US-Ships: War on Yemen – Illegal wars (German) – The Yemen Trap – Salafists in Yemen – Refugee crisis – Ceasefire – British economy and Yemen war – The Sanaa injured still blocked at home – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
cp1 Am wichtigsten: US-Schiffe vor Jemen / Most important: US vessels off Yemen
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Sonstiges / Most important: Other
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche/ UN and peace talks
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp16a Saudischer Luftangriff auf Sanaa, 8. Oktober / Saudi air raid at Sanaa, Oct. 8
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
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**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
PH = Pro-Houthi
PS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp1 Am wichtigsten: US-Schiffe vor Jemen / Most important: US vessels off Yemen
18.10.2016 – The Journal (A K)
Explainer: What's happening in Yemen right now?
[Overview article, just following the US propaganda narrative and not even showing any doubts]
Here’s a quick timeline of what happened:
http://www.thejournal.ie/yemen-bombed-by-us-3031366-Oct2016/
18.10.2016 – Junge Welt (** A K)
Nur ein Instrumentenfehler?
Jemen: US-Marine stellt eigene Berichte über Raketenangriffe in Frage. Kerry fordert Waffenstillstand
Schäden entstanden laut US-Angaben bei keinem der drei angeblichen jemenitischen Angriffe. Alle Raketen seien in einer nicht näher bezeichneten Entfernung von der »Mason« im Wasser gelandet. In den ersten beiden Fällen bestritten Sprecher von Ansarollah den Abschuss von Raketen. Zu der Meldung über einen dritten Angriff am Sonntag gab es zunächst noch keine Stellungnahme von jemenitischer Seite.
Dafür überraschte die US-Navy einige Stunden später mit der Mitteilung, dass sie den Vorgang untersuchen wolle. Nun war plötzlich von »Ungewissheit« über das wirkliche Geschehen die Rede. Die am frühen Sonntag verbreitete Meldung wurde dahingehend abgeschwächt, dass die Besatzung des Kriegsschiffs »Anzeichen« für einen Angriff gehabt habe, die in Radarbeobachtungen bestanden hätten. Dass in Wirklichkeit keine gesicherten Beweise für einen Angriff vorlagen, hatten Beobachter schon nach den beiden vorangegangenen angeblichen Zwischenfällen vermutet.
Einer der Führer von Ansarollah, Abd Al-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Huthi, hatte am Donnerstag in einer Fernsehansprache den US-amerikanischen Angriff auf die drei Radarstationen scharf verurteilt. Dabei äußerte er den Verdacht, dass die USA dabei seien, die Grundlage für eine Invasion von Bodentruppen in der südwestlichen Provinz Hudaida zu schaffen.
Nach außen gibt sich die US-Regierung jedoch betont friedenswillig – Von Knut Mellenthin
https://www.jungewelt.de/m/artikel/295648.nur-ein-instrumentenfehler.html
17.10.2016 – Lobelog (** A K P)
Staying Out of Trouble in Yemen
The emphasis on the Houthis may be editorial compression, but the stock epithet that usually accompanies the name Houthi is “Iran-backed,” An unholy alliance of Israel and the Sunni Arab monarchies—and their mouthpieces in the West—have ascribed all evil in the region to Iran. Iran is up to quite enough mischief on its own account without the pin more on it. (To be fair, a less partisan source accurately noted that “Houthi relations with the Islamic Republic resemble the Iran-Hamas relationship more than the Iran-Hezbollah relationship—that is, the Houthis are autonomous partnerswho usually act in accordance with their own interests”.)
The missiles used against the Swift and USS Mason are usually baldly portrayed as Iranian-supplied Chinese C-802s. Yet no one has explained how Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have managed to smuggle the 6.5 meter long C-802 missiles past the serried ranks of CTF-150 and the Saudi-led Coalition’s tight blockade, nor how these forces missed the large tracking and fire control radar trailers that come with them (and that subsequent U.S. cruise-missile attacks destroyed). However, according to a Janes report in 2010, the Yemeni armed forces already owned SS-N-2C Styx SSM missiles and Chinese C-801 medium-range anti-ship missiles. As its designation suggests, the C-801 is a predecessor of the C-802, and possibly a reverse-engineered EXOCET, as used by the Argentinians in their disastrous Falkland Islands campaign nearly 35 years ago..
It is thus more likely that the missiles were Yemeni-procured C-801s, operated by elements of the Yemeni Armed Forces loyal to former president Ali Abdallah Salih, fired from territory under Houthi-Salihi control. Given the initial claim of the attack on the UAE ship, the Army was likely responsible for both—possibly with Houthi spotters—and that the Houthis’ denial is genuine. (The Army’s later denial—given the likely repercussions from the US—is probably less genuine.) If that were indeed the case, it offered a perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between the Houthis and the Salihis and thus to weaken their alliance at a moment when renewed peace negotiations appear likely. But it has now been wasted by hyping the Iranian specter.
Despite the reliability of these open-source reports, some quarters notably sympathetic to both Israel and Saudi Arabia are using these incidents to agitate for additional backing for the Saudis in their deeply flawed military campaign. This is probably because the Saudis are running out of ideas—and combat power—to bring the conflict to an end without having to make the embarrassing compromise that is unfortunately needed: a major role for the Houthis and the Salihis in a future Yemeni government. (A sensible solution would be to use the d’Hondt system to limit corruption.)
As a result, advocates for the Israeli/Saudi compact against Iran have not only tried to ascribe intention to an attack on a USN ship (it is doubtful that the Houthi/Salihi spotters can pick out the pennant number or ensign of a USN ship at range from a bobbing skiff) but they have designated the perpetrators to be IRI-backed Houthis and attributed the supply of missiles to the IRI. This, they probably hope, will constitute a casus belli, or at least soften US public’s opinion against getting involved in another Middle Eastern war on behalf of another regional client with hegemonic ambitions.
Should that not work, they propose that “The United States and other countries need to show the Houthis in no uncertain terms that they cannot attack U.S. or allied interests with impunity.” [Emphasis added.] That policy risks handing a blank check to the Saudis to provoke an incident and ensnare the US in conflict. They would not be the first to do so: there have been other instances of US “allies” trying to draw the US into a conflict by provocative actions.
War is the extension of politics by other means, wrote von Clausewitz. The other means have come to an end: it’s time to return to politics: jaw-jaw really is better than war-war – by James Spencer
https://lobelog.com/staying-out-of-trouble-in-yemen/ = http://nationalyemen.com/2016/10/18/staying-out-of-trouble-in-yemen/
17.10.2016 – Reuters (** A K)
Pentagon voices caution on latest Yemen missile incident
The Pentagon declined to say on Monday whether the USS Mason destroyer was targeted by multiple inbound missiles fired from Yemen on Saturday, as initially thought, saying a review was under way to determine what happened.
Any determination that the USS Mason guided-missile destroyer was targeted on Saturday could have military repercussions, since the United States has threatened to retaliate again should its ships come under fire from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters.
"We are still assessing the situation. There are still some aspects to this that we are trying to clarify for ourselves given the threat - the potential threat - to our people," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing.
Cook noted that the crew aboard the USS Mason detected what appeared to be a missile threat and responded appropriately.
U.S. officials cautioned, however, that details from the incident were still under review. It was unclear how soon a final determination might be made about how many, if any, missiles were actually fired at the USS Mason – By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa-idUSKBN12H284
Comment: A new narrative.
17.10.2016 – Sputnik News (* A K P)
'Houthi Missiles' or Radar Glitch? What Sparked US Warship Attack on Yemen?
Speaking to Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear last week, anti-war activist David Swanson spoke about how the United States often uses "self-defense" as justification for invading foreign countries.
"With these harmless good intentions, the US had ships off the coast of Yemen, and someone [shot but missed] these ships, and they retaliated in a proper, proportionate, and thereby somehow supposedly legal, active self-defense," he told Loud & Clear’s Brian Becker.
"This seems to be a new pattern in the US media speech, that the US is able now to defend itself no matter where it is or who it has invaded or what right it has to be there."
https://sputniknews.com/military/201610181046433259-yemen-radar-glitch/
16.10.2016 – Antiwar (** A K P)
US Again Attacks Yemen Coast, Despite Growing Doubts Over ‘Missiles’
Pentagon Now Says 'Attack' Could've Been a Radar Malfunction
This raises the possibility that the US warships are not only retaliating against the wrong people, but that there was nothing to retaliate against in the first place. Though there was some speculation that remnants of the Yemeni military were involved in firing missiles, by way of explaining why the Houthis were denying it, this must inevitably raise questions if anything happened at all other than the heavy-handed US reaction.
The Pentagon has been desperate to portray their attacks on Houthi radar installations as distinct from the ongoing Saudi war against the Houthis, which the US is already participating in. With the possibility that the attacks were a colossal error, however, it’s only going to add to its association to the blunder-ridden Saudi war – by Jason Ditz
17.10.2016 – Zerohedge (** A K)
The Story Changes: The Pentagon Is No Longer Sure Yemen Fired Missiles At A US Ship
today - four days after the US "counterattack" - the story changes.
"We are still assessing the situation. There are still some aspects to this that we are trying to clarify for ourselves given the threat -- the potential threat -- to our people," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing."So this is still a situation that we're assessing closely."
And yet, the US had no problem with "clarifying" the source of the threat on Thursday when it fired American cruise missiles at Yemeni targets.
At this point we refer readers to what we said on Thursday, when we once again put on the cynical hat, and voiced what those who have not been brainwashed by US media thought, to wit:
In retrospect one now wonders if the "cruise missiles" that fell close to the US ships were merely the latest false flag providing the US cover to launch another foreign intervention.To be sure, the Houthis, who are battling the internationally-recognized government of Yemen President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi, denied any involvement in Sunday's attempt to strike the USS Mason.
A few days later, we have the closest thing possible to a confirmation that, even as the Pentagon itself admits, the "open and closed" case that Yemeni rebel fighters would, for some unknown reason, provoke the US and fire unperforming cruise missiles at a US ship, has just been significantly weakened. Of course, it if it wasn't Yemen rebels, the only logical alternative is the adversary of Yemen's rebels: Saudi Arabia. Although with the Saudis in the press so much as of late, almost exclusively in a negative light, we doubt that the Pentagon's "assessment" would ever get to the point where it would admit that America's Saudi allies launched missiles at US ships in a false flag attempt to get the US involved in the Yemen conflict by attacking the Saudi opponents and in the process aiding and abetting the Saudi execution of even more "war crimes." – by Tyler Durden
17.10.2016 – Military (* A K)
Amphib San Antonio Among Ships Targeted off Yemen Coast
The amphibious transport dock USS San Antonio was targeted by missiles launched from Yemen as it transited through the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb off Yemen, the ship's commanding officer said in a public post on the ship's Facebook page Oct. 13.
The Norfolk-based ship is part of the Wasp amphibious ready group carrying the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit through the 5th Fleet.
While defense officials previously confirmed that other ships in the region had been targeted by missiles launched from the coast of Yemen, including the guided-missile destroyer Mason and the amphibious transport dock Ponce, it had not previously been reported that the San Antonio was also a target. The news was first reported Monday by the Virginian-Pilot.
"The transit was challenging and missiles were launched against the USS Mason and USS San Antonio," ship commander Capt. Darren Nelson wrote in the Facebook post. "Our crew performed flawlessly in the defense of our ship. Per the Pentagon's press release we will be ready and respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain freedom of navigation on the high seas."
Comment: LOL. New-new narrative.
17.10.2016 – Shiite News (* A K P)
BEHIND US CLAIMS OF ATTACKS OFF YEMEN’S COAST
While there may not seem to be a viable reason why the US would spread false news of attacks on its warship, observers contend that the entire media buzz was purposefully created. If indeed there has been no such exchange of fire, then why would Washington go through so much trouble to propagate an untruth?
The US has no reason to interfere in Yemen, at least none that it can use to justify any action taken against the war-ravaged country. In Afghanistan, there was the Taliban. In Iraq, there was Saddam Hussain in 2003, and ISIS after that. In Syria, there were alleged chemical weapons. Washington is always vigilant to find an excuse for an intervention and when there is none it makes one. That’s why the same observers believe that the purported attack on Mason is a pretext to legitimize a planned intervention in the war on Yemen. However, there are other possible actions that may be taken to put further pressure on Yemeni resistance groups to succumb to its oil-rich Arab ally, or at the very least make them come to negotiation table and sign a deal that fulfils Saudis interests.
Another question at hand is why would Washington go as far as that to end the war on Yemen?
The Saudi regime miscalculated when it launched its aggression against Yemen.
Another pressing concern for the Saudis is increasing condemnation for its violation of human rights in Yemen.
So perhaps the Saudis thought it was a good idea to get a third party to intervene on its behalf, to save face.
In spite of this apparent enthusiasm to end hostilities[US brokering a ceasefire], an intervention is on its way. Whether military or political, however, is not clear yet.
15.10.2016 – Reuters (** A K)
Erneut Raketen auf US-Kriegsschiff vor Jemen abgefeuert
Auf ein Schiff der US-Kriegsmarine im Roten Meer sind Militärangaben zufolge erneut Raketen abgefeuert worden. Der Lenkraketenzerstörer «USS Mason» sei aber nicht getroffen worden, sagte ein Vertreter der Marine am Samstag.
Das Kriegsschiff habe die an Bord befindlichen Systeme zur Selbstverteidigung genutzt. Auch diese Raketen seien vom Jemen aus abgefeuert worden, sagte Admiral John Richardson. Der Vorfall war bereits der dritte in der vergangenen Woche.
Die Huthi-Rebellen wiesen die Verantwortung für die Angriffe Anfang der Woche zurück. Sie hätten nicht auf Schiffe vor der Küste geschossen.
http://de.reuters.com/article/jemen-usa-schiff-rakete-idDEKBN12G072
16.10.2016 – Sky News (* A K)
US cannot risk being drawn further into Yemen conflict
It's not just US warships at risk. Merchant shipping, passing through the strategic trading route, are now vulnerable. US ships have advanced radar and counter-measures they can deploy - commercial shipping don't have such defences.
The US has now called for an immediate ceasefire in Yemen to try and calm things after a tense week. But the Houthi's would appear to be honing their aim and the US might decide to pull its ships further away from Yemen and out of range - It cannot risk being dragged further in – by Alistair Bunkall
http://news.sky.com/story/us-cannot-risk-being-drawn-further-into-yemen-conflict-10620398
Comment: Every normal person would do it this way. Anyway, the US political and military leaders are not “normal”.
15.10.2016 – Reuters (** A K)
U.S. warship targeted in failed missile attack from Yemen: official
A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Saturday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, the third such incident in the past week, U.S. officials said.
Multiple surface-to-surface missiles were fired at the USS Mason sailing in international waters in the Red Sea but the warship used on-board countermeasures to defend itself and was not hit, one defense official said, citing initial information.
The latest attack could provoke further retaliation by the U.S. military, which launched cruise missiles on Thursday against three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen in response to the two previous failed missile firings against the Mason.
"The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen," Admiral John Richardson, U.S. chief of naval operations, said during a ship christening in Baltimore on Saturday.
Another U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “We are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed.”– By Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa-idUSKBN12G004
Comment: The apparently US false flag story continues – US preparing invasion by Saudi / Emirati / mercenary / Hadi forces. Be aware that Saudi air force seems to have bombed Eritrean fisherboats in the Red Sea – and nobody cares at all (see http://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article60542).
15.10.2016 – AP (* A K)
Multiple missiles were fired again from a Houthi-controlled region in Yemen targeting an American warship in the Red Sea, a U.S. admiral said Saturday. No hits were reported.
Later, U.S. officials said the initial reports as described by Adm. John Richardson, the top Navy officer, were being reassessed, and they declined to provide full details of what happened.
If confirmed, the missile launches would be the third attack in about a week targeting the destroyer USS Mason and other U.S. ships.
"The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen," Richardson, the chief of naval operations, told reporters Saturday in Baltimore – By LOLITA C. BALDOR
15.10.2016 – Vago Muradian (* A K)
Film: After @ZUMWALT_DDG1000 commissioning, @CNORichardson updates reporters on missile attack on #USSMason off Yemen coast.
https://twitter.com/vagomuradian/status/787470307032387584
15.10.2016 – The Hill (** A K)
US ship fired upon again near Yemen: reports
"The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the coast of Yemen," Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, told reporters Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
But officials later in the day expressed uncertainty about what had happened Saturday, wondering whether there were multiple incoming missiles or if the radar system on the destroyer had malfunctioned, according to CNN.
"We are aware of the reports and we are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed," a U.S. defense official said.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/navy/301211-us-ship-fired-upon-again-near-yemen-reports
Comment: “or if the radar system on the destroyer had malfunctioned”: and they fired nevertheless??:
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Psst. Plot thickens with latest reports of possible radar detection malfunction.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787578117573443584
Comment by Judith Brown: Now they say it, after firing three missiles into Yemen as a response to what they claimed to be a Houthi attack on USS Mason - they might have been wrong after all. Is this a climb down by the mighty USA?????
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814533058641
15.10.2016 – CNN (**A K)
USS Mason fires missiles in Red Sea after apparent attack
The Navy destroyer USS Mason fired countermeasures in the Red Sea on Saturday after it detected what it believed were incoming missiles.
Officials Saturday night were uncertain about what exactly happened, if there were multiple incoming missiles or if there was a malfunction with the radar detection system on the destroyer.
"We are aware of the reports and we are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed," one US defense official told CNN.
The USS Nitze and the USS Ponce were sailing nearby.
There are initial unconfirmed reports of missiles possibly being fired from positions both ashore on Yemen and by small spotter boats operated by Houthi rebels.
The incident was revealed Saturday by Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson during a ship christening in Baltimore.
Earlier Saturday night, a second US defense official said there were multiple incoming surface-to-surface missiles detected by the Mason.
In reaction, the Mason fired multiple missiles using onboard countermeasures, the two officials said – By Barbara Starr and Caroline Kenny
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/15/politics/uss-mason-fired-on-again/index.html and by NBC: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/uss-mason-fired-again-coast-yemen-officials-n666971
Comment by Wright Smith: Without knowing anything specific about latest exchange of fire, worth remembering Gulf of Tonkin was partially due to radar/sensory error
https://twitter.com/WrightLSmith/status/787481131751014400
16.10.2016 – AP (* A K)
U.S. ships defend themselves from 3rd missile attack off Yemen's coast
The U.S. Navy on Sunday began investigating a possible overnight missile attack from Yemen on a group of American warships in the Red Sea amid uncertainty about what transpired.
