It’s time for the international community to stop ‘recognising’ Hadi’s ‘government’

Omar Ahmed

Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, President of Yemen [z_sattam/Twitter]

In spite of having no substantial physical political presence in Yemen, and no formal armed forces on the ground, the media is insistent on running with the same, tired expression of “the internationally recognised legitimate government” of the fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has apparently been running the country from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, since he fled Yemen in 2015.

It has now been over a month since the signing of the Riyadh Agreement, which was hailed as ushering in peace in the south, not only among the warring factions of Hadi’s forces, which largely consists of Islamist, Islah militia and Sudanese mercenaries against the Security Belt forces, who are aligned with southern separatists, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), but it was also hoped to simmer down the tension between the patrons of these two parties, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) respectively, both partners in the anti-Houthi coalition in the north, but backing opposing sides in the south.

No longer ‘Iranian proxies’

It was also a month ago that I argued that this agreement will fall flat in its objectives, namely due to the fact that Hadi doesn’t have any concrete authority in Yemen, and the real political legitimacy lies with the National Salvation Government (NSG), which has been ruling the capital Sanaa since 2014. Its power-base was formed from of an alliance between the Ansar Allah movement, the Yemeni military and remnants of the General People’s Congress political party – however the same news outlets who are trying to convince us of the “internationally recognised” government, are the same ones peddling the misleading narrative, that the NSG are merely “Houthi rebels” or “Iranian proxies”, following Tehran’s orders.

Houthis patrol around after the clashes between Houthis and Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s supporters took place in Sanaa, Yemen on 5 December 2017 [Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

Essentially, this agreement stalled the inevitability that the Saudis, and the wider international community, will have to accept the reality that the NSG (“Houthis”) are the legitimate government in Yemen. I am using the past-tense here because the agreement is void and no longer exists – it was signed on 5 November and included a 30-day deadline in forming a new cabinet of 24 members, equally split from the north and south. I concluded with the revelation that the Saudis had acknowledged that they had opened channels of communication with the Houthis.

In fact, a few days following the signing of the accord, the UAE minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, conceded that the Houthis will have a role in post-war Yemen. In more recent developments, Saudi foreign minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, has suggestively indicated that the Houthis are in fact, a legitimate entity, stating “all Yemenis, including the Houthis have a role in the future of Yemen.”

It would now appear that the Trump administration has also done an ‘about-face’ on its policy on Yemen, having once framed the conflict as being an Iranian proxy war, they are now trying to downplay Iran’s involvement. Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, went from declaring in September that Iran was “controlling and deploying” the Houthis as a “terror front”, to now stating that “Iran clearly does not speak for the Houthis.” I mentioned back in September how this Iranian connection has been exaggerated and misrepresented by the media. One needs only to refer to a 2015 article which stated that Iran, for example, had in fact warned the Zaydi movement against taking over Sanaa. Indeed, the Houthis, as with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are actually acting independently, albeit with assistance from Tehran. 

Who speaks for the south?

The Riyadh Agreement was always problematic from the outset, because although on paper it was plausible, the reality on the ground, in particular in the interim capital city of Aden, was another thing entirely. There are constant reports of violent clashes between Hadi’s mercenaries and the southern separatist forces. Additionally, there has been a steady increase in assassinations across the city, with the STC hinting liability with Hadi’s associates. Hampering conciliatory efforts, the STC are also refusing to vacate the presidential palace in the city. There are also reports that the former president of the Democratic People’s Republic of Yemen, Ali Nasser Mohammed, has warned the STC against plans to seize his home in Aden province, captured by the separatists last July.

It is important to recognise that the STC does not speak for all southerners, nor for the Southern Movement. There is the Southern National Salvation Council (SSC) based in Mahrah, who not only oppose both Saudi and Emirati interference in Yemen, but had opposed the Riyadh Agreement from its inception, noting that “the agreement gives legitimacy to regional militias affiliated abroad,” with reference to the STC.

The director of Human Rights for Yemen, Kim Sharif, explained to MEMO that the SSC is composed of the “original secessionists” and that the STC are widely regarded as a “traitor entity” by most southerners, as they are a party formed by the UAE who are using and exploiting the memory of the South Yemen state.

