British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson sought to dismiss growing international criticism of British arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid a mounting number of civilians killed in Saudi airstrikes, insisting the UK remains “supportive” of Saudi Arabia and its bombing campaign.
Johnson goes on to insist that he doesn’t think Saudi Arabia has crossed “the threshold” for war crimes in the thousands of civilians killed in Yemen airstrikes, though human rights groups appear more or less uniform in taking the opposite position, noting the Saudis appear to be deliberately attacking civilians across Yemen.
At the same time, Johnson sought to downplay the Britain’s direct involvement in the war, insisting that British forces are providing “general guidance” to the Saudis, but are not engaged in any involvement in picking specific targets for the Saudis to attack.
This echoes America’s stance on the Saudi war, which tries to shrug off the war crimes, so as to assure that the Saudis keep buying large amounts of arms from them for the war, while hoping they can skirt any legal responsibility for their culpability in those crimes.