In the latest incident, a group of American warships in the Red Sea on Saturday night "had indications of a possible inbound missile threat and deployed appropriate defensive measures," said Capt. Paula Dunn, a spokeswoman for U.S. Navy Forces Central Command. She said in a statement that all ships and sailors were safe, without elaborating.
An American defense official told The Associated Press on Sunday that one of the ships saw on radar what sailors believed to be missiles being fired on it out of Yemen at night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the incident not yet made public.
Comment: The wording “defend themselves“ in itself is propaganda.
16.10.2016 – Chicago Tribune (A K)
Navy investigates possible missile attack from Yemen on U.S. warships
In the latest incident, a group of American warships in the Red Sea on Saturday night "had indications of a possible inbound missile threat and deployed appropriate defensive measures," said Capt. Paula Dunn, a spokeswoman for U.S. Navy Forces Central Command. She said in a statement that all ships and sailors were safe, without elaborating.
An American defense official told The Associated Press on Sunday that one of the ships saw on radar what sailors believed to be missiles being fired on it out of Yemen at night.
16.10.2016 – Near Eastern Outlook (* A K P)
Is There a Way to Justify US Aggression Against Yemen
Attempts to legitimize America’s involvement in Yemen, which remains a crucial strategic focal point, have been made repeatedly by the US.
Ultimately, the growing dissatisfaction of the international community with Riyadh’s war on Yemen could easily result in a demand to put an end to the Saudi military campaign in altogether, which was not a part of Washington’s plan.
The White House was quick to understand the fact that under present circumstances any zeal to publicly defend Saudi Arabia in the Yemeni conflict could result in a severe loss of credibility, that’s why Washington’s think tanks have decided to stage a provocation, similar to the Vietnam War-era Gulf of Tonkin incident, to grant the US a pretext for direct military aggression against Yemen.
As a result, at least twice in the past week anonymous sources have claimed that Houthi fighters launched missiles in the direction of USS destroyer Mason, an accusation the Houthis themselves deny. A media campaign that followed these strikes was aimed at persuading the international community that this was the “Houthis response to the Saudi funeral attack in Sana’a, that resulted in 140 people killed and another 500 more injured.” It must be pointed out that provocateurs were carefully instructed by the Pentagon that the missiles should inflict no damage to the US destroyer and those instructions were carefully followed.
As a result, on Wednesday, after the second alleged attempt to hit the USS Mason, the Pentagon announced that it has the “official” right to “answer” those attacks with three Tomahawk cruise missiles launched against radar stations in Yemen. The targets for those strikes were chosen carefully since, though it’s clear that those radar stations had nothing to do with the alleged attacks against the US destroyer, they could potentially jeopardize upcoming US air strikes against Yemen.
The US president confirmed that he ordered airstrikes to be launched against Yemen, which allegedly constitutes the “proportional use of force to protect US troops and ships, as well as the freedom of navigation on this important sea route.” – by Jean Perier
http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/16/is-there-a-way-to-justify-us-aggression-against-yemen/
16.10.2016 – Short News (A K P)
Die USA haben Jemen bombardiert und keiner hat es gemerkt
Die englische Zeitung "The Guardian" fragt sich: Was, wenn die USA einen Krieg anfangen und Niemandem fällt es auf? Denn genau das wäre letzte Woche in der Republik Jemen passiert.
Während die meisten Amerikaner durch den Wahlkampf abgelenkt seien, hätte die US-Navy zu diesem Zeitpunkt Bomben in Jemen abgeworfen. Dort wollen sie angeblich die Rebellen im Bürgerkrieg bekämpfen.
Obwohl zwar bekannt ist, dass die USA seit Jahren Drohnen gegen al-Qaida-Mitglieder in Jemen losschicken, würden viele Menschen nicht wissen, dass bei diesen Angriffen viele Zivilisten getötet werden und die Region mehr und mehr destabilisiert wird.
http://www.shortnews.de/id/1212822/die-usa-haben-jemen-bombardiert-und-keiner-hat-es-gemerkt
15.10.2016 – Ben Norton (** A K P)
Be careful about misleading media reports on Yemen
After backing the destructive Saudi-led bombing campaign in the poorest country in the Middle East for 19 months, killing thousands of civilians and plunging Yemen into what the UN calls one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes, the US is escalating the conflict.
The US blamed two or three (the number changes based on the media report) alleged missile attacks on its Navy warship off the coast this week (the US insists it has the right to send its warships anywhere in the world) on Yemen's Houthi rebels, although the Houthis have repeatedly denied this, and even offered to help the US investigate the alleged attacks. (Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/…/us-yemen-security-usa-houthis-idUS…)
Immediately after bombing three radar sites in Houthi-controlled area, however, the US admitted that it did not actually know who it was behind the alleged rocket attacks. Yet it still attacked the Houthis anyway. (Military.com: http://www.military.com/…/us-cant-say-who-launched-missiles…)
Soon after that, the US not only blamed the alleged attacks on the Houthis; it even claimed the rockets used had been supplied by Iran. (US-funded RFE/RL: http://www.rferl.org/a/us-charges-iran-suppli…/28052410.html)
State Department spokesperson John Kirby did nonetheless concede that the Houthis (if they did actually carry out the attacks, which they deny) could have captured missiles from the US/Saudi-backed Yemeni army. Although he still insists Iran is behind it, of course.
US media reports have, naturally, ignored all of this nuance and have instead obediently blamed the alleged attacks on the Houthis, regurgitating State Department and Pentagon talking points (even when they contradict each other).
These reports invariably refer to the Houthis, who are Yemenis, as "Iran-backed rebels," in what reeks strongly of baseless Saudi propaganda. There is very little evidence that Iran has supported the Houthis militarily; support has mostly been limited to the realms of media and rhetoric.
https://www.facebook.com/BenDNorton/posts/1855706104673864
Comment: For media coverage in US, see http://al-bab.com/blog/2016/10/escalation-red-sea-blow-blow and http://fair.org/home/hiding-us-role-in-yemen-slaughter-so-bombing-can-be-sold-as-self-defense/ = http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/10/16/hiding-us-role-yemen-slaughter-so-bombing-can-be-sold-self-defense).
15.10.2016 – Your News Wire (** A K P)
US Just Waged War With Yemen Amid Media Blackout
“These unjustified attacks are serious but they will not deter us from our mission,” Admiral John Richardson said, referring to attempted missile strikes on American warships patrolling the Red Sea. “We are trained and ready to defend ourselves and to respond quickly and decisively.”
However it is not clear what the US mission is, beyond supporting Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration are not talking about the situation, the Pentagon’s official statements are cagey, and, remarkably, the media have ignored America’s entry into a new war, preferring to hypnotize the public with blanket coverage of lurid allegations against Donald Trump.
U.S. officials claimed to Reuters that there were “growing indications” the rebels or allied forces had carried out strikes on Sunday, which saw two coastal cruise missiles launched at the warship, but not reaching it. However, Houthi rebels have denied any involvement, stating that allegations otherwise from U.S. officials were pretext to “escalate aggression and cover up crimes committed against the Yemeni people.”
In addition to making the U.S. an official combatant in the war, the strikes further complicate a tense situation on the ground in Yemen.
[Rep. Lieu in his letter to Sec. of State Kerry:] “As you know, the State Department has an entire office dedicated to preventing foreign entities from committing war crimes. The credibility of that office has been shredded by the U.S.-enabled airstrikes on civilians in Yemen.”
But as political professor and Middle East expert Christopher Davidson posited on Thursday, keeping the war going is exactly the point.
By launching the strikes on Wednesday, “the U.S. has made a direct, but very limited intervention to ensure that no one side is really able to get the upper hand in the country’s slow-burning conflict,” he said in a statement for the Institute for Public Accuracy. “[T]he longer the current Yemen conflict lasts, the longer the arms race will keep going, and the more dependent both Saudi and Iranian clients will be on support from their patrons.” – by Baxter Dmitry
http://yournewswire.com/us-wages-war-yemen/
15.10.2016 – Antimedia (** A K)
The US Doesn’t Know Who Fired Missiles at Its Ship, Bombed Yemen Anyway
This week, the United States attacked and destroyed a series of radar stations belonging to the Shi’ite Houthis in Yemen, along the Red Sea coast. This was described as retaliation for the missiles fired sort of near a US destroyer off shore, and presented as preventing future such strikes.
Yet Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook admitted that the US still hasn’t actually made any determination who fired those missiles in the first place. It is unclear why they retaliated against the Houthis, who denied involvement, apart from Cook saying that the US believes Iran has “been supportive of the Houthi rebels.”
Still, this act in haste and repent at leisure attitude doesn’t appear to be changing, with Cook vowing the US would “be prepared to respond again” if they think ships off the Yemeni coast are threatened, with the implied threat that they’ll attack the Houthis some more, whether or not they ever determine if the Houthis did anything.
Pentagon officials are also trying to insist that their attacks on the Houthis are totally distinct from the ongoing Saudi war against the Houthis, which the US is already heavily involved in, meaning this amounts to a second, separate war against the Houthis, with even less of a pretext. The Pentagon appears uncomfortable with connecting their heedless attacks to the myriad war crimes in the extent war.
The Houthis reiterated today that they had nothing to do with the missiles fired near the US ship, and insisted they consider the US attacks “unacceptable.” They warned that they have the right to defend themselves from future US attacks.
http://theantimedia.org/bombing-yemen-know-missiles/
15.10.2016 – Nachdenkseiten (** B K)
Illegale Kriege
Dass viele westliche Politiker längst vor Kriegsverbrechertribunale hätten gestellt werden müssen, dass letztlich noch jeder der uns in den letzten Jahren präsentierten „Kriegsgründe“ sich schließlich als Propagandamärchen herausstellte und dass die NATO inzwischen kein Verteidigungsbündnis mehr ist – all das taucht in Medien und Politik selten auf. Der Schweizer Friedensforscher Daniele Ganserdeckt in seinem neuen Buch „Illegale Kriege“ nun schonungslos diese „andere Seite“ der Wahrheit auf und gelangt zu dem Schluss, dass der Westen seit 1945 immer wieder und konsequent schwerste Verbrechen gegen das Völkerrecht und die Menschheit verübt. Jens Wernicke sprach mit ihm
F.: Mir scheint, dass immer wieder das Argument der Selbstverteidigung vorgebracht wird. So haben etwa die USA nach 9/11 aus der Notwendigkeit zur Selbstverteidigung heraus den internationalen „Krieg gegen den Terror“ erklärt. Zwei Jahre vorher musste Deutschland, um einen „neuen Hitler“ im Kosovo zu verhindern, der eine Bedrohung für den Weltfrieden war, dort „intervenieren“, wie es neuerdings heißt.
A: Ja, das stimmt. Die Regierung von Präsident Bush hat nach 9/11 gesagt, sie würde jetzt ihr Recht auf Selbstverteidigung wahrnehmen. Sie sind in die UNO gegangen und dort wurde ihnen bestätigt, dass jedes Land das Recht auf Selbstverteidigung hat. Das war keine Überraschung, denn das steht ja auch in der UNO-Charta. Der wesentliche Punkt ist aber: Die UNO hat in ihrer Resolution den USA nicht das Recht gegeben, Afghanistan anzugreifen, was die USA am 7. Oktober 2001 jedoch taten.
Wer die UNO-Resolution durchliest, erkennt, dass Afghanistan gar nicht erwähnt wird. Der Angriff auf Afghanistan war daher illegal. Er basierte auf der von Präsident Bush vorgetragenen Geschichte, dass Osama bin Laden für die Anschläge vom 11. September verantwortlich war, doch genau dieser Punkt konnte vor der UNO nicht bewiesen werden und ist bis heute umstritten, sodass der Sicherheitsrat, in dem auch China und Russland sitzen, kein Mandat für einen Angriff auf Afghanistan gab.
http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=35408
14.10.2016 – RT (* A K)
Film: Droht Krieg mit den USA? Iran entsendet zwei Kriegsschiffe nach Jemen
Iran hat eine Militärpräsenz vor der jemenitischen Küste etabliert und droht den Konflikt, weiter zu eskalieren. Zwei Kriegsschiffe wurden in den Golf von Aden entsandt, um offiziell Handelsschiffe vor Piraten zu schützen. Diese Entscheidung kam nur kurze Zeit, nachdem US-Kriegsschiffe Huthi-Stellungen beschossen. RT-Reporterin Paula Slier berichtet über die Details
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9KkwUSj0z4
Kommentar: Es hieß aber auch, die iranischen Schiffe seien schon vor den aktuellen Zwischenfällen in die Gewässer vor Jemen beordert worden.
14.10.2016 – Financial Times (** A K P)
Obama Has Just Turned Yemen into Another Middle East Quagmire
When a U.S. vessel off the coast of Yemen fired on Houthi rebels Thursday, it sent another of the Obama administration’s delicate balancing acts in the Middle East off the rails. Is the president who says he’s dedicated to getting the U.S. out of the region’s wars now dragging us into another one before he leaves office?
It has since chided the Saudis from time to time – weakly and ineffectively -- while indirectly supporting their savage and apparently indiscriminate bombing campaign against the Houthi who Riyadh casts (inaccurately) as creatures of the Shi’a regime in Tehran.
Retaliation was unnecessary. The Pentagon hauled out a lot of boilerplate to explain its response—self-defense, protecting U.S. personnel, freedom of navigation, and global commerce—but it doesn’t match the situation. The missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory fell well wide of U.S. ships. Given the broader circumstances in all their complexity, there was no justification for a military response.
Strong diplomatic language was the proper tool, considering the Houthis’ relatively primitive military resources. But this appears to be yet another judgment that originated at the Pentagon, not the White House and not the State Department. It’s Defense, we ought to note, that handled all the public relations—and pointedly asserted that it had Obama’s blessing.
• The U.S. is badly aligned. Even before the Navy’s retaliation Thursday, the U.S. was drawing increasing criticism for supporting the Saudis’ indefensible behavior.
Ignoring the obvious. The Obama administration has ignored for too long Saudi Arabia’s decision to go its own way in the region. This has been increasingly clear for several years—especially since a younger generation has emerged in Riyadh.
The U.S. should recognize chill and conduct policy by reconsidering its interests and alliances. Instead, the Obama administration appears intent on pretending all is as it has been, possibly because it has no idea how to rethink policy.
The Navy’s move, with Obama’s signature on it, is a stunner however one slices it. The president may have just reclassified his signature diplomatic achievement as damaged goods and weakened the White House’s power by ceding policy to the Pentagon’s advantage – by Patrick Smith
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Anderes / Most important: other
Waffenstillstand / ceasefire cp7
17.10.2016 – The Valdai Club (** B K P)
The Yemen Trap: No End in Sight for a Major Geopolitical Game
The actual structure of the Yemeni crisis looks nothing like a civil war between the legitimate government and the rebels, who allegedly carried out a coup in 2015. The conflict between the clans of the elites which had ruled Yemen for decades resulted in a split between powerful tribal coalitions that had formed the foundation of statehood in northern Yemen since the formation of the Yemen Arab Republic.
The expansion of the proselytizing Wahhabi sect in Yemen, which, following the unification of the two Yemens in 1990, chose Al-Islah as its main avenue of influence, has brought to life a powerful conflict with the two main Islamic communities in Yemen, namely, Zaidi and Shafi'i. In 2004, it manifested in a series of Saada wars, which resulted in the Houthi movement becoming another formidable political force in Yemen.
The separatist forces in the South also created a mass political movement in this part of the country back in 2007 under the umbrella of the Southern Peace Movement (called for short al-Hirak in Arabic, which stands for “movement”). In 2009, former President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Ali Al-Beidh became its leader. All these poles of conflict inside Yemen have acted as catalysts for the Yemeni revolution of 2011.
Al Qaeda organizations in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and ISIS took advantage of the confusion resulting from the intervention and long-standing political crisis in Yemen. In the first days of the war, AQAP seized power in Hadhramaut and almost the entire southern coast almost all the way to Aden. This happened because the groups and organizations close to pro-Saudi Al-Islah have opted to enter into agreements with the leaders of terrorist organizations, who hated Al-Hirak for its relationship with the leaders of the Yemeni Socialist Party, which ruled earlier in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.
Meanwhile, Riyadh not only bears the enormous cost of the war, but is also faced with discontent inside the country related to the course of the campaign and the mounting loss of life.
The unsatisfactory progress of the campaign in Yemen has caused frictions within the coalition, which undermine the leadership of Saudi Arabia and its claim to be the regional superpower.
Speaking about the role of Iran, it remains a phantom party to the Yemeni crisis and serves only as a bogeyman to justify Riyadh’s policy in Yemen. The war clearly showed that Iran did not and does not play any significant role in Yemen, and the Houthis act as a self-sufficient force independent of Tehran.
The Yemeni trap has not yet snapped shut, but it has rapidly depleted the resources of all direct participants in the crisis. This trap must be disarmed as quickly as possible – by Sergey Serebrov, Senior Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
http://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-yemen-trap-no-end-in-sight-for-a-major-geopoli/
14.–16.10.2016 – Diwansite (** B P)
Salafis, the vengeful giants (Part I): Historical shifts in the balance of power in Central and Southern Yemen
As if major shifts mentioned were not momentous enough to usher in a new era in Yemeni politics, many observers agree the conflict between Houthi rebels and tribal elements loyal to Hashid’s al-Ahmar family that erupted during Ramadan (Aug. 2013) qualifies as the most significant chain of events, still reverberating today. This conflict, involving clashes throughout Amran province between August and December 2013, not only brought about the defeat and fracturing of Yemen’s most cohesive and strongest tribal confederation, Hashid, but also delivered a major defeat of a Salafi center of power in Damaj, Sadah, often presented by Houthis as a “a hub for terrorism and a gathering point for ‘takfereen’ (extremists) from different countries worldwide”. Two months of fighting between Houthi militias, many from Hashid, and tribes loyal to the Sunni Islamist party and Muslim Brotherhood affiliate al-Islah under shaykhs from al-Ahmar family, led to the ‘permanent’ expulsion of Hashid’s paramount family al-Ahmar, symbolically marked by the demolition of shaykh Abdullah b. Hussayn al-Ahmar’s (d.2007) home.
The conflict spilled into Dammaj, focus was on Dar al-Hadith center and its students (estimated at one point round 7000), as al-Ahmar and al-Islah came to rely heavily on “over 4,000 Salafi fighters…gathered in the northern province of Sa’ada”mobilized from across Yemen. The ‘conquest’ of Khamr (Amran), historic home of Bayt al-Ahmar and Hashid’s center of power, eventually fractured the tribal confederation as al-Ahmar’s cousins allied with Houthis and left pro-Islah government military units defeated in the provincial capital. Fighting in Dammaj then intensified between November and December 2013, as the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) was near its closing sessions. Dammaj Salafis were never allies
Comment: Two very long and profound articles on Salafism in Yemen – please read in full; it was impossible to pull the main points out!
