Horror of Trump’s Yemen raid – Saudis using cluster bombs – Houthis no Iranian proxies (German) – Saudi IS fighters – USA: Crazy world views cause crazy politics – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
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
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
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(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 / Most important
USA: Weltbilder und Politik: cp9 / US: World views and policy: cp9
9.3.2017 – The Intercept (*** A K P T)
DEATH IN AL GHAYIL
Women and Children in Yemeni Village Recall Horror of Trump’s “Highly Successful” SEAL Raid
IN JANUARY 29, 5-year-old Sinan al Ameri was asleep with his mother, his aunt, and 12 other children in a one-room stone hut typical of poor rural villages in the highlands of Yemen. A little after 1 a.m., the women and children awoke to the sound of a gunfight erupting a few hundred feet away. Roughly 30 members of Navy SEAL Team 6 were storming the eastern hillside of the remote settlement.
According to residents of the village of al Ghayil, in Yemen’s al Bayda province, the first to die in the assault was 13-year-old Nasser al Dhahab. The house of his uncle, Sheikh Abdulraouf al Dhahab, and the building behind it, the home of 65-year-old Abdallah al Ameri and his son Mohammed al Ameri, 38, appeared to be the targets of the U.S. forces, who called in air support as they were pinned down in a nearly hourlong firefight.
With the SEALs taking heavy fire on the lower slopes, attack helicopters swept over the hillside hamlet above. In what seemed to be blind panic, the gunships bombarded the entire village, striking more than a dozen buildings, razing stone dwellings where families slept, and wiping out more than 120 goats, sheep, and donkeys.
Three projectiles tore through the straw and timber roof of the home where Sinan slept. Cowering in a corner, Sinan’s mother, 30-year-old Fatim Saleh Mohsen, decided to flee the bombardment. Grabbing her 18-month-old son and ushering her terrified children into the narrow outdoor passageway between the tightly packed dwellings, she headed into the open. Over a week later, Sinan’s aunt Nadr al Ameri wept as she stood in the same room and recalled watching her sister run out the door into the darkness.
Nesma al Ameri, an elderly village matriarch who lost four family members in the raid, described how the attack helicopters began firing down on anything that moved. As she recounted the horror of what happened, Sinan tapped her on the arm. “No, no. The bullets were coming from behind,” the 5-year-old insisted, interrupting to demonstrate how he was shot at and his mother gunned down as they ran for their lives. “From here to here,” Sinan said, putting two fingers to the back of his head and drawing an invisible line to illustrate the direction of the bullet exiting her forehead. His mother fell to the ground next to him, still clutching his baby brother in her arms. Sinan kept running.
His mother’s body was found in the early light of dawn, the front of her head split open. The baby was wounded but alive – by Iona Craig
My comment: Very long article with photos, please read in full at the original site!
A shorter abridgement with some background information, here:
9.3.2017 – The Independent (** A K P T)
Survivors of Donald Trump's Yemen raid reveal horror of 'women and children being gunned down'
Witnesses to the botched US special forces raid in Yemen that left a Navy commando and several children dead have rebuffed Donald Trump’s account of the “highly successful” mission.
Villagers interviewed by The Intercept investigative website said they were awoken by the sound of gunfire as Navy Seal Team 6 stormed the settlement in the middle of the night.
As commandos were pinned down in a battle that lasted almost an hour, helicopter gunships allegedly bombarded the entire village, razing homes to the ground and killing many of their inhabitants, as well as more than 120 goats, sheep and donkeys.
The Intercept’s investigation in al-Ghayil concluded that at least 16 women and children died in the raid, where Navy Seal William “Ryan” Owens was killed.
Capt Jeff Davis, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, claimed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had deployed female fighters to defend a “compound”.
Witnesses refuted the claim, telling The Intercept the prospect of a woman fighting was shameful in Yemeni culture, although AQAP propaganda channels named at least one woman that “fought [US troops] with her own gun” – by Lizzie Dearden
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/donald-trump-yemen-raid-survivors-accounts-women-children-gunned-down-nawar-al-awlaki-aqap-al-qaeda-a7621296.html and quite short also: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/everyone-who-tried-to-run-they-killed-them-witnesses-say-yemen-raid-was-chaotic-bloodbath/ and somewhat longer by PRI: https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-03-09/yemenis-want-revenge-after-us-attacked-their-village and BI: http://www.businessinsider.de/survivors-of-us-military-raid-in-yemen-at-least-17-women-and-children-were-killed-2017-3?r=US&IR=T
9.3.2017 – AFP (* A K)
Amnesty: Saudi-Arabien setzt im Jemen weiter Streubomben ein
Amnesty International hat der von Saudi-Arabien angeführten Militärkoalition erneut den Einsatz geächteter Streumunition im Jemen vorgeworfen. In Brasilien produzierte Raketen mit Streumunition seien am 15. Februar auf drei Wohngebiete und eine landwirtschaftlich genutzte Fläche in der nördlichen Provinz Saada, einer Hochburg der schiitischen Huthi-Rebellen, abgefeuert worden, erklärte die Menschenrechtsorganisation am Donnerstag. Bei den Angriffen wurden demnach zwei Menschen verletzt.
9.3.2017 – Amnesty International (** A K)
Yemen: Saudi Arabia-led coalition uses banned Brazilian cluster munitions on residential areas
Amnesty International has corroborated new evidence the Saudi Arabia-led coalition recently fired Brazilian-manufactured rockets containing banned cluster munitions striking three residential areas and surrounding farmland in the middle of Sa’da city, injuring two civilians and causing material damage.
The attack, which took place at 10.30pm on 15 February 2017, is the third confirmed use of Brazilian-manufactured cluster munitions documented by Amnesty International in the last 16 months.
“The Saudi Arabia-led coalition absurdly justifies its use of cluster munitions by claiming it is in line with international law, despite concrete evidence of the human cost to civilians caught up in the conflict,” said Lynn Maalouf, Director of Research at the Beirut regional office.
Following the rocket attacks, Amnesty International interviewed eight local residents over the phone, including two witnesses – one of whom was injured in the attack. It also spoke to a local activist and analyzed photographic and video evidence provided by the national munitions watchdog, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC), which inspected the site within 30 minutes of the attack.
YEMAC staff also confirmed the use of the same type of cluster munitions in a separate attack that occurred in late January in the directorate of Abdeen, five kilometres south of Sa’da city.
According to witnesses and local residents, rockets struck the residential areas of Gohza, al-Dhubat and al-Rawdha, resulting in submunitions also landing on homes in al-Ma’allah and Ahfad Bilal, as well as on the new and old cemeteries in the middle of the city, and surrounding farms.
Latifa Ahmed Mus’id, 22, described the attack in Ahfad Bilal, which took place while she was asleep at home. She was with her husband Talal al-Shihri, her three-month old son, Hasan, and three-year old son, Hussain.
“The bomb came into the house, into the bedroom from the ceiling. There is a big round hole in the ceiling. At the time, we heard a big explosion and seconds later the bomb exploded in the room and we got hurt. Three exploded right outside the house… The children were unhurt but in shock… My husband sustained shrapnel injuries on his foot. I hurt my left foot and we went to al-Salam hospital that very night.”
On 19 December 2016, the Saudi-run Saudi Press Agency reported that the Saudi Arabian government would stop using a UK-made cluster munition, the BL-755 but contended that, “international law does not ban the use of cluster munitions”
While Amnesty International is aware of the presence of a military objective, Kahlan Military base, 3km north-east of the city of Sa’da, the presence of a military objective in itself would not have justified the use of internationally banned cluster munitions – particularly not its use on populated civilian neighbourhoods. And even though Brazil, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and members of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition participating in the conflict in Yemen are not parties to the Convention, under the rules of customary international humanitarian law they must not use inherently indiscriminate weapons, which invariably pose a threat to civilians. The customary rule prohibiting the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons applies to their use under all circumstances, including when the intention is to target a military objective.
9.3.2017 – AFP (** A K)
Saudi-led coalition still using cluster bombs in Yemen: Amnesty
Saudi-led coalition has claimed it stopped using cluster bombsAmnesty International on Thursday accused the Saudi-led Arab coalition battling rebels in Yemen of using banned cluster munitions in raids on residential areas.
The Brazilian-manufactured munitions were fired in a 15 February attack on three residential districts and agricultural land in Saada province of northern Yemen, a stronghold of the Shia Houthi rebels, it said in a statement.
Two people were wounded in the attack, said Amnesty, which has also reported that the coalition used cluster munitions in October 2015 and May of last year.
The weapons can contain dozens of smaller bomblets that disperse over large areas, often continuing to kill and maim civilians long after they are dropped.
The Saudi-led coalition, which has come under repeated criticism over civilian casualties in Yemen, acknowledged in December it had made "limited use" of British-made cluster bombs, but said it had stopped using them.
Still, a 6 December incident came a day after Saudi Arabia joined the US and Brazil in abstaining from a UN General Assembly vote that overwhelmingly endorsed an international ban on cluster bomb use.
The coalition "absurdly justifies its use of cluster munitions by claiming it is in line with international law, despite concrete evidence of the human cost to civilians caught up in the conflict", said Lynn Maalouf, research director at Amnesty's Beirut regional office.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-led-coalition-used-cluster-bombs-yemen-amnesty-1388179214 = http://www.manilatimes.net/saudi-led-coalition-used-cluster-bombs-yemen-amnesty/316254/
Comment: There also had been several other reports of the Saudis having used cluster bombs in the last months.
8.3.2017 – Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (** B K P)
Kein Stellvertreterkrieg im Jemen
Die Unterschätzung lokaler Dynamiken fördert die Internationalisierung des Konflikts
Seit Donald Trump sein Amt als US-Präsident angetreten hat, scheint ein Ende des Jemen-Konflikts in weite Ferne gerückt. Nun aber stellt sich das Weiße Haus wieder vorbehaltlos hinter das Königreich. Die neue US-Administration sieht in den Huthis fälschlich nur einen Stellvertreter Irans, dessen Einfluss in der Region zurückgedrängt werden soll. Washingtons Unterstützung für die saudische Militärallianz droht indes nicht nur die katastrophale humanitäre Lage weiter zu verschlimmern. Die USA schaden damit auch ihren eigenen Anti-Terror-Operationen gegen al-Qaida, die sie seit 2002 im Jemen betreiben. Deutschland und die EU sollten vor diesem Hintergrund zu einer eigenständigen Position finden und zwischen den Konfliktparteien vermitteln.
