MPs pile pressure on Hunt to cut ties with Saudis over Khashoggi killing saying it’s ‘hard to imagine what crime’ Gulf kingdom would need to commit to earn rebuke from Britain
- Foreign affairs representatives from five parties have called for the UK to cut ties
- Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK would not ‘throw our hands in the air’
- Saudi Arabia admitted Khashoggi was killed but claims it was a ‘rogue operation’
MPs have piled pressure on the British Government to cut ties with Saudi Arabia despite the kingdom’s alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Foreign affairs representatives from five parties have written to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt after the Gulf kingdom finally admitted Khashoggi had been killed.
Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens said it was ‘hard to imagine what crime the Saudi government would need to commit’ to earn a rebuke from the UK Government, the Guardian reported.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said it was a ‘terrible case’ but the UK government was ‘not throwing our hands in the air’ because thousands of jobs depended on relations with the country.
Turkish government sources have claimed that Khashoggi (pictured), a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was tortured and murdered by a hit squad flown in from Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia is the UK’s key ally in the region and also a significant trading partner and Britain rolled out the red carpet when the Crown Prince visited in March.
A former head of MI6 has said Khashoggi’s murder is likely to have been ordered by allies of the prince but Saudi Arabia has denied he knew about the killing.
During his state visit he was granted rare access to a briefing on foreign policy issues by national security officials alongside his meetings with the Queen and Mrs May.
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The government has come under pressure from Labour and the Liberal Democrats to ban arms sales to the kingdom but Mr Raab insisted the UK’s export regime was ‘one of the most rigorous’ in the world.
‘The problem with Labour’s position is it would cost thousands of British jobs. So, what we would rather do is support the investigation, find out what happened,’ he said.
The Saudi regime insisted on Sunday that the regime was still working on finding the body, saying Khashoggi had been killed in a ‘rogue operation’.
Turkish government sources have claimed that Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi government, was tortured and murdered by a hit squad flown in from Riyadh.
Foreign affairs representatives from five parties have written to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) after the Gulf kingdom finally admitted Khashoggi had been killed
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is considering the ‘next steps’ in Britain’s response to the case.
Mr Hunt has previously warned there will be ‘consequences’ for the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia if it was found the journalist was murdered.
US President Donald Trump suggested sanctions against Saudi were a possibility but said that halting arms deals would ‘hurt us more than it would hurt them’.
Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s arms expert, said the UK should have halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia long ago over its military intervention in Yemen.
He added: ‘On the one hand, ministers defend weapons sales to the Saudi coalition with claims that the coalition properly investigates when airstrikes kill Yemeni civilians.
‘Yet, on the other, ministers are quite rightly sceptical over Saudi Arabia’s ability to properly investigate over a high-profile case like Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia is the UK’s key ally in the region and also a significant trading partner and Britain rolled out the red carpet when the Crown Prince visited in March (pictured)
‘This issue boils down to trust: the Government has time and time again been willing to trust Saudi promises over proper investigations despite overwhelming evidence of its reckless military behaviour in Yemen.’
Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said that those responsible will be held accountable for ‘this huge and grave mistake’.
Saudi Arabia finally admitted on Friday that Khashoggi was killed after he entered the consulate on October 2.
The kingdom has also said 18 suspects are in custody and that intelligence officials have been fired.
A senior official had earlier claimed Khashoggi was killed in a chokehold and his body hidden in a rug so that a ‘co-operator’ could dispose of it away from the Saudi consulate.
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