Iran: Neither Military Action Nor Economic Sanctions

by Dr Chandra Muzaffar

It would be utterly immoral of the United States to launch a military attack upon Iran if it is true that one of the missiles that destroyed an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia on the 14th of September 2019 had a casing bearing a number that suggested that the weapon was manufactured for NATO forces. The alphabets preceding the number denote the type of missile it is and one of its uses. The picture of the missile was inadvertently supplied to the media by the Saudi Defence Ministry.

A theory that has emerged in the wake of the picture of this missile is that the assault on the oil refineries in Saudi’s Eastern Province could have been a false flag operation initiated by John Bolton who was sacked by President Donald Trump as National Security Adviser around that time. It was his way of orchestrating a ‘parting shot’  which he could then blame on Iran — a State that he has always targeted in pursuit of his neo conservative agenda of emasculating Israel’s regional adversaries in order to ensure the latter’s supremacy and hegemony.

A false flag operation would exonerate Iran which has consistently maintained that it had nothing to do with the attack on the refineries. Besides, Iran does not stand to gain in any way from such action. Its current preoccupation is with getting crippling sanctions imposed on it by the US lifted immediately.  A false flag operation would however raise a question or two about the Houthi( Ansar Allah)  claim that it destroyed the Saudi refineries. Indeed, if anyone in the region has a reason to act against the Saudi regime, it would be the Houthis and the people of Yemen in general. Since 2015 at least 50,000 bombs and missiles have been dropped in Yemen by the Saudi military and its regional allies. More than 15,000 children, women and men have perished. Farms, hospitals and schools have been bombarded.  The constant daily attacks have spawned the worst humanitarian crisis in the 21st century. Preventable diseases such as cholera have spread and malnutrition and starvation haunt tens of thousands of families. It has been estimated that a child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen as a result of all this.

It is this terrible catastrophe that the world should address. False flag operations divert attention from the root causes of a catastrophe ignited by the Saudi and US elites years ago. Those causes in turn are related to geopolitics, power and hegemony. The ordinary Yemeni has paid a huge price.

If a military assault on Iran is not to going to help the ordinary Yemeni neither will the tightening of economic sanctions against the people of Iran. Already the sanctions re-imposed upon that country since the US withdrew from the six nation nuclear deal have led to a great deal of pain and suffering within the populace. The sick including children have been deprived of much needed medicines which are presently imported from abroad.

Military action and economic sanctions it is obvious only exacerbate dire situations.  Whenever it is initiated by a mighty power in collusion with its allies and agents, it fails to achieve its objectives. Take US helmed military campaigns aimed at furthering their own often diabolical agenda. The US attempt to crush what was in reality a nationalist movement in Vietnam in the sixties and early seventies resulted in its own ignominious defeat. Under the banner of NATO, it took control of Afghanistan in October 2001 and in the process ignited a war of resistance which after 18 years has undoubtedly enhanced the Taliban’s grip upon power. Together with Britain, it invaded and occupied Iraq convinced that it would not only be able to control the nation’s rich oil resource but also determine the region’s politics in favour of Israel. Neither goal has been achieved and Iraq continues to be in a quagmire. Libya is another country in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) where the US and its NATO partners initially succeeded in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi and murdering him brutally but is now bogged down in a chaotic terrain where there is no effective functioning government. In Syria for at least seven years, starting in 2011, the US and its allies sought through covert and overt means to oust the government of Bashar Al-Assad mainly because it refused to kowtow to them. Though they even employed terrorist outfits to achieve their objective, Bashar is still in the seat of power, supported by the Hezbollah, Iran and Russia. Syria has proven yet again that it is not possible to accomplish regime change through military means orchestrated by external actors.

Economic sanctions however harsh have also not succeeded in bringing governments that value their independence and integrity to their knees. An outstanding example of a nation that has withstood US sanctions and enhanced its sovereignty is Cuba.  One of those rare occasions when sanctions have worked is the global movement against Apartheid South Africa in the eighties. There was a universal moral principle underlying those sanctions that transcended any self-serving agenda which was one of the reasons that explained its success. One can argue that such a principle is also present in the Boycott, Divest Sanctions (BDS) movement in relation to Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands.