Frontlinien und Kräfteverhältnisse
Die Huthis: kein Statthalter Irans
Mit dem Verweis auf einen gemeinsamen schiitischen Hintergrund suggerieren internationale Medien, es gäbe eine konfessionelle Bindung zwischen der Huthi-Bewegung und dem schiitischen Regime in Teheran. Aber die Huthis sind vor allem auch eine politische Bewegung, die aus dem Wunsch nach politischer und wirtschaftlicher Partizipation entstand. Sie verfügen über eine militärische Kommandostruktur sowie eine politische Organisation.
Spätestens 2011 hat Iran begonnen, Beziehungen zu den Huthis aufzubauen. In iranischen Medien werden sie als unterdrückte Minderheit dargestellt, die es gemäß der sozialrevolutionären Ideologie der Islamischen Republik zu unterstützen gelte. Offenbar unter iranischer Anleitung erhielten Hunderte Huthi-Kämpfer eine militärische Ausbildung. Der Huthi-Satellitensender al-Masira TV wird von Beirut aus mit Unterstützung der Hisbollah betrieben, die mit Iran verbündet ist. Den Großteil ihrer Kampferfahrung dürften die Huthis jedoch in dem Krieg gesammelt haben, den sie von 2004 bis 2010 gegen die Regierung des damaligen Staatspräsidenten Salih führten. Überzogen ist zudem der Vorwurf, Iran bewaffne die Huthis. Es gibt zwar Berichte über Waffenfunde auf der Schiffsroute Iran–Jemen–Somalia. Dabei handelt es sich aber nur um kleine Mengen und es ist nicht einmal sicher, dass solche Waffen für die Huthis bestimmt sind. Auf dieser Route dürften ohnehin nur wenig Waffen den Jemen erreichen, denn im Zuge der saudischen Intervention wurde eine Seeblockade errichtet, die selbst die Einfuhr von Lebensmitteln und Medikamenten erschwert. Die Waffen, welche die Huthis bei ihrer Macht- übernahme in Sanaa 2014 verwendeten, waren mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit alte Bestände.
Begünstigt wurde die gewaltsame Übernahme der jemenitischen Hauptstadt vor allem durch lokale Faktoren. Weil der politische Übergangsprozess scheiterte, verlor die Hadi-Regierung an Legitimität. Sie hatte es versäumt, Reformen einzuleiten, welche die Lebensbedingungen der Bevölkerung verbessert hätten. Überdies war die Regierung in Korruption verstrickt. Die Huthis wussten dies für sich zu nutzen.
Der Feind meines Feindes …
Möglich wurde der militärische wie politische Erfolg der Huthis aber vor allem durch ihre Allianz mit dem ehemaligen Staatschef Salih.
Für Saudi-Arabien hat die Bekämpfung sunnitischer Extremisten im südlichen Jemen keine Priorität. Seit Beginn der Intervention haben sich sogar lokale Bündnisse zwischen AQAP und Hadi-treuen Milizen gebildet. Insgesamt profitiert AQAP damit von der saudischen Militärintervention.
Washington wiederum unterstützt einerseits massiv die saudisch geführte Militärkoalition, der regelmäßig Kriegsverbrechen vorgeworfen werden. Andererseits versucht es seit 2002, mit Drohnenangriffen und Spezialkräften zu verhindern, dass AQAP sich weiter ausbreitet. Wie widersprüchlich die US-Politik ist, wurde klar, als im Mai 2016 drei Hadi-Anhänger als al-Qaida-Unterstützer auf die Terrorliste des US-Finanzministeriums gesetzt wurden. Dringender Vermittlungsbedarf
Der einzige Weg, den Jemen zu stabilisieren, ist eine politische Lösung zwischen den Konfliktparteien.
In einem neuen Gesprächsformat sollte Deutschland mit niederländischer Unterstützung und zusammen mit dem UN-Sondergesandten die Konfliktparteien an einen Tisch bringen, und zwar die Huthis, die Anhänger Salihs, die Hadi-Regierung sowie Vertreter der saudischen Koalition. Das kann aber nur gelingen, wenn die Europäer nicht einseitig den Huthis die Schuld an der bisherigen Entwicklung geben und wenn sie den Konflikt unabhängig von der Frage nach dem Umgang mit Iran sehen – von Mareike Transfeld
https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/kein-stellvertreterkrieg-im-jemen/
and a similar article by the same author in English: http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/?fa=67988
9.3.2017 – Fox News (** B P T)
ISIS terror group boasts Saudi nationals as its largest group of fighters
Saudi Arabia may be a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, but the oil-rich kingdom is also the No. 1 supplier of fighters for the Islamic State terror group in Iraq, according to Iraqi military sources.
“The Saudi presence in ISIS is very large. What we have left are mainly Iraqis and Saudis,” one high-ranking Iraqi counterterrorism intelligence officer, who requested anonymity, told Fox News.
“The Saudis make up a large number of suicide bombers, as they already have the ground work of radicalization installed in their minds from radical sheikhs in Saudi. And we’ve caught important ISIS commanders.”
According to intelligence officials, Saudis make up as much as 30 percent of ISIS fighters left in Iraq. They are said to have streamed into the conflict-laden nation over the past three years through the previously porous Turkish border, as well as through the border towns of Abu Kamal and Rabia, the latter once known as an Al Qaeda stronghold.
Another Iraqi intelligence source confirmed that Saudis comprise the largest single contingent of ISIS fighters, with Russian Chechens making up the second-largest contingent.
Numerous photographs and documents from ISIS hideouts that were seen by Fox News show identification and credit cards of fighters hailing from Saudi Arabia. Such identification has also been seen on numerous casualties.
The prominence of Saudi Arabian terrorists not only creates an image issue for the kingdom, but raises questions as to why the U.S continues to deem the nation a close ally. Saudi Arabia is still thought of by many foreign policy experts as the world’s pre-eminent sponsor of Islamic extremism, while the U.S. State Department still calls it a “a strong partner in regional security and counterterrorism efforts, providing military, diplomatic, and financial cooperation.” A Kurdish official in the Mosul area noted that the Saudi presence within ISIS is indeed significant and reflects Saudi Arabia’s strategic policy of opposing Iran’s influence. Iran has steadily built massive influence over the Baghdad government and continues to weave its Shia brand of Islam through the country, threatening the hegemony of the Sunni-dominant Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
“Wahhabism was born in Saudi Arabia. Saudi is leading those extremist organizations like ISIS,” said an Iraqi official who requested anonymity. “They have high-ranking officials and fighters among their ranks. Saudi is nothing without U.S. protection; it is only a bite for Iran to eat.”
It is difficult to determine exactly how many ISIS personnel or weapons hail from the kingdom. As early as 2014, regional reports emerged that at least 7,000 Saudi militants had already joined the ISIS fold. However, Saudi officials have downplayed these numbers; late last year officials stated a total of 1,540 citizens were fighting across Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq – by Hollie McKay
cp2 Allgemein / General
9.3.2017 – Cairo Review (* B P)
Saving Yemen
A victory in the civil war, by either side, is unlikely to bring peace.
Recent progress by the government in seizing control of the Red Sea coastal region, the Tihama, perhaps soon to include an assault on the key port of Hodeidah, will undoubtedly be a blow to the Houthis. But it is unlikely to bring a dramatic change to the course of the conflict. In fact, one potential outcome of the current situation is the de facto re-division of Yemen along the north-south border that existed until unification in 1990. While there are some who might welcome that prospect, it is fundamentally an outcome to be avoided, as it will mean two failed states in the southern Arabian Peninsula, each one incapable of providing adequately for its population and both becoming breeding grounds for violent extremist groups.
But even should the prospect of a negotiation between the two main parties to the conflict improve, that success will not bring a short-term resolution to the fighting and instability.
In the long negotiations in 2011 between former President Saleh and his political opponents, Yemen’s preeminent statesman and patriot, the late Abdul Karim Al-Eryani, a former prime minister, warned the parties continuously that an armed conflict in Yemen, once started, would not be easily stopped. His argument was that conflict would bring a resurgence of a tribal culture that prioritized clan honor, vengeance, and revenge over security and stability. That, indeed, appears to be happening as conflicts around the country, including around the besieged city of Taiz, increasingly take on the coloration of tribal vendettas and the resurrection of ancient rivalries rather than organized conflict between identifiable parties. Thus, even in the event that the parties agree on a political framework for governance in Sanaa, their capacity to bring a halt to the fighting in the countryside is going to be extremely limited.
Moreover, the two Yemeni coalitions that are parties to the conflict are, themselves, internally fragile.
Despite the challenges, the international community has few options except to maintain its support for the political negotiations being managed by UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. There will not be a military conclusion to the Yemen conflict.
The other immediate priority must be the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian supplies.
Even with success in these immediate tasks, Yemen’s recovery will be long and the ultimate outcome not assured. But without these steps, Yemen’s continued descent into complete social, political, and economic collapse is all but guaranteed – by Gerald M. Feierstein, Director of the Center for Gulf Affairs
https://www.thecairoreview.com/tahrir-forum/saving-yemen/ and (part only) http://www.mei.edu/content/article/saving-yemen
My comment: Just this: UNSCR 2216 is one-sided and inadequate for any peace solution; a new and balanced resolution is urgently needed. – And it’s quite strange to read a longer version here, which sounds quite different and is a repetition of well-known and nevertheless odd propaganda, and even asking the US to fuel war by assisting the Saudi coalition in attacking and occupying Hodeida! http://www.mei.edu/content/article/resolving-conflict-yemen-us-interests-risks-and-policy
Comment (to second article): This is a must read from the former US Ambassador to #Yemen,
Gerald M. Feierstein: you will clearly understand how America sees Yemen, what the Coalition is planning (starting from securing the port of Hodeida which is the access road to #Sanaa) and the same old propaganda relating to the role of Iran in Yemen.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1299785243407836
Comment by Kate Kizer: Amb Feierstein says that "if Hodeidah was in control of coalition it'd be much better." WRONG- UN ready to deliver temporary cranes now
It's the #Saudi blockade that is impeding progress on aid access
https://twitter.com/KateKizer/status/839883074615799808
https://twitter.com/KateKizer/status/839883518851354624
9.3.2017 – Gulf News (* B K P)
Has the deadlock in Yemen been broken?