Survey by Judith Brown: This is the first part of these articles on Salafists - this article outlines the conflicts and disagreements in Amran province in 2013, which is the homeland of the Al Ahmar family in Yemen. This family have long associations with Islah party, as one of the founding members was the very powerful Sheikh Al Ahmar. The other founders included Ali Muhsin, a conservative Muslim who led part of the Yemeni army - the part that did not support the rest of the army when they supported the Houthi uprising - and Sheikh Zindani, a Salafist who recruited many tribal men in Yemen to join the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Islah Party - with strong links to Muslim Brotherhood but with a Salafist wing - grew rapidly in the 1990s after Saudi Arabia started to fund it to prevent the spread of socialism in Yemen after the reunification of the socialist south and the north. Now read on. Quite fascinating reading particularly if you have an in depth interest in Yemeni politics.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154815037418641
Comment by Judith Brown: I really rate these articles, it takes a bit of depth of understanding of Yemeni politics to really understand them, but they really get to the bones of where the tribes morph into Al Qaeda and their look-alikes in Yemen – and I guess, how they can morph back when the time is right. And how foreign interference, and the conservative Sunni schools – funded by Saudi Arabia – lead to the development of strands of extremist Islamic perspectives in Yemen – and world wide. Thank you Fernando for your powerful insights into Yemen tribes.
https://yemen-news-today.org/2016/10/17/from-diwan-by-fernando-yemen/ = https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1204509103034912
Salafis, the vengeful giants (Part II)
Salafis have done more than stepped in to fill a void, they have moved to the frontlines and stepped up to leadership positions with sufficient funding and armament missing in late 2013. All factions have a grudge against Houthis, some against Saleh, all against Hadi. Their resources and funding was delivered through personal contacts, not through the Legitimate Government in exile. Just as recruits have been mobilized from small mosques and religious centers through personal relations, so to are funds and weapons. Their effectiveness does not surface from their cohesiveness, but rather from a common goal.
There is no doubt Salafis have played a vital role in turning this conflict into a sectarian battle. It is a natural course of events when the government is unable to mobilized a professional army in an armed conflict and instead participates in a war with two religious adversaries. Houthis see Salafis, along with the Muslim brotherhood, as terrorists, part of al-Qaeda’s global network. While Salafis, and the Muslim Brotherhood see Shia Zaydi Houthis as apostates, utilizing Takfeeri tactics. This is also part of the rally cries from patrons supporting Salafi elements beyond Yemen’s borders. The sectarian angle is vital to both sides in order to obscure the political roots of the conflict, a repositioning of centers of power to shape, direct and monopolize Yemen’s future. It is vital for recruitment of foot soldiers, for legitimizing their own struggle globally, and for activating patrons. Politics are divisive, as the current conflict illustrates, but religious narratives unify.
The rise of Salafis at the forefront of the ongoing conflict, even as caretakers, also lies beyond the need for a dedicated, focused, driven force. Salafis are unlikely heroes, with minimal grassroots support, whose ‘conservative’ doctrine is foreign to Yemeni culture. Coalition hegemons know this and exploit it to ensure they can monopolize the direction of Yemen’s future. President Hadi has been denied every opportunity to take credit for any victory since April 2015, and the method in which the Coalition monopolizes humanitarian aid delivery, taking the lead and only allowing local or provincial government officials a photo-op, are clear evidence of the intentional marginalization fo the Legitimate Government in exile.
https://diwansite.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/salafis-the-vengeful-giants-part-ii/
Survey by Judith Brown: These articles from Diwan are truly worth reading. They underline and expand on the links between Salafists and tribes in Yemen, and show how al Qaeda morphs from tribes and maybe how they can disappear back again if and when the time is right. They are in two parts thus far. I found it fascinating to understand the role of the tribes in Bayda province - it is a province in the centre part of Yemen, east of Sanaa and north of Aden. This is an area of previous fighting between the Houthis and Al Qaeda before the main war began - and on reading this you can understand the roots of it.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154815006253641
14.10.2016 – Voice of America (** A H)
Migration Refugee Crisis Unfolding in Yemen, Djibouti
The International Organization for Migration warns a migration refugee crisis unfolding in Yemen and Djibouti is having a serious impact across the Horn of Africa.
The International Organization for Migration said about 10,000 migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, make the long, dangerous trek across the blistering hot desert to Djibouti every month. From there they transit through war-torn Yemen to Saudi Arabia in search of work.
The IOM said most of the migrants are young men. About 30 percent are unaccompanied minors, some as young as 11. It said very few women are to be seen.
Speaking by telephone from Obock, Djibouti, IOM Director for East and Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Labovitz, said the women are largely invisible because smugglers take them to Saudi Arabia by car to work as domestic servants.
“It is much more clandestine and organized," he said. "And so we are not seeing them. But, it also means in terms of protection, we do not know what is going on at all.”
Labovitz said Yemen recently began deporting Ethiopian migrants to Djibouti. He said it appears thousands are likely to be deported in the near future and called such a prospect "very worrying" for a "small country like Djibouti."
“What we are seeing right now, too, in Yemen is that in the government areas, they are asking us urgently to provide food and services to over 4,000 individuals in detention," he said. "And we also hear in the coalition areas that there are several thousand who may be deported soon. We do not know.”
Labovitz said the IOM will not be able to handle such a huge surge of migrants.
Djibouti could soon be facing a massive surge of migrants, creating a humanitarian crisis, added Labovitz. To make matters worse, he said the IOM’s voluntary return program is largely on hold because most of the Ethiopian migrants have no documents and the IOM is strapped for cash – by Lisa Schlein
http://www.voanews.com/a/migration-refugee-crisis-unfolding-yemen-djibouti/3551011.html = http://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2016/Oct/118198/migration_refugee_crisis_unfolding_in_yemen_djibouti.aspx
cp2 Allgemein / General
17.10.2016 – Doctors Without Borders (B K)
Since the very beginning of the war the bombing has been extremely intense in #Saada, #Hajjah & in #Sanaa
https://twitter.com/MSFAustralia/status/788145071765925888
17.10.2016 – Haykal Bafana (* A K)
Aden city : Mothers say south Yemenis recruited by Saudi Arabia to fight Houthi/Salehforces in KSA Najran without their consent. One is boy aged 15.
https://www.facebook.com/haykal.bafana/posts/1125605774186098
17.10.2016 – Haykal Bafana (* A K)
Al Qaeda fighting in southwest Saudi Arabia. South Yemen militia, mostly Al Qaeda, turn up in KSA's Najran city & other locations to fight Houthis.
Saudi Arabia has no soldiers left? (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/haykal.bafana/posts/1125541437525865 = https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154816126723641
17.10.2016 – Voice of America (A P)
A Turning Point in Yemen?
The Saudi bombing that killed 140 people at a funeral in Yemen earlier this month has given the Barack Obama administration new diplomatic ammunition to push for a halt to an increasingly bloody and counter-productive war.
U.S. support for the Saudis was based in part on genuine concern over Houthi missile attacks on Saudi border towns and in part on a perceived need in Washington to reassure Saudi Arabia that the United States was not tilting toward Tehran in the aftermath of last year’s nuclear deal. But increasingly, the Yemen war has become a geopolitical distraction at a time when U.S. forces are focusing on efforts to roll back the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Alarmed at the rising civilian death toll and AQAP’s growing strength, the Obama administration had already cut back assistance to Saudi forces, according to administration officials, and is now conducting a review of remaining aid.
If a cease-fire takes hold, much of the credit will go to the government of Oman, which has provided neutral territory for negotiators – by Barbara Slavin
http://blogs.voanews.com/us-opinion/2016/10/17/a-turning-point-in-yemen/
Comment: This is some sort of pro-US (pro-Obama) propaganda. There is still no indication that the US really would reduce their support for Saudi Arabia – just words. And “U.S. support for the Saudis was based in part on genuine concern over Houthi missile attacks on Saudi border towns” is just a lie – Houthi missile attacks against Saudi border towns began just 10 weeks AFTER the start of the Saudi aerial war. And: “a perceived need in Washington to reassure Saudi Arabia that the United States was not tilting toward Tehran in the aftermath of last year’s nuclear deal.”: What a strange reason for helping to bomb just another country into ruins!!!
17.10.2016 – Southfront (B K)
YEMEN WAR: ALMOST 2 YEARS OF FAILURES BY SAUDI ARABIA & CO FORCES
In 2015, SouthFront released 2 videos describing the conflict. Have Saudi Arabia & co achieved any success in ts intervention since March 2015? It does not look so (films)
https://southfront.org/yemen-war-almost-2-years-of-failures-by-saudi-arabia-co-forces/
17.10.2016 – Middle East Online (* B P)
Time to Explore New Responses to War Crimes
The rising international revulsion with the barbaric nature of the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen might provide an opportunity for the world to finally take action
Yet the rising international revulsion with the barbaric nature of the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen might provide an opportunity for the world to finally take action. The odds of this succeeding are slim, given the existing nature of the collective decision-making system within the UN, especially the Security Council. This is because the powers that enjoy veto power in the UN system are also the ones directly engaged in the fighting in Syria, so they will never accept to sanction or investigate their own conduct. In the case of Yemen, the UN secretary general also succumbed recently to Saudi Arabian financial pressure and removed Riyadh from a list of countries whose policies violated the rights of youth and children.
Yet events continue to achieve new heights of death and cruelty, which is why we hear now some voices asking for new mechanisms to investigate states’ conduct that may violate the existing rules of war.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, this week again called for the establishment of an independent international body to investigate these and many other incidents of apparent war crimes. Despite the UN Secretary-General also supporting this call, the UN Human Rights Council has twice rejected this, indicating the built-in problem of expecting countries that carry out such criminal policies in wartime to agree to investigate themselves.
So it is time to explore credible and effective mechanisms that can investigate war crimes allegations by all concerned parties, no matter how powerful or wealthy they may be, and hold them accountable to standards of law and human decency that remain a unifying force among people across our world, even though some governments lose sight of these values and act like barbarians sometimes. If existing structures within the UN cannot act credible, the world must explore global civilian action through non-governmental organizations, supported by those few honorable governments that do exist, to investigate war crimes allegations; in cases of proven guilt, such mechanisms should also develop punitive responses that individuals and corporations can undertake despite their government’s inaction or hypocrisy. These could include civilian boycotts and sanctions, as the world used against South African Apartheid decades ago, and is starting to apply against Israeli crimes and excesses in the occupied Palestinian territories today – by Rami G. Khouri
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=79270
Comment by Judith Brown: This is a rather good article by a Lebanese journalist that I generally find to be a great analyst. Worth a read.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814519693641
16.10.2016 – Ali Sharaf Addin (B K)
Film: Saudi jets strike a funeral in Yemen
This video demonstrates the horrible situation in Yemen. There is a coalation led by Saudi-Arabia, whiche has being bombing Yemen since March 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ga3nQIiMQ
16.10.2016 – Cyprus Mail (* B K)
Yemen: the stupidest war
This war is really about Saudi Arabia’s ability to control Yemen’s government. The two neighbours have about the same population but Saudi Arabia is thirty times richer, so that should be easy.
none of the “coalition” members wants to risk the casualties and the consequent unpopularity at home that would come from fighting a major ground war in Yemen. The intervention therefore consists mostly of air strikes, which produce lots of civilian casualties – some deliberate, some not.
The other motive behind this foolish war is the Saudi belief (or at least claim) that Iran, its great rival in the Gulf, is the secret power behind the rebel forces in Yemen. No doubt Iran does sympathise with the Yemeni rebels, since they are mostly fellow Shias, but for all the talk of “Iran-allied Houthis”, faithfully repeated in Western media, there is no evidence that Iran has given them either military or financial aid.
So, then, three conclusions. First, the Saudi-led coalition will not get its way in Yemen if it remains unwilling to put large numbers of troops on the ground – and it might not win even if it did. Second, the relentless bombing of civilians is largely due to the coalition’s frustration at the failure of its political strategy (although the sheer lack of useful military targets also plays a part).
And third, this is the stupidest of all the wars now being fought across the Middle East. Who runs Yemen is not a matter of vital strategic importance to Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi obsession with the Iranian “threat” is absurd.
Yemen is of no imaginable strategic value to Iran, nor could the Iranians help the rebel government there in any concrete way even if they wanted to. And while Iranian influence has undoubtedly grown in the Gulf region in the past decade, that is entirely a result of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, not of some nefarious Iranian plot – by Gwynne Dyer
http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/10/16/yemen-stupidest-war/
15.10.2016 – Almasirah TV / Yemen Today TV (A H K)
Films: Injured from the Oct. 8 air raid transported to Oman for medical treatment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y375UciRTIQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HLsmy-dcYE
13.10.2016 – Boiling Frogs Post (* B K P)
Newsbud Exclusive- US Escalates Proxy War with Iran in Yemen
The United States and Britain continue to assist Saudi Arabia in its illegal Yemen intervention. The Obama administration confirmed last year it sent an interagency coordination team to Saudi Arabia and is providing logistical and intelligence support for the operation that has thus far killed 10,000 civilians. The civilian mortality rate is so dire the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of donating morgue units to hospitals.
Hospitals are preferred Saudi targets. – by Kurt Nimmo
Comment: A long and reasonable overview article on the Yemen war.
13.10.2016 – Bloomberg (A P)
The US Can’t Wash Its Hands of Yemen’s War
It may be morally satisfying to demand that the U.S. cut off its military support of the Saudis for their disastrous involvement in Yemen’s civil war. But if the goal is to end the violence and provide some humanitarian assistance -- and it should be -- then that assistance may be the best leverage the U.S. has against Saudi Arabia’s recklessness.
The U.S. can hardly wash its hands of the conflict, which pits Houthi rebels and their Iranian backers against Yemen’s ousted government and its Saudi-led allies, and which has created a breeding ground for terrorists. So America needs to lead a more forceful diplomatic effort for peace.
The U.S. is not without influence in Saudi Arabia. A serious threat of withdrawing its military support for the Saudi air campaign could be enough to bring about a change in Saudi behavior, and the White House has said it is reviewing its cooperation with the Saudis.
The Houthis and their Iranian backers, meanwhile, would love to see the U.S. more deeply embroiled in their fight.
Moving forward, the U.S. will need to continue to defend its long-held strategic principle -- that attacks on shipping in the Persian Gulf will not be tolerated -- without becoming bogged down in a wider conflict.
The Saudis may prefer the military stalemate to the strategic and political costs of backing down to a group supported by their historic rival, not least a threat to their southern border. And as long as the Saudis are fighting, so will the rebels.
Both sides need to realize that their intransigence consigns Yemen to misery, from war as well as famine and cholera.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-13/the-u-s-can-t-wash-its-hands-of-yemen-s-war = http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20161017000762
Comment: A somewhat odd article. Iran is playing just a minor role. It’s odd to think the Houthis would be interested “to see the U.S. more deeply embroiled in their fight”. They do not prefer suicide, the US would just fight against them. This just is a strange conspiracy theory here. – and what, according to the author, the US really should do? Just announcing they would cut their support, as proposed here, is just empty words, as we already heard so often. There is just one simple decision: Will the US further on deliver support to mass killing or not? – And the author not even knows that Yemen is not situated at the Persian Gulf.
18.4.2015 – Washington Post (* A K P)
Top Yemen scholars in the West condemn Saudi Arabia’s war
A group of 18 Yemen scholars and experts based in the United States and Britain published an open letterdecrying the near month-long Saudi bombing campaign in the country. The letter, whose signatories include academics at Harvard, Oxford and Columbia universities, argued the Saudi-led war "is illegal under international law" and urged American and British officials to push for a U.N. Security Council resolution "demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire."
Citing from the letter: This military campaign is illegal under international law: None of these states has a case for self-defense. – By Ishaan Tharoor
Comment: Older article, which I did oversee before. The authors are obviously right.
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
18.10.2016 – Kristine Beckerle, HRW (A H)
In WFP brief on Yemen conflict + market indicators: "complicating ongoing humanitarian crisis towards highest catastrophic level ever"
https://twitter.com/K_Beckerle/status/788276056402825216
17.10.2016 – Samuel Oakford (A H K)
The cranes at #Yemen's Hodeidah port were destroyed by airstrikes. UN reports offloading takes at least 3 times as long, leading to queues.
https://twitter.com/samueloakford/status/788219381364830208
17.10.2016 – Go fund me (* A H)
Save the Families of Tihamah, Yemen
The war in Yemen has been on going for the last few years. The war in Yemen has had a great deal of impact on all aspects of life, leaving its people with a deprived economy. Situations vary from one area to another. This is not to say that all areas are not suffering, but the situation in Tihamah is extremely urgent and requires immediate help. Many activists and doctors have been assisting those in in need, but without everyones help and generous donations, it will be impossible to reach out and help the people of Tihamah. Please help these children and elderly people.
I am a Yemeni- Canadian living in Windsor, Ontario. I'm a political researcher & consultant. I am a human who serves those in need. I am a human who feels when hunger strike and quickly reflect on those who are less fortunate. I am a human who has not lost hope in humanity. So let's all make a difference today.
How will the funds be used?
There are many LNGO's in Yemen who will assist. I will be working with Dr. Ashwaq Mahram directly to ensure that all funds are used to help the people of Tihamah.
https://www.gofundme.com/helptihamah
17.10.2016 – Oxfam (A H)
Oxfam Yemen Situation Report #27, 15 September 2016 - Bi-weekly
Revised Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP): The YHRP was revised down from 1.8B $ to 1.63B $ to reach 12.6M people with lifesaving assistance. The revised YHRP figures represent a 7% decrease in the number of people targeted and 9.3% decrease in financial requirements.
Despite this, humanitarian agencies hold that the scale of needs in Yemen remains enormous, and these changes do not reflect a change in context. Rather, they are guided by programme consolidation as a result of funding shortages, demonstrated performance to date and more precise needs information.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/oxfam-yemen-situation-report-27-15-september-2016-bi-weekly and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Oxfam%20Yemen%20External%20%20Sitrep%2027%2015Sep16_Final.pdf
17.10.2016 – Crimes of Decisive Storm (* A H)
Organization called "UNICEF", to put an end to the war in Yemen, after what revealed high rates of malnutrition cases that have appeared in the Red Sea coastal province of Hodeida (west) and said it exceeded the world average.