The time has come for people everywhere to reject military action and self-serving economic sanctions   as means towards certain nefarious ends. Since the former is a threat and the latter is a reality in the case of Iran, the Iranian crisis should serve as a platform for the mass mobilization of global public opinion against the use of these two weapons. Let Iran be that moment in history that will persuade humankind to eschew what is vile and vicious, what is cruel and callous in our setting as we journey towards a civilization that is just, humane and compassionate.

Dr Chandra Muzaffar is President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).. Malaysia.

Uncle Sam Scapegoats Iran

By Finian Cunningham September 18, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  Following the devastating airstrikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, US Vice President Mike Pence flexed his tough-talking muscles, vowing that his country is “ready to defend our interests and allies… make no mistake about it.” Don’t you think the assurance is a bit late? Saudi Arabia – a historic and key ally of Washington – had its entire oil production knocked out by 50 per cent last weekend when it came under aerial attack. Global markets were rattled over possible critical fuel shortages as the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil might not recover full production for weeks. So, Pence’s stern words of being “ready to defend” certainly ring a bit hollow, if not rather farcical. If Washington was indeed on sentry duty for the Middle East, as it has appointed itself to do decades ago, why weren’t the airstrikes on Saudi Arabia’s vital oil industry intercepted to prevent the havoc wreaked? We are not talking here about some remote oil field or installation. The infrastructure targeted for massive damage was at the very heart of Saudi’s oil industry. The Abqaiq refinery and processing plant is where up to 70 per cent of all Saudi crude is prepared for export. It is said to be the biggest crude oil processing plant in the world. And it is near to other vital refining and shipping facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province adjacent to the Persian Gulf. The Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the air raids last weekend, which also targeted a major oil field at Khurais, located in Eastern Province, not far from the Abqaiq processing plant. The Houthis said the blitz was conducted with 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The distance covered from Yemen is nearly 1,000 kms. It is thought that the Yemeni rebels have developed drones capable of reaching up to 1,500 kms. What’s more, they have threatened that all key Saudi oil infrastructure is vulnerable to future attacks. Potentially, a new wave of airstrikes from Yemen using more sophisticated drone models could bring the Saudi rulers to their knees from their oil economy being decimated. What must be deeply troubling for the Saudis is that their lifeline oil economy seems to be defenceless – despite having spent hundreds of billions of dollars on US anti-missile systems. Months after Donald Trump took office in early 2017, recall how he boasted about the Saudis buying over $100 billion in Pentagon weaponry. That’s why VP Mike Pence’s stirring words of “defending allies” sound ridiculous. It also suggests that’s why US intelligence and military officials are hurriedly trying to blame Iran for carrying out the latest attacks. If the rag-tag Houthi rebels from war-torn Yemen can penetrate US-backed air defences to demolish Saudi oil infrastructure, then American anti-missile technology is more over-rated and much worse in practice than many had already suspected. President Trump has been a little more circumspect about blaming Iran for the air assaults, but senior administration officials like Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have come out forcefully claiming that Iran is responsible. Iran denies any involvement and says that the US is “in denial” about the fact that the Yemenis are capable and entitled to defend themselves in a more-than-four-year military operation launched on their country by the US-backed Saudi military coalition in March 2015. US intelligence and military sources are briefing American media outlets that the airstrikes were carried out with drones and cruise missiles fired from southwest Iran. No evidence has been presented, as usual from these anonymous and faceless US spooks; the only “evidence” so far are satellite images of the damaged oil installations. Those images are far from conclusive. The attacks could have come from the southerly direction of Yemen. But here’s the thing. If drones and cruises missiles were launched from  Iran, as the US is claiming, then their flight path would have come within close range of the American Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters base in Bahrain which is near to Saudi’s Eastern Province and its oil infrastructure. The US Fifth Fleet is responsible for “securing” the entire Middle East and in particular the strategically important Persian Gulf waterway where a third of all globally shipped oil is daily transported. It is the world’s premier chokepoint for oil trade. Is it really plausible that a swarm of drones and cruise missiles allegedly transiting from Iran across the Gulf within a few hundred kilometres of the US Fifth Fleet – with all its warships, radar, satellite and detection technology bristling – were not detected in flight heading for Saudi Arabia? If Iranian drones and missiles were detected then we can be sure US officials would be blaring the information, categorically pinpointing the incriminating evidence. As it is, American officials and their intelligence sources are so far peddling vague accusations against Iran based on dubious satellite images. That suggests that Iran’s denials are credible and that the Houthis’ version of events is closer to the truth. They hit Saudi Arabia’s “crown jewels” and the Saudis’ supposed protector, the US, could do nothing about it. Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Beeley interviews Yemen’s Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Dr. Yousef Al-Haidari