The gains secured through Operation Golden Arrow should help Sana’a in negotiations when peace process starts
The gains secured through Operation Golden Arrow have had a positive impact not only on the government’s military position, but should also bolster its negotiations abilities should the Yemeni peace process ever be re-started. Golden Arrow aims to secure the 442 km Red Sea coastline, which would cut off a key Al Houthi-Saleh alliance supply line. This would, it is hoped, force the Al Houthi-Saleh alliance to either agree to a political settlement based on the 2011 GCC Initiative, the Outcomes of the National Dialogue (2014) and UNSC Resolution 2216 (2015), or face a battle for Sana’a.
Operation Golden Arrow will next seek to capture the port of Midi, located near the Saudi border. A presumed success will be followed by a more significant battle to restore Hodeida, the vital maritime port controlled by the Al Houthi-Saleh alliance along the Red Sea.
Also impacting the conflict in Yemen were changes in the international environment. This was most clearly visible in the new US administration, which appears to be less tolerant of Iranian intervention in the Middle East, including in Yemen.
The Hadi government has already started working to reap any possible rewards of the shift in political sentiment in Washington. The first move is to have the Al Houthi militia classified as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations. This will serve as a sort of test case for the new administration, since a similar move was shot down by the Obama Administration, which regarded the armed group as a legitimate party to an ongoing political conflict in Yemen, and even a potential ally in the war against Al Qaida and Daesh
While some of these developments will support the negotiations position of the Hadi government, more immediate concerns are the inability of loyalist forces to actually govern areas they regain control over. The current shifts may mean changes down the line, but for now the Yemeni government is unable to provide basic life necessities for the civilians in liberated areas. This, in essence, means Hadi forces are incapable of governing effectively.
http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/has-the-deadlock-in-yemen-been-broken-1.1991381
My comment: An Emirati media. Using “Sanaa” for the Hadi government is quite odd, as Sanaa is the seat of the government opposing Hadi. – The text makes it evident that Hadi not at all this of a peaceful solution, which would include power sharing, but that he wants to eliminate them totally: in the field of politics (by getting them to be declared “terrorists”) and militarily. – This article also is interesting as it shows the Emirates’ critical view of Hadi.
9.3.2017 – Al Sahwa (* A H K)
Landmines planted by Houthis killed eight fishermen
Landmines planted by Houthis have murdered eight fishermen in Midi in the governorate of Hajjah, in the north of Yemen.
A military source told Alsahwa Net militias of the Houthis and Saleh planted a lot of landmines in the costs of Midi, pointing out that the Yemeni army managed to remove most of them.
Meanwhile, engineering teams have recently managed to remove more than 36,000 landmines which had been planted by militias of the Houthis and Saleh in different areas of Marib governorates.
Since Marib has been liberated by the National Army, scores of people have been fallen killed and wounded due to the landmines planted by the militias.
The director of the engineering department of Yemen Army Brigadier Sheikh Zaid told Alarabia TV on Wednesday that thousands of mines which were found in Marib date back to World War II era, some of them were Iranian and Russian-made and others are locally manufactured
He cited that about 6,500 mines were ruined and more than 30,000 others will be ruined soon.
The Yemeni National Army has removed about 3,000 landmines from al-Bukua district in Saadah governorate.
The use of landmines by forces of the Houthis and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh has caused numerous civilian casualties and hinders the return of families displaced by the fighting.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4780
9.3.2017 – Newsweek (* B P)
Arab Nations Face Stark Choice: Israel or Iran
Two very different dialogue proposals are on the table for the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, one from a historic enemy, Israel, proposed in conjunction with a crucial partner, the United States. The other is from a historic rival, Iran, which shares the same neighborhood and faith.
The choice the Arab countries ultimately make could determine the future peace and prosperity of the region – by Mehran Haghirian
http://europe.newsweek.com/arab-nations-face-stark-choice-israel-or-iran-562214
8.3.2017 – Washington Institute (* B K P)
Reassessing the Civil War in Yemen
As the Trump administration adopts a seemingly more aggressive position on Yemen's nearly three-year conflict, it should take a closer look at where the fighting is stalemated, where political progress can be made, and where urgent humanitarian action is needed.
the country's deep social and geographical polarization presents even more serious long-term threats. An estimated 18.8 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance, and over 10 million are at risk of famine. Prolonging the war will only exacerbate this suffering, thereby facilitating jihadist recruitment efforts. The Iranian-backed Houthis might also escalate "reforms" that mirror Tehran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, much like their revised local schoolbooks issued late last year to teach jihad against the United States and Israel.
Indeed, the longer the war continues, the less likely a political solution -- i.e., a federalist system granting Houthis and southern Yemenis greater autonomy -- can be achieved. And a besieged northern Houthi statelet would only be pushed further into Iran's orbit, lending more volume to the clarion call of jihadists in the south.
LIMITED MILITARY PROGRESS
The conflict's main battle lines have been largely static over the past year.
Despite Golden Spear's notable gains, past experience suggests that further progress will be slow at best. Increasing tensions among nominally pro-government (or, at least, anti-Houthi/Saleh) factions is a matter of concern. The government's inability to integrate discrete forces into one chain of command has resulted in more internal fighting; for instance, anti-Houthi cadres from the Islah Party have repeatedly clashed with Salafists in Taizz, and violence broke out in February at Aden's airport between UAE-backed fighters and Hadi's Presidential Guard forces. These schisms reflect very real differences on the ground, as well as between President Hadi and his coalition backers.
ENCOURAGING COUNTERTERRORISM SIGNS
Lastly, the Security Belt Forces, which formed in Aden and Lahij governorates in March 2016 to protect the temporary capital of Aden, have since expanded to Abyan governorate in order to combat AQAP. Yet some of these fighters temporarily withdrew from parts of Abyan last month to protest a lack of material, financial, and political support -- another sign of the government's inability to streamline security forces, effectively disburse public-sector salaries, or establish true governance in liberated areas. The withdrawal also allowed insurgents to stage a rapid comeback, showing once again that AQAP will try to fill any vacuum in Yemen.
NEXT STEPS
Only a political solution can end Yemen's war. Even if Operation Golden Spear liberates more of the Red Sea coast, advancing on Sana or the Houthi strongholds in the northern highlands would likely prove catastrophic.
Similarly, while continued counterinsurgency efforts could play a helpful role, good governance is required if President Hadi and his allies want to downgrade jihadist groups more permanently. To hold population centers, they must deliver salaries and services in tandem with a sufficiently coherent force and ample political and material backing. In theory, a government that has the support of regional allies and is able to establish control over Yemen's ports, oil fields, LNG facility, and export terminals will be more capable than the Houthis of governing and providing services. Yet bringing this theory to fruition necessitates significant technical and financial support as well as greater political cohesion.
In the meantime, the current humanitarian response needs to be bolstered because famine and food shortages are spreading in Houthi/Saleh-controlled areas and contested zones. More can be done to provide immediate relief in these areas and prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe – by Andrew Engel, associate senior analyst with the Navanti Group
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/reassessing-the-civil-war-in-yemen
8.3.2017 – Modern Diplomacy (* B K)
Arab-on-Arab Intervention Gone Wrong: Saudi Arabia in Yemen
The conflict in Yemen was a civil war between the fractions within Yemeni society, based on sectarian and ideological issues, until the Saudi-led intervention in March 2015. Both of the Saudi operations seem to be ineffective due to several reasons. First of all, both operations were not capable of protecting the lives of Yemeni civilians.
Secondly, the naval and aerial blockade hindered food imports and the delivery of humanitarian aid, which created a catastrophic famine for the Yemeni people. Moreover, Saudi bombardments destroyed the infrastructure which made clean water and health care inaccessible to millions throughout Yemen. Thirdly, the intervention can hardly be considered successful in terms of terminating or restricting the conflict in Yemen. Finally, Saudi Arabia’s own GDP per capita and purchasing power parity was negatively impacted, as well as the annual growth rate, which indicates the heavy burden of intervention on Saudi citizens. Considering these reasons, the evidence is overwhelmingly compelling that the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen was not just ineffective, but disastrously so. Whether it can be altered or adapted moving forward into the future in order to change these disturbing trends remain to be seen. But so far this 21st century example of Arab intervention in another Arab state shows nothing but support for those who oppose intervention under any circumstances – BY CANAN BILECEN
Mx comment: Overview article; the figures are outdated for long.
8.3.2017 – Sultana Zman (* B H)
Yemen doesn't have a face online. Put faces to Yemen. Someone somewhere may realize there are human beings living in that faceless country (photos)
https://twitter.com/SultanetZman/status/839483604367458304
8.3.2017 – Deutsche Welle (* B H K P)
Film: Prince Turki Al-Faisal on alternative facts
As human rights organizations put Saudi Arabia under pressure once again, DW's Tim Sebastian presses Prince Turki Al-Faisal on Raif Badawi, alternative facts and torture cases.
http://amp.dw.com/en/prince-turki-al-faisal-on-alternative-facts/av-37676658
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Absolutely love this. Must watch Tim Sebastian grilling former Saudi chief of intelligence.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839393325295763457
Comment by Madawi Al-Rasheed: Tim Sebastian challenges Saudi prince, journalism at its best
https://twitter.com/MadawiDr/status/839390402608316417
and others contradict:
This is an awesome interview... And Turki al-Faisal is a lying hypocrite who is just protecting his and his family's business!
https://twitter.com/waelalhasnawi/status/839417305121574912
Tim looked loutish. his style of interviewing is outdated. he only made the prince look really good.
https://twitter.com/PunyLittleSatan/status/839430733202481153
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
9.3.2017 – Ayad (A H)
SOS..... by Republican Hospital #yemen Al Mahweet will be closing in matter of days due to saudi coalition blockade
https://twitter.com/maddllock/status/839948070766972930
9.3.2017 – Doctors Without Borders (* A H)
Yemen: MSF life-saving activities in Ibb – one year on
It has been one year since Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) started providing life-saving health services at the general rural hospital of Thi As Sufal district in Ibb governorate, Yemen.
The general rural hospital of Thi As Sufal, locally known as Al-Kaida Hospital, is one of the numerous health facilities in Yemen to have been financially crippled by the war that started in March 2015. The hospital is located in an area that is home to nearly 500,000 people in addition to the internally displaced people who fled the active frontline just 20 kilometres away in Taiz governorate. In this hospital, MSF receives patients from both Ibb and Taiz governorates and provides an average of 250 emergency consultations each week.
