The governments of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia have announced a new Military and Security Cooperation Agreement, signed in Jeddah by the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and the Saudi Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman.
Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon said:
“The security of the GCC, of all Gulf Countries, is critical to UK security. I am delighted to have signed today with HRH the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia a new Military and Security Cooperation Agreement between our two countries; this Agreement further cements the UK’s long standing relationship with our key Gulf partner.”
New estimates released by the children’s charity ‘War Child’ reveal that since the Saudi-led coalition began its intervention in Yemen, UK weapons companies including BAE systems and Raytheon have earned revenues exceeding $8bn from dealings with Saudi Arabia, generating profits estimated at almost $775m.
The UK government, however, has received just $40m of corporate tax, the report said.
According to the government:
“The agreement will promote cooperation between our two countries across the Defence and Security sectors, helping Saudi Arabia better protect her national security, including counter-terrorism, intelligence, training and education, medical services and logistics.”
Qatar recently signed an agreement to buy 24 Typhoon fighter jets from Britain while regional power Saudi Arabia and allies Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar earlier in the year, accusing it of backing extremism and fostering ties with their rival Iran.
KSA is an important military partner and a large customer for defence industry.
Regards Yemen, well war is a bloody business and people die. I consider the Saudi response to the situation to be proportionate and legal.
I am sure some disagree, but KSA is not a brutal terrorist supporting state that some would like to believe.
I am proud to have served in KSA as a UK serving soldier and latter as a contractor for the UK MOD, for which the Saudi government paid to the UK treasury an awful lot of money.
Turn it in Mike.
Bombing a civilian area is a war crime for crying out loud.
4,600 civilians dead, I’m sure you wouldn’t think it’s proportionate and legal if it was your child killed when a bomb lands through his/her bedroom roof.
Go back to kindergarden, the houthis have been murdering Saudi civilians since the 1960s.
Mike – Its OK mate there are those who think war is a clinically clean and clear cut game. they judge just the reaction not the provocation. They probably play war games on xBox so they are now experts. Some of us who have tasted that special fear know different. These PC thought controllers are why corrupt lawyers have been allowed to hound innocent lads for years over non-events in Iraq. And why Paras who did as they were ordered 30 years ago are now facing criminal charges while Blair gave ‘get out of jail free’ cards to murdering IRA… Read more »
“Its OK mate there are those who think war is a clinically clean and clear cut game. they judge just the reaction not the provocation. They probably play war games on xBox so they are now experts. Some of us who have tasted that special fear know different.” What the hell are you talking about, just because there is usually collateral damage and civilians will most likely get caught in it sometimes, does not give any country the right to kill thousands of civilians needlessly you moron, its a basic human right to not get blown to bits for crying… Read more »
“they judge just the reaction not the provocation”
Chris what provocation did these women and children do?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-saudi-air-strikes-civilians-children-killed-sanaa-faj-attan-a7916461.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-air-strike-saudi-arabia-10-women-children-dead-funeral-bombing-sanaa-a7585886.html
the floor is yours….
Concealing ammunition dumps and weapons positions in a civilian area is a war crime. The law of reciprocity and retaliation is clear. You conceal weapons or firing positions in a hospital or residential area. The perfectly innocent wounded and civilians wind up playing a game of, Is There A God. If this is not done the behavior of using noncombatants as human shields will only increase. The only alternative the KSA would have to their current tactics would be mass deployment of infantry. In order to go door to door slowly clearing each and every building. During which they would… Read more »
“the houthis have been murdering Saudi civilians since the 1960s.” The IRA were murdering British civilians for decades, we didn’t flatten Dublin did we? The Saudi regime are cowards, plain and simple, they don’t want to send in troops so they bombard the place from a distance no matter what the civilian cost, when it was the Russians in Aleppo it was a war crime, Assad? war crime, Gaddafi? war crime, Saddam? war crime, Saudi Arabia? the largest producer of oil in opec? not a problem..pathetic and beyond hypocrisy. I cannot believe any western man is defending the sordid Saudi… Read more »
“Go back to kindergarden”
You’re British Mike! *head in hands*
Or is he? He’s been trolling this site for a long time.
Wow, you know sometimes on the internet you can be debating with people or commenting on something and not see or understand something, either you are looking for something different or just have not picked up on it, either way Lewis you absolute legend for picking that up. Because it makes total sense, I have debated with Mike on numerous occasions and it’s always the same side he is arguing for, even in procurement, if its American it’s ok but anything else bad, he argues that point on a regular basis. And I am 30 years old, and not once… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7acWj_z8LE
There is a video of the situation in Yemen, 2 million children malnourished, have a nice watch of that proportionate and legal situation in Yemen Mike, where children are starving to death.
“KSA is an important military partner” In what way? your comment after reading it again and again just continues to be absolute garbage, in fact its embarrassing. Canada is an important military partner, France, USA, Norway, Australia. Saudi Arabia? you mean they buy stuff off us now and again. where were their troops in Afghanistan? Iraq? Have a big long word with yourself Mike, absolute clueless doughnut of the highest order. Just so you know Mike, Saudi Arabia is no important ally of mine, and quite a lot of the normal population who think their attitude towards women and anyone… Read more »
You need to calm down Kieran outside you will be sent to bed without any supper by matron.