Vanessa Beeley, an independent journalist, peace activist, photographer and associate editor at 21st Century Wire, has interviewed Yemen's Ministry of Health Spokesperson, Dr. Yousef Al-Haidari.

Vanessa Beeley: Thank you so much for giving your time. What is the war in Yemen about and where will it end? 

Dr. Yousef Al-Haidari: Since the first revolution in Yemen on 26 September 1962, these great powers in the world have managed to contain the Yemeni people politically, intellectually and economically so they did not fight us as they have during this ugly war. They enslaved us and ruled us through their puppet presidents.

Yemen’s geographical location, the third best in the world, and Yemen’s rich resources, oil, gas, rock, agricultural and fishing abundance and diversity of landscape should make Yemen one of the world’s wealthiest countries but this has not happened because of this policy of “making us poor to keep us under control”.

The movement that originated in northern Yemen, Saada, called Ansarullah or as western media like to say, the Houthis, rose out of the poorest societies and it identified the root cause of Yemen’s poverty – the American system and that is why they adopted the slogan “death to the American regime". Their revolution which succeeded on 21st September 2014 then provoked American agents in the region, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to try to persuade the new government in Yemen, represented by Ansarullah, to continue the mercenary path of dependence upon the U.S that had been taken by former presidents in Yemen. The Ansarullah movement and leadership rejected this move completely.

When the global powers, represented by the American, British and Saudi regimes saw that the Ansarullah movement was able to eradicate all the terrorist entities in Yemen, such as Al Qaeda, which previous Yemeni regimes had been unable to achieve, they sensed the threat that the Ansarullah movement represented for their colonial projects which had been supported by the deliberate planting of these terrorist groups and they launched the aggression against Yemen on 26th March 2015.

The Saudi-led “Operation Decisive Storm” was launched by the former Saudi Ambassador to Washington (current Saudi Foreign Minister) Adel Al-Jubair from inside the White House. On the first day terrible massacres were carried out among the children of Yemen, one of them in the north of the capital, Sana’a and in the middle of the capital. The same night, children and civilians were deliberately targeted in their homes as they were sleeping. 23 days later on 20 April 2015, a powerful neutron bomb was used in Sanaa and every area of the city was bombarded. Thousands of homes were destroyed. All of these crimes were committed with U.S endorsement and support.

The endgame is clear. After the Saudi coalition was able to bring down a number of Yemen’s provinces in the south – a campaign that was characterized by chaos, murder, assassinations, terror and fear – as witnessed by international NGOs and journalists. We witnessed the establishment of dozens of secret torture and detention centers, similar to those established by the U.S in Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prisons. Even those who support the U.S and its Saudi coalition could not return to Aden, they were refused entry by the U.S, Saudi, Emiratis. The Island of Socotra and the province of Hadramaut were occupied by the U.S. The provinces to the east of Yemen on the border with Oman were occupied by Saudi proxies and forces to open a channel for its oil to the Arabian Sea in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The Yemeni people living there experienced deepening hunger, poverty and disease, they received no benefits from this occupation.

Today, we are nearing the end of the fourth year of this aggression, which has been mobilized by all the most powerful countries of this world, all the resources of this world and all the armies of this world using all the weapons at their disposal. Weapons that are internationally prohibited like U.S and U.K supplied cluster bombs. The war will not end until the alliance of aggression breaks down and the Saudi regime collapses. The alliance has attempted to weaken us with every weapon in their arsenal – bombing, starvation, disease, cholera, terrorism, diphtheria, malnutrition, malaria – but they do not understand that we will not yield until Yemen is free, we will never surrender even if they occupy our homes and lands.