“Since the beginning of the war, medical needs in the country have exploded,” says Satoru Ida, MSF head of mission in Yemen. “In response, MSF has increased its assistance to those who have difficulty accessing emergency and basic medical care. Our new project in Thi As Sufal district is part of this expansion. Our aim is to ensure free access to good quality emergency health care, improving the hospital’s mass casualty management and providing lifesaving surgery as well as hospitalisation for the most severe medical conditions. ”
At this hospital, MSF is running a 54-bed inpatient department with an intensive care unit for children and adults, as well as providing life-saving surgery such as trauma cases and caesarean sections. In a little more than ten months, MSF has treated 6,081 patients in the emergency room, performed 2,117 surgical interventions and admitted 1,498 patients to the hospital. The cases in the emergency and operating rooms have increased by one and a half and five respectively since the project was opened.
http://www.msf.org/en/article-yemen-msf-life-saving-activities-ibb-e2-80-93-one-year
9.3.2017 – AlMasirah TV (A H)
Film (Arabic): Aggression causes the gradual closure of the sections of the Republican Hospital in Al-Mahwit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIxsEcCl0JQ
9.3.2017 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A H)
For the second time @monarelief distributing food aid to Jewish community in Sanaa as no 1 remempers them except us. #Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/839813079521247232
Minority of Jewish community in #Yemen r suffering as sama as other Yemen-is. There r hungery as others.We must stop this ugly war agaist us
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/839894560532746240
Peace to #Yemen A message sent today from this elderly Jewish woman during @monarelief's food distribution in Sanaa today.
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/839895633100173312
8.3.2017 – Dubai Eye (A H P)
UAE rehabilitates wells in Yemen’s western coast
The Emirates Red Crescent has rehabilitated six wells in the western coast of Yemen.
The move is part of the UAE’s continuous humanitarian and relief programme in the country.
Solar-powered pumps for the wells were also provided by the charity.
http://dubaieye1038.com/uae-rehabilitates-wells-in-yemens-western-coast/
My comment: First they bomb them (killing and injuring the bystanders), then they restore some of them. Up to now, the Saudi coalition has destroyed 271 water tanks and ware networks (https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/779763265507374/?type=3&theater )
8.3.2017 – Press TV Iran (* A H)
Film: UNICEF urges rapid response to Yemeni IDPs’ situation
UNICEF's representative in Yemen, Meritxell Relano gives a press conference in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, on March 8, 2017.
Yemenis have been suffering dearly under intensified Saudi airstrikes particularly over the recent weeks. Their plight is more tragic across the port cities which are the main targets of Saudi Arabia's attacks. As our correspondent Mohamad al-Attab says the United Nations has concerning statistics of the number of civilians in the cities that have been forced to flee their homes.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/03/08/513570/UNICEF-Yemen-IDPs--situation
8.3.2017 – Middle East Eye (* B H)
'Divorced and proud': How Arab women beat social stigma and start new life
Divorced Arab women open up about their experiences and their refusal to give up, despite facing discrimination from their communities.
Even now, her father insists that he would not have allowed Fatima to divorce in Yemen because of the low social status of divorced women.
"I couldn't take it anymore," she said. "I felt like a slave."
Often, when the topic of divorce is discussed in the Arab world, it is the woman who is seen as the source of the breakup. Take Saudi Arabia: late last year, the General Authority of Statistics released figures indicating that stay-at-home wives are less likely to get a divorce than their working counterparts.
Translation: POLL: 72 thousand wives divorced because of her work in 1437. What is the reason?
She's too busy for her husband (35 per cent)
She feels she is no longer in need of a husband (65 per cent)
The report stated that the number of working women who divorced in Saudi Arabia in 2016 was 72,895, whereas the number of stay-at-home wives who divorced was 14,856. Saudi newspapers began to use the statistics to correlate working women and divorce rates, which started an online campaign that translates as "work is not a cause of divorce”.
It forced the General Authority of Statistics to dismiss those who used the published statistics to create such a politically charged correlation.
All three women said that they were blamed for their divorce. "After I got divorced, I was automatically treated as a failure,” explained Haneen.
"No matter what the back story is, you're to blame, not him. I was shamed for not being able to sustain my marriage and not keeping my mouth shut when I faced abuse.”
Fatima added: "One time, I was at a wedding and this woman came up to me and complimented my beauty. After I told her I was divorced, her tone changed with me completely."
They all agreed that divorced women are on the receiving end of discrimination and marginalisation from their communities; something that their male counterparts are immune from.
"Arab culture has made divorced women look like they are half women and that they are the last option for men,” Fatima continued.
"Let's celebrate divorced women on International Women's Day, because they deserve love and support, not to be stigmatised.
"Society tells us to settle for less now that we are divorced. My expectations in a man have risen though; if he's not as good as me or better than me, he can find the door." – by Diana Alghoul
8.3.2017 – UN Children's Fund (* A H)
National polio immunization campaign reaches five million children in Yemen as conflict intensifies
Amid escalating violence, UNICEF and partners have completed the first round of a nationwide door-to-door vaccination campaign reaching 5 million children under the age of five with oral polio vaccine and vitamin A supplementation.
In the first campaign of its kind this year, 40,000 vaccinators spread across Yemen to provide children with polio vaccine and vitamin A supplements. Mobile health teams have reached children wherever they are, including in places where access to health services has been cut off by the fighting. Health workers have shown heroic resolve in crossing frontlines, mountains and valleys to vaccinate children.
“In the last two years, more children have died from preventable diseases than those killed in the violence. This is why vaccination campaigns are so crucial to save the lives of Yemen’s children and to secure their future,” said Dr Meritxell Relaño, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.
The campaign comes at a critical time. Children in Yemen are living on the brink of famine and widespread malnutrition has drastically increased their risk of disease. More than half of Yemen’s medical facilities are no longer functional and the health system is on the verge of collapse.
As needs increase, UNICEF is scaling up its humanitarian response, including:
Supporting the treatment of 323,000 children against severe acute malnutrition,
Providing basic healthcare services to one million children and over half a million pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
“Children are dying because the conflict is preventing them from getting the health care and nutrition they urgently need. Their immune systems are weak from months of hunger,” said Dr Relaño. “We call on all parties to the conflict to find a political solution to this crisis that has inflicted untold suffering on children.”
8.3.2017 – Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Yemen (A H)
Alert #Yemen: it is now 38 schools closed in Mokha and 13,000 children out of school! This must stop!
https://twitter.com/RelanoMeritxell/status/839415447766302721
6.3.2017 – Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Yemen (A H)
Due to the staggering health system in #Yemen, in Jan @UNICEF deployed 35 mobile teams reaching over 12k children & mothers in 11 provinces (photo)
https://twitter.com/RelanoMeritxell/status/838801281363886084
8.3.2017 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A H)
Women make aprx 50% of #Yemen pop Women in parliament: 0 Global Gender Gap Rank: 144 (Last) #InternationalWomensDay (photos)
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839484817372758016
6.3.2017 – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (* A E H)
Successful female entrepreneurs in Yemen
8 March is International Women’s Day. Gender equality is the key to sustainable development – even in crisis regions such as Yemen.
Women’s employment and participation in society play a key role in reducing poverty and permanently ending social and political instability. With support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, around half a million women worldwide entered the workplace between 2010 and 2015 and 15,000 women displaced by crisis and war gained access to vocational training and education.
In Yemen, armed conflict and financial insecurity dominate many women’s lives. Even before the war broke out in 2015, social convention made it difficult for women to find work, and the situation has now worsened, with many unable to travel at all, even to the nearest town. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ is therefore providing support for female entrepreneurs in Yemen – no easy task in the current tense security situation.
Together with Yemen’s Small and Micro-enterprises Promotion Agency (SMEPS), various digital business advice services have been developed and can now be accessed by female entrepreneurs regardless of their location. Coaching via WhatsApp, for instance, is helping more than 600 female entrepreneurs, including 200 internally displaced persons, to make a success of their businesses despite the current challenges.
https://www.giz.de/en/mediacenter/43612.html = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/successful-female-entrepreneurs-yemen
8.3.2017 – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (* A E H)
Empowering women in the Yemeni dairy sector
Yemen’s underdeveloped dairy sector has considerable potential – and there is significant and growing demand for dairy products that is not being met. Currently, Yemen’s milk production only meets one-third of domestic demand, resulting in a heavy reliance on imported powdered and long-life milk. Indeed, more than 95 percent of processed dairy items are imported, making them expensive.
Improvement in the small-scale dairy sector therefore has the potential to play a significant role in the food security of rural households, especially in nutrition for children, pregnant and lactating women, and the elderly. This is particularly important in a country where 17.1 million people are food insecure.
FAO is improving the dairy value chain as one of the key components of its Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen (ERRY) programme funded by the European Union. The programme is designed to enhance the self-reliance of rural people and communities, and assist them to better cope with crises, risks and shocks.
FAO will provide more than 1 500 dairy producers in Al Hudaydah, Hajjah, Lahj and Abyan with new and modern dairy equipment as well as training in proper food hygiene and processing.
Dairy processing is one of the sectors in Yemen in which women work and 800 women will be among the beneficiaries. In February 2017, 600 beneficiaries (including 94 women) in Al Marawi'ah in Al Hudaydah governorate received new equipment, including stainless steel milks cans, food grade plastic filters and butter churns. The goal is to enable the women to produce better quality food and to higher standards, which will allow them to earn more income at the market.
“The women’s response to this project has been very enthusiastic,” says Laila Bakri, FAO’s trainer in Al Hudaydah, adding that women have rushed to give feedback and suggest other ways they could be supported.
