UK: May grilled over visit by Saudi crown prince

Muhammad Mussa

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday came under fire by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn over the two-day visit by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince set to start later in the day.

Corbyn used the Prime Minister’s Question Time — a weekly question session — to highlight issues surrounding the Saudi human rights record and its role in the war in Yemen, asking May if she intends to bring up these issues with Mohammed Bin Salman.

“Despite much talk of reform, there has been a sharp increase in the arrest and detention of dissidents, torture of prisoners is common, human rights defenders routinely sentenced to lengthy prison terms, [and] unfair trials and executions are widespread as Amnesty International confirms,” said Corbyn.

During May’s “arms sales pitch, will she also call on the crown prince to halt the shocking abuse of human rights in Saudi Arabia?” Corbyn asked to the supportive cheers of his Labour peers.

Bin Salman is in the U.K. for a state visit that includes lunch with the queen, a meeting with May at her country retreat, and a meeting at the U.K.’s National Security Council.

As well as discussing defense and security cooperation, a staple of U.K.-Saudi talks, the British government aims to capitalize on Bin Salman’s touted efforts to reform and modernize the kingdom, especially when it comes to investment and business.

Corbyn also decried the deteriorating situation in Yemen, which he said caused by a Saudi-led war and blockade.

“While Germany has halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia, it cannot be right that [the U.K.] government is colluding in what the United Nations says is evidence of war crimes,” Corbyn argued.

May defended her government’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, saying that “the link that we have with Saudi Arabia is historic, it is an important one, and it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people in this country.”

May countered that her government is stepping up aid to Yemen, also citing her demanding an end to the blockade in a meeting with the crown prince last December in Riyadh.

“I’m pleased to say that Saudi Arabia then did just that, this vindicates the engagement that we have with Saudi Arabia, to be able to sit down with them,” May said.

Yemen has remained dogged by conflict since 2014, when the Shia Houthi militia overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a wide-ranging military campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains and shoring up Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. (AA)