This came during a press conference spokesperson, Muhammad al-Asadi, a branch of the Organization held Monday and reviewed the efforts in Yemen. The numbers of victims and the impact of the destruction of infrastructure, health and education of children.
Dr. Asadi, to that seen in Hodeida the spread of disease, malnutrition and the spread of famine and the effects of the war that led to the rise in children infected with rates Index disease acute malnutrition and severe to 30% after it had dropped to 21% after the tremendous efforts of UNICEF made for four Years.
He said the infection rates returned to its former position, which exceed the highest global indicators in times of emergency by 15%, expressing regret "serious" about the deterioration of the health situation and the impact of the catastrophic war that he said that the effects of a severe threat to the coast areas.
He added, "UNICEF" a spokesman, that 101,417 children under the age of five suffer from severe acute malnutrition. He pointed out that the organization aimed at addressing 60,850 children this year, has also been granted treatment for nearly 45,000 children from early January until last September [translated by Google translator]
17.10.2016 – Khabar Agency (* A H)
FM spokesman: one hundred thousand Yemeni children are malnourished in Hodeidah
UNICEF revealed that more than 100 thousand children are infected with acute malnutrition and severe in the Red Sea coastal province of Hodeida (west Yemen).
Coastal areas and occupies the high percentages in the numbers of those infected.
This was launched by the statements of the Spokesman of the organization, Muhammad al-Asadi, Sunday, October 16 / October 2016, during his visit to the General Hospital in Hodeidah revolution.
He Asadi, expressed concern to the organization as a result of the increase in the rising numbers of children with severe acute malnutrition and severe, calling for urgent intervention and fast to save tens of thousands of children who become their lurks the specter of death.
In the same context, Dr. Khalid Sohail, director general of the revolution to maintain Hospital, revealed that the hospital receives 24 babies a day are infected with severe acute malnutrition and severe, and that the four cases, at least, is their submissions to the Department of lying as a result of the deterioration of their health status.
It is noteworthy that dozens of villages, along the western coast of the ores, back where malnutrition and disease, skin diseases, and it was made worse by an outbreak of famine in those regions (translated by Google translator)
http://khabaragency.net/news74858.html
17.10.2016 – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Government of Yemen (* A H)
Yemen Food Security Update, October 2016
Food Security Situation continues worsening due to the escalation of the conflict, high price of food commodities and depreciation of the Yemeni Rial despite the above average rainfall in all governorates, which offers good prospects of agricultural production!
The food insecurity situation has further worsened since the last IPC analysis conducted in June 2016. More than half (51%) of the population (14 million Yemenis) are food insecure either in crisis (Phase 3) or Emergency (Phase 4) according to Yemen June 2016 IPC analysis results.
The ongoing conflict is worsening food security situation by dwindling employment opportunities, deteriorating the economy and exchange rate of Yemeni Rial against the US dollar. In the past 4 months, Yemeni Rial exchange dropped from 250 YR/USD (official exchange rate) up to 300YR/USD in the parallel market.
Despite above average rainfall reported in nearly all governorates since June 2016, prospects of good agricultural production is not as expected due to the escalation of conflicts in August 2016 affecting especially cereal growing areas of Taiz, Sa’ada and Sanaa rural Governorates.
The agriculture production performance in 2016 is expected to be similar to the 2015.
Nearly 3 million people (74% children under 5 and 26% pregnant and lactating women) require humanitarian nutrition assistance. Almost 1.3 million children are acutely malnourished.
Prices of imported food commodities - Wheat, Wheat flour, Sugar and Rice have remained stable; however, prices remained very high above pre - crisis levels by 25.7%, 21.6%, 46.2%, and 48.4% respectively.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-food-security-update-october-2016 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yemen_fsis_programme_food_security_update_-_october_2016_-_15-10-16.pdf
17.10.2016 – Nawal Al maghafi (A H)
This made my day - 8 year old Salim from our film seems to be doing a lot better after a month in #UNICEFS malnutrition ward. #Starvingyemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/nawalf/status/787928216375812096
Comment by Judith Brown: This is a sign that one child is getting better. The trouble is that there are hundreds of thousands of Salim's not getting any treatment in Yemen.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814734413641
Comment: This case shows that for many starving kids help still would be possible – if the Saudis finally would stop their blockade and their bombings of the whole infrastructure.
16.10.2016 – Yemen Post (A H)
WAR HERO: Homeless girl in #Yemen goes to school in morning then studies in street while renting scale to buy food for her orphan sisters (photo)
https://twitter.com/yemenpostnews/status/787655894553202690
16.10.2016 – Yemen Today TV (* A H)
Film: People starving in Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2MSO09USaw
16.10.2016 – Doctors Without Borders (* B H)
MSF staff testimony from the field:
Hisham Majed, ER nurse at MSF Mother & Child Hospital in Al-Houban, Taiz
“Armed clashes are happening every day in Taiz. I used to live in in the city centre, close to the presidential palace, but projectiles kept hitting the houses in my neighbourhood. Because of the increasing violence, I and my family had to move to Al Huban, and now we are displaced.
I lost a family member during this war – he was my mother’s cousin and was only 27 years old – and many of my friends and neighbours are now dead. One day a projectile hit my neighbours’ house and seven people were killed immediately, with children among the dead.
The last time I went to the city centre was in July – life is dead there. It’s easy to see on people’s faces that they are expecting death at any moment. They believe that they are going to die anyway, so that’s why they won’t leave their houses – they prefer to die in dignity in their own homes.
People’s access to hospitals wasn’t great in the past – they had financial difficulties, they didn’t have money for transport. But since the war started, it’s almost impossible – as well as the financial difficulties, there’s the security factor as well. Even if people have money for transport, the streets are not safe: there are snipers, landmines, stray bullets, projectiles and shrapnel flying everywhere.
I’ve noticed that the number of people coming to our hospital in the past couple of months has decreased significantly. I’ve seen children arriving at the hospital already dead, because the distance and the insecurity prevented them from getting here until it was too late.
The private hospitals aren’t able to provide decent medical care to patients. People with kidney failure are dying every day. MSF is providing medical care to people in Taiz, but unfortunately people are still dying because the needs are so overwhelming.
In Taiz, in one street you can easily see two or three checkpoints, and the city is suffering from a complete absence of the rule of law and I don’t feel safe in the hospital especially that airstrikes do not stop even for a day. Al-Huban area is relatively safe at the moment, but I’m very concerned that chaos and clashes will reach this area one day.”
https://www.facebook.com/MSF.Yemen/photos/a.366530653455229.87534.365494296892198/1106222316152722/?type=3 = https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1592335757729079
16.10.2016 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A H)
Due to the current situation in #Yemen most students at schools dont have money to buy their school needs .@UNICEF_Yemen must help them asap
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787689934224187392
@monarelief crew in #Yemen distributes school bags to orphan students at Sanaa schools. Our goal to deliver 5000 bags in Sanaa and Hodeidah (photo)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787655903520526337 and https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787564078734708736
Here is my best moment when I help children in my country. I wish I can do much more to help all needy ppl. Thank u donors
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787683864122527745 and also https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787813589784596481 and https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/788015898531692544 and https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787945480793841664
9.2016 – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Government of Yemen (* A E H)
Monthly Market Monitoring Bulletin (September 2016)
The market price data and information is collected from seven FSIS Programme target Governorates through the Governorate Focal Units (GFU) and FSTS in Sanaa city. The prices are collected from Hodeidah, Hajjah, Dhamar, Hadramout, Lahej, Taiz and Sanaa city markets. The prices are collected from at least 3 representative market centers and average is calculated for each location. The Market monitoring bulletin provides tables and charts that show the monthly prices in the targeted Governorate markets. It also provides and allows the users to compare the current prices with the previous month and the pre-crisis average.
According to FSIS-FSTS price data, imported food commodities prices -Wheat, Wheat flour, Sugar and Rice have remained stable in month of September, as has been the trend since June 2016. However, September prices remained above pre-crisis levels by 25.7%, 21.6%, 46.2%, and 48.4% respectively. The trend is similar to locally produced food commodities - Sorghum, Millet, Maize, and Barley with September prices higher than precrisis by 58.2%, 51.7%, 63.8%, and 69.2% respectively. In September, all targeted governorates reported availability of food commodities in local markets.
The off-season vegetable prices started to rise sharply, in almost all target governorates to reach 50.68% in Hodeidah for pepper, 39.37% for potatoes in Dhamar and 36.68% for tomatoes in Lahej.
Although the nominal prices of key food commodities shows a reduction compared to the previous months, however, it is still very high compared to the prices in pre-crisis. Moreover, the alarming economic and financial crisis, the deteriorating trend of Yemeni Rial against the US Dollar and other currencies, delay of salaries and payments to civil servants, deterioration of income and employment opportunities affects the purchasing power of the ordinary population for food and basic services.
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/fsis-fsts_market_monitoring_bulletin_-_september_2016_final.pdf = http://fscluster.org/yemen/document/monthly-market-monitoring-bulletin-6
30.9.2016 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (A H)
Yemen Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 16 | As of 30 September 2016
New pledges totaling more than $116 million have been committed by donors to the Yemen operation.
UNICEF supports 600,000 children to take final year school exams.
Child marriage increases as result of the economic crisis.
Humanitarian assistance delivered to 4.6 m people.
700,000 people assisted in Al Hudaydah hub since January 2016
FUNDING
$1.6 billion requested
$751 million funding against HRP 46% funded (30 September 2016)
The month of September was marked by continued conflict, with Yemeni civilians bearing the brunt of the failure to reach a political solution. Large numbers of airstrikes were recorded, mainly in central and northern governorates such as Al Jawf, Amran, Al Hudaydah, Hajjah, Taizz, Sa’ada and Sana’a. Ground clashes continued in Al Jawf, Lahj, Hajjah, Marib, Sana’a, Sa’ada and Taizz governorates.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-bulletin-issue-16-30-september-2016 and in full http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Yemen%20Humanitarian%20Bulletin%20Issue%2016_30%20September%202016.pdf
30.9.2016 – World Food Programme (A H)
Yemen Operation service to the humanitarian community, April 2015 to 30 September 2016
http://www.logcluster.org/document/yemen-operation-overview-april-2015-september-2016-infographic = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/logistics_cluster_yemen_infographic_1609.pdf
cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
16.10.2016 – Abdullah Algoffi (* B K)
This is Queen Saba old temple Aum in Marib after it was deliberately bombed by Saudi Arabia's led aggression air strikes and you could see the damages apparently in the rocks and surrounding . Ancient history is the memory of the people of Yemen, and the whole world since Yemen was the real place of the Holy Torah as many scholars indicated and the latest decision by the Uensco which was last week that said there was no connection for Israel to Mount Rock, and the Western Wall. " So, the truth is in Yemen, where there were many connections, and Yemen is the home and the land of the Holy Bible. Please, help us stop war , and make peace. Save our and your history (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=352994418380258&id=100010091083925 = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1137724359613926
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
18.10.2016 – Saba Net (A H K)
Over 27,000 Yemenis martyred, injured by US-Saudi aggression barbaric air attacks: Health Ministry
A total of 27,000 Yemenis have so far killed and injured by the 19-month US-Saudi brutal air war aggression, including 751 civilians of the last week aggression air attacks on the funeral hall in the capital Sanaa, the Health Ministry said in a press conference here in Sanaa on Tuesday.
The ministry said that a total of 8000 Yemenis have so far killed, including 136 dead of the last week air attacks on the Sanaa funeral hall, and 19,500 others wounded, including 615 injured of the funeral hall.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444086.htm
Comment: These figures are much too low.
17.10.2016 – Saba Net (A P)
Police, popular forces arrest 81 suspects
A total of 81 persons have been arrested on charges of various crimes in several governorates over the past two days, a police official told Saba on Monday.
The official said that 58 of the accused were arrested for serious crimes, while 23 charged with petty crimes, and 19 others have been referred to the public prosecutor to complete the legal procedures.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443970.htm
17.10.2016 – Living in Yemen on the Edge (A H)
Some people behind this page are currently on a humanitarian mission in#Yemen which we will be documenting in the next days but, in the meantime, someone decided to share some snapshots of a walk he took around Sanaa today.
Because our Sanaa is still pulsing and striking back, not matter the circumstances. Please note: a child is working at the market. He should be in school but there is no money at home and family is hungry. Ugly face of war (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1137856699600692
17.10.2016 – Supreme Political Council (A P)
The Head of Yemen Supreme Political Council Saleh Samad sent a letter to the Russian envoy in UN before the imminent meeting of the UN Security Council on Yemen situation.
The Yemeni top official asked the Russian envoy at UN Mr Ivanovich Churkin present the Yemen demands to the UNSC.
The full text of the letter is:
demanding UN and UNSC to take a crucial and firm decision in order to stop the brutal and unjustified aggression waged by saudi Arabia, its allies and supporters against Yemeni land and people
The United Nations Security Council failure to take a stand against this barbaric aggression and the perpetrators is a surprising matter; It contradicts both the UN and UNSC mandate and responsibilities, particularly with the full knowledge that this aggression was accompanied by a complete and unjust land, air and sea blockade that hampered access of all essential food and medical supplies, necessary means of life as well as blocking civil aviation movement from/to Yemen, which were already minimalist and under supervision of the aggression countries with saudi in the forefront.
We absolutely are confident that you will interact with the suffering of Yemeni people through the following:-
1. Security Council Adopt a resolution to stop the land, sea and air aggression and lift the unlawful imposed siege.
2. Establish a neutral international investigation committee on the appalling massacre during a funeral ceremony committed by the aggression countries against innocent civilians on October 8th, 2016 as well as investigating the preceded crimes and massacres against Yemeni civilians.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154634857689839&id=600869838 and by Pars Today http://parstoday.com/en/news/middle_east-i30556-yemen_urges_un_to_put_end_to_saudi_war
17.10.2016 – Nasser Arrabyee (A P)
Yemen President Saleh Samad Received2dayN Sanaa the new Russian ambassador on role of Russia &all peace lovers to help Yemen end its crisis
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/788026788727357440
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A P)
SPC president receives UN officials
President of the Supreme Political Council Saleh Al-Sammad received on Sunday the UN Resident Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick and Head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) George Khoury.
During the meeting, they discussed efforts and initiatives to treat the wounded of the grand hall massacre in Sana’a committed by the Saudi-American warplanes on October 8th which claimed the lives of 150 people and wounded 640 others.
The SPC President affirmed the importance of the UN initiative to help and rescue the lives of hundreds of wounded people as health situation in the country is deteriorating due to the ongoing siege on Yemen.
He re-affirmed the importance that the humanitarian work should always be away from any political manipulation
For his part, the UN official, McGoldrick, expressed his condolences to SPC President and the Yemeni people for this massacre.
He reviewed efforts done by the UN to treat the grand hall’s wounded people and the provision of medical and humanitarian services.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443931.htm
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A P)
Supreme Political Council holds Saudi-led aggression coalition full responsibility for Sanaa funeral air attacks
In a statement received by Saba, the political council recognized the Saudi-led coalition's statement that was attributed to the so-called " joint investigation team", which was issued on Saturday, Oct. 15, as an attempt to escape from the responsibility and try to clear the the aggression coalition's responsibility that are filled with crimes and massacres against the Yemeni civilians.
"The Saudi regime today underestimates the blood of Yemenis, the victims of the Sanaa funeral gathering, the Yemeni people and the international community when it blamed the attacking of Sanaa funeral to a body within the presidency of the Yemeni general staff, which is affiliated with the Saudi-led aggression coalition," said the political council.
"While we recognize that the aggression coalition's statement was an obvious admission about committing this heinous crime against the civilian mourners, the exchange of accusations between the Saudi aggression and its mercenaries confirmed the failure of their aggression against Yemen," the council said.
The political council also warned that the aggression coalition's statement comes in the context of circumventing the international calls by the United Nations and the Human Rights Council, as well as the Yemeni people and the families of the victims for forming an international and independent committee to investigate the crimes committed by the Saudi aggression against the Yemeni people.
"This demand has been reiterated by the Supreme Political Council," the political council's statement added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443846.htm
16.10.2016 – Al Araby (* A K P)
Yemen's Houthi rebels 'receiving Egyptian military hardware'
Houthi rebels have received a dozen advanced military boats and other supplies from Egypt, a senior Yemeni official has told The New Arab.
The official who works directly with the Houthis and their allies on Yemen's western coast alleges that the Egyptian navy delivered the hardware to the rebels in the past two months.
The anonymous official said that the boats were supplied by the Egyptian navy and to the commander of a military base in westernHodeida province through an associate of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The transaction took place on an island off the coast of al-Luhayyah, in northern Hodeida province, the official told The New Arab.
The official claims that despite Egypt's government having close ties with Saudi Arabia, Cairo also established good relations with the Yemeni rebels after the start of the Saudi-led military intervention in the country – by Wajdi al-Salemi
Comment: Egypt is a member of the anti-Houthi coalition.
Comment by Judith Brown: Well I haven't heard this before - but the Houthis are getting weapons from somewhere. Maybe the fact that their opponents include Muslim Brotherhood is one reason for Egypt supplying weapons. Or maybe this article is propaganda. Who knows.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814723398641
16.10.2016 – Pars Today (A P)
Zwei US-Bürger aus Haft im Jemen freigelassen
Zwei US-amerikanische Bürger sind aus der Haft im Jemen auf freien Fuß gesetzt und nach Maskat, der Hauptstadt von Oman, ausgeflogen worden.
Wie aus dem jemenitischen Außenministerium verlautete, seien die US-Häftlinge unter Vermittlung vom omanischen König freigelssen worden. Die Ansarollah-Kämpfer (Houthi) im Jemen hatten diese zwei Personen unter dem Vorwurf der Spionage festgenommen. Ein Ansarollah-Verantwortlicher bestätigte die Ausreise dieser zwei US-Bürger aus der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa.
Das US-Außenministerium würdigte zudem die Bemühungen der Regierung in Oman und begrüßte die Freilassung der beiden Amerikaner als eine "humanitäre Geste" der Houthis.
http://parstoday.com/de/news/world-i16873-zwei_us_bürger_aus_haft_im_jemen_freigelassen
16.10.2016 – Alwaght (A P)
Yemeni Ansarullah Releases US Prisoners
he Yemeni Ansarullah resistance movement released two American nationals held in the Arab country as a humanitarian Measure.
The two prisoners left Yemen for Oman after a “complicated diplomatic arrangement”, the US foreign minister, John Kerry told reporters in the Swiss city of Lausanne. The two prisoners were not identified.
