Yemen

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, the Biden Administration have reversed Trump’s designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, appointed a special envoy for Yemen, curtailed support for offensive operations by the Saudi-led coalition in the conflict and are supporting the UN-led peace process. On this last point, what are we doing to align ourselves with the United States to bring an end to this conflict, which the UN has described as the worst humanitarian disaster? Will last year’s licensing of £1.4 billion of arms sales be the bigger consideration?

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Collins, is right to raise the US Administration reversing the previous Administration’s designation of the Houthis, which we welcome. The UK is engaging very closely with the US Administration on this matter and over the past months we have shared our concerns about the designation and the humanitarian situation. Our ambassador to Washington has also met with the new special envoy to co-ordinate our efforts. As the noble Lord knows, we continue to provide humanitarian support. We will initiate further debate on this during our presidency of the UN Security Council and we continue to adopt a very tight regime on arms exports.