MINISTERS buckled under mounting outrage about their role in Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen yesterday, agreeing to tackle Riyadh over claims it is targeting civilians.

The biggest market for British arms exports was the subject of a leaked UN report citing evidence of “widespread and systematic” attacks by Saudi forces on Yemeni civilian targets including weddings, schools, mosques and factories.

Addressing an urgent parliamentary question from Labour, Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood insisted he would sit down and discuss the report with the Saudis.

But he repeated Prime Minister David Cameron’s claim on Wednesday that Britain was complying with arms exports rules, which forbids sales to countries likely to use weapons to commit war crimes.

Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn demanded for a second time that the government suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia until the allegations had been thoroughly examined.

Referring to a previous declaration by Mr Ellwood that there was no evidence that Riyadh had breached international humanitarian law in Yemen, Mr Benn asked how the minister “squared that” with the findings of the UN report.

SNP MP Brendan O’Hara called for an immediate full ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia and for Britain to make good on its obligations under international law and its own rules on arms exports.

Clutching at straws, Mr Ellwood said he would take the report very seriously but then tried to discredit it: “We should also recognise … that the actual people that wrote this report didn’t visit Yemen — they didn’t actually go there. They are basing this on satellite technology.