"It's more likely the UK will cease arms exports to the UAE and Saudi Arabia than it is that the US will cease weapons sales. The UK government is on the verge of failing over Brexit, and it seems that a post-Brexit government will probably want to make a foreign policy statement on something other than Europe – hence the move to cease exports to Gulf partners," Des Roches, who is currently an associate professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies, said.
READ MORE: UK Foreign Secretary Insists Halt of Arms Exports Won't Resolve Yemeni Crisis
Des Roches added that the opposition to arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition for the war in Yemen would likely have much less success.
"The United States … will not have elections until 2020. Until that time – absent some well-reported outrage or accidental attack against a major civilian target – US policy seems unlikely to change," Des Roches said.
On Monday, the fourth anniversary of the coalition's launch of airstrikes in Yemen, five UK opposition parties — the Green party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party — signed a joint letter, addressed to UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, urging the government to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. The strikes began on March 25, 2015.
Views and opinions, expressed in the article are those of David Des Roches and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
