Tag: Saudi Arabia

When James Cleverly was reappointed foreign secretary last October, he tweeted he was “honoured” to be “continuing to protect UK interests overseas and support to our friends and allies around the world, defending democracy and freedom”. What he’s been doing tells a different story. Two days after tweeting of his pursuit of democracy, he was […]

The former UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has close links to the vice-president of a private energy group which has had significant financial interests in the oil sectors of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Declassified can reveal. Griffiths’s private consultancy – Mediation Group International (MGI) – which promoted conflict resolution, was […]

Each year around 1,500 international students have their places at UK universities paid for through Chevening scholarships. The Foreign Office-run scheme, with its £59-million annual budget, claims to champion candidates with ideas for “positive change”. But one applicant has complained that the process is unfair towards candidates from Yemen. The man, who asked to be […]

The brutal war in Yemen, which has raged since 2015, is the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. A delicate truce since April has reduced some of the horror, but that deal seems to be breaking down.  It should be time to reflect about who, on all sides of the conflict, including in Britain, might be indicted […]

“I had my first speech outside Number 10 as prime minister all planned out,” Jeremy Corbyn tells me. “I was going to announce homelessness in Britain ends now, next week no-one will be sleeping rough.”  He is sitting on a sofa at the offices of his Peace & Justice Project in Finsbury Park, deep in […]

The UK government has announced that it has “galvanised allies to refer atrocities in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague”, and “expedite an ICC investigation, through state party referral.”  Russia, in its war in Ukraine, is far from exceptional in targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Sadly, such behaviour is par for […]

Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, is often said to communicate with Boris Johnson via WhatsApp – a claim not denied by Downing Street. Prince Salman is thought to be an avid user of its emoji function to adorn his messages. But whatever the pair say to each other on the platform will […]

“When a country is at war, it is not right to race there.” That was Max Verstappen’s commendable reaction to Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.  The sentiment was shared by almost all his fellow Formula One drivers, who posed for a picture in front of a Ukrainian flag wearing “No War” T-shirts. F1 organisers […]

Last month, Greenpeace’s investigations unit Unearthed obtained a document leak showing that Saudi Arabia and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Norway and India, have attempted to neutralise a scientific assessment report being prepared by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These countries have attempted to remove […]

Harry Kane has just scored a late goal, confirming England’s win over Germany in this summer’s Euros. We are sat under a marquee outside a pub near a main road in the nondescript village of Warton, Lancashire.  One of the punters stands up, lifting his Jägerbomb high into the air. “There were ten German bombers […]

Andrew, the Duke Of York, rushed to Jeddah in June 2012 to pay tribute to Crown Prince Nayef, who had passed away months after overseeing a brutal crackdown on Arab Spring protesters.  Among those arrested for organising demonstrations was 17-year-old Ali al-Nimr who would be sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion. Now a diplomatic […]

“Controversial depends on your point of view, really. There are plenty of high-level political viewpoints that would say that it’s not.” Major General Roddy Porter has just bought us a coffee and is telling us why the world’s largest arms fair – being held in the heart of London – isn’t controversial, despite being opposed […]

Britain has a secret detachment of up to 30 troops in Yemen, where they are training Saudi forces amid the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, Declassified has discovered.

The scale of British arms sales to Riyadh rises again amid secrecy over a meeting between BAE and trade minister Liam Fox after the Khashoggi killing. Documents show both the UK trade ministry and BAE sought to keep arming Saudi Arabia in the immediate wake of the dissident’s murder.

Five highly repressive Gulf states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — have been able to invest at least £140bn in Britain. The figure is more than five times larger than Russian investments in the UK, which have, by contrast, received sustained criticism in the media and government.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi criticised the Saudi regime for its ‘cruel war’ in Yemen and weeks later it murdered him, sparking an international outcry. But while his fiancée frantically searched for his body, Britain’s military quietly sold spare parts to Saudi Arabia’s air force, so it could keep bombing Yemen. And that arms deal is just one in a series of controversial weapons exports uncovered by Declassified UK.

The CIA believes Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, or ‘MBS’, orchestrated the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. What can Britain, which routinely condemns human rights abuses by enemies, do to stop one of its closest allies?

The queen’s second son has held 70 meetings with repressive Middle East monarchies in the decade since the Arab Spring uprisings. Most meetings took place after Prince Andrew’s role as official trade envoy ended in 2011 amid the Epstein scandal, with UK diplomatic support for his Gulf trips lasting into 2019.

The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, has held 95 meetings with eight repressive monarchies in the Middle East since the ‘Arab Spring’ protests of 2011 threatened their power. Charles has played a key role in promoting £14.5-billion worth of UK arms exports to these regimes in the last decade.

Britain’s royal family has met members of autocratic Middle Eastern monarchies nearly once a fortnight since the crackdown on ‘Arab Spring’ protests began 10 years ago this month. Their visits have often coincided with human rights abuses in the Gulf, where pro-democracy activists are punished for criticising the Windsor ties to regimes.

Ahmed Al-Batati, a Lance Corporal in the British army, staged a public protest against British arms sales to Saudi Arabia in August, concerned that “a child was dying every 10 minutes” in Yemen. In his first interview since becoming a civilian, he tells Declassified that others in the army share his view and that he took action because parliament did nothing.

The UK military supplied 2,323 spare parts for Tornado fighter jets to an arms company in Saudi Arabia last year, despite a court order against exporting weapons for use in the Yemen war, Declassified UK has found.

A Saudi air force officer who crashed while undertaking ‘operational tasks’ over Yemen was taught to fly by Britain’s Royal Air Force and arms corporation BAE Systems, the UK government has confirmed.

Britain’s Royal Air Force has trained 25 pilots from Saudi Arabia to fly the powerful Typhoon jet and continues to provide instruction on using missiles involved in devastating attacks on civilians in Yemen.