International security/ Arms trade and human rights

Since the 1960s, Saudi Arabia has been a major buyer of UK weapons. Saudi Arabia was Britain's biggest arms market in 2013, with the UK government approving £1.6 billion worth of exports, including components for military equipment for initiating explosives, equipment for the production of machine guns and hand grenades.

In 2013, Ann Feltham of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade said of the UK-Saudi relationship: “The problem is not that the UK government is failing to explain its approach to Saudi Arabia to the UK public; it is the approach itself that is the problem. The government needs to put human rights at the heart of its policy towards Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, not the interests of the arms companies.”

British establishment pays tribute to controversial Saudi King Abdullah