Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of attacks by the Royal Saudi Air Force on the world heritage sites in Yemen; and whether the United Kingdom supplied any of the arms used in those attacks.

Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen are parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict, and to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. The UK is supplying a range of precision-guided weapons and munitions to assist the Royal Saudi Air Force under pre-existing arrangements. We are aware of reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Yemen by all sides to the conflict and take these very seriously. We have raised our concerns, including protection of cultural property, with the Saudi Arabian government and have received repeated assurances of IHL compliance and continue to engage with them on those assurances. A political solution is the best way to achieve long-term stability in Yemen, and we remain fully and actively supportive of the UN’s efforts to bring an end to the conflict.