Officials say British arms sales to the Middle East are probably fueling IS

repressive regime sales in the Middle East may be helping to fuel the growth of ISIS

British arms sales to repressive regimes in the Middle East may be helping to fuel the growth of ISIS, a Labor leadership contender has said.

Jeremy Corbyn said the availability of weapons in the region, from which British firms make billions of pounds a year, was a “contributory factor” in the ongoing conflict.

He told a BBC Question Time audience  that ISIS and its weapons didn’t come from nowhere, adding that vast amounts of weapons have been sold to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and a number of other places and many of those end up in the hands of ISIS.

In 2013, the Independent reported that the UK made £12 billion from arms sales to repressive regimes around the world, most of which are in the Middle east and Africa.