UK ministers will face intense pressure this week to explain continued support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen in the wake of the revelations about the premeditated murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by allies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Middle East minister, Alistair Burt, and the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will be separately cross-examined about Britain’s relations with Saudi Arabia in the Commons, amid reports in British newspapers that UK intelligence may have known in advance that the Saudis were preparing to kill or capture Khashoggi.
The Foreign Office, in common with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, says there is no link between the Khashoggi murder and the conduct of the four-year civil war in Yemen, yet in reality ministers privately admit tolerance of the crown prince’s aggressive strategy is wearing thin. Macron on Saturday called for a united European response to Khashoggi’s killing, but is in dispute with Germany whether the sanctions should be directed against individuals or the Saudi regime.
Burt – who met Yemeni officials at the weekend in Bahrain – faces the international development select committee on Tuesday, and Hunt for the first time will be quizzed by the foreign affairs select committee on Wednesday. There are signs that senior Conservatives MPs have lost patience with Saudi Arabia.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is maintaining steady pressure on the Saudis by demanding they reveal the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body, or the identity of a so-called local cooperator who disposed of the body after he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The Saudi attorney general, Saud al-Mojeb, was due to arrive in Istanbul on Sunday, and if he fails to identify the local cooperator, the west will again question whether the Saudis are serious about ensuring the Turkish investigation identifies the true culprits.
Saudi Arabia has claimed a gang of 15 Saudi officials exceeded their authority in killing Khashoggi, a persistent critic of Riyadh. The Saudi court says a number of intelligence officers have also been arrested, including the deputy head of intelligence, Ahmed al-Asiri, a close ally of the crown prince.
Although there is no formal read across between the war in Yemen and the political status of the crown prince, the more he is exposed in the Khashoggi affair, the more the rationale for his as-yet-unsuccessful military strategy in Yemen comes under scrutiny.
The formal British ministerial position is that the UK is entitled to sell arms to Saudi to be used in Yemen since the Saudi conduct of the war is not in breach of international humanitarian law.
But Labour claims the UK government insistence there is no military solution to the war in Yemen is not supported by any true British diplomatic pressure on Saudi to negotiate an end to hostilities, either through meaningful private pressure or an initiative at the United Nations, where the UK is the pen-holder on Yemen. The UK points out that the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fighting the UN-backed government pose a genuine threat to Saudi Arabia.
Critics claim the Saudis have no diplomatic strategy for ending the war. A further 21 civilians were killed in Saudi airstrikes close to the strategic port of Hodeidah late last month.
The survival of Yemen’s UN-backed government led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi is totally dependent on support from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Hadi went to Washington last week in a surprise visit that may be linked to his health as well as the pressure rising in Congress for the war to be brought to an end.
The Saudis at the weekend rejected Erdoğan’s request that the group of 15 Saudi officials suspected of killing Khashoggi be tried in Turkey. The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, at the Manama security dialogue in Bahrain rejected the proposal, and described the criticism of Saudi Arabia as hysterical.
Western governments believe Erdoğan still has as-yet-unreleased audio tapes that could damage Saudi Arabia’s reputation further. Other states have been briefed that the gang responsible for killing Khashoggi made four calls to the crown prince’s office during the period of the murder, and say it is not credible that the crown prince was not informed of the operation.