The distribution of equipment will be accompanied by training in proper food standards and hygiene, and in how to make a wider variety of products such as Baladi cheese. This popular white cheese is used in sauces that accompany many staple foods but, at the moment, it is all imported.
http://www.fao.org/emergencies/fao-in-action/stories/stories-detail/en/c/473067/ = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/empowering-women-yemeni-dairy-sector
8.3.2017 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A H)
Confession: #Yemen-i women I trained often had far superior innovation, skills, drive, than men, incl myself. #InternationalWomensDay (photo)
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839406570232512512
8.3.2017 – Josephjo1221 (A H)
Most of the burden of the war in Yemen carried by Yemeni women that do not have a decision or fault in everything that is happening does not have the ability to stave off disaster. (photo)
https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/839410411388698625
7.3.2017 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (A H)
Infographic: Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan - Funding Status (As of 07 March 2017)
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-response-plan-funding-status-07-march-2017-enar and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/YEMEN_Funding%20Snapshot%2020170307%20EN-Final.pdf
My comment: Just 3 % of the sum needed are funded up to now – shame on the world. And the whole sum equals what Saudi Arabia spends for 10 days bombing Yemen – since 700 days now. Also look at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155286225173641&set=a.10153464653268641.1073741839.570773640&type=3&theater
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
9.3.2017 – Al Sahwa (A H P)
AAM carries out campaign to highlight suffering of detained relatives
The Association of Abductee Mothers has carried out an online campaign with the aim of highlighting the suffering of their relatives held inside custodies of the Houthis and ousted President Ali Abdullah.
"The militias did not only kidnapped thousands of our sons unfairly, they also tortured dozens of them until death. 71 abductees were tortured until death and dozens others are enforcedly disappeared" the statement added. https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4806
Remark: If you google “Association of Abductee Mothers” and Yemen, you get 4 matches. Two relate to this report.
9.3.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
Houthis ban UN team from visiting areas under their control
Militias of the Houthis and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh banned the visit of a UN team from visiting Sana'a and other areas which are still under its control, the Saudi-based Okaz newspaper said.
The coordinator of the UN Sanction Panel Ahmed Humaish said that militias of the Houthis and Saleh do not allow to the team to visit Sana'a and other areas which are under its control, describing that as violations of international treaties and conventions.
Humaish said that the UN panel have previously provided names of of the putschists to the United Nations.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4781
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A P)
A civilian killed, another injured by Houthis in al Jawf north of Yemen
Local sources told Almasdaronline that the Houthi militants shot dead a civilian named Hamoud Ali Tarish in one of their checkpoints in al Maslob district western al Jawf.
Tarish, a motorcyclist and head of a family, entered into a quarrel by words with one of the militants before they shot him dead.
“In al Muton district also, the Houthi militants raided the home of Mubarak Hamama at midnight, and shot him in front of the sight of his children and family, wounding him seriously in the shoulder”.
The militants abducted Hamama into an unknown destination. According to the source.
In a relevant context, the Houthis stormed the home of Mubarak’s relatives in al Muton district and exchanged fire with the locals
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89439
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A P)
Houthis storm houses, abduct civilians in al Bayda
A local source said that the Houthi militants and Saleh forces raided on Wednesday dozens of homes of civilians in Tayab area of Dhi Naim district in al Bayda province, central Yemen.
The source told Almasdaronline that the militants abducted a number of civilians, and put them in the health center of Tayab, which they recently turned into a place to detain civilians in.
The source said the militants opened the fire on the houses and a r mosque in the region, during the raid.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89441
8.3.2017 – Saba Net (A T)
Police dismantle explosive device in Baidha
A local official told Saba that the improvised explosive device was planted on Aleb road in al-Qaraisha district of Baidha.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458372.htm
8.3.2017 – Saba Net (A P)
Foreign Ministry denies Saudi media allegations over receiving UN experts
An official of the Foreign Ministry denied aggression media reports circulated by al-Hadath and al-Arabiya channels that the national authorities in Sana'a refused to receive experts of the UN sanctions committee.
In a statement to Saba, the official said that " the Yemeni Foreign Ministry deals in official ways with all requests of the United Nations and foreign diplomatic missions through official diplomatic channels."
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458329.htm
8.3.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (* A H P)
Yemen’s Insurgency Recruited 5,000 Children Last Year
Houthi and Saleh coup militias in Yemen recruited over 4,960 children, mostly in the northern governorates, according to a recent rights report.
The Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Violations of Human Rights said in its second annual report that the country witnessed over 5,092 documented violation cases, including 4,882 arbitrary arrests and 210 cases of forcible disappearance.
The report pointed out that the cases have been dealt with directly by concerned teams, stressing that they do not represent the total number of actual violations against civilians, especially in areas ruled by militias. It added that many of the victims or their families do not report violations out of the fear of kidnap, arrest or revenge.
Sana’a had the highest number of violations at 693, while al-Baydaa district had 655, and Ebb was third with 539. Al-Hudayda had 506 cases of documented violations despite being a very poor district and under insurgents’ control.
The Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Violations of Human Rights urged condemnation of the Houthi and Saleh militias for their crimes, demanding that they be brought to trial.
The Coalition also appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to protect human rights and force Houthi and Saleh militias to commit to rights’ protection and end arbitrary arrests and forcible disappearances. It urged the international community to intervene to address this issue and to put abductions and torture at the top of its agenda for political discussions.
Militias have been torturing civilians in violation of International Humanitarian Law, added the report, citing 813 incidents of torture in 20 provinces in Yemen.
The report also pointed out that 2,737 civilians have been killed, including 531 children and 203 women, of which 1,910 were killed during Houthi and Saleh insurgency attacks on residential areas, direct sniping, assassinations, torture and by mines – by Abdul Hadi Habtoor
My comment: The Houthis definitely violate Human Rights, but such large figure as stated here are a preferred means of Saudi propaganda which hardly can be verified.
8.3.2017 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (*A P)
Houthi's corruption reaching epic proportions and puppet Houthi/Saleh "salvation" gov't can no longer mask stench. Ppl are fed up.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839387037736239105
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
9.3.2017 – Al Sawah (A P)
President Hadi returns to Saudi Arabia
President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday returned to Riyadh after his participation in the 20th Indian Ocean Rim Association Leaders' Summit held in Jakarta
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4779
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
9.3.2017 – Al Sahwa (A P)
UN new proposals to force Houthis to accept UN resolutions
A Saudi newspaper, Okaz, on Thursday quoted the UN Special Envoy to Yemen Esmail Ould Cheikh made amendments on the UN peace proposals regarding Yemen reconciliation.
The source said that the amendments will maintain Hadi's powers as president until presidential elections are held, pointing out that the position of vice president will be cancelled.
It also cited that a consensus premier minister, who will have a full powers of Yemen internal affairs, will be appointed, signaling out that the putschists will surrender the weapons which they took over them and all government and military positions which were made after the control of Sana'a will be revoked.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4807
My comment: if this is really true, it means back to square 1. By things like this, peace will never come, the deadlock will continue.
9.3.2017 – Arab News (A P)
Yemen govt: Roadmap only way to peace
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Yemen’s president and Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, UN special envoy for Yemen, arrived here Thursday to discuss key elements of an agreement for a peace roadmap to ensure an orderly transition to normalcy in the war-torn country.
Mohamed A. Qubaty, Yemen tourism minister, told Arab News in a telephone interview from Aden that the government “stands for talks for settlement of all issues and all confrontations based on an agreement in line with strategic references.”
He added: “All issues under the peace roadmap should be dealt with in accordance with these references — GCC peace initiative with its executive mechanism, the National Dialogue outputs and the UN Security Council’s resolutions, including Resolution 2216 and Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
“With the fulfillment of the requirements of these three strategic references, we are ready to accept the roadmap,” said the minister – by RASHID HASSAN
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1066051/middle-east
My comment: Nothing new at all. They are continuing the deadlock. The three references they always claim are the best blockade to peace.
9.3.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)
GCC Chief Discusses Yemen Developments with UN Special Envoy
Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani on Thursday received the United Nations Secretary General’s special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
During their meeting, Secretary General Al Zayani and envoy Ould Cheikh discussed the latest political, security and humanitarian developments, in Yemen, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
Siehe / Look at cp1
9.3.2017 – Gulf News (A P)
Saudi king cancels Lebanon trip after Aoun defends Hezbollah weapons
Visit was supposed to restore relations between the two countries which suffered due to Iran’s meddling King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has cancelled his upcoming trip to Lebanon because of the statements made by President Michel Aoun that praised Hezbollah and backed the militia’s right to bear arms alongside the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-king-cancels-lebanon-trip-after-aoun-defends-hezbollah-weapons-1.1989041
9.3.2017 – Noto Wahabism (D)
Film: Be sheep in Saudi Arabia and wear gold!
https://www.facebook.com/NotoWahabism/videos/1153116541483593/
9.3.2017 – Noto Wahabism (A P)
Indonesian president Joko Widodo & Saudi King shared a lavish meal served with gold-coloured cutlery - #Saudi poor look for food in gold coloured rubbish bin (photo)
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
10.3.2017 – Press TV Iran (* A K P)
US State Department approves weapons sales to Saudi Arabia
The administration of US President Donald Trump has approved the resumption of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia which critics have linked to Riyadh’s killing of civilians in Yemen, reports say.
The multi-million dollar deal will see precision-guided weaponry handed over to Riyadh which is conducting almost daily airstrikes in Yemen. Officials say the proposal needs the backing of the White House to go into effect.
The $1.15 billion deal was previously blocked by former President Barack Obama after Saudi warplanes targeted a funeral hall in Yemen killing scores of civilians, provoking international outcry.
The State Department’s approval of the controversial measure indicates that the Trump administration is seeking closer ties with Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war.
The Obama administration canceled the deal for the sale of tanks and armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia in December last year, amid worldwide criticism about civilian deaths in Yemen.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/03/10/513714/US-approves-weapons-sales-to-Saudi-Arabia
10.3.2017 – Middle East Eye (* A K P)
Senate panel: New approach or old towards Yemen, still no end seen to war
[later, headline changed to: Senate Yemen panel: Unbreakable support for Saudi-led war]
US opponents and supporters of war in Yemen differ on whether to arm Saudi Arabia, but agree conflict won't end soon
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SCFA) on Thursday held its first hearing on the Yemen conflict, discussing a way to end the war and ease the humanitarian crisis while maintaining US interests.
Republican Senator Bob Corker, chair of the SCFA, began the meeting by saying that Yemen, whose political tumult began in 2011 with the Arab Spring and has since escalated into civil war and another theatre for the Saudi Arabia-Iran rivalry, is an important part of the Middle East “that doesn’t receive enough attention from policy makers.”
Iran’s increased power in the region and threats from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were hot topics at the discussion. The question of the day was the nature of the policy the Republican-dominated government will put in place.
Gerald Feierstein, US ambassador to Yemen from 2010 to 2013 and one of the speakers at the hearing, was in Sanaa for the beginnings of the unrest. In his view, Washington must continue supporting its ally Saudi Arabia, and he said the Trump administration will likely do that.
