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Al-Ahed Telegram

UK Protesters to Greet Visiting MBS

UK Protesters to Greet Visiting MBS
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Local Editor

High-profile campaign groups plan to hold protests in London next week against a visit to Britain by Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman to raise alarm over Riyadh's war crimes in Yemen and its human rights record.

UK Protesters to Greet Visiting MBS

The protesters will gather outside Downing Street next Wednesday, when bin Salman arrives in the UK to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May.

Among the organizers are the Campaign against Arms Trade [CAAT] and Stop the War Coalition, which counts Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott among their patrons, Sky News reported on Wednesday.

The activists urged the premier to "show some backbone" over Saudi Arabia's human rights violations and end Britain's arms sales to the kingdom, which has been engaged in a deadly war against Yemen over the past three years.

The UK increased its weapons sales by around 500 percent since the onset of the deadly Saudi military campaign that has killed some 13,600 people in Yemen so far, The Independent reported last November.

The military equipment sold to the kingdom ever since, including warplanes, precision-guided bombs, and missiles, are worth more than $6.4 billion.

In this respect, CAAT's Andrew Smith said, "The Crown Prince should never have been invited to Downing Street: He leads a regime with an appalling human rights record and has overseen the destruction of Yemen."

May, he added, "is putting the interests of arms dealers above the rights of Yemeni people."

Meanwhile, Amnesty International UK's Director, Kate Allen, also said, "Time and time again, UK ministers have turned a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's atrocious human rights record - barely mentioning the country's crackdown on peaceful opposition figures, or the alarming prevalence of torture, unfair trials and grisly executions."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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