Jeremy Corbyn Slams May for Cozying up to ‘War Ally’ MBS at G20

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed the British Prime Minister Theresa may for her closeness to “war ally” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) after she met with him onthe sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan. 

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May and MBS met for 20 minutes during the summit and according to her, she urged the crown prince to work with the U.N. to find a solution to the Yemen conflict which killed over 50,000 people and pushed millions of children to the brink of starvation. 

She also urged for an “open and transparent” legal procedure for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

“She should confirm the U.K. government will immediately stop selling arms to his regime and hold him to account over the horrific murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” Jeremy Corbyn said. 

“The UK has pumped £4.6 billion (US$5.8 billion) worth of military equipment into the conflict in Yemen. Almost a quarter of a million people will have been killed by the end of this year – more than half of them under five years old.”

He mentioned that the Court of Appeal had found the British government did not attempt to confirm whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed war crimes or violated international laws in Yemen. He also slammed the government for seeing “humanity’s biggest preventable disaster” as “an arms sales opportunity.”

“The evidence that war crimes have been committed in Yemen, the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, the horror of mass killing and starvation, and the brutal murder of opponents at home and abroad, should mean Saudi Arabia should be held to account, not embraced as military allies.”

The Saudi crown prince has been subjected to international criticism for murdering Yemeni civilians by waging a war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The country also threatened a U.N.-led peace process by alleging the special envoy Martin Griffiths of siding with the rebels. 

The U.K. government is also appealing against a court ruling which said the government’s arms sales to the kingdom are unlawful as the weapons are likely to be used to breach international humanitarian law in Yemen.