A former cabinet minister has called on the UK government to stand up to Saudi Arabia after an airstrike in Yemen hit a school bus, killing and injuring dozens of children.
Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, told BuzzFeed News that Britain needed to move to a "far more neutral position" at the United Nations and had a duty to ensure that Saudi Arabia did not breach international humanitarian laws.
He spoke out after a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit the northern province of Saada in Yemen on Thursday, killing 51 people including 40 children, and injuring 79 including 56 children, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Labour party and campaign groups have accused the UK government of being complicit in the attack by selling Saudi Arabia billions of pounds worth of arms and embedding UK military liaison officers and advisers in the country.
But UK ministers have long insisted that Britain has no role in executing air strikes or in setting the policy of the Saudi-led coalition.
Mitchell said: "I think the attack on a school bus should provide all parties to this conflict with a wake-up call to just how catastrophic on all fronts it is."
He called on the UK government to condemn the Saudi-led attack "with the same vigour" that it condemns attacks by Yemen's rebel Houthi movement on Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh and other targets.
Mitchell added: "I think the government should move to a far more neutral position at the United Nations: as the pen-holder at the UN [the state in charge of drafting statements on Yemen], the government is not adequately exercising its duty to secure a peaceful negotiation."
He said the UK must give "every possible support" to the UN initiative led by the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, who has been "impressively successful at nudging all the principled parties in the Yemen conflict towards talks".
"He deserves the complete support of the British government — and efforts such as the bombing of the children on the bus which could derail these embryonic talks should be condemned outright," Mitchell said.
Asked whether Britain should stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia, he said: "It’s clear that the sale of British arms into this conflict is becoming an increasingly important issue.
"But everyone should recognise that the Saudis are a wealthy country surrounded by enemies and they will buy these arms, and therefore for the children murdered on that bus, the sale of the arms is a second order issue. The first order issue is weaponry being used in breach of international law."
29 children dead and not a word it seems from @Jeremy_Hunt and the @foreignoffice about the actions of the Saudi-led coalition and our role in it. As IRC note, a bus full of school children cannot be viewed as collateral damage. https://t.co/XyweUHXPN2
As of mid-afternoon on Friday, the Foreign Office had not issued a statement on the air strike in Yemen — more than 36 hours after the attack in Dahyan.
However, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt later tweeted about the attack.
Deeply concerned by reports of yesterday’s attack in Sa’ada, Yemen, resulting in tragic deaths of so many children. Transparent investigation required. UK calls on all parties to prevent civilian casualties and to cooperate with UN to reach a lasting political solution in Yemen.
Almost 10,000 people, two-thirds of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since war broke out in 2015 — with 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade said the UK had licensed £4.7 billion worth of arms, including aircraft, drones, and missiles, to Saudi Arabia since 2015.
Spokesperson Andrew Smith said: "This atrocity cannot be ignored. Those responsible must be held fully accountable. Thousands of people have been killed in this terrible war, and many more will be as long as the bombardment continues.
"The UK government has been utterly complicit in the destruction. It has armed and supported the Saudi-led coalition right from the start. The death toll has spiralled, and the humanitarian crisis has only got worse, and yet the arms sales have continued."
Colonel Turki Al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition (known as the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen) insisted that the airstrike was a "legitimate military action, conducted in conformity with the international humanitarian law".
But the ICRC underlined that "under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected during conflict".
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry agreed with Mitchell that the UK government needed to take urgent action and stand up to Saudi Arabia.
"How much longer is this Tory government going to continue arming and advising a Saudi air force that cannot tell or does not see the difference between a legitimate military target and a bus full of children, a family wedding, or a civilian food market?" she said.
"How much longer is this Tory government going to continue claiming that the Saudis should be left to investigate themselves when these atrocities take place, even though the Saudis have already absolved themselves of any blame for the Dahyan attack, within hours of it happening, saying it was a legitimate target?
"How much longer is this Tory government going to abdicate its responsibility as pen-holder on Yemen at the UN Security Council without bringing forward a new resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire on all sides, an independent investigation of all war crimes, and forcing all sides to the negotiating table?
"Above all, how many more children in Yemen need to be killed by Saudi air strikes or die from malnutrition, cholera or other diseases before Theresa May will stop supporting this catastrophic, murderous war, and start taking action to end it?"
Just five months ago, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia visited London where he had lunch with the Queen, received a special foreign policy briefing from national security officials in Downing Street, dined with Prince William at Clarence House, and visited Chequers with the prime minister.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson insisted in May that Britain was not directly involved in the Yemen conflict but had agreed to work with the Saudis to "mitigate the threat" from Houthi missile attacks.
"This will involve UK personnel providing information, advice, and assistance limited to this particular objective," he said.
"To be clear, the UK is not a member of the Saudi-led coalition. We do not have any role in setting coalition policy, or in executing air strikes. All UK military personnel in Saudi Arabia remain under UK command and control."