The UK is a critical friend of Saudi Arabia and our strong relationship means we are able to raise difficult issues more effectively. We have led the call for unhindered humanitarian and commercial access into Yemen, including through the UK-coordinated Security Council Statement of 15 March, the Secretary of State\u2019s visit to Riyadh in December and lobbying from the Prime Minister. Most recently, during the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s visit to London in early March, Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its commitment to work together with the UK to strengthen the UN\u2019s mechanism for inspecting ships so that all Yemeni ports can remain fully open to commercial and humanitarian supplies. During this visit, we also agreed with the Saudi Fund for Development that we would contribute £50 million each to support development in East Africa \u2013 the \u2018£100 million humanitarian aid deal\u2019 referred to in the question.<\/p>
The UK has been clear that there is no military solution to the conflict in Yemen and we have continuously lobbied all sides to urgently de-escalate the fighting and find a comprehensive political solution. We also regularly press, including at senior levels, the need for the Saudi-led Coalition to conduct thorough and conclusive investigations into reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1201", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Alistair Burt"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North East Bedfordshire"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Alistair Burt"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-05-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-05-02T16:56:55.44Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "20"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "International Development"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-04-25", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Yemen: Overseas Aid"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guarantees her Department sought from the Saudi government on (a) humanitarian access to Yemen and (b) ending Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen, in advance of signing the £100 million humanitarian aid deal announced on 7 March 2018.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4651", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Dan Carden"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Liverpool, Walton"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Dan Carden"} ], "uin" : "138104"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }