Thread: Criticising Saudi Arabia 'not helpful' for UK arms sales

Michael Fallon: criticising Saudi Arabia 'not helpful' for UK arms sales

Defence secretary provokes backlash from human rights groups for emphasising sale of fighter jets to the kingdom

Michael Fallon urged MPs to stop criticising Saudi Arabia in the interests of securing a fighter jet deal, provoking sharp criticism from human rights and arms trade campaigners.

The defence secretary was giving evidence to the Commons defence committee, where he was pressed about why a deal to sell Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia had not yet been signed.

Fallon said he had been working extremely hard on the deal and had travelled to Jeddah in September to discuss it with his Saudi counterpart. Although Qatar had agreed two days earlier to buy 24 jets from the UK, Fallon had to settle for signing a largely meaningless joint defence agreement with the Saudis.

Fallon told the defence committee: “I have to repeat, sadly, to this committee that obviously other criticism of Saudi Arabia in this parliament is not helpful and ... I’ll leave it there,” he said. “But we need to do everything possible to encourage Saudi Arabia towards batch two. I believe they will commit to batch two.”

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/michael-fallon

Sure they will commit, needing all the friends money can buy.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Although Qatar had agreed two days earlier to buy 24 jets from the UK, Fallon had to settle for signing a largely meaningless joint defence agreement with the Saudis.

Perhaps that was the issue rather than a bit of criticism.