Britain “secretly” continued arms deals with Saudi Arabia after the assassination of Khashoggi, while they condemned his death
The British government has continued its arms deals secretly with Saudi Arabia in the weeks following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite the official condemnation of his death, the Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday.
In a continuation of the hypocrisy politics that is a common political direction to many British governments, especially the current one; Theresa May’s government has secretly pursued military cooperation with Saudi Arabia while condemning the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in public.
The British newspaper reported that trade ministry officials charged with foreign arms deals was holding high-level meetings with their Saudi counterparts to discuss the deals.
The British newspaper explained that a delegation from the Defense and Security Organization, an office within the Ministry of Commerce, responsible for arms exports, traveled to Riyadh undeclared from 14 to 22 October.
The newspaper said the source of its information was a request by the British newspaper Daily Mirror to investigate the developments under the freedom of information clause guaranteed by the constitution.
The last of these visits was on October 22, when Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt declared his country’s condemnation of Khashoggi’s death “in the strongest possible terms” in a speech before Parliament.
“While we will study our response to Khashoggi’s death.
I also made it clear that if the horrific stories we read were true, they would fundamentally contradict our values and we would act accordingly”, Hunt said.
The foreign minister then announced the cancellation of a planned visit to Riyadh by Trade Minister Liam Fox, but didn’t disclose meetings on arms deals, the source said.
Even before Khashoggi’s death, the British government was widely criticized for supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons in its Yemen-led war, the newspaper said.
Since the beginning of the war, the UK’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to about 4.7 billion pounds, making it the largest buyer of British weapons.
Khashoggi’s murder at his consulate in Istanbul in early October provoked international outrage and constant demands to reveal the whereabouts of the body and to kill him.
After Riyadh provided conflicting interpretations, she admitted that the Saudi journalist was killed and his body was cut inside the consulate after negotiations failed to persuade him to return to the kingdom.
On December 5, 2018, the Turkish judiciary issued an arrest warrant against former deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service Ahmad Al Asiri and former adviser to Crown Prince Saud Al Qahtani.
Recently, Saudi Arabia made radical changes in ministries, sovereigns and higher bodies twice, one in October, including the removal of a number of officials, including Saud Al Qahtani, adviser to the Royal Court, and Ahmad Al Asiri, deputy director of intelligence.
Last Thursday was the second, including the ministries of Foreign Affairs and the National Guard.