The arrangement included airlifts for the Yemenis injured in a deadly Saudi bombing against a funeral in Sanaa, the top US diplomat said.
He said Washington was “very pleased” with the release of its nationals and vowed to “continue to work on other hostage situations here and elsewhere.”
http://alwaght.com/en/News/70998
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
16.10.2016 – Bloomberg (* B H)
Film: A Journey of Chaos and Hardship in Yemen
Along a boulder-strewn track leading from the besieged Yemen city of Taiz, crowds head to Aden in search of food, medicine, and safety. Bloomberg reporter Mohammed Hatem captures the challenges facing locals as they search for hope in the midst of a civil war which has seen more than 10,000 people killed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-10-16/a-journey-of-chaos-and-hardship-in-southern-yemen
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
18.10.2016 – Politics Home (* A K P)
Last Chance for Yemen
Consider the following scenario: one of the poorest countries in the world plunges into civil war, a country with close ties to the UK, which is strategically vital for countering terrorism. Four fifths of its population require urgent humanitarian assistance, millions are internally displaced and hundreds are dying every week.
Faced by this, we would expect the international community, led by the UK and US, two of the Permanent Members of the Security Council, to be urgently bringing the conflict to an end, and putting this at the very top of the agenda at the United Nations.
Instead, when faced by this reality, the world has failed Yemen. Failed to stop the fighting and failed to prevent what is already a humanitarian disaster. The approach so far to solving this crisis has been sluggish, confused, and open to sustained criticism.
An explanation for this, at least for the US and UK, is the Saudi-led intervention.
Let us not forget, this coalition intervened at the request of the legitimate government of Yemen. However, 18 months on, it has not produced the results that they or anyone else would have hoped for.
Instead the airstrikes, which are heavily impacting the civilian population, are now at the centre of intense criticism which overshadows every other element of the crisis. Support for the airstrikes is breeding hostility inside and outside Yemen. A generation of Yemenis are learning how to hate Saudi Arabia and the West.
The strength of this criticism means that when we are critical of Russia’s actions in Syria, they are now pointing at Yemen and claiming a moral equivalency. This is not sustainable diplomacy.
What Next?
Sunday’s announcement is therefore a vitally important step, and a call which Saudi Arabia, the Houthis and former President Saleh must heed. This is the roadmap which we now need to follow:
1. A UN Security Council Resolution within the next week: the UK has reportedly drafted a resolution for the Security Council to focus on the delivery of humanitarian aid. This needs to be much tougher, and it must end the airstrikes immediately.
2. Pressure for a final round of peace talks: All sides need to be brought to the negotiating table, where it needs to be made clear, including to those receiving UK support, that leaving without an agreement is not an option. Compromise is better than conflict, and we should be in a position to act the honest broker.
3. Support for UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed: At the top of new Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ in-tray must be dispatching the Special Envoy back to the Middle East with more resources and support for the diplomatic talks. Countries like Oman are well placed to host negotiations.
For the first time in months, momentum may be building to force an end to this conflict. The Yemeni people cannot take another day, let alone a year, of fighting – by Keith Vaz
16.10.2016 – Pars Today (A K P)
Algeria proposes Iran, S. Arabia to deploy peacekeeping forces in Yemen
Anadolu news agency quoted a source in the Algerian foreign ministry as saying on Saturday that the country has proposed Iran and Saudi Arabia to recruit forces from countries which don’t play a role in Yemen and form an Arab peacekeeping force to settle the crisis in the war-hit country.
"Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra in recent meetings with his Iranian and Saudi counterparts Mohammad Javad Zarif and Adel al-Jubeir on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York has raised the proposal to decrease tensions in Yemen," the source said.
According to Anadolu, the Iranian and Saudi officials have not shown any reaction to the report yet.
17.10.2016 – Spiegel Online (A K P)
Uno verkündet neue Waffenruhe im Jemen
Die Vereinten Nationen haben eine neue Waffenruhe im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen angekündigt. Ab Mittwochnacht würden die Waffen still stehen, teilte der Uno-Sonderbeauftragte für den Jemen mit.
Die Feuerpause gelte zunächst für 72 Stunden mit der Option auf Verlängerung, sagte Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed. Er habe von "allen jemenitischen Parteien" die Zusicherung erhalten, dass sie sich an die Waffenruhe halten würden.
17.10.2016 – UN Department of Public Information (* A K P)
Note to Correspondents: UN Envoy announces the restoration of a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Yemen
The United Nations Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, announced a plan for the resumption of a comprehensive Cessation of Hostilities in Yemen. The Special Envoy has received assurances from all Yemeni parties of their recommitment to the Terms and Conditions of the Cessation of Hostilities of 10 April 2016, which will re-enter into force at 23:59 Yemen time on 19 October 2016, for an initial period of 72 hours, subject to renewal.
The Special Envoy welcomes the restoration of the Cessation of Hostilities, which will spare the Yemeni people further bloodshed and will allow for the expanded delivery of humanitarian assistance. He calls upon all Yemeni parties, the region and the international community to encourage full respect for the Cessation of Hostilities and to ensure that it leads to a permanent and lasting end to the conflict.
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/note-correspondents/2016-10-17/note-correspondents-un-envoy-announces-restoration = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/note-correspondents-un-envoy-announces-restoration-nationwide-cessation-hostilities
17.10.2016 – Reuters (* A K P)
Yemen ceasefire set to start on Wednesday night: U.N envoy
A 72-hour ceasefire in Yemen is due to start on Wednesday night, the U.N. envoy for Yemen said on Monday after he received commitments from all of the country's warring factions.
U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the cessation of hostilities would begin at 2359 local time (2059 GMT) on Wednesday and could be renewed after the initial three-day period, the United Nations said in statement.
"The Special Envoy welcomes the restoration of the Cessation of Hostilities, which will spare the Yemeni people further bloodshed and will allow for the expanded delivery of humanitarian assistance," the statement said.
Earlier on Monday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi said on his official Twitter feed that President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire with the possibility of it being extended.
"The President agreed to a 72 hrs ceasefire to be extended if the other party adheres to it, activates the DCC (De-escalation and Coordination Committee) and lifts the siege of Taiz," he said
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN12H28O = http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security-idUKKBN12H28D and by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/17/yemen-president-agrees-ceasefire-foreign-minister-official-tweet?CMP=twt_gu
Comment: At least, “with the possibility of being extended”. How nice.
Various comments:
We know: there will be emergency airstrikes. Have seen it before
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1137829502936745
When ceasefire announced is overly ambitious but vague on details, curb enthusiasm till confirmation from warring parties on ground.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788162055698251776
Easiest way to gauge ceasefire is to keep an eye on places like Taiz, Nihm, or on border to see if fighting will stop.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788164663204773892
Wish they announced ceasefires just minutes before going into effect. Now 48hrs of throwing everything at us before deadline.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788144921718947840
Real lasting ceasefire in #Yemen will happen when @JohnKerry stops refuelling jets and Yemeni brothers reconcile between themselves.
https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/788244666814693376
Ceasefires are used in #Yemen to calm people down when publicity for Saudis gets bad. If US wanted to end this they'd stop refuelling jets.
https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/788242714861170688
Will Saudi-focus on Mosul give u a break from F15s threat for a while Yemen?Saudi pilots relocated to the other side?Ceasefire-time #Yemen ?
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/787989096501215232
Happening just now #FreeMosul Saudi eyes on Iraq.Shift of focus.Crew needed and leading to Possible ceasefire in #Yemen ?
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/787983195505590272 cp3
FYI, UN specifically said ceasefire is basically same as April 10th. We all know that was partial, fighting & airstrikes continued.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788263502133723136
17.10.2016 – Der Standard (A P)
Saudi-Arabien bereit zu Waffenruhe im Jemen
Saudi-Arabien hat sich zu einer Waffenruhe im Jemen bereit gezeigt. Die schiitischen Houthi-Rebellen müssten allerdings "zur Besinnung kommen" und akzeptieren, dass das Land frei sei, sagte der saudische Außenminister Adel al-Jubeir am Montag in London. Er hoffe, dass die Uno die Rebellen an den Verhandlungstisch bringen könne. Die USA und Großbritannien riefen zuvor zu einem bedingungslosen und sofortigen Waffenstillstand in dem Konfliktland auf.
http://derstandard.at/2000046020466/Saudi-Arabien-bereit-zu-Waffenruhe-im-Jemen
Kommentar: „Bereit zu“: Es reicht, wenn sie den Jemen in Ruhe lassen. Und der alerte Herr Jubeir kann bei dieser Gelegenheit wieder Unsinn verbreiten: „akzeptieren, dass das Land frei sei“. Was soll das heißen?
17.10.2016 – Pars Today (A P)
Aufhebung der Jemen-Blockade als Bedingung der Ansarollah für Wiederaufnahme von Friedensverhandlungen
Die Ansarollah-Bewegung im Jemen hat einen umfassenden und unter der UNO-Aufsicht stehenden Waffenstillstand und die Aufhebung der Blockade gegen das jemenitische Volk als Hauptbedingung für die Wiederaufnahme der Friedensverhandlungen genannt.
Dies erklärte der Sprecher der jemenitischen Ansarollah-Bewegung und Leiter der Verhandlungsdelegation, Mohammed Abdel Salam. Damit reagierte Ansarollah-Bewegung auf einen entsprechenden Aufruf aus London und Washington.
Der Waffenstillstand muss umfassend sein und Aufhebung der Boden-, See-, und Luft-Blockade sowie das Flugverbot über Jemen beinhalten. Es sei die Forderung aller Jemeniten, schrieb Abdel Salam am Sonntagabend auf seinem Twitter.
Die Verhandlungen unter Bombenattecken bedeuteten lediglich Zeitvergeudung, fügte er hinzu.
17.10.2016 – Konjunktion.Info (A P)
Jemen: USA bombardieren mit und wollen jetzt einen Waffenstillstand
Der selbst ernannte Ankläger, Verteidiger, Richter und Henker in einer Person fordert – gemeinsam mit Großbritannien und den UN-Sondergesandten für den Jemen – einen bedingungslosen Waffenstillstand „innerhalb weniger Stunden“. Der ehemalige (Großbritannien) und der jetzige Hegemon (USA) „empören sich gerade“ über einen saudischen Luftschlag, der 140 Menschen in Jemen das Leben kostete. Laut demGuardian will der notorische Kriegstreiber und das Skull & Bones-Mitglied John Kerry „so schnell wie möglich, d.h. Montag oder Dienstag“ einen Waffenstillstand implementieren.
„Militärischen Komponenten beruhigend“, „humanitäre Sorge“ – man könnte schier (Entschuldigung) kotzen, wenn man diese verlogenen, menschenverachtenden Doppelstandards mit der Wahrheit vergeicht und diese Heuchelei lesen und hören muss. Glauben solche Typen wie Kerry wirklich, dass alle Menschen so dumm sind und diese offensichtlichen Lügen nicht erkennen?
Dass Kerry in seinen „Ausführungen“ geflissentlich vergisst, dass die USA vor kurzem wieder Waffen im Wert von 1,15 Milliarden US-Dollar an Riad verkauft haben oder dass die US-Luftwaffe am Mittwoch den Jemen angegriffen hat, bleibt natürlich unerwähnt. Genauso wie, dass es sich hier um einen illegalen Angriffskrieg Riads handelt.
17.10.2016 – Al Bab (* A K P)
Yemen: Saudi Arabia's Vietnam ... or something worse?
Significantly, the ceasefire call follows a major embarrassment for the anti-Houthi side.
This debacle is forcing the US and Britain – the main sources of weapons for the Saudi-led bombing campaign – to reconsider their position. Metal fragments from the scene of the funeral massacre indicate that at least one of the bombs used was American-supplied and possibly fitted with a British-made guidance system.
The British government – always fearful of offending the Saudis for commercial reasons – has been less openly critical but has nevertheless got itself into a muddle over arms supplies.
The legal test is whether these supplies "might be used in a commission of a serious breach of international humanitarian law". Until last July, despite growing evidence of attacks of civilians in markets, hospitals and elsewhere in Yemen, the government repeatedly said "we have assessed that there has not been a breach". In July, it quietly "corrected" all previous statements by admitting that no such assessment had been made – which further increased political pressure for a halt to arms sales.
An added complication is that the funeral attack was a "double tap" where a second strike occurred as rescuers moved in after that first bomb hit. Speaking last month in the context of Russian "double tap" bombings in Syria, Britain's new foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said such attacks were "unquestionably" a war crime.
Given the Saudis' admission of serious flaws in their command system, it is now even more difficult for the British government to claim there is no risk of its weapons being used in contravention of international humanitarian law.
In its early stages, the intervention in Yemen was often characterised as part of a more "muscular" and "assertive" Saudi foreign policy – a policy which now appears to have failed its first big test. This may also cause some collateral damage to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king's favourite son, who is Saudi Arabia's defence minister (among many other things) and was the main driving force behind the intervention.
A year ago the Washington Post suggested Yemen was "turning into Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam" but in some ways it's worse than that. When the US pulled out of Vietnam it was at least clear who would take over. The same can't be said of Yemen which, for most purposes, is now a failed state and likely to remain so for a long time – by Brian Whitaker
http://al-bab.com/blog/2016/10/yemen-saudi-arabias-vietnam-or-something-worse
17.10.2016 – Reuters (A P)
Saudi Arabia says prepared for ceasefire in Yemen if Houthis agree
Saudi Arabia is prepared to agree to a ceasefire in Yemen if the Iran-allied Houthis agree, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Monday, adding that he was skeptical about efforts for peace after previous ceasefire attempts had failed.
"We would like to see a ceasefire yesterday," Jubeir told reporters in London. "Everybody wants a ceasefire in Yemen, nobody more so than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition members."
He accused the Houthis of reneging on previous deals.
"So yes, we come at this with a lot of cynicism. But we are prepared, the Yemeni government is prepared, to agree to a cessation of hostilities if the Houthis agree to it. The coalition countries will respect the desire of the Yemeni government," Jubeir said [and more propaganda by Jubeir] - by William James
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-saudi-idUSKBN12H186
Comment by Judith Brown: Prepared for a ceasefire! Why don't they just go away and leave Yemen in peace.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154816099718641
17.10.2016 – Press TV Iran (A P)
Yemeni missile attacks to stop Saudi war: Activist
Yemeni forces' retaliatory missile attacks deep inside Saudi territory are the only way to stop the war on Yemen, says an activist and political commentator.
“We have seen that Yemeni ballistic missiles and modified Scud missiles are reaching every time deeper inside Saudi Arabia and I would not be surprised if I see at one point they will reach Riyadh, Dubai or Abu Dhabi because those two countries must be hit really hard to stop the war on Yemen,” Hussain al-Bukhaiti told Press TV.
He is also of the opinion that the international community will not stop Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen because the UN Security Council is mainly controlled by the United States, Britain and France who are directly involved in this war.
He stated these Western countries are fueling the Yemen conflict in order to continue selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
“The only way to stop this [Yemen war] is not to be dependent on international community, just to keep fighting and to target Saudi border, to target Saudi oil field if we have missiles to reach there because this is the thing that will hit the international economy otherwise people who are killed in Yemen are just becoming numbers in UN reports,” the activist added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Bukhaiti said the Houthi Ansarullah fighters and the Yemeni army should not accept the implementation of an immediate ceasefire which was demanded in a draft resolution presented by Britain.
He also argued the British want the Yemeni forces to accept a total ceasefire in order to make them withdraw from Saudi border and if they do that, it means they have lost their final strength to attack the Saudis.
Comment: A ceasefire normally does not include that any side is asked to withdraw from any place. As the word says, just fire is ceased. A ceasefire asking the Houthis to withdraw from anywhere´(and not asking the same from the other side) is rather odd and would be no “ceasefire”.
16.10.2016 – Southfront (* B P)
YEMEN WAR: LITTLE CHANCES FOR PEACE
The Yemeni war continues to escalate with multiple conflicts. The al Houthi-Saleh alliance and the coalition that supports the pro-Saudi Hadi government will be hardly able to find a peaceful solution of the conflict in the nearest future. Constant bombings of civilian objects by the Saudi coalition’s air power makes resumption of the so-called “national-level peace talks” hardly possible. The war also remains a part of the ongoing Saudi Arabian-Iranian regional standoff. This pushes Saudi Arabia to ignore that their intervention into Yemen failed to achieve the stated goals.
In turn, the Houthi-Saleh’s attitude is that Hadi must go and that the UN must offer a written and comprehensive peace plan. The terms also included demands for the end of the aggression by the Saudi-led coalition, and the lifting of the siege conditions.
With none of the involved parties to the conflict accept that they are close to defeat, moreover, greatly reducing the possibility that any of them will make significant effortis to achieve peace soon.
https://southfront.org/yemen-war-little-chances-for-peace/
16.10.2016 – Deutschlandfunk (A P)
Kerry fordert bedingungslose Feuerpause
US-Außenminister Kerry sagte nach Beratungen mit europäischen Amtskollegen in London, der Moment sei gekommen, sich an den Verhandlungstisch zu setzen. Es gehe darum, eine bedingungslose Feuerpause möglichst schon morgen oder Dienstag umzusetzen. In diesem Fall könne der UNO-Sonderbeauftragte Ahmed Einzelheiten mit den verfeindeten Parteien aushandeln.
16.10.2016 – Reuters (* A P)
U.S., Britain call for immediate ceasefire in Yemen
The United States and Britain called on Sunday for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Yemen to end violence between Iran-backed Houthis and the government, which is supported by Gulf states.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said if Yemen's opposing sides accepted the ceasefire then the special envoy to the U.N., Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, would work through the details and announce when and how it would take effect.
"This is the time to implement a ceasefire unconditionally and then move to the negotiating table," Kerry told reporters.
"We cannot emphasize enough today the urgency of ending the violence in Yemen," he said after meeting British foreign minister, Boris Johnson, and other officials in London.
Kerry said they were calling for the implementation of the ceasefire "as rapidly as possible, meaning Monday, Tuesday".
Johnson said the conflict in Yemen was "causing increasing international concern; the fatalities that we're seeing there are unacceptable".
"There should be a ceasefire and the U.N. should lead the way in calling for that ceasefire."
Their call came after meetings in London with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and senior UAE officials.