Illegitimacy of Hadi vs legitimacy of the NSG

Sharif agrees that the Hadi government lacks legitimacy, because following the election where he stood as the sole candidate, he was appointed as president for a transitional period of two years as part of the Gulf Initiative back in February 2012, reluctantly accepted by many, to avoid further bloodshed. Under the initiative, elections were to be held within the transitional period.

However, this failed to materialise and according to Sharif, under Hadi assassinations and terrorist attacks began to increase “funded by the Saudis,” and with a reliance on the Islah Party militia, who have close ties with General Mohsen Al-Ahmar, the vice president whose links to Al-Qaeda are well-documented. Hadi formerly resigned from the presidency in 2015, but has held onto the position ever since, giving him “zero legitimacy”. “There’s no such thing as an ‘internationally recognised government’ under international law. This is sheer abuse of the terms of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and is a totally unacceptable trespass on the sovereignty of the state of Yemen,” Sharif continued.

Meanwhile, with regards to the legitimacy of the National Salvation Government based in Sanaa, Sharif described the 2014 takeover within the context of the failure by Hadi to carry out elections as per his mandate. Additionally, under International Customary Law, whomever takes control of the capital of any country is considered the “de facto” government. In order for this to be ratified, the government has to become “de jure”. Sharif argues that such a government must first follow an “internal legislation process”, which the Sanaa government has done by preserving national institutions, creating the Supreme Council, which includes all political parties including southern secessionists and operates within the existing constitution.

Furthermore, it is the Yemeni armed forces who are subservient to the NSG, in addition to the “Popular Committee” (Houthi fighters), who are the ones defending the nation against foreign aggression enacted by the Saudi-led coalition. These points and the fact that the NSG entered into the “Tribal Honour Agreement 2015” with all tribes, given that tribal rule still plays a vital role in Yemeni politics, ensures that the NSG based in Sanaa are the legitimate government in Yemen.

Although a southerner, Sharif herself is supportive of the NSG and AnsarAllah, as they have a common goal in liberating Yemen from the foreign aggression and occupation. The ultimate aim being “uniting all factions in the south with a view of freeing Yemen from all foreign occupation.”  She is confident that this movement will succeed “in partnership with our brothers and sisters in the north.”

International recognition

The National Salvation Government is not only arguably the legitimate government of Yemen. The Yemeni armed forces and its alliance with AnsarAllah has proven that they are indeed the most powerful entity in the country, with an ever-developing arsenal, they have recently announced an improved air defence system, capable of “neutralising” coalition aircraft up to a projected 90 per cent in the year ahead, which is significant as according to Yemeni military expert, Brigadier General Aziz Rashid, the coalition depends on aircraft for 85 per cent of its operations. They have shot down several drones in the past two weeks, in addition to an Apache helicopter belonging to the Saudis. Just today, at the time of writing, the Yemeni armed forces downed a Saudi spy plane over the Jizan region.

As the Riyadh Agreement gradually fades into obscurity, and the Saudis and its allies begin to sue for peace and pay for the damage that they caused, in the realisation that it is the Houthi government which is the legitimate power and authority in the country, it is high time that the international community start recognising this too, at the expense of the puppet government based in Riyadh headed by Hadi, who effectively has been held in captivity there and does not speak for the Yemeni people nor has control of the armed forces. Peace, stability and an end to the man-made humanitarian crisis is achievable with the help of this international community, who have been delusional for far too long.

Yemen War Comes Home to Cripple Saudi Oil Installations

By: Kayhan Int’l

Saturday’s drone attack on the Shayba oil installations in retaliation for unabated Saudi state terrorism in Yemen, was so devastating that after the usual denials by the regime in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister in a bid to solicit more US and western support for the crimes against humanity of his British-created country, said in a shaky tone: "The target of this attack is the safety of global oil supply, not just the kingdom; it constitutes a threat to the global economy.”

It is obvious Khalid al-Falih’s claim is nothing but exaggeration when he calls the massive fire that engulfed the vital hydrocarbon complex "as a threat to global economy”. And contrary to Falih’s false claims the highly successful aerial attack was neither an act of ‘terror’ nor ‘sabotage’  

Nothing will happen to the world’s economy even if all of ARAMCO’s drilling, storage, and supply installations are destroyed, with no export of dirt-cheap crude anymore from Saudi Arabia.