What’s the difference between Saudi & Russian oil billionaires?
Both know the end is coming domestically.
Saudi’s quietly buy anonymous high end property in London so they can hide anonymously when the shit hits the fan.
Russians buy very high profile assets like newspapers and football clubs so everyone knows who they are when the shit hits the fan.
Not a nice comment from me i know and i will probably get hammerd but if we didnt sell them someone else would Again not nice to say but it keeps the jobs in this country rather than going to somewhere else Do you think any other country would bother and have a guilty conscience i think not We have to many libs in this country messing everything up Messing Brexit up Cant say things as you will more than likely be called a racist Take a look at yourselves libs you think you are doing good but all you… Read more »
Excuse me, Baz? If another country would sell weapons to rapists and murderers of civilians, let them do it. There are plenty of legitimate opportunities to sell British military hardware to countries, the MoD is just terrible at it. Shouldn’t they focus on learning how to sell stuff than supporting the terrorist government there? Jobs are one thing, lives are quite another. If our government was really that bothered it would do a better job of preserving jobs by better means than this. I think you went off on one a bit at the end there, either way you’ve got… Read more »
Let’s be very honest with ourselves, Saudi is governed by a pretty nasty totalitarian state, they do nasty things to dissidents, subjugate large parts of their population and would do a lot worse to stay in power, they do participate in and fuel proxy wars to support their own power base. Anyone who does not think they have been funnelling support into terrorist groups is propably living in Lala land. Should we be supporting them probably not, but can we afford not to ? at present we need them and one thing we have learnt is the Middle East can… Read more »
I think we can afford to lose £40 million quid mate. We do not need them at all, Britain’s foreign policy in the middle east should not be dictated by anyone, we created half the countries there, we split blood in that sand before Saudi and Israel were even an idea in a British politicians mind, we should promote peace and free trade, we do not need Saudi Arabia for that. I cannot wait for the day (hopefully I will see it) when western Europe becomes totally electric and we stick our combined finger up at the middle east and… Read more »
Due explain how your going to make every industrial chemical and polymer that make the modern world possible without the petrochemical industry. Then enlighten me as to where all this electricity is going to come. Because I doubt you can hook a power station to a Green Energy supporters great flapping jaw.
Elliot when cars and transportation in general are totally electric the need and importance of oil will fall massively, we have biofuels, new technology. Some people say we have already passes peak oil, the US oil production has been declining since 1970, we will eventually have to find a new source, that’s a given. The chemicals will have to be made a different way, or they will still be made from oil, either way oil wont be that important so that does not really matter. Where this electricity is going to come from? solar, wind, tidal, Nuclear, a probable new… Read more »
US oil production is higher than it was in 1970 it surpassed that back in 2014. Due to barriers to drilling removed by Bush and advances in drilling and extraction technology. Production is expected to fall in Q4 17 to 2018 but due to an oil glut not lack of supply. I am pointing out current alternative energy is not even capable of supplying a fraction of electricity currently needed. If you add transportation to the mix you adding an even higher electric burden. My other point is every polymer in major use and of any strength is made out… Read more »
Its not a 40m loss. The end suppliers (Bae etc) of these weapons made 700m profit from 8b, so they spent 7.3b on wages and pensions and with their suppliers. The suppliers to Bae etc themselves were taxed and their employees were paid and taxed. Employees spend and when they do they pay VAT, companies the employee buy from also pay corporation Tax and so on. There’s also local taxes paid like employee council taxes and business rates. The article shows complete financial illiteracy of the supply chain and UK tax regime. So this was 7.3b injection into the economy… Read more »
Correct
Well said Lenny
Kieran whilst it is a free country and everybody is allowed to have their say, but have you been outside your bedroom in the past 5 years to experience the real world?
By the way I am not CIA and my British army number is 24311052. I enlisted at army careers office in Portsmouth and my first unit was JLRRA at bramcote. So forget your wild fantasies about me being this that and other.
That is all.
Saudi Arabia is an example of a feudal system that works by and large. Immensely wealthy ruling family uses oil wealth to build schools and hospitals for the people and provide jobs.
Nepotistic? Absolutely. Unequal? Absolutely. Mysoginist? Absolutely. Old Testament eye for an eye justice? Absolutely. But stable and everyone is well fed and gets a shot at family life.
The main problem is that the ruling family needs to rely on the Islamic clerics. There’s your real problem.
But things are chnaging slowly in the region. Softly softly…
http://www.newsweek.com/uae-names-abu-dhabi-mosque-after-mary-mother-jesus-625904
Have any of you actually been to Saudi. Lived there? Worked there? I have. Yes its not the liberal fun house that the UK is but it isn’t all as bad as the press would have you believe. So why do we sell arms to Saudi? Two reasons. 1. They are an important strategic ally in an area we wish to and do have influence in. 2. The arms sails keep 5 pence in the pound off of everyone’s income tax in the UK. So before you get all moralistic on the rights and wrongs of the Yemen conflict why… Read more »