British government funds Saudi extremism and terrorism: Analyst

The recent terror attacks in the UK underscore Saudi Arabia’s role in funding terrorism in Britain and the government of Prime Minister Theresa May is unlikely to publish a damning report about the role of Riyadh in British extremism, an analyst in London says.

“It is up to Theresa May’s discretion to release the report or not and so far she has chosen not to release that report,” said Riaz Karim, director of Veritas Center for Strategic Studies in London.

“Both the Home Secretary Amber Rudd and the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson say that the report may never be seen by the public, so the Conservative Party is pretty much sitting on the report and it doesn’t want to release it and that is a sign of guilt,” Karim told Press TV on Wednesday.

“The attacks in Manchester and in London recently actually underline the roots of radicalization and funding for terror. This report is central to this issue and it is a very damning report that blames the British government for funding the wars out there and selling arms to Saudi Arabia and the stand of Saudis for funding terror in the UK,” he added.

“Because it is such a damning report, Theresa May is actually choosing to not release it publicly so far.”

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Last week, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd cited national security reasons for not publishing a report commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron that shows the majority of foreign funding for extremism in the UK came from Saudi Arabia.

The UK has also licensed 3.3 billion pounds worth of weapons since the beginning of Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen in March 2015.

Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to restore Yemen’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Riyadh ally, to power. Yemen's crisis began after Hadi stepped down as president and refused to negotiate power-sharing with the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.

“As far as the invasion of Yemen is concerned, this is a war of attrition on a sovereign nation, who had nothing to do with this war,” Karim said.

“The United Nations actually endorsed resolution 2216 and effectively signed a death war for Yemen and this is because the Saudis, the UK and the US held funding over their heads and said if you don’t do what we tell you to do, we are going to withdraw all of the funding for your programs and basically that is exactly what has happened and Yemen is suffering,” he added.

“I believe that Theresa May should release this report now because this is getting out of hand. The situation in Yemen is absolutely inhumane as it happens right now and everybody has the tendency of beating the drum that Iran is partially responsible for it but I don’t think Iran has anything to do with that at all.”

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