The cessation of this aggression depends entirely upon the vigilance and humanity of the peoples of this world, not upon their criminal governments who profit from our suffering.

VB: Do you have any hope in the current peace talks in Sweden?

Dr. YaH: There is no hope in the current peace conversation, and the reason is that the other side did not come to dialogue with us, but sent their mercenaries who don't have the ability to make decisions. They do not even have the right to return to their country while they claim they “liberated” which translates as an occupation. When we have American, Saudi and the UAE government representatives at the same table with Ansarullah, we will be able to say there is hope.

VB: Most people in the west have been sold the idea that fugitive/resigned former President Mansour Hadi is the head of the internationally recognized government in Yemen. You are the Health Minister of the current, constitutionally elected Yemeni government. Please describe the government in situ. Does it have popular support?

Dr. YaH: I am the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, which was formed constitutionally through the Constitutional Council of Representatives, which is still in Sana’a, which is more than the quorum. I believe that the continuation of the recognition of Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi as president of Yemen is due to American and Saudi money and the UN ruling. Hadi presented his resignation on January 19th 2015 and that was preceded by the end of his presidency of consensus on 21st February 2014. His presidency was extended by one year but he was never constitutionally elected. For me, there is no legitimacy for those who will murder their own people, besiege and starve their own people. He destroys his own people upon instruction from the U.S and the Saudi coalition. 

Everyone can see that the entities that promote American hegemony are effectively besieging or killing their own people or putting economic pressure upon their people or simply ensuring the spread of chaos in their country. We see this in Yemen, Syria and North Korea among many others. Unfortunately, most of the world is subjected to the devastation brought about by American hegemony in varying degrees. The U.S believes, it alone can determine who or what is legitimate or illegal. “Legitimacy” must be determined by the people of sovereign nations not by external and predatory forces.

Hadi’s government has been living, for four years, in the luxury hotels of Riyadh, Dubai, Cairo and Istanbul. It does not exist in Yemen, even in those areas it claims to have “liberated”. It can never go back to Yemen. Our government in Sana’a is recognized by the people of Yemen. It brings stability, freedom and justice. There is no suppression of doctrinal, sectarian or partisan considerations at all.

The number of people living in the areas of Yemen occupied by the Saudi coalition does not exceed 25% of the 27 million Yemenis. 75% live in the areas controlled by the Sana’a’s government and the popularity of this coalition government is evident in the fighting fronts and popular support. They are supported by religious and national factions alike and there is a marked absence of public rejection or uprising against them – something which is a common occurrence in the provinces of the coalition-occupied south.

VB: How many children have died of preventable diseases since the conflict began, because of the blockade on food and medicine? 

Dr. YaH: The statistics are not complete as the Ministry of Health is unable to record accurate figures due to specific issues. There are many children who die silently – they die in their homes after their parents were unable to provide them with hospital because of poverty, siege and lack of money, just for example. 

Malnutrition: – 2,300,000 children with 1/3 suffering from a type of malnutrition, including 400 thousand children with severe acute malnutrition, one child dies every ten minutes.

2890 Yemeni people have been infected with diphtheria since its re-emergence on October 2017, of whom 169 died, children represent 90% of these statistics.

Cholera and associated diarrhea: – About 1,357,998 Yemeni people have been affected during the period 27 April 2017 to date, of whom 2678 died, children represent 70% of those deaths. 

Malaria and dengue: – There are about half a million Yemeni people suffering from malaria and 30 thousand died from the disease, the majority are children.

130 medicines needed to treat chronic diseases and lifesaving medicines are not available in the Ministry of Health because of the economic blockade and the closure of Sana’a airport since 8 August 2016 until today. These drugs include kidneys, renal dialysis, cancer, diabetes, thalassemia, heart, epilepsy. Tens of thousands have died as a result of the lack of these medicines, the majority are children. 

Since the closure of Sana’a airport on August 8th 2016 until today, some 200,000 Yemenis have been unable to travel abroad to receive appropriate medical treatment that is not available in Yemen. So far, 28,000 patients have died, 40% are children.

