By the Campaign Against the Arms Trade

On Tuesday 20th October, Wes Streeting announced that the UK will expand its military partnership with Saudi Arabia, further embedding UK arms in the Royal Saudi Air Force. In a written statement, the Defence Secretary said: “RAF Typhoons will fly defensive air missions to help protect Saudi airspace… this builds on the UK equipment and personnel we already have in the country.”

This statement comes two days after Saudi Arabia executed a wave of 110 air and missile strikes across nine Yemeni governorates in a single 24-hour window, bringing the total number of Saudi air and missile attacks to 2,652 since the current escalation began in September.

Fifty-three of Sunday’s strikes were concentrated in the Saada province, including an attack on a residential family home, killing nine civilians (including five children and two women) and injuring eleven others.

This sustained military campaign is the primary driver of the catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfolding across Yemen today. Decades of bombardment and blockades have pushed the country to total collapse:

• More than 377,000 lives have been claimed in the Yemen conflict (UN estimate)
• Over 19.5 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection services.
• Approximately 17 million Yemenis face severe food insecurity.
• 5 million people are living in emergency-level conditions on the brink of famine.

Streeting acknowledged Yemen’s “already devastating humanitarian crisis”, citing the Houthis “reckless behaviour” as worsening the situation. There was no mention, however, of Saudi Arabia’s actions in this conflict, the war crimes committed by the regime nor the British government’s role in equipping, enabling and profiting from the Saudi aggression.

Reparations for Yemen – A proposal for a windfall tax on British arms companies that enabled Saudi war crimes, a report jointly published by CAAT and the Transition Security Project, uncovers how years of British arms sales, continuous technical support, and defence contracts laid the groundwork for Saudi Arabia’s military aggression. In doing so, Britain has helped facilitate widespread violations of International Humanitarian Law and documented war crimes.

While the Yemeni people bear the brunt of this devastation, British defence manufacturers have extracted staggering revenues. According to our report, BAE Systems drew 15.2% of its entire global revenue from Saudi military operations from 2015 – 2022, making at least £2.3 billion every year during the conflict.

From the West Country to the east coast of Scotland, from Filton to Fife, the British defence sector forms the backbone of the Royal Saudi Air Force. It’s a continuous supply chain with Eurofighter Typhoon and Tornado jets being assembled by BAE Systems in Lancashire, EJ200 and RB199 engines designed and built by Rolls-Royce in Filton, and Paveway IV precision-guided bombs produced by Raytheon at Fife and Essex. Without this incessant flow of UK-supplied hardware, servicing, accompanied with tactical support, the Saudi air force could not maintain these strikes and carry out massacres.

More than just discussing the events passed and the profits made, our report outlines a practical mechanism for justice: a targeted windfall tax on the vast profits British arms extracted from the destruction of Yemen. Read the full report here.

It is imperative that we mobilize now to hold the UK government accountable for its role in enabling war crimes. As the conflict reaches our headlines once again, there is a real fear that in the very near future, the Saudi regime could commit a grave violation of international law and massacre swathes of innocent people. They could only do this using British weapons made in British factories, enriching British arms dealers. Now is the time to apply pressure to our policy makers and demand Britain detangle itself from complicity in yet another humanitarian crisis.

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