As if this sequence of events were not disheartening enough, how dismaying it is to learn that Britain, which continues, against much contrary evidence, to preen itself as a shining beacon of representative governance and liberal values, has profited greatly, and continues to profit, from this dashing of democratic aspirations. As Jamie Doward reports today, the impact of the Arab spring produced a bonanza for UK arms manufacturers and exporters. In the years preceding 2011, Britain, on average, sold £41.3m worth of small arms, £7m worth of ammunition and £34.3m worth of armoured vehicles to Middle East and North African governments. In the five years that followed, annual sales rose to an average of £58.9m, £14m and £59.6m respectively. [...]
Among all these eager, weapons-hungry regimes, anxious to shore up their often illegitimate and undemocratic grip on power, Saudi Arabia is the jewel in the crown for Britain’s arms merchants. Official HMRC figures, analysed by the Greenpeace EnergyDesk, show that in 2015, 83% of UK arms exports – almost £900m worth – went to Saudi Arabia. Even more significantly perhaps, given the furious controversy over the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, ministers have granted export licences for more than £3.3bn worth of aircraft, munitions and other equipment to Riyadh since 2015, when the Saudi intervention began. [...]
Yemen, always poor and unstable, has become, as a result of this myopic neglect and shaming self-interest, a disaster zone where the UN estimates 12 million people are on the brink of famine. Roughly two-thirds of the population is now in need of humanitarian assistance, yet global appeals are persistently underfunded. In Yemen, the terrorist groups feared by Britain and its allies, such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, feed on the injustices engendered by the Saudi campaign. In Yemen, Donald Trump orders a specious special operations raid that goes predictably and disastrously wrong. In Yemen, one child is dying every 10 minutes. Nearly half a million suffer acute malnutrition.
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