Opinion

British MP Graham Jones refutes lies and allegations

February 13, 2019
British MP Graham Jones refutes lies and allegations

Jameel Altheyabi

Member of the British House of Commons Graham Jones has repudiated the lies and ongoing allegations regarding the war in Yemen, which are fabricated by global British organizations concerned with human rights as well as humanitarian issues of great concern to the UK government and a number of governments that have friendly relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Jones’ statements are important given that he is a member of the Labor Party Opposition led by Jeremy Corbyn that has adopted a hostile stance against the Kingdom and has allied with its enemies. His testimony gains yet greater importance as he is the Chair of the Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC).

Appearing before the defense select committee, Jones launched a strong attack against the said organizations, noting that there has been gross exaggeration by NGOs as to the number of casualties in Yemen. After investigating the reports of the airstrikes, it turned out, he said, that the estimates of the NGOs are not only inaccurate but “grossly inaccurate”. The NGOs continue to publish news reports based on sheer lies, he said.

He told the members of the defense select committee that blame for this war in Yemen should be laid primarily with Iran and not the West or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He told the UK-based Guardian that the problems in Yemen have nothing to do with airstrikes, rather, they are the result of an economic collapse caused by violent illegal and occupying militias.

The Guardian opted to begin its report by doubting Jones’s neutrality as “the chief gatekeeper to the UK’s arms control regime”, not because the Labor MP expressed his opposition to his party’s declared positions, but because he repudiated the lies and was brave enough to tell The Guardian that unless changes on the ground in Yemen take place, which regrettably cannot be achieved except by defeating Houthi militias and regaining the hijacked country from them, there will not be peace talks between the conflicting parties in Yemen.

Jones also said, “Attacking Saudi Arabia is not a solution for Yemen. It is a cuddly safe European response (or in some cases just a continuation of the cold war),” stressing that many civilian deaths in Yemen were because Houthi militias used people as human shields when fighting the Coalition Forces.

Jones said he never read or heard an NGO talking about human shields as a problem. The UK forces face the same problem on different fighting fronts, particularly in other theaters involving non-state actors.

Certainly, the NGOs attacking the Kingdom and its allies are trying in vain to damage the country’s reputation. Such attempts should be halted by means of an international code of ethics requiring all NGOs to adhere to facts and to verify the accuracy of evidence as per legal standards. The major problem here is that some NGOs are run by persons who harbor malicious hatred for the Kingdom and its policies in spite of the historic strategic relations and partnerships between the governments of the West and Riyadh. These relations have been beneficial to countless countries and have facilitated exchange of security information that has contributed to foiling terrorist attacks targeting the safety and security of the nationals of those countries. This fact has been publicly declared and stated many times by former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and the current Prime Minister Theresa May.

The author is a Saudi writer. Follow him on Twitter: @JameelAlTheyabi


February 13, 2019
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