British Court Orders U.K. Government to Review Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

By Adam Clark

A British court on Thursday ruled that the U.K. government must reconsider its approval of military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia, dealing a potential blow to the Middle Eastern kingdom and some of its largest defense suppliers.

The Court of Appeal said the British government had failed to make a systematic assessment of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian law during the conflict in Yemen. The appeal was brought by advocacy group Campaign Against Arms Trade.

"The decision of the court today does not mean that licenses to export arms to Saudi Arabia must immediately be suspended. CAAT did not ask for such an order. It does mean that the U.K. government must reconsider the matter," the court said in a summary of its judgment.

The U.K. government has undertaken not to grant any new licenses for the export of arms to Saudi Arabia until it has retaken its decision or appealed the latest ruling.

"The government will now have to reconsider whether to suspend existing export licenses and reconsider its decision to continue to grant licenses. Our client hopes the government will reconsider quickly and will decide that no further licenses should be granted," said Rosa Curling, solicitor of law firm Leigh Day, which acted on behalf of CAAT.

Britain's largest weapons-maker BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) is part of a joint venture which makes the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets used by Saudi Arabia, alongside the German and Spanish arms of Airbus SE (AIR.FR) and Italy's Leonardo SpA (LDO.MI).

BAE shares at 0940 GMT were up 1.5%, broadly flat from prior to the ruling.

Write to Adam Clark at [e-mail]; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 20, 2019 06:05 ET (10:05 GMT)

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