In the eventuality of the collapse and disintegration of the cultish fiefdom that London established for its salaried servant, the desert brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz in 1932, in addition to freedom for the people of Arabia from nearly nine decades of the Wahhabi reign of terror, oil would reach its real price ending the heavily subsidized rates imposed by the West. 

Shaybah on the northern edge of the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) Desert is a super-giant oil field located about 10 km from the borders of Abu Dhabi, the principal sheikhdom of the 7-nation United Arab Emirates (UAE) – until recently an accomplice of Saudi Arabia in the four-and-a-half year long war against the people of Yemen, before parting ways and ordering its proxies to seize the vital port city of Aden from the Riyadh-supported remnants of the regime of the fugitive from justice Mansour Hadi.

This means, the well-planned and decisive attack by a squadron of ten drones zooming on their target deep inside the aggressor state over a thousand kilometers from the Yemeni border, was a strategic move by the legal government based in Sana’a, and once again proved the indomitable nature of the popular Ansarallah Movement.

"We promise the Saudi regime and the powers of aggression bigger and wider operations if the aggression continues,” said Yemen’s military spokesman, as quoted by al-Masirah TV.

According to observers, whatever the defenders of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have said in their statements, have proven to be true and confirms the range and power of their rapidly improving indigenous defence capabilities in the face of the sophisticated weapons of terror supplied by the US, Britain, and France to the aggressors.

Moreover, the Ansarallah have always maintained that they are ready to end the current crisis through talks among all the political, tribal, and religious groups of the country, without the involvement of outside parties, for the sake of preserving Yemen as a single and undivided state, which has bitter memories of the periodic massacres unleashed on the Yemenis by the Wahhabis ever since the massacre of at least five thousand Yemeni Hajj pilgrims in 1923 by Abdul-Aziz – two years before his bloodied seizure of Hijaz the Land of Revelation and desecration of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Yemeni people have also not forgotten the Saudi occupation with British help since 1934 of their northern provinces of Najran, Aseer, and Jizan, which are regularly targeted by the Ansarallah, whose separate drone and missile operations incidentally on Saturday destroyed the airport control tower of Abha airport. 

As could be crystal clear to any impartial observer, Saudi Arabia, especially its de facto ruler, the self-imposed Heir Apparent Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), are clearly ensnared in the trap of their own making

Unfortunately, with wisdom missing from the harebrained heads of the Riyadh regime, the almost five-year long war may continue to claim its growing casualty toll, whether of the poor, besieged, and starving people of Yemen or of the Saudis, who in addition to having lost almost five thousand soldiers besides the wounding of more than twenty thousand others, will witness the descent of more missiles and deadly drones on their industrial/defence centres.     

