Anti-poverty and justice organization Oxfam accused the British government of prolonging the war in Yemen by allowing the export of air-to-air refuelling equipment to the Saudis. Oxfam fears this equipment would allow the Saudi air force conduct indiscriminate bombing in Yemen. The technology was licensed to the Saudi capital Riyadh last summer when arms restrictions were removed, alongside £1.4 billion of other sales, and can be used to help combat planes fly longer missions at a time when the conflict is intensifying. Oxfam has called on both sides to adopt an urgent ceasefire, and for the UK to halt all arms exports that could be used in the conflict. Sam Nadel, head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam, said: “As the US has called for an end to the conflict in Yemen, the UK is heading in the opposite direction, ramping up its support for the brutal Saudi-led war by increasing arms sales and refuelling equipment that facilitate airstrikes… The UK claims to support peace in Yemen. It can start by immediately ending the sale of all arms that risk being used against civilians and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.”
I think Oxfam has the right idea by calling out the arms sales by the British to Saudi Arabia. In the United States, there are mostly negative connotations about any US presence in the Middle East, and any politician that believes that we need to be stationed in the Middle East will probably fail at reelection. There is no possibility that the media in America would let $1.4 billion in armaments go to the Middle East and there wouldn’t be a civil uproar about it. It makes me wonder if the average British citizen and taxpayer knows what their government is doing in the Middle East and if they’re concerned. This scenario is unfathomable in the modern United States, especially after how we helped the Mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The connection to class that I drew was when we discussed global superpowers and their role on the global stage. For the longest time, the British Empire stretched far and wide, but the title global superpower has been passed around a lot, where today the crown sits on the head of the United States. The British have lost vast amounts of territory and influence across the world, all but the comparatively miniscule island they currently reside. I believe that the British have never truly forgotten how far they have fallen, and these militaristic ventures are their way of reminding the world that the British are not as content with being reduced as they let on.