UK not serious in fighting terrorism: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeed Shehabi, a Middle East expert from London, to discuss a secret security pact between the British government and Saudi Arabia.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Why are the details of this security pact between Britain and Saudi Arabia so secretive?

Shehabi: Unfortunately, the British government which should think in a different way, which should think seriously about combating terrorism and targeting those countries which are financing terrorism is not thinking in that way. They are aware of the links between terrorists and terrorist groups and some countries like the Saudis and others but they are not willing to take action to stop the arms.

There is a lot of pressure now coming from Amnesty International, from committee against arms trade and all these people who are against arms trade to countries that are violating human rights or who are using these arms against the civilian population like in Yemen, but the British government has its own laws that is protecting it from exposing the details of the arrangements they have with the Saudis and with other Persian Gulf countries. Imagine that for example a researcher has applied recently to see documents which should have been open to the public after thirty years, he is asking for the documents going back 1964 and 1965 which is fifty years and still he is denied access to these documents. So, this secrecy is creating a lot of unease among the human rights activists and among the groups that are lobbying against use of arms against civilians especially mentioned by several human rights activists and NGOs that war crimes have been committed by the Saudi alliance in Yemen.

Press TV: Mr. Shehabi! Amnesty International has described this deal as being very murky now. We know that the United States and Britain which censure so many countries for what they call human rights abuses are so tightly associated in defense spending and arms aid with the Saudis which have poor human rights record themselves. How is that?

Shehabi: Well, I have always said and heard many people say that unless there is disengagement between UK, US and those countries that are supporting terrorism, unless they do that, unless they come clean about this relation and about security and military arrangements with those regimes, then they are not serious about combating terrorism. Terrorism is not coming from nowhere; it is coming from somewhere. Somebody is financing them, somebody is arming them and that somebody must be exposed seriously and arms arrangements and military supplies must not be conducted unless transparency prevails in those arrangement and in those agreements. Unfortunately, neither the US nor the UK is ready yet to disengage from their long standing, friendship and relations with the members of the (P)GCC alliance especially the Saudis and the Bahrainis. Unfortunately, if they don't do that then they are not helping the cause of combating and fighting against terrorism.          

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