military advisers are in operation room of heavily criticised bombing campaign
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3:37PM GMT 15 Jan 2016
The Saudi air force, along with the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf allies, have backed the internationally recognised government in Yemen against a rebellion that swept much of the country from the north.
But this coalition has been heavily criticised for striking civilian targets, and Britain is under particular fire as a major weapons supplier to the Saudi air force.
The admission that British officers were working alongside Saudi and other coalition colleagues in the campaign’s operations rooms came in a briefing to The Telegraph and other journalists by the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir.
Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir
“We asked a number of allied countries to come and be part of the control centre,” he said. “I know they are aware of the target lists.”
The Ministry of Defence said that the military officials were not directly choosing targets or typing in codes for the Saudi “smart bombs” but confirmed that they were training their counterparts in doing so.
“We support Saudi forces through long-standing, pre-existing arrangements,” a spokesman said, adding that the purpose of training was to ensure “best practice” and compliance with international humanitarian law.
Men walk on rubble at the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters, after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa
Human rights groups claim more than 3,000 civilians have died since the war began with the attack by the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah al-Saleh on the capital Sana’a in 2014.
Most of those are said to have been from the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign. As well as human rights groups, Oxfam and other charities have called for Britain to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia while the bombing campaign continues.
"We support Saudi forces through long-standing, pre-existing arrangements"
Ministry of Defence
On Sunday, a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres was hit, even though the group says it has provided the coalition with coordinates of its facilities.
Mr Jubeir defended the campaign, saying that battle damage assessment showed many of the claims of atrocities were false. He said that cases where civilians were hit were examined and if mistakes were made they were acknowledged.
That claim is disputed by Human Rights Watch, which has accused the coalition of failing to investigate civilian deaths. However he did win some support from the group on Wednesday when an HRW report said that a compound housing a school for the blind in Sana’a, which was struck by a heavily criticised air strike on January 5, had been used as a military base by the Houthis.
Yemeni medics prepare a prosthetic limb, for a man injured in the conflict, in Sanaa
Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, last year called on the Saudi authorities to better investigate civilian casualties, but this week said that the British officials were "checking" targeting practices.
In his briefing, Mr Jubeir also defended Saudi Arabia on its human rights records and over its current confrontation with Iran. The kingdom has been heavily attacked by western politicians and media in recent weeks as the new set of princes which took power after the death of King Abdullah a year ago implement more assertive policies than their predecessors.
He said that Iran had begun the current round of hostilities by the two regional powers, using “terrorist-designated entities”, such as the Revolutionary Guard’s al-Quds force and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizbollah, to destabilise its neighbours, including both Saudi Arabia and allies like Bahrain.
Officials inspect damage at a Coca-Cola beverages factory, after Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa last month
He added that there was great concern about the additional funding Iran was about to gain by the lifting of economic sanctions and the return of billions of dollars in frozen assets.
"Every country in the world is worried about this,” he said. “Iran's record has been one of war and destruction, terrorism, destabilisation, interference in the affairs of other countries and the concern in most countries in the world is that Iran not use these funds in order to fund destabilisation activities but instead use the funds to improve the well-being of its people."
He also said that the West would have to live with the Saudi use of the death penalty, primarily by public beheading.
“On this issue, we have a fundamental difference,” he said. “In your country you do not execute people and we respect it. In our country the death penalty is part of our laws, and you have to respect this, as it is part of the law in the United States and other countries”
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