2024-03-28 06:29:48
The British newspaper “The Guardian” published details of a confidential official report regarding a huge arms deal concluded between Britain and Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s, known as “Al-Yamamah,” which showed that the British Ministry of Defense “practiced deception” regarding allegations of receiving a bribe in the deal.
The newspaper said that the report is perhaps “the only investigation” conducted by a British regulatory body, the National Audit Office (NAO), in 1992, into the deal and bribery accusations, thus ending a battle that lasted for about 3 decades, in which activists struggled to uncover the document.
Representatives of the Labor Party and the Liberal Democratic Party supported parliamentary motions on three occasions, calling for the report to be revealed, amid speculation that it contains “evidence of bribery” in the Al-Yamamah deal, according to the newspaper.
The Guardian also reported that the report was not revealed publicly “after pressure exerted by the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Michael Quinlan, who considered that publishing the report “would anger the Saudis and threaten thousands of jobs in Britain.”
The report said that Quinlan “lied to members of Parliament who investigated the deal, claimed not to pay commissions from public funds, and failed to disclose his department’s involvement in regularly paying secret funds to a Saudi prince.”
The Al-Yamamah deal is worth about 40 billion pounds sterling, and initially included the supply of 120 “Tornado” aircraft, “Hawk” fighters, and other military equipment. It was agreed upon in 1985 between the government of Margaret Thatcher and the Saudi Minister of Defense at the time, Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al. Saud.
The Guardian had conducted an investigation into the British Ministry of Defense’s long-standing “complicity” in corruption operations, which included “secret payments to prominent Saudi figures to secure defense contracts for the United Kingdom.”
Quinlan noted that allowing the public to read the report “would put thousands of British jobs at risk, and would upset the Saudis so much that they might cancel future arms deals with the United Kingdom.”
During the undercover investigation, Quinlan said about rumors of bribery in the deal: “There is no basis for the allegations that the kickback payments were made from public funds.” The Guardian explained that the term “commission payments” usually refers to “bribery.”
BAE had previously reported, according to The Guardian, that all payments in the deal “were made with the express approval of the UK government, and in a confidential manner.”
A company spokesman said: “We are committed to responsible and ethical behavior, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for corruption in all its forms.”
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense declined to comment to the Guardian on whether Quinlan had lied during the investigation.
The spokesman said: “The Ministry of Defense disbursed all payments based on a permit from the Saudi government, and in accordance with arrangements between the two governments at the time.” The funds disbursed at all times remained the property of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it is an illusion to say that there is corruption in relation to those payments.”
For his part, Prince Bandar bin Sultan denied, in 2007, that the deal was tainted with any bribes.
He said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency at the time: “The British newspaper The Guardian claimed, in its articles last week, that secret sums exceeding one billion pounds were transferred to our personal account at Regis Bank in Washington, and these articles gave readers the impression that these sums were sent By the British airline BAE, as secret commissions and as part of financial and administrative corruption during our work as the ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the United States of America.”
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2024-03-28 06:29:48