“From what we’ve seen, I believe we’ll see a Trump administration that will be supportive of the Saudis in helping them achieve their objectives,” Feierstein told Middle East Eye after the hearing.
Yemen borders Saudi Arabia to the south, making it a constant national security concern for the Saudis. As such, Riyadh, along with an eight-nation coalition of Gulf Arab states, has pummelled Houthi-controlled areas for years.
Feierstein noted that the war has been costly for the Saudis and a price has been paid in money and public opinion.
Coalition airstrikes are suspected to have killed thousands of civilians. A strike on a funeral home in October 2016 killed more than 150 people and caused the Obama administration to warn the Gulf kingdom that the coalition did not have a “blank cheque.”
When asked if there is a point at which the US might ask the Saudi coalition to halt its actions, Feierstein said that point doesn’t exist.
“[The Saudis] see the potential for Iran to establish itself on their southern border as something they can’t accept,” he said.
The former ambassador is even in favour of delivering higher-grade precision guided arms to the Saudis, in hopes that civilian casualties would be minimised.
Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organisation, who has written extensively about the US-Saudi alliance, agreed with Feierstein.
In his view, the US-Saudi alliance is strategically indispensable. “There is no shift to make,” regarding the alliance, he told MEE.
Not only is the US in competition with Iran for influence in Iraq, where Shia militias are among the most effective in battling the Islamic State group, but arms sales totaling in the billions and military bases in the Arabian Peninsula make the relationship immovable. On top of this, Gulf states are responsible for a significant amount of the world’s oil, which is remains a foundation for much of the global economy.
Putting aside concerns about human rights violations, Cordesman said that “views that are more oriented towards Western values than power realities don’t always explain what’s happening.”
For Kiver, the YPP advocate, an end to arms sales is the answer. “You can’t call for a political settlement when you’re continuing to arm one side of the conflict,” she said – by Creede Newton
For Feierstein’s statement, look at http://www.mei.edu/content/article/resolving-conflict-yemen-us-interests-risks-and-policy. It’s a crazy world view, and it’s crazy politics which arises from that. A politics of murder, destruction, and war. The most dangerous and terroristic state on this planet is which one?
Comment by Medea Benjamin: US Senate hearing on #Yemen fails to focus on the key question: Why is the US supporting the repressive #Saudis in a #Yemen civil war?
https://twitter.com/medeabenjamin/status/839873764028530688
Comment by Jane Novak: US irrevocably tied to #Saudi & must aid their war crimes in #Yemen though war based on paranoia & propaganda- former ambassador
https://twitter.com/JNovak_Yemen/status/840406710938411008
9.3.2017 – Foreign Policy (* B K P T)
Trump’s Ramped Up Bombing in Yemen Signals More Aggressive Use of Military
Air raids in Yemen reflect broader trend as new administration opts for more military action against Islamist militants.
More broadly, the expanded bombing in Yemen signals a more aggressive use of military force by the Trump administration against Islamist militants, from Syria to Afghanistan.
President Trump’s readiness to order military action stands in contrast to the previous administration.
The Obama administration handed over plans for a stepped-up campaign to the incoming Trump team in January, and there has been an immediate change in the tempo of operations, reflecting the new administration’s apparent preference for prompt military action over policy deliberations, and a more dominant role for the military in decision-making.
But bolder military action, without a clear diplomatic plan, can bring unintended consequences. Focusing narrowly on the military objective of counterterrorism strikes without a strategy to resolve the stalemated Yemeni civil war — and address Saudi and Iranian involvement there — will do little to bring stability to the country, or solve the underlying ethnic and religious tensions that have allowed al Qaeda’s branch there to flourish, experts said.
The apparent urgency of the latest round of strikes underscores how concerned senior military and intelligence officers are over the threat of AQAP carrying out attacks in the West.
The Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda “is stronger than it has ever been,” according to a report last month from the International Crisis Group.
The challenge for the new administration is trying to counter AQAP even as the devilishly complicated civil war rages, amid a growing humanitarian crisis.
But opening up a wider bombing campaign against AQAP while ignoring what one Pentagon official called Saudi Arabia’s “incompetently run and tragic campaign against the Houthis,” carries its own set of risks.
More air strikes — which could cause more civilian casualties — could fuel the resentment of local groups who have forged alliances of convenience with AQAP or other armed groups, and harden grievances that have fed the violence.
If the new administration further expands the U.S. military’s role, including bolstering assistance to Saudi Arabia’s coalition, which has faced widespread condemnation for its bombing of civilian targets, analysts and former officials said it could find itself drawn into a quagmire.
“This is not a place where we can have a glorious little war. If we have a war in Yemen, it will be nasty and it will be bloody,” one former Pentagon official said.
The Saudi-led coalition’s “almost single-minded focus” on defeating the Houthi rebels has been a boon to AQAP, which has gotten its hands on weapons supplied by the Saudi coalition and cash from robbing banks, the ICG report said – BY DAN DE LUCE, PAUL MCLEARY
9.3.2017 – Reuters (A P T)
U.S. says January raid in Yemen killed 4 to 12 civilians
A U.S. military investigation into a January raid against al Qaeda in Yemen has concluded that between four and 12 civilians were killed, U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said on Thursday.
"We have made a determination based on our best information available that we did cause casualties, somewhere between four and 12 casualties," Votel told a Senate hearing, adding he accepted responsibility for shortcomings in the operation.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-yemen-civilians-idUSKBN16G2G9
My comment: This is self-whitewashing. There had been killed much more civilians, even the names are known. Look at cp1, article by The Intercept.
9.3.2017 – AP (* A P T)
General says no bad decisions in Yemen raid, probe is over
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East told senators Thursday that he has completed an exhaustive review of the Yemen raid that killed a Navy SEAL, and has concluded there were no lapses in judgment or decision-making surrounding the operation.
Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S. Central Command, said he sees no need for additional investigations into the January mission that triggered debate in Washington over what went wrong and whether important intelligence was actually gathered. It was the first military raid authorized by President Donald Trump.
Votel told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a separate investigation into potential civilian casualties found that between four and 12 innocent people were killed.
Votel, who presided over an internal review, said he was "looking for information gaps where we can't explain what happened in a particular situation or we have conflicting information between members of the organization. I am looking for indicators of incompetence or poor decision making or bad judgment throughout all this."
In the end, he said, "I was satisfied that none of those indicators that I identified to you were present. I think we had a good understanding of exactly what happened on this objective and we've been able to pull lessons learned out of that, that we will apply in future operations." He said there was no need for an additional investigation.
Votel added that he believes the U.S. gained valuable information on al-Qaida militants –By LOLITA C. BALDOR,
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/general-bad-decisions-yemen-raid-probe-46020013 and by US News: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-03-09/top-general-accepts-responsibility-for-fatal-yemen-raid
8.3.2017 – Washington Post (* A K P)
Trump administration looks to resume Saudi arms sale criticized as endangering Yemeni civilians
The State Department has approved a resumption of weapons sales that critics have linked to Saudi Arabia's bombing of civilians in Yemen, a potential sign of reinvigorated U.S. support for the kingdom's involvement in its neighbor's ongoing civil war.
The proposal from the State Department would reverse a decision made late in the Obama administration to suspend the sale of precision guided munitions to Riyadh, which leads a mostly Arab coalition conducting airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's approval this week of the measure, which officials say needs White House backing to go into effect, provides an early indication of the new administration's more Saudi-friendly approach to the conflict in Yemen, and a sign of its more hawkish stance on Iran.
It also signals a break with an approach the previous administration hoped would limit civilian deaths in a conflict that has pushed Yemen to the brink of widespread famine, but which gulf ally Saudi Arabia has cast as a battle against the spread of Iranian influence across the Middle East.
The move takes place as the Trump administration considers its approach to the Yemeni war – By MISSY RYAN AND ANNE GEARAN
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-looks-to-resume-saudi-arms-sale-criticized-as-endangering-civilians-in-yemen/2017/03/08/a259090a-040e-11e7-b1e9-a05d3c21f7cf_story.html?utm_term=.1474bf2b1164 = https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/trump-administration-looks-to-resume-saudi-arms-sale-criticized-as-endangering-yemeni-civilians-1.457715#.WMDcGPk1-Uk
8.3.2017 – The American Conservative (* B K P)
As expected, the Trump administration is undoing the minimal, belated limits that the previous administration put on arms sales to the Saudis:
U.S. support for the Saudi-led war on Yemen has been a disgrace for almost two years, but this latest decision shows that the new administration is going to compound the earlier errors that Obama made in enabling that war. The U.S. has been deeply complicit in the coalition’s war crimes and its role in creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, and thanks to Trump and Tillerson that complicity is only going to get worse. Millions of Yemeni civilians will continue to suffer and many thousands will die, and all so that our government can placate our despotic client states.
The truly disgusting part of all this is that Trump could have easily withdrawn U.S. support for the war and halted arms sales to coalition governments when he took office, and it would have cost him almost nothing politically. Just as no one cares that the U.S. is aiding and abetting in the destruction and starvation of Yemen, few would care if it stopped providing that aid. The current administration isn’t backing the Saudis and their allies because they have to, but because they choose to and because they buy into nonsensical claims that this has something to do with combating Iran. Throwing more weapons at the Saudis and their allies won’t do anything to Iran, but it will continue to implicate the U.S. in the horrible crimes that the coalition commits with those weapons with the help of U.S. refueling and intelligence support – by Daniel Larison
8.3.2017 – Daily Kos (* B K T)
On the War in Yemen
Why the United States is killing people who are against us in one of our wars in Yemen, but with us in the other, I do not know.
Why one U.S. war at a time shouldn’t be enough, at least in Yemen, I do not know.
Middle East Monitor reports that military forces from the nation of Sudan, and military forces from the United Arab Emirates, have been fighting for control of Aden International Airport in southern Yemen. What the hell Sudan and UAE are doing fighting in Yemen, or which sides they line up on in which wars, even after having read the article, I do not know.
How being either with us or against us could possibly start sounding relatively sane, fifteen years of unending war later, I haven’t a fucking clue – By Garrett
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/8/1641267/-On-the-War-in-Yemen
Remark: On the US war in Yemen, overview.
