Britain’s royal family has met members of autocratic Middle Eastern monarchies nearly once a fortnight since the crackdown on ‘Arab Spring’ protests began 10 years ago this month. Their visits have often coincided with human rights abuses in the Gulf, where pro-democracy activists are punished for criticising the Windsor ties to regimes.
Ahmed Al-Batati, a Lance Corporal in the British army, staged a public protest against British arms sales to Saudi Arabia in August, concerned that “a child was dying every 10 minutes” in Yemen. In his first interview since becoming a civilian, he tells Declassified that others in the army share his view and that he took action because parliament did nothing.
The UK military supplied 2,323 spare parts for Tornado fighter jets to an arms company in Saudi Arabia last year, despite a court order against exporting weapons for use in the Yemen war, Declassified UK has found.
A Saudi air force officer who crashed while undertaking ‘operational tasks’ over Yemen was taught to fly by Britain’s Royal Air Force and arms corporation BAE Systems, the UK government has confirmed.
Britain’s Royal Air Force has trained 25 pilots from Saudi Arabia to fly the powerful Typhoon jet and continues to provide instruction on using missiles involved in devastating attacks on civilians in Yemen.
UK defence minister admits that training of Saudi Typhoon pilots is continuing despite Riyadh using these British-made jets to conduct airstrikes in Yemen, a country on the brink of famine.
The UK’s Royal Air Force is refusing to release video footage that shows fighter pilots from Saudi Arabia conducting air attacks in Britain, as part of a controversial military training scheme which involves 25 civilian airports.
A serving British soldier is being investigated by the Royal Military Police for protesting against arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He accuses the government of having ‘blood on their hands’ and says: ‘I’d rather sleep peacefully in a cell than stay silent for a paycheck.’
Britain’s intelligence agencies are teaching the next generation of spymasters from some of the world’s most repressive dictatorships, it can be revealed for the first time.
British diplomatic files about Saudi Arabia and mercenaries are among over 6,000 documents recently censored from the National Archives – by an ‘independent’ oversight panel containing former spies and government officials.