Since the beginning of the Yemen war ... British weapons worth five billion pounds to Saudi Arabia

The British Guardian newspaper revealed that Saudi Arabia has received British weapons worth more than five billion pounds since the beginning of the war in Yemen in March 2015.

The newspaper said that Saudi Arabia received British weapons despite international concern that the Saudi-Emirati coalition had committed human rights violations in Yemen by targeting civilian infrastructure.

The Guardian report warned of a plan by the British government to allocate more than one billion pounds of taxpayer money as loans to other countries, to buy weapons, smart bombs, and tracking and surveillance systems from Britain.

The newspaper pointed out that the British government considers arms sales as one of the fields that will depend on it to push the economy after leaving the European Union, and has appointed a specialized team at the International Trade Ministry to promote British weapons.

Crisis and losses
The newspaper quoted Andrew Smith of the Anti-Arms Trade Campaign as saying that the crisis in Yemen showed how policies to promote British arms sales could backfire.

Smith added that during the past five years we have witnessed the devastating impact of British-made fighter planes, bombs and missiles on Yemen. The war has killed tens of thousands of people and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. These arms sales must end now, as well as the policies that allowed this to happen.

On March 26, 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched a massive air operation, in a war that left an acute humanitarian crisis the worst in the world, according to the United Nations.

The coalition's intervention came at the request of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to restore legitimacy in the country, after the Houthi group took control of the capital, Sana'a, and most of the northern governorates, and crawled them into the southern governorates.