7.3.2017 – Geopolitics Alert (* A K T)
Houthis: US Can’t Eliminate Al-Qaeda While Supporting Its Sponsors
The United States might claim they are targeting al-Qaeda positions. But they aren’t making any effort to strike the large swathes of land al-Qaeda controls in former South Yemen. Instead they are only focusing on bombing locations contested between Houthi and al-Qaeda forces. Even prompting one journalist to out-right accuse the United States of specifically targeting the Houthis. This is not a far-fetched suggestion at all.
Being an anti-imperialist force, the Revolutionary Committee (which includes the Houthis) has condemned both Saudi and US airstrikes and all violence carried out by these powers on Yemeni soil.
Furthermore, the Houthis have reminded the United States that if they want to eliminate al-Qaeda, they must cooperate with other groups who actually seek to eliminate the terrorist group.
Indeed, if the United States wants to eliminate al-Qaeda in Yemen, then they can’t share intelligence and cooperate with states that are responsible for helping support al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. For all intents and purposes, al-Qaeda is a US ally in Yemen. The terror group is also fighting the Houthis and Popular Resistance forces. This makes them a de facto ally of Saudi Arabia.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, the US-coalition in Yemen includes Qatar and the UAE among others. States which Hilary Clinton herself admitted provide “clandestine support” for groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia also admits that some 2 thousand Saudi citizens are fighting abroad in terror groups. Many are in Syria, but many are probably also in Yemen.
If the United States actually wants to eliminate al-Qaeda– like they claim– then why are they supporting and cooperating with al-Qaeda’s allies?
http://geopoliticsalert.com/eliminate-al-qaeda
6.3.2017 – White House (* A P)
Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and to protect the Nation from terrorist activities by foreign nationals admitted to the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:
[full text]
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/06/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states and cartoon: https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839741771580047360
My comment: “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States”: including babies, toddlers, kids, grandmas…, “Foreign Terrorists”.
7.3.2017 – Slate (* A P)
State Department Struggles to Justify Trump’s Ban List
The State Department finally held its first press briefing of the Trump era Tuesday. Much of it was devoted to the president’s revised executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries, with acting spokesman Mark Toner struggling to explain why these particular countries are targeted by the ban.
7.3.2017 – Politico (* A P)
How Trump's new travel ban targets the whole world
The revised order contains provisions that could affect countries beyond the six Muslim-majority states that are singled out.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-new-travel-ban-who-it-affects-235724
9.3.2017 – Reuters (* A H P)
After fleeing to U.S., some asylum-seekers run north to escape Trump crackdown
Since Jan. 1, several hundred people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have defied wintry conditions to cross illegally into Canada, fearing they will be ensnared in U.S. President Donald Trump's more aggressive effort to crack down on illegal immigrants.
What has not been entirely clear until now is who is among this group going north. Reuters interviews with Mohammed and nearly two dozen others show that some of those crossing into Manitoba, are from East Africa - Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea. Others, including from Yemen and Syria, are crossing illegally into Canada at other points.
Some of those now fleeing the United States originally moved there to escape what they said was persecution in their homelands. Reuters could not independently verify their stories.
Those interviewed typically fit into three categories: some had pending U.S. asylum cases but feared being detained anyway, others had been denied asylum but still had work visas, while a third group flew into the United States on visitor visas and immediately crossed the border into Canada illegally.
Three had failed asylum claims and criminal records that virtually guaranteed their removal under U.S. law.
Few of those Reuters spoke to were undocumented workers, who are the main focus of Trump's stepped-up efforts.
Canadian police say 183 people have crossed illegally into Manitoba since Jan. 1. Hundreds more are believed to have entered Quebec and British Columbia, according to refugee groups and media reports, although there is no firm data on exactly how many – By Rod Nickel and Amran Abocar
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-canada-asylumseekers-idUSKBN16G2KL
23.2.2017 – Open Democracy (* B P)
The hidden agenda of Trump’s Muslim ban
This is the background against which one has to analyse current events. The Islamophobia network’s direct links to the White House are beyond doubt. Foreign policy advisers in the Trump campaign include individuals linked to the aforementioned Center for Security Policy think tank, which was also the source of fabricated statistics cited by Trump to justify his proposed Muslim entry ban.
This line in Trump’s Executive Order of 27 January protecting the US from foreign terrorist entry fits with the Islamophobia industry’s modus operandi: “The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law.”
Crystallised in this sentence are talking points that anti-Muslim ideologues have cultivated for years, treating Islam as a non-religion that threatens American life and law through a violent ideology of sharia. These are the dregs that hatemongers hope will remain, polluting public discourse, even if the policy is struck down by the courts – which would of course be milked as further proof that the establishment cannot be trusted.
One of the most consequential struggles of our times is the battle for hearts, minds and lives going on between Muslims who prize peace, freedom and inclusiveness, and those who demand obedience to an intolerant absolutism. This is a legitimate debate within Muslim civilisation. But the Islamophobia hate merchants want to persuade Americans that it is instead a clash between civilisations. They want Islam talked about exclusively in the context of terrorism.
Trump’s executive order may not survive judicial scrutiny, but it has already helped skew the global conversation in the Islamophobia industry’s preferred direction – by CHERIAN GEORGE
https://www.opendemocracy.net/cherian-george/hidden-agenda-in-trump-s-muslim-ban
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
9.3.2017 – Middle East Eye (* B K)
Made in Britain, tested on Yemenis: The reality of working for the bombmakers
Saudi jets bombing Yemen begin life in Lancashire factories. Workers there ask how else can they earn a living
Jack sits down with his pint in the Fielden Arms in Mellor and contemplates his latest shift making Typhoon warplanes for the Saudi air force.
Tucking into steak and chips, the 25-year-old talks of moving in with his girlfriend, his good pay at the nearby BAE factory - £40,000, almost twice the local average - and the security it brings.
And then he thinks of the people those planes will be sent to kill.
"You see the children in Yemen starving on the 10 o’clock news," he tells Middle East Eye. "But you try to not pay attention and just get on with it."
His friend, Harry, interjects: "It's really weird and there is no way to describe it, because you are in essence building a weapon of mass destruction."
So why don't they quit? "Good pay and job security," Jack responds, taking another sip of his beer. "If the military contracts go, 7,000 people go with them."
Jack is like thousands of others who works at the BAE Systems factory in nearby Samlesbury, outside Preston in Lancashire, making parts that will be assembled in nearby Warton to create Typhoons, the most advanced jet fighters operated by the Saudis over Yemen.
There, the Saudis have contributed to a civil war with the most terrible violence: bombing civilians, blowing up hospitals and imposing a siege that has condemned millions of Yemenis to slow starvation and poverty.
And Britain, in its wisdom, has sold the Saudis the hardware to do it.
All the while, BAE continues to expand its operations in the north-west of England, and the contracts keep coming. It is building a solar farm the size of nine football fields, creating hundreds of new apprenticeships, and is already Preston's largest employer with 9,000 staff. Under the £40bn al-Salam deal, signed in 2007 to a 25,000-strong celebration in Preston, BAE has delivered 68 of 72 Typhoons ordered, and another 48 may soon be agreed.
And in the surrounding villages, where the quiet life is punctuated by the sonic booms of jets and the rumble of lorries on narrow roads, the business is welcomed, even venerated. BAE is woven into the fabric of a local life, where generations have manned BAE's machine rooms.
There is pride in what they do. "Lancashire has a strong history of building fighter jets, and we are proud to be building them," said Mike Harris, who has worked as an electric fitter in Samlesbury. "We produce the best in the world."
"We can’t build washing machines because we have a history of building fighter planes," Harris said. "That’s what we do and want to carry on doing."
And a block on that expertise would be devastating.
Workers who take a moment to speak to MEE have the unmistakable pride of decades of excellence, while conceding their concerns about where their jets end up.
But that's just the way it is.
And the BAE of the future will continue to build expert killing machines: The company has recently signed a multi-million-dollar contract to develop a new generation of armed drones, another weapon common in the skies of Yemen and beyond.
Jack, in the pub in Mellor, is aware this is where his future may lie: building robots for foreign states to kill foreign people in foreign lands.
"There's nothing we can do," he says. "We're caved in, making it impossible to work anywhere else, because we've all got specific skills." – Areeb Ullah
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/inside-villages-build-fighter-jets-saudi-arabia-new-v2-1412274120
Comment by Judith Brown: Oh this us so horribly accurate. The poor of this world are paid by the rich of the world to kill the poor of this works for the benefit of the rich of this world. Arms workers. Mercenaries. They are all caught up in this dreadful war machine.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155289297038641
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
9.3.2017 – Qantara (* A K P)
Scharfe Kritik an deutschen Rüstungsdeals mit Saudi-Arabien
Die neuen Zahlen zu deutschen Rüstungsexporten nach Saudi-Arabien sorgen für Kritik. Der Bundestagsabgeordnete Jan van Aken (Linke) sagte am Donnerstag der Katholischen Nachrichten-Agentur (KNA) in Berlin mit Blick auf die Beteiligung Saudi-Arabiens am Krieg im benachbarten Jemen: "Man kann nicht mehr ernsthaft von einer Kontrolle der Rüstungsexporte sprechen, wenn die Bundesregierung die Ausfuhren an Saudi-Arabien erhöht, während Riad den Jemen in die Steinzeit zurückbombt."
Wie aus einer Antwort der Bundesregierung auf eine Kleine Anfrage der Linken-Fraktion hervorgeht, sollen die Rüstungsgeschäfte mit Saudi-Arabien offenbar deutlich ausgeweitet werden. Die Antwort liegt der KNA vor. Im vergangenen Jahr erteilte die Bundesregierung demnach Ausfuhrgenehmigungen im Gesamtwert von knapp 530 Millionen Euro. Im Jahr 2015 lag dieser Wert noch bei rund 270 Millionen Euro, im Jahr davor waren es rund 209 Millionen Euro. Genehmigungen beziehen sich auf Rüstungsgeschäfte in der Zukunft. Die tatsächlichen Ausfuhren waren nicht Thema der Anfrage.
Bislang noch nicht einer breiten Öffentlichkeit bekannt ist der Anteil der Genehmigungen im Bereich Luftfahrzeuge. Dieser betrug 2016 exakt 83,75 Prozent. 2014, im Jahr vor Ausbruch des Jemen-Kriegs, lag er noch bei 7,1 Prozent.
