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The outcome of the investigation into the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi could potentially impact on British support for Saudi Arabia's involvement in Yemen, the UK's middle east ministry said.
Speaking on Tuesday, Alistair Burt told the House of Commons it was "not an illegitimate question" to ask whether the inquiry would reveal something of the character of the regime in Riyadh and that it would have a bearing on the war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia entered in 2015.
In an often stormy session of the international development select committee, Burt alienated from the past between the Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels.
He rejected the position of senior diplomats for the United Kingdom to use the influence of a unilateral ceasefire and the full deployment of humanitarian aid.
A London meeting of the Elders, the most senior group to form a diplomat, called for the UK to encourage the UN to take urgent, credible action to lift the humanitarian blockade. The group, chaired by the train, sent a special envoy to Gro Harlem Brundtland, also in Saudi Arabia.
Burt was speaking on behalf of the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, with London-based Martin Griffiths, a special envoy for Yemen. Conservative backing for the war in Yemen has been badly damaged by the Khashoggi murder, even if there is little support for the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Burt repeatedly insisted on the Houthis for the failure of the United Nations sent in Geneva.
His claim drew a furious response from the Labor MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who told Burt: "We arm the Saudis. We maintain the air force. We have British soldiers embedded in the control centers. We command the war flight paths. We train Saudi pilots in Wales – the only thing we do not do is press the button to drop the bomb.
"Can we just not be honest? We are party to this war. We have decided to make it up to the regime that dismembers its own civilians in consulates of Nato allies. "
Burt responded, saying: "We are not party to the conflict, we do not control any flight paths, the coalition is acting in defense of a legitimate government."
Ending UK support for Saudi Arabia would not bring an end to the conflict, he said, while rejecting efforts to push for a new ceasefire resolution at the UN, saying Griffiths did not support such a move .
Earlier, Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the UK was one of a small group of countries that could stop Yemen's relentless deterioration.
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