UK Grants $7.5B of Arms Licenses to Human-Rights Abusers

Britain has approved more than $7.5 billion worth of arms export licenses for countries on its own human rights blacklist, according to a new government report, which revealed that a total of 3,298 outstanding arms export licenses have been granted to 28 nations listed as “Countries of Human Rights Concern” by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Britain has approved export licenses to Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and other “countries of concern” including Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Russia, and Sri Lanka. We look at the British government’s apparent disconnect between its condemnation of human rights abuses worldwide and its policy of selling tons of weapons to authoritarian regimes, in this Lip News clip with Elliot Hill and Mark Sovel.