VB: Have attempts to import necessary lifesaving items been delayed or denied entry and by whom?

Dr. YaH: Oil and basic foodstuffs and 120 pharmaceuticals have been banned from entering Yemen except through very complex conditions and only by the sea not through Sana’a airport which is closed. Because of the U.N Verification and Inspection mechanism imposed on ships entering Djibouti port, medicines remain blockaded there for months and many medicines will have perished by the time they finally enter Yemen, if at all. Wheat, for example, will be rendered inedible after storage in high temperatures. The procedures do nothing more than add cost onto the items for the already poverty-stricken civilians. The closure of Sana’a airport and the transferal of the National Bank to Aden also have a negative effect. For kidney treatment, we can only provide enough for 5% of patients through international organizations.

VB: How are the 5000 kidney patients coping bearing in mind they are unable to receive the necessary dialysis? 

Dr. YaH: Eight thousand dialysis patients receive just 2 washings each week, although it should be minimum 3 washings per week, and instead of 5 hours per wash, we do only 3 hours. Where dialysis machines work 24 hours/7 days – 4 dialysis centers have been closed by the Saudi bombardment. 27 centers are still functioning but we are unable to provide equipment or to repair devices thanks to the blockade. We struggle to have enough of the washing solutions. If we did not have the cooperation of some international organizations and the help of Yemeni society, we would have witnessed another humanitarian catastrophe. Even so, we cannot cover all needs and 1200 patients have died of renal failure as a direct consequence of the blockade. 

VB: Does it still apply that any surgeries for cancer will be performed free of charge? 

Dr. YaH: In Yemen, there is no health insurance for citizens at all. Health care is charged for even in public hospitals although the payment is less than in private hospitals. The new Minister of Health, appointed in June 2018, introduced a policy to reduce the pain and suffering of patients, especially those with cancer and they have access to free procedures in public hospitals in Sana’a. A new law has also been introduced which will enter into legislation in 2019 – the Fund for the care and treatment of cancer. We hope that this will go some way to relieving the suffering of cancer patients.

VB: How many hospitals remain operational across Yemen?

Dr. YaH:  In areas governed by the Sana’a government, 79 hospitals provide health services to 75% of Yemenis and 2,000 health centers throughout Yemen. The Saudi coalition air force destroyed 345 health center hospitals completely destroyed or partially destroyed.  Of these, 4 hospitals are run by Doctors Without Borders and about 45% of hospitals and health centers have stopped working because of the blockade. Health work in Yemen is only 55% operational and they are overwhelmed by the spread of epidemiological, psychological and physical diseases. 

VB: Right before the talks in Sweden, some injured Yemenis were reported to have been allowed to fly out. How many were able to fly out?

Dr. YaH: The 200,000 people who suffer from these physical diseases, such as cancer, heart, kidneys, bone etc. have been collectively punished by the coalition of aggression’s refusal to allow them to travel. 28,000 have died as a result. The World Health Organization and the UN expressed a willingness to conduct two trips per month, 100 patients each trip. Those who managed to travel before the peace talks are the war wounded, whether fighters from the frontlines or the civilians injured in Saudi bombing raids. No more than 50 such patients have been able to leave for treatment and one trip was organized as a prerequisite for the Sana’a delegation to participate in the “peace” talks. 50,000 injured are still waiting for permission to travel for treatment, thousands of them with permanent disabilities. 

VB: What is needed most in terms of Humanitarian Aid?

Dr. YaH: The Yemeni people do not require any assistance actually. They only require that the blockade and siege is lifted and the aggression stopped and that they be allowed to live in peace. We will regulate our own problems peacefully and easily. This is the most important demand from the Yemeni people.

VB: Who is ultimately responsible for the genocide in Yemen? 

Dr. YaH: Those who are officially responsible for the genocide in Yemen are those who own the money of mass destruction with which they buy weapons of mass destruction from the countries of mass destruction endorsed by the United Nations of mass destruction and met with global silence while Yemen is being destroyed. The American regime is mainly responsible, the UN and the Security Council follow closely as legal cover for the crimes committed by the US and its Saudi and UAE partners enabling them to commit the atrocities against the Yemeni people. Saudi Arabia and UAE are number three in the responsibility league table and then you have, as number four, the fugitive, illegitimate President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his political team at the UN or working as ambassadors in other countries.

