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The US and the UK are major weapon suppliers to Saudi-Arabia. We see that these weapons are used to kill innocent people in Yemen (and maybe in other countries by Al-Qaeda). But as Philipp's answer implies, the international community cannot easily ban weapons sales to Saudi-Arabia. Still, citizens can have a small effect on their governments.

So the question is: How do people in the US and the UK view the issue of arms sales to Saudi Arabia?

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    I really doubt that the average joe has a properly formed opinion about this matter. The issue isn't very present in the media.
    – Philipp
    Dec 27, 2016 at 17:05
  • Innocent is a vague and easily malleable term. All weapons and every action has effect on innocent people. Dec 27, 2016 at 20:35
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    Not a direct answer, but Saudi Arabia got mentioned a fair bit in the 2016 US presidential election. Dec 27, 2016 at 20:59
  • @Andrew Grimm can this "Not a direct answer" be developed to a "direct answer" to this question?
    – user 1
    Dec 28, 2016 at 6:48
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    Since the question specifically asks for some kind of poll, this is not opinion-based. Dec 28, 2016 at 15:28

5 Answers 5

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For the case of the UK: As far as I can tell there is no poll regarding the view of Britons on the UK selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

For the US: I believe the same is true - no polls thus far.

I think this is mostly because, as Philipp has said, the average person is not properly informed about this matter. This is because nearly all the details of foreign weapon sales are done under strict non-disclosure agreements requiring security clearances and a huge amount of export control.

Bear in mind good quality polls should not be hard to find. Consult your typical polling websites and use google with caution.

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    I answered your question haha you can't expect me to make a poll happen when I doubt it ever will...
    – Psi
    Jan 10, 2017 at 18:01
  • There are more ways to gauge opinions than polls. Bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress opposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia isn't very popular in the U.S. on either the right or the left. But it has support from powerful interests in the oil and gas world. The vast majority of Americans, of course, are oblivious to the issue and unaware of the arms sales or the war in Yemen which they are used for.
    – ohwilleke
    Sep 29, 2020 at 19:20
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In the US, relative recent polling by CNN and Gallop find that a plurality of Americans either view Saudi Arabia as either unfriendly or an enemy of the US, or unfavorably. From there I think we can safely extrapolate that most Americans view selling arms to them as problematic at the very least, although the question was not asked or answered directly.

The UK has similar unfavorable views of the Kingdom. In fact, the UK's populace may be more slanted against the House of Saud.

There are a number of Russian supplied sites that supply even more on-point claims, but I will not link to them, as they can be safely assumed to be propaganda in support of their client state Iran.

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    I agree with this. The thing missing is that if the choice was paying $0.01 more in gas or keep selling weapons to SA, the vast majority would rather pay a penny a gallon less in gas. Jan 17, 2017 at 16:24
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    Problematic yes. But, since the weapons were bought to combat Shias in Yemen, I think a lot of people are "fine" with it in a realpolitk sense. (No polls to quote unfortunately - only gleaning this information from comments in as diverse sites as Mother Jones and Reddit The_Donald. By realpolitik I mean - sales are made, jobs created (sustained) and inept Saudi Arabia is using it against a foe who is no friend of the US.
    – Mayo
    Sep 6, 2017 at 13:42
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In the UK, there have been quite a few polls conducted on this topic. All have been commissioned by charities opposed to the Yemen conflict, and some surveys specify 'arms that may be used in the Yemen conflict', so it's worth checking the actual question used in the surveys.