Najran Might Turn the Tide of the Saudi War

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Reports from the frontlines of the war imposed on the ancient land of Yemen by the US through its proxy Saudi Arabia (created in 1932 by London), indicate that forces of the popular Ansarallah Movement are only a few kilometers from the historical Yemeni city of Najran, which during the 1934 war with the Zaydi Imam was seized by the British-supported Najdi clan.
If Najran is liberated, this would be a major victory for the defenders of Yemen, none of whose rulers, including the last (executed) President Ali Abdullah Saleh, had ever recognized Saudi control of the entire province of the same name, as well as the two other northern Yemeni provinces of Jizan and Asir, which are also under occupation of the Wahhabi cultish regime of Riyadh.
The Saudi-UAE "coalition of the cowards” had violated the ceasefire of Eid al-Fitr on the assumption of catching the Yemeni defenders off guard, only to see their troops suffer setbacks and retreat on all fronts, including Taez and Hodeidah in central Yemen, as well as in Najran, where the Yemeni army has taken control of at least 20 military outposts after inflicting heavy casualties on the Saudis.
It is not known whether the governor of Najran, Jelawi bin Abdul-Aziz bin Musa’ed, who stays at the Holiday Day Inn hotel, has fled the city, or is still enjoying the extended Eid al-Fitr holidays in some luxurious resort elsewhere.
The Saudis have no popular base and depend upon mercenary forces in Najran, mostly recruited from the local tribes of Yemeni origin, whose loyalties are not guaranteed, especially in the current atmosphere of war with Yemen.
Moreover, the Saudis still remember the deadly confrontation with the Ismaili community a few years ago that resulted in deaths on both sides, and barricading of the city’s sprawling Khushaywah quarters, which serves as the seat of the Ismaili religious leader, the ad-Da'i al-Mu?laq (Absolute Guide), and the spiritual capital of the Sulaymani sect, which has a large following in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and of late in the US, Canada, and Britain.  
The majority of the population of Najran Province is made up of Ismaili Shi’a Muslims, followed by the Zaydi Shi’a Muslims, and the Sunni Muslim subsects of Shafe’is, and Hanefis – all of whom are opposed to the minority Wahhabi cult.
The Ansarallah advance seems to have been facilitated by intelligence reports received regularly from the local people, who resent Saudi rule and are engaged in underground activities under banner of the "Najran Liberation Movement”.
However, with the unending supply of lethal weapons from the US, Britain, and France, including cluster and napalm bombs, the Saudis are not expected to sit back and cede control of Najran, which means brutal aerial bombing is in store for the people of the said region.
The Saudis are dead scared of the possibility of uprisings that Najran might trigger, especially in the eastern oil-rich Shi’a Muslim majority region, in the Ha’il where members of the erstwhile Aal-e Rasheed clan are still popular, and in Hijaz the Land of Revelation, which the Najdis seized in 1925 by butchering thousands of Muslims in the precincts of the sacred Ka’ba in Mecca, in the holy shrine of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) in Medina, in the then mostly Shi’a Muslim mountain resort of Ta’ef and in the cosmopolitan Red Sea port of Jeddah.
But raining fire from the skies, without the courage to place boots on the ground, can neither break the resistance of the people nor bring any victory for the attackers, as the Saudis who have been relentlessly bombing Yemen for the past four-and a-quarter years very well know – and so also their masters the Americans from their own bitter experience in Vietnam and currently in Afghanistan.
The onus is now on the Ansarallah to consolidate the gains in Najran, brushing aside all accusations of ‘invasion’ by the reactionary Arab regimes, the US, the West, and the UN, which throughout the bloody war have unabashedly supported the Saudi crimes against the people of Yemen, without the least sympathy for the plight and mounting death toll of the resolute defenders.
As usual, the quixotic US president, Donald Trump, would thunder threats and tweet theatrics, accompanied by flexing of military muscles in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea by dispatching the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln or a squadron of B-52 bombers, but he will not dare land any troops in Yemen, for obvious reasons that boots on the ground means their return home in body bags to kill his dreams of a second term in the White House.
His team of thugs, despite their bravado, are fully aware of the lack of motive for American soldiers to risk their life and limbs in a foreign land, as well as the ingenuity of the Yemeni forces in warfare techniques, especially the use of drones and missiles to target military and industrial installations of the Saudis and the Emiratis, as well as their steadfastness on the battlefields.
Who knows the Yemenis, who have braved the economic and the military terrorism of the aggressors, might be having the projectiles to sink the Abraham Lincoln to shatter the military might of the American intruders, in order to defend their homeland and in the process bring peace and freedom to the people of the Arabian Peninsula from decades of Imperialist/Zionist/Wahhabi thralldom!

Yemen death toll to surpass 230,000 – what next?

Now that United Nations warns that about 231,000 Yemenis will have died from hunger, disease and lack of health clinics by the end of this year, it should do the next best thing: force the Saudis to stop the war on this defenseless nation.

At least this could help prevent further fighting which the world body says will have claimed about 102,000 lives by the end of 2019. This includes those who might die “from hunger, disease and the lack of health clinics and other infrastructure than from fighting.” For more on the Yemenis’ mishap stay tuned with an article published by Fars news agency titled “Yemen death toll to surpass 230,000 – what next?”

According to the UN’s latest report called Assessing the Impact of War on Development in Yemen, many people will have died from the side effects of the conflict and not the actual fighting, with the combined death toll - from fighting and disease – at “233,000, or 0.8 percent of Yemen's 30 million-strong population.”

