Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.

The UK will resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the trade secretary ruled that the kingdom was not regularly deliberately breaching international law in the Yemen conflict.

Liz Truss said a fresh analysis of whether Saudi air strikes were compliant with international humanitarian law concluded any alleged breaches were “isolated incidents” and so there was no “clear risk” in resuming arms sales.

But the decision was branded “morally bankrupt” by campaigners whose legal action forced the government to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia in June 2019, after the Court of Appeal ruled continuing sales would be “unlawful”.

MORE: Sandhurst Earns Millions Training Cadets From Nations With ‘Terrible’ Human Rights Records

The decision – coming the day after the UK imposed sanctions on 20 Saudi nationals linked to the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – was condemned as “rank hypocrisy” by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), which brought the original case.

It followed claims that Saudi warplanes fighting in the coalition against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had repeatedly targeted civilian gatherings including weddings, funerals and markets. 

In its judgment, the court said the government had failed to make any concluded assessment of whether the Saudis and their allies had committed violations of international humanitarian law and had “made no attempt to do so”.

In her statement, Truss said an analysis had now been carried out of “all credible incidents of concern” and had concluded the Saudis had a “genuine intent” to comply with international humanitarian law and that military exports could resume.

While some had been assessed as “possible” violations of international humanitarian law, the analysis had not revealed any “patterns, trends or systemic weaknesses”. 

Truss said: “On that basis, I have assessed that there is not a clear risk that the export of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

Andrew Smith, of the CAAT, said its lawyers would now be looking at “all options” to challenge it.

“This is a disgraceful and morally bankrupt decision,” he said.

“The Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the Government itself admits that UK-made arms have played a central role in the bombing.

“Only yesterday, the government was talking about the need to sanction human rights abusers, but now it has shown that it will do everything it can to continue arming and supporting one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.”

Truss said the government would now begin the process of clearing the backlog of licence applications for Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners that had built up since last year.

Shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry called on Truss to come to the Commons on Wednesday to explain the decision which “flies in the face of a Court of Appeal decision last year”.

Thornberry said Truss must “answer questions” from MPs as soon as possible as there is “huge interest” in the issue.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said the decision was “jaw dropping” given Saudi Arabia’s “dismal human rights record and its role in the indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians in Yemen”.