Finally, I always welcome you and your questions at any time and whatever the questions without reservation, and thank you deeply for your constant solidarity with us. People are two types (either your brother in religion or your counterpart in creation) and we live in one land and one race and live one life and our destiny is one … all respect to you and the people of the world.

UN negotiations falter as Saudi airstrikes continue on Yemen

“There is no point in negotiations with a party that is looking to obtain through talks what it has failed to achieve through a military campaign,” said Ansarallah chief negotiator Mohammed Abdus-Salaam in response to the illogical demands of the foreign backed forces, coupled with the unabated strikes on Yemen by Saudi Arabia, as part of the pressure tactics to dent the morale of the defenders.

Now we have a report by journalist Ahmed Abdul-Kareem for MintPress titled: “UN negotiations falter as Saudi airstrikes continue on Yemen”

The Ansarallah defenders of Yemen have decided to cancel the UN-backed cease-fire, previously enacted as a goodwill measure to “speed up” the peace process, and resumed ballistic missile and drone attacks against Saudi-led coalition forces. 

In retaliation to the continued crimes of the Riyadh regime, Yemeni forces last Wednesday targeted Apache helicopters as well as a Saudi airbase in Bir Askar in the southwestern region of Saudi-occupied Najran on Wednesday evening, The attack was carried out with a salvo of high-precision ballistic missiles dubbed the Badr P-1. The short-range ballistic missile uses a solid-propellant, an upgrade from its previous iteration, the Badr-1.

Ansarallahs’s Arabic-language al-Masirah that Yemeni missiles successfully struck their designated target in Najran.

Al Masirah’s broadcast station, which was taken off the air by Egyptian satellite company NileSat on Wednesday, said that the attack left an unspecified number of Saudi pilots killed or wounded, destroyed many Apache aircraft, and sparked a large fire in one of the bases’ ammunition stores.

A high-ranking source in Yemen’s military told MintPress that ballistic missile and drones attacks would escalate in coming days and vital facilities in UAE and Saudi Arabia would be targeted.

In a separate attack, a Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) missile hit a gathering of Saudi-allied mercenaries near Qais Mountain in Jizan, which is Yemeni territory occupied by Saudi Arabia in 1934. Another missile of the same type hit a group of mercenaries in the Wawa area of Asir – also a Yemeni province under Saudi occupation since 1934.

Yemen’s military said that both projectiles left an unspecified number of Saudi-led forces either killed or wounded. A source in the Yemeni armed forces told Mintpress that the attack on the Saudi air base was in retaliation for deadly Saudi attacks on civilians in Hajjah, in northwestern Yemen, which killed over 15 civilians in a single week.

Last Tuesday, seven civilians were killed, including women and children, and three were injured when Saudi aircraft targeted a home belonging to Hussein al-Yamani in al-Yamnah village in the Haradh directorate. In a separate attack, six civilians were killed and three were injured by Saudi airstrikes in the Ram district of the Mustaba region east of Haradh early Tuesday.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

Meanwhile, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes against multiple Yemeni provinces — including Hodeidaj, Sada’a, Hajjah, and Sana’a — continue. The invaders have said repeatedly that they target only Ansarallah military positions, yet international organizations say the spate of airstrikes have focused on residential areas where there are no fighters.

Ansarallah, the political wing of Yemen’s resistance movement, says ongoing airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition will make the next round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden meaningless.

The chief negotiator for Ansarallah, Mohammed Abdus-Salaam told the press: “There is no point in negotiations with a party that is looking to obtain through talks what it has failed to achieve through a military campaign.”

He went on to say that certain indicators — such as non-stop airstrikes, the failure to reopen the Sana’a Airport to commercial air traffic, the refusal to release prisoners and detainees, and the failure to remove sanctions, as well as other confidence-undermining measures — are making Yemenis lose confidence in the United Nations.

