UK's Labour says would stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s main opposition Labour Party would stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia if it was in government, its foreign policy spokeswoman said on Sunday after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
FILE PHOTO: Human rights activists and friends of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hold his pictures during a protest outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo
Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Saudi officials say he left shortly afterwards but Turkish officials and his fiancée, who was waiting outside, said he never came out.
Turkish sources have told Reuters the initial assessment of the police was that Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government, had been deliberately killed inside the consulate. Riyadh has dismissed the claims.
Britain's Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Emily Thornberry delivers her keynote speech at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Britain, September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Phil Noble
Emily Thornberry, Labour’s so-called shadow foreign minister, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that “the balance of evidence” suggested Saudi Arabia had killed the journalist.
“We would stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia in current circumstances until they changed their ways ...We would be making it clear that we disagreed,” she said.
“I think our country has had enough of this. I think we have to stand up to them and have to say that the current behavior is unacceptable.”
Foreign minister Jeremy Hunt has called on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Jason Neely
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