(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Mark Potter)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-britain-usa-idUSKBN12G0MX and by Deutsche Welle http://m.dw.com/en/us-and-uk-expect-yemen-ceasefire-in-coming-days/a-36055332 and film: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/oct/16/boris-johnson-and-john-kerry-call-for-ceasefire-in-yemen-video and Common dreams with a correct headline: After Profiting from Weapons Sales and Bombing Yemen, U.S. Calls for Ceasefire; http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/16/after-profiting-weapons-sales-and-bombing-yemen-us-calls-ceasefire and Dawn http://www.dawn.com/news/1290520
Comment by Judith Brown: They are terrified about the court case in UK which cannot help but find that Britain is acting illegally in supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia. It is being organised by the wonderful organisation Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT). It is due in UK courts at the end of this year, or the beginning of next. So they want the bombing to stop to get them out of a judgement that will compel not only UK but in effect other countries from supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia. That is their only concern. But not only the bombing must stop. Also the cruel, cruel embargo supposed to be UN led now but in effect no change since it was led by Saudi Arabia, with 'assistance' from the UN, USA and France - your taxes and mine paid to starve Yemeni children to death.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814493443641
16.10.2016 – Voice of America (A P)
Kerry: Road Map Urgently Needed to End Violence in Yemen
"We have all agreed on that road map and that that road map needs to be put to all the parties in order not to accept the road map without any changes, but to understand that it is a road map, it is the beginning of a conversation and the place to get back to the negotiating table and start to work through a lasting peace agreement," he said.
http://www.voanews.com/a/kerry-road-map-urgently-needed-to-end-violence-in-yemen/3553679.html
Comment: He certainly got lost. What a babbling idiot.
16.10.2016 – British, US Government (A P)
A joint statement from the Governments of the UK, USA, Saudi Arabia and UAE following a meeting about the situation in Yemen.
The Foreign Ministers of the U.K., U.S., the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates met in London on October 16 with UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. The Ministers expressed strong support for the efforts of the UN Special Envoy and his plan to present as soon as possible both parties with a roadmap that provides a clear vision of the security and political steps required to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The Ministers agreed on the urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis and end the fighting.
The Ministers called on all the Yemeni parties to work determinedly with the UN Special Envoy in accordance with the GCC initiative, the National Dialogue Outcomes, and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. All parties must demonstrate flexibility and a willingness to compromise. Unilateral steps, including those actions in Sanaa to form political institutions, are incompatible with a peaceful resolution, and will not be granted legitimacy. The Ministers expressed concern about the economic situation including the independence of the Central Bank, and called on all parties to respect and preserve the integrity of government and financial institutions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-on-yemen--3
Comment: US, UK as peace brokers? The statement is rather odd. Apart from the UN Special Envoy, all other participants are just warring parties. Referring to “GCC initiative, the National Dialogue Outcomes, and relevant UN Security Council resolutions” means: Referring to a political process from pre-war times, which cannot be reanimated after all what had happened afterwards. “relevant UN Security Council resolutions” are US and Saudi dictated and totally one-sided, they cannot be the base for any peaceful solution. “Unilateral steps”: Why just a “unilateral step” by the Houthi side is mentioned (which in fact was the only one which is based on a decision by the last legitimate political institution which Yemen still has), – “will not be granted legitimacy”: shows that the US, the UK, the Saudis und the UAR really think that’s them who could grant any “legitimacy” in Yemen. They certainly can not. Wherefrom should they have got the right to do so???
More comments: Kerry&Johnson Should have said Saudi airstrikes must stop without conditions. That's the end of hostilities
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/787675377346961408
#Yemen ceasefire? "we are ready" north Yemen gov official tells me. "As soon as they stop attacking us we will stop defending..."
https://twitter.com/Tyson585/status/787675288545140737
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
14.10.2016 – Shapban (A P)
video - #Saudi analyst: theoretically we can annihilate #Iran & throw it back to middle ages in 8 hours
https://twitter.com/shapban/status/787387088601743360
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
17.10.2016 – Bloomberg (A E)
Saudi Arabia’s Tasnee Said to Suspend Payment on $1 Billion Loan
Saudi Arabia’s National Industrialization Co. suspended repayments on a 4 billion-riyal ($1.1 billion) loan while it holds refinancing talks, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The industrial and manufacturing holding company received a six-month payment holiday from lenders before an installment was due at the beginning of October, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Tasnee has been hit by a slump in chemicals prices and may seek to extend the length of the debt, which is due in 2021, the people said.
The loan was provided by banks including Samba Financial Group, Saudi British Bank and Riyad Bank in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg – by Matthew Martin
14.10.2016 – Barron's (* B E P)
Saudi Oil Deficit Exposed After U.S. Yemen Strikes
Michael Tran and Christopher Louney, their thoughts on the Saudis, Yemen and prices:
“Saudi’s intervention in Yemen has put significant strain on Saudi finances and it looks like it will be a persistent drag. Signs of improving oil market fundamentals and sentiment are apparent, but we see prices grinding rather than gapping higher … as the market grapples with the historic level of global inventories, increasing US supply, and producer hedging pressure …
This week saw the first direct U.S. strikes on Houthi controlled Yemeni targets – the latest sign that the costly conflict shows no signs of abating.
s we have noted, the military intervention is proving a major drain on the Saudi treasury, driving military spending to record levels and offsetting some of the fiscal gains achieved by the removal of subsidies. It is also putting key Saudi infrastructure in the south of the country at risk, with Houthi missile strikes hitting a power station in August … - by Dimitra DeFotis
cp9 USA
17.10.2016 – Stratfor (* A K P)
Yemen Won't Become Washington's Next Middle Eastern War
When Saudi aircraft struck a funeral in Sanaa on Oct. 8, Yemen's Houthi rebels vowed to retaliate. The attack, which left 19 generals and 14 colonels among the 140 reported dead, dealt a heavy blow to Houthi forces, and no one expected it to go unanswered. But an international escalation was never part of the plan, despite recent Houthi missile launches against Emirati and U.S. naval vessels that might seem to suggest otherwise.
According to the Pentagon, no information about who supplied the cruise missiles to the Houthis has been uncovered. The missiles appear, however, to be similar to weapons that Iran has access to, builds its own variants of, and has a history of providing to militant groups in the region. The United States, already struggling to maintain its fragile relationship with Iran, will be hesitant to implicate Tehran in the incident. But ironically, blaming Iran for supplying the Houthis with the missiles would go a long way in rebuilding trust between Washington and Riyadh, yet another Middle Eastern country with which the United States has troubled ties.
Washington's awkward position between the longtime regional rivals has made its role in the Yemeni conflict tricky to maintain.
Friction is increasing between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea will give Riyadh added incentive to step up its military involvement in Yemen. A fresh Saudi-led offensive against the Houthi-held northern province of Saada is already making significant gains, as coalition forces overtook the Buqa Port passage on Oct. 11. Washington, however, will not satisfy Riyadh's wishes to become a more active member of its coalition. The U.S. government would have a difficult time convincing the American people of the need to become mired in another Middle Eastern conflict, especially against an opponent with which Washington has no qualms. Furthermore, blatantly backing Saudi Arabia in the fight would upset the balance the United States has tried to maintain between its relationships with Tehran and Riyadh.
It will not stop Saudi Arabia from trying to use additional Houthi attacks to persuade the United States to change its tune, though. The number of missiles the militants have at their disposal is still unclear. At the very least, Riyadh can count on Washington to help keep an eye on the threat, given the risk such weapons pose to international shipping.
https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/yemen-wont-become-washingtons-next-middle-eastern-war
Comment: It’s just no logics that Houthi missiles would be a threat to international shipping. Why the missiles in the hands of all other belligerents would be not? Sending warships into this region would be a threat to international shipping as well. Bombing fishing boats, actually is. The Saudis did so and no one cares.
17.10.2016 – Rare (* A K P)
The United States is sleepwalking into a hot war in Yemen
Our peacemaker president has struck again. Barack Obama, a nobel Laureate—lest we forget—is already fighting at least four active ground wars, presiding over several more aerial drone campaigns, and sending American forces back to Iraq. Having allowed himself to become almost wholly assimilated into the Washington do-something foreign policy establishment, he’s now edging into yet another conflict, this one in the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen.
This snowballing has gone on for over a week now and the risk of continued escalation is very real. American and British officials are trying to run interference, ramping up their calls for an immediate ceasefire, but to the Houthis this no doubt seems like a tardy face-saver, after months of made-in-the-USA bombs whistling down on civilians.
The Houthis are benefiting from limited Iranian assistance, which has led many in the American media to chatter about how Yemen is the latest front in the Saudi-Iranian proxy war. It is, sort of, but more accurately it’s a local conflict, engendered by years of the government neglecting the Houthi north and propagated by divisions that have been thickly etched since Yemen’s civil war back in 1994. The United States has no dog in this fight—our Houthi “enemy” hates Sunni jihadism just as much as we do. It’s our great and glorious ally Saudi Arabia that’s bolstering al-Qaeda, as their airstrikes drive indigent Yemenis towards the only group that seems equipped enough to help them.
That our role in Yemen has left us fueling al-Qaeda and attacking al-Qaeda’s enemies should tell you everything you need to know. Neoconservatives continue to wave the bloody shirt around, eager to perpetrate a war with Iran. They should be resisted. Our involvement in Yemen is fundamentally immoral and giving tits that provoke further tats will only prolong that country’s awful brutalization – by Matt Purple
http://rare.us/story/the-united-states-is-sleepwalking-into-a-hot-war-in-yemen/
16.10.2016 – New York Times (** B K P)
In Somalia, U.S. Escalates a Shadow War
The Obama administration has intensified a clandestine war in Somalia over the past year, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
Hundreds of American troops now rotate through makeshift bases in Somalia, the largest military presence since the United States pulled out of the country after the “Black Hawk Down” battle in 1993.
The Somalia campaign, as it is described by American and African officials and international monitors of the Somali conflict, is partly designed to avoid repeating that debacle, which led to the deaths of 18 American soldiers. But it carries enormous risks — including more American casualties, botched airstrikes that kill civilians and the potential for the United States to be drawn even more deeply into a troubled country that so far has stymied all efforts to fix it.
The Somalia campaign is a blueprint for warfare that President Obama has embraced and will pass along to his successor. It is a model the United States now employs across the Middle East and North Africa — from Syria to Libya — despite the president’s stated aversion to American “boots on the ground” in the world’s war zones. This year alone, the United States has carried out airstrikes in seven countries and conducted Special Operations missions in many more.
In its public announcements, the Pentagon sometimes characterizes the operations as “self-defense strikes,” though some analysts have said this rationale has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is only because American forces are now being deployed on the front lines in Somalia that they face imminent threats from the Shabab – By MARK MAZZETTI, JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ERIC SCHMITT
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/world/africa/obama-somalia-secret-war.html
Comment: There are so many parallelisms you can draw between war on #Somaliaand war on #Yemen that it seems a paste and copy exercise.
Again, expressions such as 'bad intelligence' emerge... draw your own considerations
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1137493052970390
16.10.2016 – Limited Hangout (* A P)
MICHELLE OBAMA GIVES BRAVE SPEECH ON SAUDI WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Concluding a week that had already seen growing international attention around a petition by Saudi women for full-fledged citizenship, the activists behind the#IAmMyOwnGuardian campaign added a surprising and powerful ally to their ranks: First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. In an emotional speech during a Clinton campaign rally, Mrs. Obama condemned the appalling treatment and oppression of women in Saudi Arabia, including barbaric practices such as the flogging of rape victims.
“This is not normal,” said Mrs. Obama, her voice shaking with emotion. “No woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse.”
Having just hosted the International Day of the Girl — her last event in the White House — and meeting with young women from Saudi Arabia and around the world, Mrs. Obama observed that “it has been a week of profound contrasts.”
https://limitedhangoutblog.com/2016/10/16/michelle-obama-gives-brave-speech-on-saudi-womens-rights/
Comment: What a strange hypocrisy is that?? Her husband is backing Saudi Arabia to bomb women (and others) to death in Yemen. All that does not make any sense – I only can understand this when realizing that Michelle Obama just is doing propaganda here: propaganda lacking any real consequences.
Comment by Judith Brown: Michelle Obama doesn't talk about the rights of Yemeni women not to be killed in their own homes. And the courage it takes for them to get through terrible day after terrible day.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814741283641
15.10.2016 – RT (* A K P)
Westpolitiker zu Syrien - Mit Scheinheiligkeit durchwobene Lügen
Der diplomatische Korrespondent von AP wollte wissen, warum die USA die russischen Bombenangriffe in Syrien verurteilen, während sie selbst die saudischen Angriffe auf Städte im Jemen unterstützen, bei denen absichtlich zivile Infrastruktur zerstört wird und bereits Tausende von Zivilisten getötet worden sind. Damit brachte Lee den Regierungssprecher Sprecher John Kirby arg in Bedrängnis.
Matt Lee fragte:
Übers Wochenende gab es von der Saudi-geführten Koalition dort [im Jemen] diesen Luftangriff auf eine Beerdigung. Ich wundere mich nur, welchen Unterschied die US-Regierung zwischen dieser Sache und dem macht, was Sie den Russen, Syrern und Iraner in Syrien vorwerfen, besonders in Aleppo?
Sprecher Kirby rang sichtlich um eine Antwort. Schließlich stotterte er, dass es wohl einen Unterschied gäbe, weil die Russen und Syrer absichtlich Zivilisten ins Visier zu nehmen würden. Das saudische Königreich habe dagegen eine Untersuchung des Bombenangriffs auf die Trauerhalle im Jemen angekündigt, bei dem mehr als 140 Trauergäste getötet und hunderte weitere verletzt wurden.
Von den syrischen oder russischen Regierungen würde nichts dergleichen durchgeführt, so Kirby. Das ist natürlich einmal mehr eine frech in die Kameras hineingelogene Unwahrheit, denn Russland hat z. B. nachdrücklich eine internationale Untersuchung der Bombardierung des UN-Hilfskonvois am 19. September in der Nähe von Aleppo gefordert, die vonseiten Washingtons zur Begründung für die Aussetzung der Verhandlungen mit Moskau vorgeschoben wurde.
Aber Matt Lee ließ nicht los und grillte Kirby weiter: Eine "wachsende Zahl von Zivilisten im Jemen" sei in ständiger Gefahr, "mit Waffen getötet zu werden, welche die Vereinigten Staaten an die Saudis und deren Koalitionspartner (Katar, UAE, usw.) geliefert haben. Aber das scheint Sie ja nicht zu stören, im Unterschied zu vielen anderen Leuten, einschließlich Leuten im [US-]Kongress".
Kirby versuchte sich daraufhin mit dem Argument herauszureden, nämlich, dass man die Lage in Syrien nicht mit der im Jemen vergleichen könne. Das begründet er wie folgt:
Die saudisch geführte Koalition wurde von der jemenitischen Regierung eingeladen. Jetzt weiß ich, dass Sie einwenden werden, auch die Russen wurden von Assad eingeladen. Aber die Saudis werden durch diesen Krieg auf ihrer Seite der Grenze bedroht", so die umwerfende Logik des Sprechers des US-Außenministeriums. – von Rainer Rupp
https://deutsch.rt.com/international/41962-westpolitiker-zu-syrien-mit-scheinheiligkeit/
Kommentar: Das hätte Rupp noch schreiben müssen: Auch dieser letzte Satz ist eine Lüge. Die Houthis und ihre Verbündeten begannen erst 10 Wochen NACH dem Beginn der saudischen Luftangriffe mit der Beschießung von saudischem Gebiet. Kirby setzt hier schlichtweg auf das kurze Gedächtnis der Öffentlichkeit, indem er kurz einmal Ursache und Reaktion verwechselt.
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
18.10.2016 – Network of Sikh Organisations (A P)
After Yemen death toll Lord Singh asks government why they sell the Saudis arms
Lord Singh, the Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) said, “My Lords, bomb fragments found at the scene of the funeral carnage were those from an Mk 82 American guided bomb. Saudi Arabia is one of the most barbaric countries in the world, with beheadings, amputations and the enslavement of women, while, at the same time, exporting its medieval version of Islam to neighbouring countries such as Syria, Sudan and Yemen.”
He added, “Can the Minister give me a good reason why the West—principally the United States and ourselves—supplies some £7 billion-worth of arms to Saudi Arabia each year? I might add that boosting our trade by exporting the means of mass killings is not a good reason.”
http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=0f788213c84a862348b0c4265&id=fbe6ce2129
18.10.2016 – Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten (* B K P)
Großbritanniens Krieg im Jemen: Profite und jede Menge Heuchelei
Großbritannien fordert mit viel Pathos das Ende des Jemen-Krieges. Die Briten könnten den Anfang machen und ihren eigenen Militär-Einsatz sofort stoppen.
Der Guardian berichtet: „Der Krieg im Jemen ist gut für britische Waffenhersteller. Im ersten Jahr der Bombardierung, lizenzierte das Vereinigte Königreich nach Angaben der Campaign Against Arms Trade Waffenverkäufe im Wert von 3,3 Milliarden Pfund nach Saudi-Arabien. Britische Beamte sind auch im Befehls- und Kontrollzentrum für die Luftschläge und haben Zugriff auf Ziellisten. Die Kosten für den Jemen sind immens. Nach 16 Monaten Bürgerkrieg starben nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen mehr als 6.500 Menschen; 2,5 Millionen wurden vertrieben. Großbritannien trägt viel Verantwortung für dieses Leid – genauso wie die USA, die 110 Milliarden Dollar an Waffenlieferungen an die Saudis unter der Obama-Regierung. Doch auch Frankreich ist aktiv daran beteiligt. Die britischen Rüstungskontrollregeln sagen, dass keine Ausfuhrlizenzen gewährt werden sollten, wenn es eine klare Risikoausrüstung gibt, die eingesetzt wird um internationales Völkerrecht zu brechen (…) Großbritannien profitiert auf Kosten der jemenitischen Zivilisten.“
Der Guardian kritisiert, dass Großbritannien eine wichtige Rolle bei der Unterstützung Saudi-Arabiens im Jemen spielt. Seit 2010 wurden britische Waffen im Wert von sieben Milliarden britischen Pfund an Saudi-Arabien verkauft. Der britische Außenminister Boris Johnson hat im September die Waffenverkäufe an Saudi-Arabien verteidigt, da die saudischen Luftangriffe auf den Jemen „keinen klaren Bruch“ des internationalen Völkerrechts darstellen würden, so der Guardian.
17.10.2016 – Economy (** B E K P)
What does the civil war in Yemen have to do with the British economy?
Britain is coming under pressure over the relationship between its arms trade and the civil war in Yemen. Is this yet another example of where economics is given priority over humanitarian concerns?
While bombs continue to fall, many people are questioning the role of the UK in supplying weapons to the region, saying this trade is fuelling the violence. But would the British government be willing to give up the arms deals that bring billions of pounds into the economy?