On the headline figure of '% support/opposition to the UK selling arms to Saudi Arabia', the polls found the following results:

  • Feb 5th, 2017 - 11% support, 62% oppose - Opinium for CAAT
  • Aug 31st, 2017 - 15% acceptable, 59% unacceptable (for UK Gov to approve arms sales that may be used in the conflict in Yemen) - YouGov for Save The Children
  • Sep 12th, 2017 - 12% support, 68% oppose - Opinium for CAAT
  • Feb 11th, 2018 - 6% support, Populus for CAAT
  • Jun 25th, 2018 - 12% support, 61% oppose (to Saudi coalition for possible use in Yemen) - YouGov for Save the Children
  • Aug 20th, 2018 - 13% support, 63% oppose (to Saudi coalition for possible use in Yemen) - YouGov for Save the Children
  • Nov 29th, 2018 - 15% support, 61% oppose, ComRes for Christian Aid

In the US, I'm not aware of as many polls, but I was able to find a couple. Again, one was commissioned by the International Rescue Committee, a charity opposed to the conflict.

  • Nov 7th, 2018 - 19% support, 56% oppose, 25% no opinion - YouGov for IRC
  • Dec 4th, 2018 - 21% support, 54% oppose, 25% not sure - YouGov
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    A very quick look at these polls would suggest that they're pretty damn biased, starting with questions intended to "educate" people about the conflict (in one direction), followed by leading questions.
    – Valorum
    Jul 10, 2020 at 16:28
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There are petitions to try and stop the UK from selling weapons to our 'buddies' in the Middle East. However, judging by Theresa May's most recent tour to Bahrain and her Brexit speech on 17/1/17, centring around creating more trade out of Europe, I can't see it ending. Making & selling weapons is one thing the UK is sadly quite skilled at and we're going to need to try and offset the loss of trade by leaving the single market by whatever means possible. Expect us to flood the region with even more ways of killing each other.

As a general consensus people in the UK aren't overly happy about the moral implications of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. There aren't reliable sources to state this however, and the only ones which are quantifiable would be said petitions which have been created in an effort to getting the issue debated in parliament. However, as said due to other factors, I cannot see us stopping selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, regardless of public opinion which are trumped by other macroeconomic forces.

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    This doesn't really answer the asked question: "How people in US and UK think about selling weapons to Saudi-Arabia".
    – user11249
    Jan 17, 2017 at 14:04
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    Agreed - as a general consensus people in the UK aren't overly happy about the moral implications of selling weapons to Saudi Arabi & to other countries in the middle east. There aren't reliable sources to state this however, and the only ones which are quantifiable would be said petitions which have been created in the effort of getting the issue debated in parliament. However as said due to other factors, I cannot see us stopping selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, regardless of public opinion due to other macroeconomic forces.
    – JonnyC2017
    Jan 17, 2017 at 14:07
  • Please include all relevant information from your comment into the answer. At least one reference would also improve it.
    – Alexei
    Sep 29, 2020 at 16:10
  • Are you sure there's no polling data on this? It seems quite a big step to conclude there's a general consensus based on a few petitions. Without any more elaboration it seems like cherry picking evidence even if you reach the right conclusion.
    – JJJ
    Sep 29, 2020 at 17:44
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In the absence of a poll about a policy that few people are aware of, it might be relevant to bring up the history of this relationship in order to guess how people would feel about it if it became a hot issue.

Basically, President Carter brokered a deal with Egypt and Saudi Arabia whereby they would refrain from military or foreign policy attacks on Israel in exchange for very substantial military sales and support for both countries. The basic relationship has produced almost five decades of stability in the region.

This can be construed as pro-oil wealth, as pro-Israel, a positive relationship with Muslim countries (not based upon Donald Trump's business interests), and in the case of Egypt for most of the period, as support for a secular regime over an Islamist one. Stability is also a good thing after multiple wars in Asia that are winding down.

On the other hand, attitudes towards Saudi Arabia have soured as it is seen (at least at the unofficial level) as a source for global radical Islamic terrorism, was the source of most of the 9-11 hijackers, continues in an era where public opinion towards oil resources is very partisan, and has been a lot of money over a great many years that may have run its course. Americans on the left and the right are also more aware of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia than they might have been in the past. U.S. involvement in Yemen has also not been terribly popular.

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