CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

DEFENCE – SAUDIS & UK-MADE CLUSTER BOMBS - 19 December 2016

DEFENCE – SAUDIS & UK-MADE CLUSTER BOMBS - 19 December 2016

Dr Julian Lewis: Have the Saudis explained why they used these British-supplied weapons, presumably in the knowledge that it would cause considerable embarrassment to the British Government? What plans do the Saudis have to dispose of their remaining stocks?

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Sir Michael Fallon): The Saudis have made it clear that they used these munitions in a border area – just a few kilometres from the Saudi border – inside Yemen ​and they used them against a legitimate military target that may have been responsible for some of the attacks and deaths they had been suffering on their side of the border. They therefore state that, as they are not party to the convention, the use of these cluster munitions does not contravene international law. As for stocks, they have made it clear that they are not going to use UK-supplied cluster munitions in future, and we should all welcome that.]