Ansarallah criticized the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, saying that Griffiths has not introduced a comprehensive political framework for a solution to the Yemeni conflict. Specifically, he has offered no solution that takes into account a government transition with the inclusion of all Yemeni political parties.

Ansarallah further noted that Griffiths is focusing on issues that are trivial and not fundamental to peace talks.

Abdus-Salaam said about Griffiths’ approach: “He [Martin Griffiths] is only looking at the possibility of bringing the warring parties together, without specifying the most important procedures for negotiations and a framework that needs to be agreed upon by all sides. If he does not offer a clear and comprehensive political framework that would form the nucleus of the next round of peace negotiations, he will not be able to hold any further talks.”

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, who is currently on a three-day visit to Yemen, made an appeal to all sides to cease hostilities, especially around the key Yemeni infrastructure including the port city of Hodeidah. Lowcock made the appeal during a press briefing after arriving in the capital Sana’a on Thursday. UN agencies say the closure of the port in Hodeida would greatly exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Lowcock went on to say that the fighting has once again highlighted the ongoing humanitarian tragedy in the war-ravaged country, adding, “the situation in Yemen has deteriorated since I was here last.”

According to the United Nations, shipping operations in Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, a lifeline for the country suffering a Saudi-imposed blockade, have dropped by almost 50 percent over the past two weeks, with shipping companies deterred by insecurity and ongoing Saudi attacks.

The UN’s World Food Program said on Tuesday that a drop in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would affect food stocks in Yemen, where 14 million people are facing possible starvation.

The Red Sea Ports Company confirmed to MintPress that four vessels carrying essential foodstuffs were being held near the Saudi-occupied port of Jizan despite having received a permit to enter Yemen by the United Nations. Four million people in Hodeida live below the poverty line and are on the brink of famine, according to local authorities.

The Saudi-led coalition has killed tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians since 2015, when its war on Yemen began. Moreover, the coalition’s blockade of food and medicine has plagued the country with an unprecedented famine and triggered a deadly outbreak of preventable disease that has cost thousands their lives.

The War in Yemen is Not a War, It is a Massacre

by CESAR CHELALA 

RedditEma

The numbers are mind-blowing: Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen, an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger and disease, according to the last analysis by Save the Children, the international health and human rights organization. Although children are the most affected by the conflict, 14 million people are at risk of famine, according to data compiled by the United Nations.

For almost four years, Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemen’s internationally recognized government. In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of Arab states to fight the Houthis, which included Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, and Senegal. These countries have either sent troops to fight on the ground in Yemen or have carried out air attacks.

Iran has reportedly sent armaments and military advisers to help the Houthis, thus exacerbating their long-held animosity against the Saudis. In addition to fighting the Houthis in Yemen, the Saudis are backing the rebels fighting against Bashar al-Assad’s government, while Iran has a strong influence over the Assad regime. In Lebanon, while Iran has shown strong support for Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia supports the Sunni Future Movement, led by Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The Yemen war, however, goes beyond a Saudi-Iranian geopolitical or Sunni-Shia conflict. The Houthis’ demands have been primarily economic and political, trying to take the Yemenis out of a cycle of poverty. The brutal and indiscriminate attacks of the Saudi-led coalition have left a ravaged country, with millions of civilians fighting for survival.

Fearing for their lives, more than 3 million Yemenis have become internally displaced persons, and almost 300,000 have sought asylum in other countries, including Djibouti and Somalia. Both the internally displaced, as well as those who have left to other countries often lack adequate nutrition and shelter. According to UNICEF, Yemen’s health care system is on the verge of collapse.

Those remaining in the country must cope with the relentless attacks by the coalition, which don’t distinguish between civilian and soldiers. In addition, across the country, aid organizations are unable to provide needed assistance. Hospitals have been bombed, provoking tens of deaths both as a result of the attacks and those left without urgent care.

Close to 15 million men, women, and children have no access to health care. An outbreak of cholera which started in October 2016 has not yet been controlled. It doesn’t help that water infrastructure in Yemen, one of the world’s most water-scarce countries, has been continuously attacked by the Saudi coalition.

