UK role in Yemen conflict

Overview and links to external research

 * Yemen: Declassified- Mark Curtis's website - http://markcurtis.info -
 * Mark Curtis on Twitter, July 4, 2018
 * UK govt confirms it is storing and releasing for loading the weapons used by Saudi aircraft to bomb Yemen. Yemen is a British war and ministers are complicit in war crimes. The idea that UK is not part of the coalition is a fabricated lie that media is playing along with.


 * New documents show the UK signed up in secret to support Saudi military action - Mike Lewis Research, April 29, 2018
 * Stop Starving Yemen: Britain’s role in Yemen - Website for the campaign, edited by Dan Glazebrook


 * Country Policy and Information Note Yemen: Security and humanitarian situation - UKHome Office, June 2017


 * The Guardian view on Yemen: our complicity lies bare - The Guardian June 20, 2018


 * U.K Military Industrial Cartel and Tory Government Profit from Mass Murder in Yemen - Vanessa Beeley, 21st Century Wire August 9, 2018


 * Britain's secret deal to train Saudi air force - Larisa Browwn Daily Mail, October 16, 2018


 * Yemen: hundreds of alleged war crimes but only 79 investigations - Billy Briggs The Ferret November 20, 2018


 * UK's arms export supervisor attacks NGOs over Yemen deaths - The Guardian February 4, 2019
 * Graham Jones, a Labour MP and chair of the Commons committees on arms export controls (CAEC), also said that blame for the war in Yemen lay primarily with Iran, and not the west or Saudi Arabia.


 * Yemen: 4 Years of British Enabled Tragedy - Mayer Wakefield, Stop the War Coalition March 20, 2019
 * Britain could stop the war in Yemen in days. But it won’t - David Wearing, The Guardian April 3, 2019
 * A British former technician, stationed in Saudi Arabia until recently, told Channel 4 that if this support was withdrawn then “in seven to 14 days there wouldn’t be a jet in the sky” over Yemen. A former Saudi Air Force officer stated flatly that his compatriots “can’t keep the Typhoon in the air without the British”, and that, although US-supplied jets also play an indispensable role, the British Typhoon is so crucial that “without the Typhoon they will stop the war”.


 * Coronavirus cannot stop Britain’s war in Yemen - Phil Miller, Declassified UK, April 22, 2020

Suppression of journalists
See also Yemen
 * Ministry of Defence blacklists British journalists who report on UK military - Declassified UK, August 27, 2020
 * Council of Europe issues press freedom alert after UK blacklists site over Yemen coverage - MEE, September 5, 2020

Special Forces

 * Team of 20 British Special Forces fly into Red Sea port to protect UK oil shipments after rebels attack a tanker - David Waliams, Larisa Brown, Daily Mail ,July 30, 2018
 * The Coalition Special Forces team has the capability to launch drones from the secret Camp Lemonnier base in Djibouti.


 * SAS soldiers on aid mission injured in roadside bombing - Daily Express, February 17, 2019
 * The SAS is working alongside members of Operational Detachment Alpha, the primary fighting force for the Green Berets. Under US command, the heavily armed Special Forces team flew into Aden from Djibouti aboard a UAE Chinook helicopter and met UAE commanders before heading north-east in unmarked pick-up trucks.
 * Yémen : deux soldats britanniques ont été blessés - Press TV, February 20, 2019


 * Our secret dirty war: Five British Special Forces troops are wounded in Yemen while 'advising' Saudi Arabia on their deadly campaign that has brought death and famine to millions - Daily Mail, March 24, 2019
 * 'Serious' questions over SAS involvement in Yemen war - The Guardian, March 27, 2019
 * The claims are politically difficult since ministers are eager to suggest that as the penholder on the Yemen issue at the United Nations, Britain is an honest broker in the civil war, which is now entering its fifth year since the Saudi air campaign started. The UK is known to be close to the Saudi military but denies it is involved in operations against the Houthis in Yemen.

In February 2021. The Salvation government arrested and began trials against alleged informants recruited by UK and US agents, working to gather on the ground intelligence. See talk See also Talk:reports nine british soldiers killed Feb 23, 2019
 * UK troops accused of training child soldiers in Yemen - Press TV March 28, 2019
 * Iran threat: UK special forces join US strike group in Persian Gulf as tensions mount - Marco Giannagelli, Daily Express, May 19, 2019
 * British ambassador to Yemen admits UK troops are taking part in occupation of eastern Yemen - HodHod News Agency, June 29, 2021
 * Revealed: UK troops ‘secretly operating in Yemen’- Naseh Shaker, Phil Miller and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 6 July 2021
 * British special forces on hunt for drone killers - Marco Gianangelli, Daily Express, August 8, 2021
 * UK Special Forces team allegedly deployed to Yemen to hunt for suspects in 'Mercer Street' tanker attack - RT News, August 8, 2021

Relationship with Saudi Arabia, BAE systems, arms industry
See also Supply of weapons and European arms industry
 * Coverage relating to Yemen and the arms trade from Billy Briggs on theferret.scot
 * UK weapons companies have made £6bn from Saudi Arabia since it started bombing Yemen Lizzie Dearden The Independent September 19, 2017
 * UK PM’s husband’s Capital Group is largest shareholder in BAE, shares soar since Syrian airstrikes RT April 17, 2018
 * Mr Ethical on Twitter Theresa May's husband's company is the largest shareholder in BAE Systems, largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia. Osborne's Blackrock is 5th.


