Latest CAAT News on arms trade issues

February 2024

UPDATE: 22 February 2024. UK government may suspend arms licenses to Israel if it goes ahead with the attack on Rafah.

We have mentioned the arms trade on many occasions before believing that the UK’s continued role in supplying weapons to a wide range of regimes with little concern for the consequences is shameful and immoral. As a key member of the UN, to be one of the world’s biggest seller of arms is not something to be proud of. Weapons kill, and are used to oppress minorities or to exert power over them. The biggest sufferers – as we are seeing in Gaza right now – are usually women and children.

Gaza

The lead article in the Campaign Against the Arms Trade newsletter (No 268, Spring 2024) is the situation in Gaza where an estimated 29,000 have now died at the time of writing. Israel has damaged or destroyed some 70% of Gaza’s residential buildings and has ‘systematically’ degraded healthcare facilities and food production systems. Around 85% of the population has been displaced. Meanwhile they say “senior Israeli politicians and military figures have openly talked of expelling the population of Gaza to Egypt, and have used blatantly genocidal language”. (p3)

The US is the major suppliers of weapons to Israel and the UK is a minor supplier by comparison although we do manufacture 15% of F-35 aircraft used by the Israelis.

Weapons

The UK government wants to champion arms companies it reports as “positive ambassadors for the UK, in the face of investment threats“. The focus was announced by Grant Shapps MP as part of a strategy to increase arms exports. They also appear to be encouraging Saudi Arabia to join a defence partnership to build the next generation of fighter jets. The record of Saudi in terms of human rights hardly needs rehearsing with executions, repression, use of torture and the outcry following the murder of Khashoggi. Japan, another possible partner, is said to be opposed to this. It seems the commercial priorities are supreme over any considerations of human rights. (p5)

Annual Report

CAAT has published its second annual report for 2022. It shows a big surge in export orders to £8.5bn. It shows that the single largest customer is Qatar which has a particularly poor human rights record. The report discusses some of the key countries of concern to whom we sell weapons and these include, UAE, Turkey, Saudi and Israel. The report is hard to summarise and does need to be read to gain an understanding of how the trade works and the UK’s role in it.

Telford Arms Fair

This fair used to be in Malvern and campaigners have tried to get it stopped now that it has moved to Telford. The fair is called the Specialist Defence and Security Convention UK. The title gives the impression of a benign intent with the words ‘security’ and ‘defence’. However, the weapons on display and the countries who purchase them are often used to maintain colonial power or to oppress in some way. They also kill. It has to be questioned whether such an exhibition is appropriate for the UK to be promoting and playing such an active part in. (p12). An article in the Shropshire Star newspaper had the following quote “Residents, faith groups, veterans, trade unions, environmental and peace organisations made very clear the arms fair is no more welcome in Telford than in Malvern, and we’ll be continuing to engage with the council and the Telford International Centre to ensure we don’t see a weapons fair here again.” There does not appear to be any policy statement on the details available about any moral or human rights stance by themselves or the exhibitors.

Saudi and MBS

The red carpet was almost certainly to be rolled out for Mohammed bin Salman’s planned visit to the UK. At his last visit he had lunch with the Queen and dinner with Prince William and Kate Middleton. The main purpose of course was the sale of weapons and in particular, Typhoon aircraft. A deal was in place CAAT reports but the murder of Khashoggi, CAAT’s own legal case and the war in Yemen delayed signing.

A number of human rights organisations were planning an appropriate welcome and included Amnesty, Reprieve, CAAT, and a Saudi human rights organisation Alqst. A problem for the UK is that the Eurofighter is a joint programme and some of the partners – Italy, Germany and Spain – need to approve any exports. Germany opposed the deal especially after the Khashoggi murder. There has been a lot of lobbying and the German position may have softened. It is possible the visit will happen therefore.

The overall picture is that the UK sees the sale of weapons to be a key enterprise and Grant Shapps’ statement about arms companies being ‘ambassadors’ sums up the position nicely. It would be hard to argue that the government has any kind of ethical position. Countries with atrocious human rights are courted for sales often using members of the Royal Family as ‘ambassadors’ as well.

No human rights policy

It is also interesting to note that there does not seem to be anywhere on the Ministry of Defence’s website, any reference at all to human rights concerns. The nearest policy statement appears to be the following:

‘We will engage proactively and persistently around the globe, working with our allies, to support our foreign policy goals, promote our interests and keep our competitors at bay, including in the grey zone.

‘Defence will contribute to our prosperity through creating a secure environment for business, supporting British business and jobs, and through supporting technology innovation in the economy more widely, investing in Research and Development (R&D) and new technologies to counter the threat‘.

The UK’s prosperity seems to be the one and only concern. An ethical foreign policy seems a very long time ago.

Sources: CAAT news, Shropshire Star, The Times, MoD

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