According to the Arms Trade Treaty, signed by the UK in 2014, it’s illegal to sell weapons when there’s a clear risk that they’ll be used in violation of international humanitarian law. But the UK government seems to be claiming there’s not enough evidence to show that the use of these weapons are in violation of this treaty. Their evidence? An internal Saudi-led investigation which has defended the bombing.
So why would the UK take the word of the Saudi government over the UN, the EU, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other respectable international organizations?
The answer is almost certainly to do with economics. The UK government has been very public about its support for the UK arms industry and the important role it plays in the UK economy. But just how vital is the arms industry to the UK?
1. The UK is the second biggest arms exporter in the world
The UK is the second biggest exporter of arms in the world, selling more weapons than Russia, France and China over the last 10 years. Last year, these exports amounted to £7.7 billion ($9.4bn) - more than they spend on higher education each year.
And there’s one thing that the UK loves to export more than anything else: military aircraft. So many planes have been sold to the Saudi government, that they actually now have more British planes than the British Royal Air Force.
The thing is, these military exports only make up a tiny 1.4% of total exports. So despite the international competitiveness of the arms industry, the idea that it is powering the UK export sector is perhaps a slight exaggeration.
2. The industry supposedly supports 300,000 jobs in the UK
It’s also important to remember that the biggest buyer of UK weapons isn’t overseas - it’s the British Ministry of Defence. So most of the jobs don’t actually have anything to do with selling weapons to people like Saudi Arabia.
3. Taxpayers subsidize the arms industry by £700 million a year
Whether further deals and the exports of arms can be stopped is a political battle, which is currently being fought in the courts, in the media and on the streets. On the one hand are clear moral arguments. On the other is hard economic logic. It’s hard to say which side will win.
But one thing seems certain: the business model for the UK arms industry requires ever more frequent conflict across the world, for that’s the only way it will continue to make a killing – by Ben Tippet
http://www.ecnmy.org/engage/civil-war-yemen-british-economy/
17.10.2016 – Defense News (* B K)
UK-Supplied Precision Weapons Prove Popular in Saudi-Led Yemen Campaign
The Royal Saudi Air Force has used British-supplied cruise missiles against Houthi rebels in Yemen, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has confirmed.
The Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile was among a list of British-supplied precision-guided weapons named by Fallon as having been used against the Yemeni rebels since the two-year-long conflict erupted following a Houthi coup which saw the legitimate government forced into exile in Saudi Arabia.
The MBDA-built Storm Shadow has been in service for a number of years onboard Royal Saudi Air Force and British Royal Air Force Tornado strike jets.
The weapon, the most powerful missile in the RAF inventory, has been deployed in several conflicts by the British but this is the first confirmed operational firing by the Saudis.
The other British-supplied precision-guided weapons listed as having been used in Yemen were the Dual Mode Brimstone, ALARM anti-radiation missile, Paveway guided bombs and the PGM500 (also known as the Hakim 2), Fallon said in response to a written Parliamentary question.
All the weapons mentioned were supplied by MBDA, with the exception of the Paveway IV, which is a Raytheon UK product.
The MoD failed to respond in time to a question about whether non-precision weapons also have been used – by Andrew Chuter
Comment by Judith Brown: Well isn't this strange. Either the Saudis must have most of their intelligence in error, or they purposefully target markets houses schools hospitals bridges ports airports factories farms and strangely avoid military instalments that USA knew about and had to bomb for them. War is a very strange game for rich men (and women sometimes but not in Saudi Arabia) who have a liking for carnage and destruction. I gather that a weapons guide was probably used in the funeral attacks last week.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154816076113641
16.10.2016 – Herald Scotland (* B K)
Made in Scotland, the bomb technology which targeted the Yemen massacre
THE bombs which the Saudi air force used to kill more than 150 civilians in Yemen last week were targeted by guidance systems made in Scotland.
The 500lb bombs, which hit a funeral party on Saturday, are claimed to be Paveway IVs, made by US arms firm Raytheon. The laser guidance systems are solely made at the company’s factory in Glenrothes.
[and overview British arms and support for Saudis]
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
16.10.2016 – RT (* A P)
Film: Prof. Dr. Mohssen Massarrat zu Jemen-Berichterstattung: "Kräfte am Werk, die einseitige Information wünschen“
Der Initiator des offenen Briefes spricht mit RT Deutsch über die mangelnde Berichterstattung über das Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen, welches wenn überhaupt nur am Rande erwähnt wird. Außerdem spricht er über den Krieg in Syrien, die Rolle der USA und der westlichen Allianz und Russland..
Er kritisiert massiv die Informationspolitik der öffentlich-rechtlichen und fordert eine Besinnung auf journalistische Werte. Weiter spricht er über die Reaktionen auf seinen offenen Brief und wie die öffentlich-rechtlich Vertrauen zurückgewinnen müssen, nachdem sie mehrfach zu einseitig berichteten, zum Beispiel in der Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isTZRGILQhs
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
17.10.2016 – El Pais (* B K)
Why are Spanish weapons being used in the war in Yemen?
Four NGOs demand an independent investigation into final destination of arms acquired by Saudi Arabia
So how did Spanish grenade launchers and other munitions find their way into the conflict?
After Europe, the Saudi regime is the Spanish arms industry’s most important client and has been for some time. In 2015, it bought €540 million worth of Spanish weapons – 15% of Spain’s total arms sales. Most of this money was spent on in-flight refueling aircraft, but also paid for bombs, missiles and artillery shells.
Armament Research Services (ARES), an Australian outfit specializing in arms and ammunition data, has identified two Spanish-made weapons in Houthi rebel hands – the previously mentioned Instalaza C90 RPG, and Alhambra hand grenades.
The ARES report concluded that these munitions had probably been captured by the rebel forces from Saudi troops or their allies. According to ARES, around 5,000 C90-CR grenade launchers were sold to the Saudi army at the start of the 1990s. As for the Alhambra grenades, they could have been part of a €23.2-million arms deal in 2004.
The list of Spanish military munitions confirmed to be in Yemen also includes the VAMTAC high mobility tactical vehicle produced by Urovesa, while Rodríguez believes that sooner or later other Spanish arms sold to Saudi Arabia’s allies will also turn up, such as aircraft bombs, artillery shells, tanks and mortar shells.
The 2015 trade report on the foreign sale of Spanish munitions states clearly that, “All the arms licenses [for Saudi Arabia] were accompanied by final destination certificates with a strict clause prohibiting re-export or use outside home territory.”
Judging from the videos doing the rounds on social media, it appears that this clause has not been strictly adhered to. Recently, four NGOs – Amnesty International, FundiPai, Greenpeace and Oxfam Intermon – working for the Control Arms campaign, sent a letter to Spain’s Economy Ministry asking for an independent investigation into Spanish arms diverted to the Yemen conflict, to be made public along with the adoption of legal guarantees controlling both their use and those who use them. The letter is still awaiting a reply – by MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ
http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/10/14/inenglish/1476453870_656521.html?id_externo_rsoc=FB_CC
cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / See cp1a
17.10.2016 – AP (* B H)
Their town destroyed, displaced Yemenis languish in a field
More than 3 million of the country's 26 million people have been driven from their homes; entire towns have been wiped out under airstrikes; other cities have come under crippling sieges by Houthi forces. Hunger has become widespread.
Haradh had once been relatively prosperous, benefiting from cross-border trade and smuggling.
Now the main street is lined with leveled buildings, according to footage aired on Yemeni TV. Most residents — some 11,500 families — fled in the summer of 2015, scattering to various nearby areas. Some came to the field outside the town of Abs, and its owner let them set up shacks, which has since grown into al-Makhzan camp.
Leila, a grandmother with a traditional tattoo on her forehead, said her home was flattened in an airstrike. As her family fled, they carried with them the bodies of two of her children and a friend killed in the strike. They are now buried in the field.
"We're worth nothing, not even the palm of a hand," she said, using a local expression that means a tiny amount.
In al-Makhzan, barefoot children roam the field. The men are jobless. There are no medical facilities. The closest hospital was in Abs, a half-hour drive away. Few could afford the car fare for that. Then in August an airstrike destroyed the Abs hospital, so now the nearest medical facility is even farther, three hours away.
Several elderly people over 80 years bedridden in their shacks said they are just waiting to die, too weak to seek help for ailments.
Every three months, aid from UN agencies arrives. The residents need everything but most of all, food, said al-Shibani, who now acts as an aid coordinator. Many are living on just bread and tea – By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Comment by Judith Brown: Lets get this straight - these people are not being fired on by other Yemenis of any sort. This area has been bombarded on an almost daily basis since March 2015 by Saudi Arabian aerial attacks. They called the whole of Saada province a 'military target' and proceeded to bomb everything in Saada governate - homes, hospitals, schools, roads, petrol stations, farms, factories, markets, mosques, you name it, they bombed it. And I hear they are still bombing ruins there now, although as you can imagine, there is little left. We in UK supply them with weapons, planes, and I hear pilots too in some instances. We sit in their military command 'advising' them on targets. There is truth in this article - those who are displaced are in a dire situation, and face death from starvation as no-one is helping them. But it is not an issue of being caught in crossfire. It is an issue of having your land destroyed, in a frenzy that appears close to genocide in many ways
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814476873641
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
15.10.2016 – UNZ (** B P T)
US Allies Are Funding Isis – and Hillary Clinton Knew All Along
It is fortunate for Saudi Arabia and Qatar that the furore over the sexual antics ofDonald Trump is preventing much attention being given to the latest batch of leaked emails to and from Hillary Clinton. Most fascinating of these is what reads like a US State Department memo, dated 17 August 2014, on the appropriate US response to the rapid advance of Isis forces, which were then sweeping through northern Iraq and eastern Syria.
At the time, the US government was not admitting that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies were supporting Isis and al-Qaeda-type movements. But in the leaked memo, which says that it draws on “western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region” there is no ambivalence about who is backing Isis, which at the time of writing was butchering and raping Yazidi villagers and slaughtering captured Iraqi and Syrian soldiers.
The memo says: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical groups in the region.” This was evidently received wisdom in the upper ranks of the US government, but never openly admitted because to it was held that to antagonise Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, Turkey and Pakistan would fatally undermine US power in the Middle East and South Asia.
For an extraordinarily long period after 9/11, the US refused to confront these traditional Sunni allies and thereby ensured that the “War on Terror” would fail decisively; 15 years later, al-Qaeda in its different guises is much stronger than it used to be because shadowy state sponsors, without whom it could not have survived, were given a free pass.
It is not as if Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and the US foreign policy establishment in general did not know what was happening – by Patrick Cockburn
http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/us-allies-are-funding-isis-and-hillary-clinton-knew-all-along/
14.10.2016 – Yemen Post (A T)
8 killed & 16 injured when 2 bombs exploded in funeral tent (loyalist to Pres Hadi) in #Yemen region Mareb (reported YPR 214), images
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/786973188643287040
cp15 Propaganda
16.10.2016 – Newsweek (A P)
Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir says hopeful Houthis will "come to their senses" and agree to a free Yemen
https://twitter.com/NewsweekME/status/787982939883724800
Comment: Odd. What a “free Yemen” according to Jubeir should be??? A Saudi puppet state??
15.10.2016 – Al Arabiya (A K P)
Were Iranian missiles fired at US ship?
US sources, including a high ranking official, have said the missiles fired by Houthis at the US Navy destroyer USS Mason, while it was in the Gulf of Aden, were likely provided by Iran.
The failed missile attack from rebel held territory in Yemen happened as news reports from Tehran revealed Iranian made ballistic missiles - “Zalzal 3” - were launched by the alliance of rebels and followers of ousted Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hit Saudi targets.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, John McCain, accused Iran, saying in a statement Friday, the missiles fired at the destroyer “were likely” provided by them. He praised the Pentagon’s move to retaliate the militants attack.
Meanwhile, “Fars”, the Iranian semi official news agency, announced Sunday, an attack on the Thwailh military post, in Asir province, was carried by “Zalzal 3” (earthquake 3) ballistic missile.
Several Saudi positions were previously targeted by this Iranian made missile
Comment: And even if so (what still is discussed controversially), compared to the missiles the Saudis get from US; UK and others that’s just a mouse compared to an elephant.
15.10.2016 – Al Arabiya (A P T)
Yemen’s president accuses Houthis of funeral blast
Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi accused the Houthi militias of being the masterminds behind the explosion that targeting a mourning tent on Friday - killing least five people and wounding 20 in the city of Marib, east of the capital Sanaa - adding that the militias “won’t hesitate to do anything that would kill and destroy.”
Local officials said the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb that went off near the mourning tent where condolences were being paid for Major-General Abdul-Rab al-Shadadi who was killed last week while leading an offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthi militias, local media reported.
Comment: The only reason for this is Hadi’s dislike of the Houthis.
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
17.–18.10.2016 – Sanaa at night (A K)
Jets over #Sanaa now, low & loud. One bomb dropped, target unknown
https://twitter.com/Tyson585/status/788125067670675457
Several intense airstrikes beginning 11:55 p.m. in #Sanaa.
https://twitter.com/teddy_cat1/status/788150983704580096
Heavy airstrikes. House actually danced, fighter jets still hovering. #Sanaa
https://twitter.com/AmalAlYarisi/status/788153738393489408
Heavy airstrikes. House actually danced, fighter jets still hovering. #Sanaa
https://twitter.com/AmalAlYarisi/status/788153738393489408
Airstrikes intensifying in Sana'a now. Call me crazy, but maximum escalation/acceleration makes it tougher to stop at last minute.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788153352895037440
Brace for frenzied last minute bombardment..which already started in Sana'a an hour ago & ongoing right now
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/788144145806323712
Hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee explosion 5 minutes ago & Saudi aircrafts still flying
https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/788125113766047744
The capital of Yemen Sana'a #UnderAttack 2:35AM
https://twitter.com/Rasa171a/status/788162295654252544
18.10.2016 – Sabas Net (A K PH)
Saudi warplanes launches 7 raids on Hodeidah airport
Saudi aggression warplanes waged late on Monday night a series of air raids on Hodeidah city, an official told Saba.
The raids targeted Hodeidah International Airport and the airport's customs building seven time.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444045.htmhttp://www.sabanews.net/en/news444045.htm
17.10.2016 – Living in Yemen on the Edge (A K)
First image coming out of #Hodeida: aftermath of airstrike (photo)
17.10.2016 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
17-10-2016
Targeting and bombing civilians by the warplanes of Saudi Arabia and its alliance
Casualties and damage (full list):
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=707429822740719&id=551288185021551
17.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression war planes launch two raids on Marib
targeted resident’s houses and their farms
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443953.htm
17.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi warplanes targets home in Bani Hashish
A Saudi aggression warplane destroyed a citizen's home in Bani Hashish district of Sanaa province in an air strike overnight, an official told Saba on Monday.
The strike flattened the home and badly damaged the nearby houses.
The Saudi aggression fighter jets also waged other raids on al-Jmima Mount, caused huge damage to public property and telecommunications towers, said the official.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443946.htm
17.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi warplanes wage raids on Hamdan of Sana'a province
causing great damage to the villagers' farmlands
www.sabanews.net/en/news443932.htm
17.10.2016 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
16-10-2016
Targeting and bombing civilians by the warplanes of Saudi Arabia and its alliance
Casualties and damage (full list):
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=707049626112072&id=551288185021551
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi warplanes resume striking capital SanaaSaudi aggression warplanes resumed bombing the capital Sanaa late on Saturday night, officials said.
The planes struck al-Hafa area south of the capital four times.
The aerial bombing damaged citizens' houses, public and private properties, the officials said.
The fighter jets continue flying intensely over Sanaa throughout the day.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443815.htm
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression fighter planes launch 8 raids on Bani Hushish
The raids targeted al-Ser area of Bani Hushish district in northeast of the capital Sanaa, causing heavy damage to residents' houses and grapes farms
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443853.htm
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression fighter planes launch 3 raids on Marib
Two air strikes hit al-Zamah area in Habab valley and other raid targeted a citizen`s car in Adom valley in Serwah district, causing losses in civilian property
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443857.htm
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression launches 7 air raids against Sa’ada
The Saudi-American aggression launched on Sunday seven airstrikes against different areas in Sa’ada governorates.
huge damages in people’s properties
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443928.htm
16.10.2016 – Yemen TV Today (A K PH)
Film: Airline Saudi aggression destroys Azal factory leather industry in Bani Matar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JhPL9x9loM
16.10.2016 – Saudi War Crimes (A K PH)
Saudi air raid at Faculty of Medicini, Hodeidah University, during lectures, causing panic among students (photo)
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1592274754401846 and http://www.khabaragency.net/news74809.html
16.10.2016 – Sanaa at daytime (A K)
Pre lunch bombing in Sana'a now. Only a couple of airstrikes though. Nothing like last night's massive bombs. Think of as appetizers.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787585962415120384
16.10.2016 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
14-10-2016
Targeting and bombing civilians by the warplanes of Saudi Arabia and its alliance
Casualties and damage (full list)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=706294412854260&id=551288185021551
16.10.2016 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
14-10-2016
Targeting and bombing civilians by the warplanes of Saudi Arabia and its alliance
Casualties and damage (full list)
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=706293656187669&id=551288185021551
15.–16.10.2016 – Sanaa at night (A K)
Film: Sanaa raid, 6:42 pm
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1592034257759229
Saudi airstrikes have resumed in Sana'a now. Two massive explosions so far.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787355451230912512
3rd airstrike. But bombs different from earlier air raid. These are massive. Explosion reverberation for miles & shaking whole city.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787356674789085184
Hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee explosion 9:10PM by Saudi jets in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/787355078604849152
3rd massive explosion by Saudi jets #Yemen 9:16PM
https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/787356452994293760
Now : Large explosion in #Yemen capital Sanaa by a #Saudi airstrike. Was it bad intel? Was it a rogue airstrike not authorized by Riyadh?
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/787354717714321408
Yup. Whatever bombs Saudi is dropping on Sana'a now they're are massive.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787357279960043520
4th bomb. Barely hearing jets. Seem at very high altitude. With size of bomb/explosion, it's probable bombers being used for drop.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787359284933849089
they hit Nuquim and Haffa mountains just minutes ago with more than 9 sorties
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/787326877828603904
Can we go back to airstrikes by fighter jets? Bombs dropped now by whatever flying thing a bit too Titanic.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787360081633509377
This is creepy as hell. We were at least somewhat forewarned of impending bombing by presence of jets. Now sudden & massive explosion
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/787364294946095105
15.10.2016 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
#Saudi-led Coalition airstrike kills Mansour Nimran the Commander of #Houthi Militias in Al Hudaydah Governorate
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/787285250518949888
16.10.2016 – Nasser Arrabyee (A K)
Yemen human right activists Keep visiting with flowers this place where US-backed Saudi war criminals killed above 800 mourners on Oct8 (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/787700116228628481
cp16a Saudischer Luftangriff auf Sanaa, 8. Oktober / Saudi air raid at Sanaa, Oct. 8
17.10.2016 – The Telegraph (** A H K P)
Yemenis wounded in Saudi coalition airstrike wait and hope for medical evacuation
Hundreds of people severely wounded by a Saudi coalition airstrike on a funeral in Yemen are in danger of dying or being left permanently disfigured if they are not able to leave the country for treatment, according to rebel authorities.
