{"id":13123,"date":"2018-02-28T17:26:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=13123"},"modified":"2018-02-28T17:26:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:26:10","slug":"protests-planned-next-week-against-bin-salmans-visit-to-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/protests-planned-next-week-against-bin-salmans-visit-to-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests planned next week against bin Salman\u2019s visit to UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

High-profile campaign groups plan to hold protests in London next week against a visit to Britain by the powerful Saudi crown prince to raise alarm over Riyadh\u2019s war crimes in Yemen and its human rights record.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The protesters will gather outside Downing Street next Wednesday, when Mohammed bin Salman arrives in the UK to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May.<\/h4>\n

Among the organizers are the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Stop the War Coalition, which counts Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott among their patrons, Sky News reported on Wednesday.<\/h4>\n

The activists have urged the premier to \u201cshow some backbone\u201d over Saudi Arabia\u2019s human rights violations and end Britain\u2019s arms sales to the kingdom, which has been engaged in a deadly war against Yemen over the past three years.<\/h4>\n

The UK has increased its weapons sales by around 500 percent since the onset of the deadly Saudi military campaign that has killed some 13,600 people in Yemen so far, The Independent reported last November.<\/h4>\n

The military equipment sold to the kingdom ever since, including warplanes, precision-guided bombs, and missiles, are worth more than $6.4 billion.<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
PressTV-\u2018Bin Salman\u2019s UK visit to be delayed amid protest fears\u2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A controversial trip by the Saudi crown prince to London is reportedly set to be delayed amid fears in Riyadh of negative media coverage and public protests.<\/h4>\n

CAAT\u2019s Andrew Smith said, \u201cThe Crown Prince should never have been invited to Downing Street: He leads a regime with an appalling human rights record and has overseen the destruction of Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

May, he added, \u201cis putting the interests of arms dealers above the rights of Yemeni people.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Amnesty International UK\u2019s Director, Kate Allen, also said, “Time and time again, UK ministers have turned a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record – barely mentioning the country’s crackdown on peaceful opposition figures, or the alarming prevalence of torture, unfair trials and grisly executions.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cAhead of Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s visit, Theresa May must finally do the right thing over UK arms sales – suspending all arms exports to Saudi Arabia while there\u2019s any risk they\u2019ll be used by the Saudi-led coalition to bomb civilians or enforce the crippling blockade in Yemen<\/em>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Speaking about their upcoming talks, however, May did not sound critical of Riyadh\u2019s actions, and claimed that the two sides would openly address the regional situation.<\/h4>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia is changing<\/em>,\u201d she said, referring to the \u201creforms\u201d bin Salman is making at home. \u201cOur strong relationship with Saudi Arabia enables us to talk frankly and constructively about issues where we both have concerns, such as regional security and the conflict and humanitarian situation in Yemen.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The CAAT organized a protest in front of the Saudi Embassy in London earlier in the month to shame the British authorities over their Saudi arms sales.<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
PressTV-London protesters blast UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The demonstration featured\u00a0campaigners expressing\u00a0their outrage at\u00a0British profiteering from the ongoing bloodshed which has taken more than 13,600 Yemeni\u00a0lives so far.<\/h4>\n

On February 1, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal said Salman\u2019s UK visit was to be delayed amid fears of negative media coverage and popular protests.<\/h4>\n

The visit, it said, had been scheduled to take place later in February, but would be postponed to March 7 amid worries in Riyadh that the heir to the throne could be the target of protests against the Saudi regime\u2019s rights record and its war crimes in Yemen.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High-profile campaign groups plan to hold protests in London next week against a visit to Britain by the powerful Saudi crown prince to raise alarm over Riyadh\u2019s war crimes in Yemen and its human rights record. The protesters will gather outside Downing Street next Wednesday, when Mohammed bin Salman arrives in the UK to meet …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13125,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13123\/revisions\/13125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}