Cameron claims export licenses allowing UK arms sales to Russia don’t breach embargo
Published time: July 24, 2014 15:04
Edited time: July 24, 2014 23:23
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Heated criticism of British arms deals with Russia emerged after a group of MPs revealed over 200 licenses allowing the sale of British military equipment to the Russian Federation. These revelations surfaced in a report published on Wednesday, conducted by four separate House of Commons committees.
The Committee on Arms Export Controls’ hard-hitting review contradicted a public statement by David Cameron on July 21. The Prime Minister had indicated the government had enforced an absolute arms embargo against Russia.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Cameron called for an outright EU-wide ban on arms sales to Russia, claiming such an embargo was already in place in Britain.
“Future military sales from any country in Europe should not be going ahead,” the Prime Minister told Westminster MPs. “We have already stopped them from Britain,” he claimed.
But the Commons committees’ report contradicted Cameron’s claims. The review carefully scrutinized controls on Britain’s arms exports to Russia, revealing 251 export licenses for the sale of controlled goods to the Russia Federation worth approximately £132m.
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Previously, Britain’s new Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, said Britain does not export arms to Russia “that could be used for internal repression.”
Fallon claimed Britain has “one of the strictest arms sales policies in the world. We don’t sell arms to countries that might use them internally, or might use them to cause regional instability.”
But MPs have called for stricter controls on weapons sales to “authoritarian regimes” - emphasizing that over 3,000 export licenses for arms deals worth £12bn have been approved for 28 states criticized by the UK's Foreign Office for their unacceptable human rights records.
Such states include Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sri Lanka.
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Source - RT News - here.
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