This is not to mention the costs of those five years of conflict that has already cost Yemen’s economy $89 billion and counting. It’s all the reason why the war-torn country, the poorest nation in the Arab world, needs a temporary cessation of hostilities now. There is no need for the failed war to drag on until 2030 or further – an unnecessary war that the UN says could set back the country by 26 years.
All this, of course, depends on the United States as a culprit for the Saudi crimes against the impoverished nation. The US has been arming Saudi Arabia and its so-called allies since March 2015, including refueling their warplanes mid-air and providing reconnaissance and targeting intelligence information. The international backlash has been so widespread that Congress was forced to approve a bill to end US support for the Saudi-UAE war on Yemen, which was vetoed by President Donald Trump.
However, according to the UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a maze of other international rights groups and aid agencies, the air raids by the US-backed, Saudi-UAE coalition have mostly hit civilians, hospitals and water treatment facilities. They estimate as many as 60,000 civilians have been killed in these raids and “as many as 85,000 children starved to death, with millions more one step away from famine.” 

Worse still, international aid groups say the Saudi-UAE military authorities are recruiting Yemeni children, many of them desperately poor, to fight along the Saudi border against the popular Ansarullah forces. This goes against the Charter of the United Nations and international law, which prohibit the use of children in armed conflicts.

Into the argument, Washington claims its military support to Saudi Arabia is designed to stop Iran’s influence in Yemen, which is not true or substantiated by any evidence. Iran has no forces in Yemen. It was in fact the first country that warned against the war’s terrible consequences. Even after five years, the Islamic Republic keeps telling the warring factions that the only way out of the current deadlock is dialogue and national reconciliation.

The problem is that the US government refuses to stop arming and supporting the Saudis and their allies, let alone supporting such initiatives. It gets worse to hear that president Trump says he has every intention to give a second veto to the Congress bill that demands an end to the US-backed war on Yemen.

Unless this madness stops, some 22 million souls will remain at risk of dying, or being killed. Many civilians will also starve to death or die from medical problems for which they can receive no medicines. The poorest country in the Muslim world is still under blockade, and despite a ceasefire agreement in Hodeida (the only port from which humanitarian aid can get into the country) that is no fully respected by the Saudis and their allies, major humanitarian assistance cannot get into many parts of Yemen yet.

It gets worse. Even if Trump doesn’t veto the Yemen war bill for a second time, US drone attacks and Special Forces operations against the war-torn country will continue apace – just like in Afghanistan. The bill doesn’t prohibit US forces from carrying air and drone attacks against what they claim are Al-Qaeda targets. According to international aid groups, in many cases these ‘precision’ air raids and bombings also kill innocent civilians in populated areas.
Bad news just keeps coming about Yemen and that’s not what its besieged people like to hear right now. After US President Donald Trump’s veto of the War Powers Act demand by Congress to end the illegal Yemen war, a new report from the UN Development Program now says the US-backed, Saudi-led war has set back the poorest country in West Asia more than 26 years.

According to the UN’s new report, the economic losses caused so far are around $88.8 billion, and that’s just assuming the war ends now. If it lasts until 2030, the report estimates losses of $657 billion, and 84 percent of the population chronically malnourished. The report concludes that even with immediate peace, it would take decades just to get Yemen back to the impoverished ex-ante situation.

Of course, this is still good news for the American military-industrial complex – the reason Trump vetoed the War Powers Act by the Congress. More specifically, war profiteers: The five largest US arms makers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics - and their dealings with Saudi Arabia worth over $110 billion dollars and counting. By their own account, of all the wars underway from which they are profiting, “none is greater than the Saudi war on Yemen.”

The criminal Saudi air campaign, fueled by the US war profiteers, has hit endless civilian targets, using American smart bombs and missiles, without any protest or complaint from the War Party in Washington. Even though the UN Security Council has appointed a group of experts to detail US-backed Saudi war crimes and egregious attacks on Yemeni civilians, including people attending weddings and funerals, nothing has so far come out of the UN headquarters in New York to suggest that the war and the blockade are coming to a decisive end anytime soon.

This is while the naval blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia and the UAE has also cut humanitarian aid ships docking in the port city of Hodeida. The result: far less food and medicine entering the country, creating a disaster for Yemenis, a deliberate disaster that according to the World Bank, has put “some 8.4 million people on the brink of famine.”

It gets worse. According to a new World Health Organization report, in 2018, there were more than 1.1 million cholera cases in Yemen. At least 2,310 people died from the disease, most of them children.

