[Smithy]

Britain is to resume selling arms to Saudi Arabia despite assessing that the country could be using them to commit war crimes, the government has announced.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday that the government had completed a review of how arms export licences were granted in order to comply with an earlier court ruling suspending sales.

Ms Truss said that while some "credible incidents of concern" related to Saudi forces' conduct had been classified as "possible" breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL), the UK government viewed these as "isolated incidents".

The incidents which have been assessed to be possible violations of IHL occurred at different times, in different circumstances and for different reasons," the statement said.

The statement adds: "The undertaking that my predecessor gave to the Court – that we would not grant any new licences for the export of arms or military equipment to Saudi Arabia for possible use in Yemen – falls away."

The announcement from the international trade secretary comes just a day after the Foreign Secretary said the UK would introduce a "sanctions regime that will target people who have committed the gravest human rights violations" and that "Global Britain will be an even stronger force for good in the world, in the years ahead".

In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen against Houthi rebels, who are fighting the internationally recognised government and control large swathes of territory. But humanitarian groups and the UN quickly accused Saudi-led forces of breaching international humanitarian law, including bombing schools, hospitals, weddings and food infrastructure.

The conflict has cost an estimated 100,000 lives, with 80 per cent of Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance. The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said “the crisis is of cataclysmic proportions”.

Full story https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9605636.html