 * Theresa May’s Husband’s firm PROFITED from Saudi massacre of 40 school children in Yemen Evolve Politics August 21, 2018


 * Head of UK defence firm BAE criticises Riyadh over Khashoggi and Yemen war MEE January 26, 2019
 * BAE concerned that the continuing Saudi war, although justifiable, might be bad PR for their Saudi business partners,


 * February 2019: The UK defends its strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia and seeks with the US the removal of Saudi Arabia from a proposed EU money laundering blacklist. Brussels’ decision to include Riyadh has caused a spat between the commission and the EU’s biggest member states that are opposed to Europe taking a tougher stance against anti-money laundering than other global authorities. The Saudi government and its allies including the US have also lobbied Brussels to remove Riyadh from the list, said officials.
 * Uprising Today: This could increase tensions between the kingdom and the EU, which has already called on its member states to halt arms sales to Riyadh over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
 * REVEALED: UK minister met with BAE Systems weeks after Khashoggi murder to discuss response Iain Cobain, MEE April 8, 2019


 * UK's Saudi weapons sales unlawful, Lords committee finds The Guardian February 16, 2019
 * The Government asserts that, in its licensing of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, it is narrowly on the right side of international humanitarian law.’ But, the Committee members note, in their opinion, ‘Although conclusive evidence is not yet available, we assess that it [the Government] is narrowly on the wrong side: given the volume and type of arms being exported to the Saudi-led coalition, we believe they are highly likely to be the cause of significant civilian casualties in Yemen, risking the contravention of international humanitarian law.’The situation was discussed at the House of Lords.
 * UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, Court of Appeal rules Lizzie Dearden, The Independent June 20, 2019
 * CAAT June 20, 2019 - BREAKING: The Court of Appeal has ruled that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in #Yemen are UNLAWFUL. All arms sales licences suspended! 
 * CAAT condemns government decision to allow new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. CAAT considering legal steps - CAAT, July 7, 2020


 * ‘The Saudis couldn’t do it without us’: the UK’s true role in Yemen’s deadly war Arron Merat The Guardian June 18, 2019
 * LIZ TRUSS SHOULD RESIGN OVER ILLEGAL SAUDI ARMS SALES, SAY MPS - Matthew Weaver, September 18, 2019
 * Britain's secret Saudi Military Support programme Daily Maverick, Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard, Sept 27, 2019
 * The UK’s Secret Military Unit That Answers to Saudi Arabian Commanders - Matt Kennard, Daily Maverick, October 28, 2019
 * NGOs petition ICC to probe European firms’ role in alleged war crimes - Airforce Technology, December 12, 2019
 * BAE Systems sold £15bn worth of arms to Saudis during Yemen assault - Dan Sabbagh, The Guardian, April 14, 2020
 * UK’s BAE Systems sold $18.7bn in arms to Saudi during Yemen war - Middle East Monitor, April 15, 2020
 * Revealed: UK government broke inspection rules at arms factory supplying Saudis in Yemen war - Phil Miller, Daily Maverick, May 14, 2020
 * Revealed: Hundreds of Saudi and Gulf military personnel trained in Britain as Yemen war continues - Phil Miller, Declassified UK, July 3, 2020
 * UK spent over $3.3m on assistance to Saudi military over 4 years, MP reveals - Middle East Monitor, January 13, 2021
 * New film exposes English village key to bombing Yemen - Matt Kennard and Phil Miller, Declassified UK, October 15, 2021
 * British drone striking missiles may head to Saudi Arabia after oil field attacks - Dan Hastings, Daily Express, November 17, 2021

Saudi Operations Room

 * Yemen War Room: ITV News granted rare access - ITV News, January 24, 2017
 * UK and US and officers are present in the war room with national flags behind their desks for "training, supervision and evaluation".
 * * Response to Parliamentary question January 31, 2022 - ''We have a very small number of liaison officers based in the Saudi Air Operations Centre. They come under UK command and control and observe Saudi-led coalition air operations in Yemen to help the UK support Saudi compliance with International Humanitarian Law. Govt answer to Parliamentary question]