As a consequence, 8.6 million children in Yemen don’t have adequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. “Since 2015, the escalation of the conflict has only exacerbated this already dire situation, with attacks and military action on and around water infrastructure cutting off even more people from access to safe drinking water,” states UNICEF.
Last August, a United Nations report on the situation in Yemen sharply criticized all parties in the conflict but placed stronger blame on the Saudi coalition’s attacks on Yemeni civilians. Three UN experts said that the Saudi-led coalition routinely failed to consult its own “no-strike” list of more than 30,000 sites in Yemen, including refugee camps and hospitals. According to the experts’ report, restrictions that Saudi Arabia has placed on the delivery of aid by sea or air have had such a severe humanitarian impact that “such acts, together with the requisite intent, may amount to international crimes.”

There is something pathetic when looking at some of the most powerful countries in the world: the United States, Great Britain, and France plotting with Saudi Arabia’s criminal regime to destroy the Houthis’ resistance movement in Yemen. In the last few weeks, hundreds of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition in and around Hodeidah have endangered the lives of 150,000 children. These coalition actions violate basic humanitarian rules and the rule of law. The War in Yemen is a massacre, and it is the responsibility of the international community to uphold justice in the face of such tragedy.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of the 1979 Overseas Press Club of America award for the article “Missing or Disappeared in Argentina: The Desperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims.”

Iranians hail Houthi 'resistance' for bringing potential end to Yemen war

Al-Monitor Staff

Official statements by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the Saudi war in Yemen were not taken for granted by Iranians, who have been anticipating a Vietnam-style quagmire for the Saudi-led coalition in the Middle East's poorest country.

"The Yemeni resistance (a term used in Iran to describe Houthi militia fighting off the Saudi war) will not give in to America's peace-seeking postures," wrote Javan, a hard-line news outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Javan referred to French Defense Minister Florence Parly's comments on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as an acknowledgment that Houthis have cornered the Saudis into a deadlock.

"The [US] call came only three days after the Yemenis unveiled their high-precision Badr P-1 ballistic missile that targeted a Saudi coalition base," the paper stated, highlighting the Shiite militia's counteroffensive capabilities. Javan lashed out at US media outlets for their failure to turn the spotlight on the plight of the Yemenis as opposed to their widespread coverage of the Oct. 2 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

In other Iranian papers, the Khashoggi crisis played central to a reading between the lines of the US cease-fire call. It is a "policy reversal," According to daily Khorasan, "It is a policy reversal [that] came after pressure mounted on Washington and its allies in the wake of revelations on the Saudi complicity in the journalist's murder." The paper criticized the United States for fanning the flames of the war with its "nonstop flow of arms to the Saudis."

"This war of attrition is further eroding the Saudis and their allies," wrote Reformist paper Ebtekar, which praised the Houthis for preventing a Saudi-Emirati takeover of the strategic port of Hodeidah. "The West is now at a crossroads to decide, as it finds Saudis stuck in the Yemen quagmire." The paper claimed that following the Khashoggi scandal, the Saudi allies are trying to pull the kingdom out of one of the multiple crises it is facing. 

Kayhan, a staunch supporter of Yemen's Houthi fighters, called the development a "retreat" by Washington under public pressure and "another defeat" for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "But let's not forget that the US move is [mere] publicity and deception ahead of the upcoming midterm elections," Kayhan wrote. The paper noted that if the administration was sincere, "it would not have rejected calls to stop selling arms to the Saudis."

The US call for peace in Yemen was also met with sarcasm by ordinary Iranians, many of them sympathetic to the plight of fellow Muslims in an impoverished nation. "The Yemen war is no longer a lucrative market. We [Americans] need to find another place or launch another war," tweeted one user. "The Americans made the call only after they realized that there was not an intact building left in Yemen," read another post.

Nearly four years of relentless bombardments have claimed thousands of civilian lives in Yemen. But that's not where it ends. The costs of the Saudi-imposed economic blockade and the man-made famine could be beyond calculation, leaving millions on the brink of starvation and dependent on food assistance. "The blood of thousands of Yemenis did little to [force the West to] stop the war," wrote pro-Reform paper Hamdeli, wondering if "Khashoggi's blood" has now come to the rescue of Yemeni children at a time when they are slipping away one after another.