The Arab League have decided to boycott the Labour Party conference after the party barred Saudi Arabia and Sudan from attending due to human rights concerns.
The League has sent a letter to Labour MPs and peers informing them that a reception and dinner hosted by Arab ambassadors would be cancelled.
“Unfortunately, the council of Arab Ambassadors has taken the decision to cancel its annual reception and buffet dinner,” the letter read.
It added: “Our council has decided to refrain from attending the Labour party conference this year due to rejection of both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Sudan’s application to attend the conference.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has earlier declared decision to bar Saudi Arabia from his party’s annual conference.
He has repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of committing war crimes against Yemen.
“We are selling arms to Saudi Arabia… and at the same time we are sending aid in, we should not be doing both,” he told the BBC’s World at One programme.
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A Labour spokesperson told the Huffington Post on Monday: “Following evidence of war crimes committed by Saudi Arabia in its bombing campaign in Yemen and other large scale human rights abuses, the NEC [National Executive Committee] agreed that the embassy’s application to attend the Labour Party conference would not be accepted.”
Labour also barred Sudan from the conference, which begins next Sunday in Brighton.
Corbyn’s stand comes in sharp contrast with that of Theresa May’s Conservative government, which failed to criticise the Saudi government for potential war crimes, and has sold its military £3.6 billion worth of weapons that may have been used in its campaign in Yemen.
