LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has complied with a court order over its decisions on granting export licences to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, its trade minister said on Tuesday, meaning it can once again issue new licences to export arms to the kingdom.
The Court of Appeal last year concluded that Britain’s government had erred in law in its decision-making processes on arms export licences to Saudi Arabia.
Trade minister Liz Truss said the government had “now re-taken the decisions that were the subject of judicial review on the correct legal basis, as required by the Order of the Court of Appeal of 20 June”.
“It follows that the undertaking that my predecessor gave to the Court – that we would not grant any new licences for the export of arms or military equipment to Saudi Arabia for possible use in Yemen – falls away,” she said in a written statement.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Andy Bruce, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