It goes without saying that as per the Charter of United Nations, wartime economic blockades that starve and sicken civilians and soldiers alike amount to a war crime. The Saudi-Emirati claim that the blockade’s sole purpose is to stanch the flow of Iranian arms to the Ansarullah movement and the revolutionaries has never been substantiated with even a shred of evidence, meaning that there are no Iranian arms in Hodeida. But the US and European arms are flowing to Saudi Arabia unabated. By the standards of international humanitarian law, blockading Yemen’s imports is a disproportionate response and therefore illegal.

True to form, American-supplied weapons have included cluster munitions as well, which pose a particular hazard to civilians because, when dropped from a plane, their devastating bomblets often disperse over enormous areas. These arms continue to flow to Saudi Arabia despite Washington’s denials, while Saudi warplanes rely on US Air Force tankers for mid-air refueling, as the Saudi military receives regular intelligence information and targeting advice from the Pentagon. That is to say that with Trump’s recent veto, such military involvement will only deepen, hence making the US government complicit in Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

One thing is obvious though: The US policy in Yemen won’t achieve its declared goals of defeating Ansarullah and the revolutionaries and re-occupying Yemen. After all, the War Party’s drone strikes began there in 2002 under George W. Bush. Under Obama, as in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, drones became Washington’s weapon of choice. Yet they never managed to change the situation in Washington’s favor.

Likewise, the US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen will prove not just self-defeating but self-prophetic, as well. The criminal campaign has no justification, legality or moral. That’s why it is cementing an alliance at the United Nations against the Americans, the Saudis and their lackeys. The international community is now more than ever determined and demanding for an end to the illegal war and blockade so that peace and flow of humanitarian aid into the country could begin immediately.  As insisted by Iran, there’s no other way but peace talks and national reconciliation for the Saudi-made and US-backed crisis in Yemen; sooner rather the late.

Britain Blatantly Backing Saudi-UAE State Terrorism in Yemen

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Britain, the old colonial fox, responsible for most of the political problems of the Muslim world, is again openly resorting to mischief in support of the state terrorism in Yemen of the Saudi-UAE aggressors.

This was evident by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s recent visit to Aden – London’s former stronghold on the Bab al-Mandeb – and his expression of support for the rebel regime of the fugitive from justice Mansour Hadi.

Hunt, who earlier had a meeting in Oman with a representative of the legal government headed by the popular Ansarallah Movement, displayed customary British hypocrisy by trying to distort the topics of his talks as well as the UN mediated peace deal that was agreed upon over a couple of months ago in Sweden by the warring parties.

He is insisting that the crucial seaport of Hudaydah be handed over to the aggressors, whom he has failed to denounce and instead calls the Ansarallah ‘rebels’.

Strange logic indeed! A popular government in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, which has the strong support of the national army and most of the tribes, who want independence for the country and not any dependence on either the West or Saudi Arabia, is being called ‘rebel’!

The diabolical attitude of the West, including Britain, is crystal clear and is also apparent in the statements and behaviour of the UN representative for working out a solution to the crisis in Yemen – Martin Griffith, a former British diplomat who can barely conceal his bias.

The statement released by Ansarllah has rightly said: "Martin Griffith appears not to be an envoy of the United Nations, but a British envoy representing London, especially after the Britain’s Foreign Office has made its objectives and position clear, which is in line with the obstruction of the agreement.” 

It is also worth noting that Britain has licensed over £4.7 billion worth of arms exports, including missiles and fighter jets, to the regime in Riyadh since the start of the Saudi-UAE aggression on Yemen in early 2015.

The regime in London has also been providing combat intelligence and target data to Saudi Arabia over the course of the war.

In view of these undeniable facts, the identity of the violators of the Sweden accord is no longer a secret.
Britain, the US, and the illegal Zionist regime, are hand-in-glove with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the state terrorism against the people of Yemen. 

Under the circumstances, peace is not possible through talks at the negotiating table, and this means the war which is about to enter its fifth year, might drag on with mounting casualties and draining of the petrodollars of the aggressors, and, of course, more death and destruction for the people of Yemen, who are resolved to ward off the aggression by facing disease and starvation, rather than surrender to Global Arrogance.