Nasser al-Arjali, the deputy health minister in the rebel-held part of Yemen, said hospitals were unable to cope and around 300 of the wounded were at risk of dying or suffering long-term disabilities if they do not get treatment.
In the face of a wave of international criticism over October 8 bombing, Saudi Arabia said last week that it would ease the blockade and allow for medical evacuations.
Saudi authorities gave permission for around 35 wounded people to be flown from Yemen to neighboring Oman over the weekend. But the majority of the injured are still languishing Yemen’s overstretched hospitals.
Among those that doctors hope to evacuate is Shayef al-Qansi, a 30-year-old policeman and father-of-three.
Qansi’s left leg was strafed with shrapnel and several important nerves were severed.
Doctors at the Saudi-German Hospital in Yemen said it may still be possible to save his leg but they are struggling with limited supplies and overcrowded wards. His best hope of avoiding amputation is to fly out of Yemen and get treatment in the Gulf, they said.
“We had medical shortages even before the siege and now we are under siege for two years,” said Dr Mohsen al-Dhahery, director of medical services at the rebel government’s interior ministry – by Raf Sanchez
“Everyday we get dead and wounded people, this is our unbelievable reality. People come and beg doctors to support them but we don’t have any equipment.”
Comment: Earlier reports gave the idea that much more people would have been brought outside Yemen for medical treatment. Oman had promised that more than 100 could be treated in Oman. This story shows once again the hypocrisy – or let’s better say even cynism – of the Saudis. See the following report.
17.10.2016 – ITV (A P)
Yemen funeral hall attack: Saudi Arabia will 'make amends'
Saudi Arabia will "make amends" for the airstrike on a Yemen funeral hall which killed 140 people and those responsible will be punished, the country's foreign minister has said.
Adel al-Jubeir told ITV News "nobody feels the pain" of the attack "more than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition partners".
The airstrike on October 8 - which also injured over 500 - was one of the deadliest in the country's civil war.
"It was a mistake, a very tragic mistake, and we apologised for that and we will make amends for this," said Adel al-Jubeir (with film; interview)
"We will punish those responsible and we will put in place procedures to hopefully prevent this from ever happening again."
Comment: Hypocrisy, Saudi style: heavily exaggerated: “"nobody feels the pain" of the attack "more than the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition partners". Disgusting.
16.10.2016 – AFP (* A K P)
Die von Saudi-Arabien angeführte Militärkoalition räumte unterdessen ein, dass der Angriff eines ihrer Kampfflugzeuge am 8. Oktober auf eine Trauerfeier in der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa mit mindestens 140 Toten "irrtümlich" erfolgte.
Wegen der Missachtung der Einsatzregeln und -prozeduren der Koalition sowie der Herausgabe falscher Informationen hat ein Flugzeug der Koalition irrtümlicherweise den Ort angegriffen und damit zivile Tote und Verletzte verursacht", erklärte der von der Koalition eingesetzte Untersuchungsausschuss am Samstag in Riad.
Der Luftangriff hatte international für scharfe Kritik gesorgt und auch die USA in Bedrängnis gebracht. Washington unterstützt die Militärkoalition mit Informationen, Munition und logistischer Hilfe. Unter den Opfern waren hochrangige Offiziere der mit den Huthi-Rebellen verbündeten Militäreinheiten. Die schiitischen Aufständischen machten umgehend die Koalition verantwortlich, die seit März 2015 Luftangriffe auf die Huthis und ihre Verbündeten in der Armee fliegt.
Die Koalition stand unter Druck, den Angriff rasch zu untersuchen. Der eingesetzte Ausschuss erklärte nun, es müssten "angemessene Maßnahmen" gegen die Verantwortlichen getroffen werde und eine Entschädigung an die Familien der Opfer gezahlt werden. Der Ausschuss beschuldigte das Umfeld des jemenitischen Generalstabs, einen sofortigen Angriff angefordert zu haben, weil bewaffnete Huthi-Kämpfer versammelt seien.
Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Human Rights Watch bezeichnete den Angriff auf den Saal der Trauerfeier angesichts der Anwesenheit hunderter Zivilisten als mutmaßliches "Kriegsverbrechen". Bei dem Angriff wurden nach UN-Angaben auch 525 Menschen verletzt, 300 von ihnen schwer.
Mehr als hundert Schwerverletzte wurden am Samstag in das Sultanat Oman ausgeflogen.
16.10.2016 – Waleed Al-Rwaishan (* A K)
Statement by Rowshain family & Khawlan family on bombing of Sheikh Rowshain's funeral expresses condolences, calls for calm, patience
"Really, my family doesn't want sympathy, we seek an end to the war."
Statement on the Sanaa Oct. 8 funeral hall attack (see images)
https://twitter.com/waleedrwaishan/status/787691805009711105 = https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/787718661834407936
17.10.2016 – Kyle Anzalone (A K)
Chief architect of the F16 believes that US refueled the #Saudi plane that bombed the #Yemen Funeral
https://twitter.com/Kyaaale/status/788118170808754176
16.10.2016 – AFP (* A K P)
Yemen rebels demand international probe on funeral strike
Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels Sunday demanded an international probe into an air strike that killed more than 140 people at a funeral, after a Saudi-led Arab coalition admitted "wrongly" hitting it.
The coalition's acknowledgement that it wrongly hit the funeral "does not clear its leadership of violating international humanitarian law and all humanitarian norms and conventions", said the rebel-controlled foreign ministry.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon "should form an independent and international investigation committee headed by a high-profile, neutral and international personality as soon as possible to probe war crimes committed by the coalition in Yemen", it said in a statement.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemen-rebels-demand-international-probe-funeral-strike-111259574.html = http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/245892.aspx
15.10.2016 – Huffington Post (* A K P)
The lies the kingdom tells – Saudi Arabia throws Hadi’s under the bus
n a rather pathetic, and may I dare say rather unsophisticated fashion, Saudi Arabia – the grand devourer of world, attempted this October 15, 2016 to rationalise murder by pinning blame onto the very regime it claims has political legitimacy in Yemen.
To untangle itself from a global outcry before the wanton slaughter of civilians in Yemen, Riyadh named and shamed those factions, and those individuals, it once said ought to be returned to power – even if against the wishes of the people.
t appears that the slaughter of the innocent as they mourn their dead in broad daylight still turns those un-empathetic stomach of ours.
And so world powers had to condemn. Officials had to object and verbally smite Saudi Arabia for the blood that stains its criminal hands. Need I highlight what embarrassment Riyadh’s faux pas caused to its Western allies?
But here is where criminality turns down right sociopathic … Saudi Arabia has blamed resigned Yemeni despot Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi for the funeral strike. The kingdom now alleges that Hadi’s men stole one of their warplanes and went about randomly shooting civilians.
Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is the line Riyadh is toeing!!!
But this is not the best part …
The kingdom did not just throw Hadi under the bus – you know the one guy Saudi Arabia went to war for on account he is Yemen’s legitimate president; it also sold out one of its most loyal supporters to the wolves – al-Ahmar brothers.
Rather than plead temporary insanity, or bad intelligence for its latest war crime, Riyadh chose to sacrifice not one, but two of its allies. Not only that, but it disappeared the very ground it has claimed in this conflict – how can al-Saud back Hadi’s so-called claim on power after that is anyone’s guess. To add to that predicament the kingdom car crashed the last bit of tribal support it had within Yemen.
And let me tell you off the bat: without the tribes no power will ever hold in Yemen.
Now, to the real question: what are we going to do about Saudi Arabia’s insane behaviour? - by Catherine Shakdam
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5802b648e4b0f42ad3d2629b?timestamp=1476573260832
16.10.2016 – US Department of State (A P)
Arab Coalition Investigation into Airstrike on a Funeral Hall in Yemen
Press Statement, Mark C. Toner, Deputy Department Spokesperson, Washington, DC
October 16, 2016
The United States welcomes the initial results of the Arab Coalition Investigation into the October 8 airstrike that struck a funeral hall in Sana'a, Yemen and considers it an important first step toward better understanding the events of that day.
Throughout this conflict we have expressed our deepest concern about the ongoing actions by all parties involved. This conflict has killed and injured civilians, damaged civilian infrastructure, and inflicted a heavy humanitarian toll paid by the Yemeni people. We urge all sides to recommit to an immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities that can lead to renewed negotiations and a political settlement that ends the conflict.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/10/263182.htm
Comment: The US is backing the Saudi, wherever, however, whenever, whyever, now: by “welcoming” the most odd, self-whitewashing, ridiculous statement.
Comment: Paste and copy of so many other statements concerning #Yemen
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1136804389705923
15.10.2016 – MbKS15 (A P)
#Saudi-led Coalition Command starts to implement the recommendations provided by the JIAT in regards to the Great Hall incident in Sana'a
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/787299829739233281
Comment: LOL.
15.10.2016 – Saudi Press Agency (* A K P)
Press Statement by the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) on the Great Hall Incident in Sana'a
The Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) initiated an investigation into the October 8th 2016 ceremony hall bombing immediately after it sadly occurred. The Coalition Forces Command have fully cooperated with this investigation.
In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), JIAT examined all related documents, and assessed evidence, including the rules of engagement (ROEs) and the testimonies of concerned personnel and those involved in the incident. JIAT has concluded that a party affiliated to the Yemeni Presidency of the General Chief of Staff wrongly passed information that there was a gathering of armed Houthi leaders in a known location in Sana'a, and insisted that the location be targeted immediately as a legitimate military target.
The Air Operations Center in Yemen directed a close air support mission to target the location without obtaining approval from the Coalition command to support legitimacy and without following the Coalition command’s precautionary measures to ensure that the location is not a civilian one that may not be targeted. A Coalition aircraft in the area carried out the mission, which resulted in several deaths and injuries.
JIAT has found that because of non-compliance with Coalition rules of engagement (ROEs) and procedures, and the issuing of incorrect information a Coalition aircraft wrongly targeted the location, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.
JIAT has therefore concluded that appropriate action, in accordance with Coalition regulations, must be taken against those who caused the incident, and that compensation must be offered to the families of the victims. Moreover, Coalition forces must immediately review their rules of engagement (ROEs) and update their procedures to ensure adherence in future.
JIAT is still gathering and analyzing data related to the incident, namely reports about some sides that used this erroneous bombing to increase the number of victims, in coordination with the relevant agencies of the legitimate Yemeni government and concerned states, and will announce the results as soon as its investigations are complete.
http://www.spa.gov.sa/viewstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1548647 = https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/787265155004588032
Comment: LOL. And do they really mean, that would whitewash them???
16.10.2016 – Yemen TV Today (A H K)
Film: Those heavily injured are brought to Oman for medical treatment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZLdt7RwX_c
16.10.2016 – Moy Enne (A K)
The US knows the hidden truth.At least 2(5 in total)of their US MilitAdvicers were on duty in SA the day of the attack.Let them speak
https://twitter.com/Moyenne1/status/787691396614455296
17.10.2016 – Nasser Arrabyee (A K)
Yemen ministry of interior: casualties of Sanaa funeral may go beyond 1,000 as dead bodies still being found.
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/788220178907660288 https://twitter.com/JamilaHanan/status/788242714861170688
New dead body found 2day, After 10 days of the most horrendous,egregious US-backed Saudi war crime against 3000 Yemen mourners.
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/787939140763578368
16.10.2016 – Saudi Arabia War Crimes (A K)
Film (private): Raid at funeral hall
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/videos/1592287837733871/
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
18.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army targets gatherings of Riyadh's mercenaries in Jawf
The forces fired Katyusha rockets against the mercenary gatherings, killing dozens, injuring others and destroying several of their armored vehicles, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444048.htm
Army forces repulse mercenaries advance in Mokadra
The army and popular committees forces repulsed an attempt by the aggression mercenaries to advance toward al-Mokadra area in the central province of Marib, a military official told Saba on Tuesday.
Dozens of the mercenaries were killed and several armored vehicles were destroyed during the confrontations, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444061.htm
Army kills 20 mercenaries in Marib
A total of 20 Saudi-paid 20 mercenary troops were killed and others wounded in al-Jadan district of Marib province late on Monday in a military operation by the army and popular forces, a military official told Saba.
The national forces targeted the mercenary gatherings in al-Tarif military site in the district, hitting the target accurately, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444087.htm
Dozens of mercenaries killed in Najran
A number of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed and others injured with missile shelling by the army and popular forces on the mercenaries' military sites in Najran region, a military official told Saba on Tuesday.
The rocketry forces fired 40 Katyusha missiles on the gathering of mercenaries in al-Khadhra crossing of Najran, killing and wounding dozens of them.
The forces also destroyed three Saudi armored vehicles in al-Khadhra crossing point, and several others of armored vehicles in neighboring areas of al-Buqa crossing in the same area, killing scores of mercenaries.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news444088.htm
Comment: The figures certainly are exaggerated.
17.10.2016 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
Prince Turki bin Abdulaziz Mechanized Brigade from the #Saudi National Guard arrived today to #Najran, southern borders
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/788056824721313792
17.10.2016 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
#Yemen's National Army supported by the #Saudi-led Coalition takes control of the 101st Mechanized Brigade in Albuqa, Sa'dah
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/788010194295029760
Comment: Hadi army. See cp2 for this army in Southern Saudi Arabia.
17.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army repels mercenaries in Jawf
A number of mercenaries were killed and others wounded in Ham al-Asfel area of al-Matoon district of al-Jawf province, a military official said.
The operation took place on Sunday when the mercenaries attempted to advance towards the army and popular forces` sites in the northeast part of the same district, the military said.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443963.htm
Mercenaries artillery attack on residents' homes in Marib
caused damage to the people's houses and farms
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443955.htm
Army destroys Saudi-paid mercenaries vehicles in Marib, kills 9
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443936.htm
17.10.2016 – Press TV Iran (A K PH)
Yemeni retaliatory attack leaves 5 Saudi soldiers dead
Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have reportedly launched a missile attack against Saudi military forces in the kingdom’s southwestern border region of Jizan, leaving five of them dead.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television that five Saudi soldiers were killed and 10 others injured on Monday morning, when Yemeni forces and their allies fired a barrage of missiles at al-Mosem base in the area.
The source added that a number of military vehicles were destroyed in the retaliatory attack as well.
The development took place only a few hours after Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters launched a number of Katyusha rockets at separate gatherings of Saudi forces north of al-Mahrouq military base and al-Qawiyah village in Jizan region, with no reports of possible casualties.
Yemeni Katyusha rockets also struck areas near the Alab crossing in Saudi Arabia’s southern province of Dhahran al-Janoub on Sunday evening, but no reports of casualties were available.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2016/10/17/489438/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Jizan-
Comment by Judith Brown: More news from Yemen. There are also still problems in southwest Saudi Arabia. If KSA keep on attacking Yemen, sooner or later they will lose the two provinces of Jizan and Najran, which after all used to be Yemeni land, seized in war by Saudi Arabia 80 years or so ago, and finally given away to its powerful neighbour by Saleh in 2000.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814575608641
16.10.2016 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Army ambushes mercenaries in Marib, kills dozens
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443812.htm
Missile force hits Saudi-paid mercenaries in Jawf
missile forces hit a gathering of Saudi-paid collaborators in Jawf province late on Saturday
on the mercenaries` sites in Harab valley and the 115th Brigade military camp in the same district, hitting the target accurately, which resulted in deaths and injuries of dozens
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443849.htm
Army hits Saudi-paid mercenaries in Taiz
Dozens of U.S.-Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed and injured by the army and popular forces in Taiz province, a security official told Saba on Sunday.
The army and popular committees` artillery forces pounded the mercenary gathering in Dhobab district, inflicting heavy casualties among them, the security official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443855.htm
Army fires a ballistic missile on Asir
The army and popular forces fired a ballistic missile (Zilzal 3) on Asir region late on Saturday night, an army official told Saba.
The missile fired on Saudi Thawilah military camp in Dhahran al-Janoub south of Asir, hitting the target directly and inflicting heavy losses on the enemy troops
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443858.htm
Army kills dozens of mercenaries, destroys 2 armored vehicles in border crossing
BUQA: The army and popular forces carried out a unique military operation against Saudi-paid mercenaries in al-Buqa border crossing late on Saturday.
An army official told Saba that two Saudi military vehicles were bombed during the operation and all its crew-members were killed on the spot.
The official said that the mercenaries have been inflicted heavy losses in casualties and military equipment during the past two days when they attempted to advance toward the crossing point under air cover by the U.S.-Saudi aggression warplanes, during which dozens of mercenaries were killing and a number of military vehicles, as well as tanks were destroyed.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news443848.htm
Comment: What is truth, what is tale? The incident at Buqa refers to the same site than this report from the Saudi side:
16.10.2016 – MbKS15 (A PS)
Film: Units from #Yemen's National Army & the Coalition clearing away Houthis minefields that could slow down the forces' advancement into Sa'dah
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/787738806669672452
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
17.10.2016 – Anadolu (A P)
Yemen declines to host upcoming Arab League summit
Slated for March of next year, event will now likely be hosted by Jordan
Yemen has declined to host the Arab League’s annual summit next March, citing the country’s ongoing conflict, the Cairo-based league announced Sunday.
In a statement, league spokesman Mohamed Afifi said Yemen’s Arab League delegate had delivered a verbal message to Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit from Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik Mekhlafi regarding the latest developments in the war-torn country.
"The delegate [told Abul-Gheit] that it would be difficult for Yemen to host the summit under the current circumstances," he said.
In the event Yemen does not host the summit, which has been slated for March of next year, the event will be hosted by Jordan – by Khaled Ibrahim
http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/yemen-declines-to-host-upcoming-arab-league-summit/666729
Comment by Judith Brown: I guess this just about sums up the Yemeni government. No power, no ability to control anything.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154814563148641
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-214-yemen-war-mosaic-214
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-214: / Yemen War Mosaic 1-214:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm und / andhttp://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
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