UK FM to press Saudi Arabia on human rights

Dominic Raab is to press the Saudi Arabian government on its human rights record during his first visit to the country as foreign secretary.

Iran Press/Middle East: The Foreign Office of United Kindom said Dominic Raab would "engage" with Saudi Arabia on the Human Rights issue and other areas of "difference".

According to BBC, He will also discuss the "devastating" humanitarian situation in Yemen and efforts to end its long-running war.

Labour party in the UK  has urged ministers to end all arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a major aggressor in the Yemeni conflict.

Last summer, the UK promised to stop approving export licences for arms to Saudi Arabia which could potentially be used in the civil war following a legal challenge by campaigners on Saudi aggression against Yemen.

The UK and other Western powers are providing logistical and armed support to a Saudi-led coalition which is waging war aggressively against Yemen.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for the UK to suspend all military aid to Saudi Arabia, while the Saudi-led coalition has been responsible for the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Yemen.

Under UK export policy, military equipment licences should not be granted if there is a "clear risk" that weapons might be used in a "serious violation of international humanitarian law".

The US intelligence CIA believes Khashoggi is killed by order of Bin Salman

Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia's ruling royal family of condoning the torture of political opponents as part of a sustained crackdown on dissent in the past couple of years - something the regime has rejected.

In November 2018, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch alleged that scores of human rights activists, intellectuals and clerics had been unlawfully detained and several of them, including women, had been either flogged, electrocuted or sexually harassed.

Saudi Arabia also continues to face international pressure over the unresolved murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

It has blamed the killing on rogue agents but denied claims that Mohammed bin Salman had knowledge of the operation. However, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly believes Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder.

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UK FM to press Saudi Arabia on human rights
The US intelligence CIA believes Khashoggi is killed by order of Bin Salman