The US-Saudi relationship is out of control

Does the US administration, or more properly Donald Trump and his team of goons, have the moral uprightness to confront the Saudi regime for the killing of dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was an American citizen as well?

Analysts doubt that even Khashoggi’s disappearance may not force the Trump administration to recognize that fact.

Now we have an article in this regard titled “The US-Saudi relationship is out of control”, written jointly by Aaron David Miller of the Wilson Center and Richard Sokolsky who contributes to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Possible Saudi involvement in the disappearance—and possible murder—of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi presents the US-Saudi relationship with its greatest crisis since 9/11/2001 incidents of New York. If the Saudis are proven guilty of this heinous crime, it should change everything about the United States’ long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Regrettably, it probably won’t.

The US administration’s identification with the 33-year-old Heir Apparent, Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), as a modernizer determined to open up Saudi Arabia and tame its sectarian extremism has now been undermined by a crueler reality—that of a ruthless, reckless, and impulsive leader willing to repress and silence his critics at home and abroad.

Whatever happened to Khashoggi is first and foremost on the Saudis. But in kowtowing to Riyadh in a fanciful effort to make it the centerpiece of US strategy in West Asia, the Trump administration has emboldened MBS, as the Heir Apparent is known; given him a sense of invincibility; and encouraged him to believe there are no consequences for his reckless actions. And it is likely, unless confronted with incontrovertible evidence of Saudi responsibility for Khashoggi’s death or serious pressure from Congress, the president would be reluctant to impose those consequences even now.

Donald Trump’s enabling of Saudi Arabia began even before he became president. He talked openly on the campaign trail about his admiration for the totalitarian regime in Riyadh and how he couldn’t refuse Saudi offers to invest millions in his real-estate ventures. His predecessors may have gone to Mexico or Canada for their first foreign foray; Trump chose Saudi Arabia. In a trip carefully choreographed by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who quickly established close personal ties with the soon-to-be Heir Apparent, Trump was feted, flattered, and filled with hopes of billions in arms sales and Saudi investment that would create jobs back home. Trump’s aversion to Barack Obama’s Iran deal also fueled the budding romance. Trump used his anti-Iranian animus to energize his ties with Riyadh, and MBS was only too happy to exploit his eagerness. Reports that MBS saw Trump’s team, particularly Kushner, as naive and untutored should have come as no surprise.

Previous administrations—both Republican and Democratic—also pandered to the Saudis, but rarely on such a galactic, unrestrained, and unreciprocated scale. Through its silence or approval, Washington gave MBS—the new architect of the risk-ready, aggressive, and repressive Saudi policies at home and in the region—wide latitude to pursue a disastrous course toward Yemen and Qatar. The administration swooned over some of MBS’s supposed reforms while ignoring the accompanying crackdown on journalists and civil-society activists. Indeed, The Guardian and other outlets reported that MBS had told Kushner in advance of his plans to move against his opponents and wealthy businessmen, including some Saudi kinsmen, in what might be termed a “shaikhdown.”

The greatest foreign-policy achievement of MBS’ first year in power was his success at capturing the heart and mind of the US president. And there’s little doubt that Washington’s permissiveness and willingness to give the Saudis the benefit of the doubt – every time – emboldened MBS to act without regard to external constraints and with the confidence that US support could be taken for granted.

The US has important national interests in the survival of (British-created) Saudi Arabia, and Trump’s embrace of MBS has brought some returns. The upsides of US support for MBS, however, are overwhelmed by the downsides of empowering him to screw up whatever he touches. Over the past two years, the policies pursued by the Heir Apparent have undermined important American interests. For all the investment the administration has made in the US-Saudi relationship, we are getting precious little in return.

In May 2017, the Saudis promised to buy $110 billion worth of additional US military weapons and equipment. Trump has cited those arms sales as a reason not to pressure the Saudis over Khashoggi’s disappearance. But there’s a lot less here than meets the eye.

The Saudis have also opened their checkbook to support US initiatives in West Asia and North Africa. In response to American prodding, they have offered $100 million for US activities in Syria – although illegal since American troops have no right to stay on Syrian soil without invitation from the government of Damascus.

