Yemen’s Message to UN for Only Durable Peace vis-a-vis Saudi Seditions

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Saudi Arabia is the main impediment for peace in Yemen, a country on which for almost the past four years Riyadh has imposed an uneven war that has destroyed the infrastructure of the Arab World’s poorest country and plunged it into famine and epidemic diseases. 

The Saudis, who on the orders of the US and the Zionist regime, have killed around 30,000 men, women, and children, have now tightened their illegal blockade of the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah in violation of the peace draft for immediate stopping of hostilities, by not just preventing merchant ships bringing vital food and medicine to the besieged nation, but targeting poor fishermen who venture into the open sea for their livelihood.

This latest provocative move comes hours after the special UN envoy, Britain’s Martin Griffiths, held talks in the Yemeni capital Sana’a with leaders of the popular Ansarallah Movement, as part of efforts to resolve the crisis. 

It is clear the Saudis fear the prospects of talks in Sweden next month among the various Yemeni groups since this might lead to restoration of peace and stability through democratic means in the Arabian Peninsula’s only republican country, thereby encouraging the suppressed masses groaning under the tyrannical rule of the Najdis to rise up for their own rights. 

Hopefully, Griffiths has realized that the villain of the piece is Saudi Arabia, and if he is really sincere in his peace efforts he should make it clear that any negotiations on Yemen will be among the Yemeni people without the presence of either the Saudis of the Emiratis – let alone their American masters. 

The UN ought to know that as long will as Ansarallah are branded as "Houthi rebels” and as long as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their accomplices in the war on Yemen not considered aggressors and war criminals, peace is not possible in Yemen.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi want a client regime in Yemen, coupled with total deprivation of the rights of over forty percent of the country’s Zaydi Shi’a Muslim population which forms the overwhelming majority in northern Yemen.

This is totally unacceptable. Fortunately, the Ansarallah, as defenders of the independence and integrity of Yemen, have seen through the devilish plot of the American stooges, who in an attempt to deprive the besieged Yemenis of even medicine and food, including the daily fish catch of the half-starved people, think they can dent the resistance of the heroic people of Hodeidah through such dastardly moves.

This warrants the Ansarallah, which as a goodwill gesture had ceased its missile attacks on Yemen’s Saudi occupied regions of Najran, Asir, and Jizan, to be on guard, because the cowardly enemy knows only the language of weapons, and Insha Allah (God Willing) will be defeated on the battlefield.

It is clear the defenders of Yemen are wary of the weakness of the UN as well, who is under intense pressure from Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Washington and Tel Aviv, to impose a humiliating peace which would be worse than the ongoing imposed war. 

Perhaps this was the reason, the chief negotiator of the legal government of Yemen, Mohammad Ali Al-Houthi, during his latest round of talks with Griffiths, made sure to place an AK-47 rifle under the table next to where he was sitting.

It is an established tradition among the Yemenis, whether ordinary people or officials, to always girdle themselves with the ubiquitous Jambiyya which is tucked on their waists, whether in peace or war. 

Thus, it was a shrewd move on the part of the Ansarallah to convey a message to all and everybody that those thinking that the Yemenis will be tricked into submission are living in a fool’s paradise.

The enemy media has failed to understand the clear visibility of a machinegun at an official meeting with the UN envoy, and is indulging in feverish propaganda to depict the Ansarallah as warmongering and opposed to peace, while the whole world knows them to be heroic defenders of their homeland against foreign aggression. 

The message, whether from Sana’a or from Hodeidah is loud and clear. There is no question of surrender for the resilient people of Yemen, who want a just peace that safeguards the integrity and independence of their nation, and if not the aggressors, should be ready for spectacular fireworks that will literally make the Red Sea turn crimson red.

How can we defend human rights while selling arms to Saudi Arabia?

By: Noha Aboueldahab

TEHRAN, Sep. 12 (MNA) – Canada continues to supply Saudi Arabia with arms, despite the horrific atrocities being committed in Yemen on a daily basis by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, is puzzling – if not absurd.

Arms deals are not merely a financial transaction. They are a powerful expression of political support and partnership between two governments. When Stephen Harper signed the $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 2014 – the largest contract in Canada’s history – he attempted to justify the controversial deal by pointing to Saudi Arabia as a partner in the fight against Islamic State. He also argued that cancelling the contract would unjustly punish the 3,000 Canadian workers who manufacture the weapons in London, Ont.

Chrystia Freeland’s tweet last month, which called for the release of detained human-rights activists in Saudi Arabia, triggered a Canadian-Saudi spat in which Saudi Arabia abruptly cut diplomatic and new-trade ties with Canada. It also pulled thousands of Saudi scholarship students from Canadian universities.

Ms. Freeland’s tweet and previous calls by the Canadian government for the release of arbitrarily detained activists and dissidents in Saudi Arabia are in line with Canada’s professed human-rights-conscious foreign policy. The continuation of its multibillion-dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia is most definitely not.

After Saudi Arabia’s punitive response to Ms. Freeland’s tweet, she stated that Canada would continue to stand up for human rights at home and around the world. But Canada’s so-called feminist and human-rights-oriented foreign policy rings hollow in the ever-expanding gravesites of Yemen.

The war in Yemen, fought between the Yemeni Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in which innocent Yemenis, especially children, continue to suffer death by air strikes, starvation and preventable disease.

Canada has actively and rightly supported the establishment of United Nations inquiries into the extensive war crimes being committed against innocent Yemenis. The most recent report emphasizes that all parties to the conflict may be responsible for war crimes, but that the Saudi-led coalition’s actions have been the “leading direct cause of civilian deaths and destruction” in Yemen.

Notably, the report calls for the halting of the provision of arms that may be used in the conflict in Yemen, highlighting the significance attached to the detrimental impact of such arms sales on the perpetration of crimes in Yemen.

That Canada continues to supply Saudi Arabia with arms, despite the horrific atrocities being committed in Yemen on a daily basis by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, is puzzling – if not absurd.

Canada’s arms-control regulations prevent the export of arms in cases where there is a substantial risk that they will be used to commit human-rights violations. This stipulation was reiterated by Ms. Freeland herself earlier this year.