It is hard to assess the value of Saudi cooperation in the so-called counterterrorism because most of it operates under a cloak of secrecy. Whatever contributions Saudis make in intelligence sharing and law enforcement, though, serve Saudi interests. They are not being proffered as favors to the United States. The same is generally true for Saudi energy policy, where decisions on oil production and exports are largely driven by market forces and Riyadh’s own needs.

Against these modest gains, MBS’ mistakes weigh heavily. A Saudi-led military coalition is waging an inhumane campaign against the popular Ansarallah Movement in Yemen, giving al-Qaeda and Daesh greater room to maneuver. The wanton killing and destruction, much of it done with US military support, has further sullied America’s reputation. The Saudis have resisted attempts by the United Nations to broker a political settlement of the dispute, as well as UN investigative efforts to establish accountability for Saudi war crimes.

The administration’s efforts to turn the six-nation Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) into an effective anti-Iranian coalition have foundered over the bitter and unnecessary fight that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have picked with Qatar. Their joint blockade of Qatar pushed the Persian Gulf state to strengthen its ties with neighbouring Iran, and has greatly complicated Trump’s efforts to cause trouble for Iran. The Saudis have made a number of unreasonable demands on Qatar while rejecting US efforts to resolve the dispute.

The Saudis have also dampened Kushner’s hopes of making the so-called “deal of the century” – on the chronic question of Palestine through their reluctance to openly ally with Israel. There was always too much magical thinking in the Trump administration’s conception of what the Saudis would do to (openly) reach out to Israel and (publicly) pressure the Palestinians to give more concessions.

All of this helps explain why the Saudi role in the disappearance of Khashoggi is such a critical inflection point in US-Saudi relations. Unlike 9/11/2001, where there was no compelling evidence that the Saudi leadership had foreknowledge of or played a role in the incidents, the killing of Khashoggi could not have taken place without the express approval of MBS the Heir Apparent.

Even if those looking for a way to defuse this crisis believe it can be dismissed as a rogue operation and those who perpetrated the killing can be handed over for trial (most likely magical thinking), nobody would ever believe that MBS didn’t bear responsibility for the affair. This single act—the culmination of a series of repressive actions against women activists, journalists, and family members—will make it nearly impossible to continue to mask the obvious: MBS may be committed to serious reform, but it will be directed from the top down by a ruthless and inexperienced leader who brooks no criticism or dissent and who’s prepared to go to murderous lengths to eliminate any opposition.

The message to Saudis who believed they could criticize MBS with impunity is that no one can protect them. If the reports of Khashoggi’s horrific killing are confirmed, it will mark MBS permanently and make it impossible for the US administration to tout his so-called reformist credentials.

Still, Saudi money can be persuasive. In the coming week, high-level US financiers and government officials have been invited to the MBS-sponsored Davos in the Desert conference, to be held at the very same Ritz-Carlton where the regime detained and bilked scores of wealthy and influential Saudis under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign. Who attends and who doesn’t may provide some measure of how the Khashoggi disappearance is affecting Saudi Arabia.

Outside of the administration, pressure is growing. Congress recently fell four votes short of suspending US military assistance to Saudi Arabia over civilian casualties in Yemen. A letter sent recently to Trump by a bipartisan group of legislators triggered the Global Magnitsky Act, which could force the US administration to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance and, if the Saudis are found complicit, to impose sanctions. And journalists—having lost one of their own—will continue to be seized by this issue.

The question that remains to be answered, though, given the US executive branch’s control of foreign policy, is how the Trump administration will respond over time. Will it recognize that the US-Saudi relationship is out of control? That the Saudis are pursuing interests that do not coincide with Washington’s, and that the Saudi leadership seems to feel confident that it can continue to use and abuse American support without attention or regard to US interests?

On paper, MBS is committed to an agenda that would benefit Saudi Arabia and the region, particularly his seeming determination to moderate the extremist strain of Wahhabi sectarianism that the Saudis have exported for years, and to foster Saudi Arabia’s emerging and largely covert ties with the Israelis.

An experienced leader pursuing – American-dictated – reform in a political culture and region resistant to change would usually be worthy of Washington’s support. But an impulsive and reckless 33-year-old leading a regime that’s repressing and imprisoning its subjects at home and perhaps killing them abroad is not. America cannot create the former, but it certainly has no business empowering the latter. The Trump administration should not fail to recognize the difference.