Die 2016 erteilten Genehmigungen umfassen unter anderem 23 Hubschrauber sowie die Lieferung von Komponenten für Tornado- und Eurofighter-Flugzeuge. Diese beiden Flugzeugtypen werden nachweislich von Saudi-Arabien im Jemen eingesetzt. Laut Darstellung der Links-Partei sorgt Deutschland dadurch "maßgeblich" mit dafür, dass die saudische Luftwaffe Angriffe im Jemen fliegen kann.
Der Politologe Max Mutschler nannte die geplanten Ausfuhren vor dem Hintergrund des Jemen-Krieges "einen klaren Verstoß gegen die von der Bundesregierung selbst gesetzten Regeln für Rüstungsexporte".
Der Sprecher der Kampagne "Aktion Aufschrei - Stoppt den Waffenhandel!", Jürgen Grässlin, sagte, mit den Exportgenehmigungen für Bestandteile von Militärhubschraubern und Kampfflugzeugen gewährleiste die Bundesregierung "die volle Funktionsfähigkeit dieser Großwaffensysteme bei Kampfangriffen der Royal Saudi Air Force beim Krieg im Jemen"
https://de.qantara.de/content/scharfe-kritik-an-deutschen-ruestungsdeals-mit-saudi-arabien
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
9.3.2017 – L’Avvenire (A K P)
Bombe «italiane» nella guerra in Yemen: un importante invito-sfida alla politica
Proprio per questo motivo credo che “Avvenire” sia il luogo dove porre una domanda aperta ai parlamentari di ogni orientamento, ma con ovvia attesa verso quelli che si richiamano a una ispirazione cristiana, circa la violazione della legge 185/90 sulla produzione e sul commercio di armi a partire dal caso eclatante dell’invio di bombe in Arabia Saudita, Paese alla guida di una coalizione coinvolta nei bombardamenti sullo Yemen. Le risposte finora avanzate dagli esponenti del governo sono imbarazzanti quando si fanno scudo della mancanza di un veto dell’Onu – di Marco Tarquini
8.3.2017 – BBC (* A P)
Couple 'detained in UAE for sex outside marriage'
A South African man and his Ukrainian fiancee have been detained in the United Arab Emirates for unlawful sex, a relative says.
Emlyn Culverwell‚ 29, and Iryna Nohai, 27, were reportedly arrested after a doctor discovered Ms Nohai, who had stomach cramps, was pregnant.
They were arrested for sex outside of marriage, which is illegal in the UAE.
Mr Culverwell's mother has pleaded for their release, saying "the only thing they did wrong was fall in love".
South Africa's foreign ministry has said that it is not able to help the couple as this is a matter of domestic UAE law, News24 reports.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39208946
My comment: Never go to UAE for vacation – NEVER!
This fits well to:
7.3.2017 – Emirati News Agency (A E P)
UAE Ministry of Economy seeks to strengthen cooperation with Australia
ABU DHABI, 7th March, 2017 (WAM) -- Abdullah Al Saleh, Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade and Industry at the UAE Ministry of Economy, MOE, held a meeting with Australia’s Frances Adamson, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, DFAT, to explore ways to strengthen economic relations and trade.
http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302601481
8.3.2017 – Shiite News (A K P)
UAE blackmailing Pakistan to drag it into Saudi war on Yemen?
The sheikhdom of United Arab Emirates seems to have begun blackmailing Pakistani state to drag it into the Saudi war on Yemen as its intelligence head Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim has recently led a twitter campaign in favour of separation of Balochistan from Pakistan. Before that, Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited the UAE where he met Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayd and discussed issued of bilateral interest.
But, Egyptian newspaper Sout Misr al Hurrah reported that in the February 26 (2017) meeting, they agreed that Pakistan Army’s 1500 troops would join Saudi-led coalition in their unilateral war against Yemen but Pakistani troops would serve under UAE command.
The paper claimed that each personnel would be paid monthly salary amounting to US$ 10,000. Apart from that, 2000 more Pakistanis will be issued work permit.
These two developments have given birth to doubts among Pakistanis because Pakistan’s parliament has opposed Pakistan’s entry into any conflict and called for neutrality in Yemen war and other conflicts.
My comment: That sounds quite doubtful. Pakistani mercenaries hardly will be payed $ 10.000 a month.
8.3.2017 – Human Rights Watch (* A P)
Bahrain: Activist’s Family Targeted
Retribution Appears Linked to Human Rights Work
Bahraini authorities are apparently targeting the family members of a prominent Bahraini activist in retribution for his human rights work, Human Rights Watch said today.
Since March 2, 2017, authorities have detained the brother-in-law and mother-in-law of Sayed al-Wadaei, a United Kingdom-based Bahraini human rights activist who has accused the Bahraini authorities, including senior members of the ruling Al Khalifa family, of serious human rights abuses. Sayed al-Wadaei’s wife, Duaa, told Human Rights Watch in October that a senior official had referred to her husband as “an animal” and asked, menacingly during an interrogation at Bahrain airport, “Where shall I go first, shall I go to his family or your family?”
“This looks like a cowardly attempt to break the resolve of an activist by attacking his family,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Bahraini authorities forced Sayed al-Wadaei into exile in Britain, where he’s a thorn in their side. Since they can’t touch him, they’ve resorted to threatening and harassing his wife, infant son, and in-laws.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/06/bahrain-activists-family-targeted
6.3.2017– Hispan TV (A P)
Somalíes expresan indignación por base militar emiratí en su país
[Somalians protesting against the projected Emirati military base in Somalia, emphasizing that it will be used for the war in Yemen]
Los somalíes expresan su indignación por el hecho de que los emiratíes hayan acordado con Somalilandia instalar una base militar en suelo africano.
Tras la revelación de la noticia de que Abu Dabi planea establecer una base en la ciudad portuaria de Berbera (en el norte de Somalia), un grupo identificado como la Comunidad Diáspora de Somalilandia en Canadá escribió una carta a la misión de Emiratos Árabes Unidos (EAU), donde expresó su indignación por el “negocio ilegal y ambiguo” del país árabe para establecer una base en Somalia, informó el sábado el portal Middle East Monitor.
La carta afirma que la guerra dirigida por Arabia Saudí en Yemen es una “guerra irrazonable”, añadiendo que el establecimiento de una base por EAU, que es el aliado de Arabia Saudí, significaría que Somalilandia declara la guerra a Yemen.
No queremos verlo arrastrado en una guerra. Nuestro país es estable”, dice uno de los manifestantes en Londres para mostrar su rechazo a un posible establecimiento de la base militar emiratí en el territorio somalí.
Aparte de la carta, decenas de personas se manifestaron el jueves frente a la embajada emiratí en Londres, capital británica, para condenar un posible establecimiento de la base militar en el territorio somalí.
Los manifestantes portaron pancartas y pidieron el fin de las guerras. “No queremos verlo arrastrado en una guerra. Nuestro país es estable”, dijo uno de los manifestantes.
“Todo lo que queremos es la paz, pero nuestro Gobierno ha vendido nuestras tierras a EAU para crear una base militar con el fin de atacar a Yemen”, denunció otro manifestante.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
8.3.2017 – MbKS215 (A K)
The 72nd & the final #RSAF Typhoon (ZK623/8024) conducted its 1st flight in BAE Warton, Mar 08 — Last 4 jets will be all delivered by mid-17 (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/839699058516185089
8.3.2017 – Fars News (A K P)
Senior Advisor Denies Arms Shipment to Yemen by Iran
Senior Advisor to the Iranian Parliament Speaker Hossein Amir Abdollahian strongly rejected allegations that his country has provided the Yemeni army and popular committees with weapons and missiles, stressing that political talks are the only way to resolve the problems in Yemen.
"The allegations about sending weapons from Iran to Yemen are fully baseless," Amir Abdollahian said in a meeting with Director General of the Swiss Foreign Ministry for the Middle East Affairs Wolfgang Amadeus Brulhart in Tehran on Wednesday.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran considers political talks, pursuing peaceful methods and respect for the Yemeni people's decision, in a way that all Yemeni streams and groups play a role in the government, as the only solution in Yemen," he added.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13951218000271 and by IRNA: http://www.irna.ir/en/News/82456959/
cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees
7.3.2017 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees (A H)
Yemen Situation - 2017 Funding Update as of 7 March 2017
123.8 M required for 2017
10.9 M contributions received, representing 3% of requirements
118.1 M funding gap for the Yemen Situation
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-2017-funding-update-7-march-2017 and in full: http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/Yemen%20Situation%20Funding%20Update%2007%20March%202017.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Yemen%20Situation%20Funding%20Update%2007%20March%202017-2.pdf
My comment: How miserable that is. The say they need 123 million for a whole year for the displaced in Yemen (and the refugees who came from abroad to Yemen). That are 3 million people, that is just $ 40 per head a year? Much? Certainly not. And they still must beg for 97 % of it – and that is what Saudi Arabia spends every 14 hours for bombing Yemen (always, around the clock, since 700 days) – or 0,1% of what the US arms industry made during the Obama years selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
7.3.2017 – World Food Programme, Logistics Cluster (* A E H)
Yemen - Shipping Update (7 March 2017)
Al Hudaydah Port:
8 vessels operational at port quaysides (all commercial)
1 vessels at anchorage (all commercial)
12 vessels expected to call (all commercial)
Al Saleef Port:
2 vessels operational at port quaysides (all commercial)
5 vessels at anchorage (all commercial)
2 vessels expected to call at Al Saleef Port (all commercial)
Ras Issa (oil terminal in Red Sea):
1 vessel operational at port quaysides (all commercial)
0 vessel at anchorage
0 vessel expected to call at Ras Issa Port
Aden :
8 vessels operational at port quaysides (7 commercial + WFP charter vessel VOS Apollo)
6 vessels at anchorage (5 commercial + WFP charter vessel MV Daytona Beach)
2 vessels expected to call Aden Port (all commercial)
Situation at Al Hudaydah
There are currently currently 8 vessels at berth in Al Hudaydah port totaling 113,470 mt & 417 containers.
1 vessel at anchorage awaiting berth totalling 7,277 mt.
12 vessels are expected totaling 124,848 mt + 1253 containers.
WFP Charter vessel MV Daytona Beach with 6,000 mt of bulk wheat on board arrived at Aden anchorage on 7 March 2017 and she is expected to berth and start discharge by today (Tuesday 7 March).
PIL container vessel Kota Anggun has been diverted by the Coalition to Jezan Port (KSA) for further inspection with 665 containers on board including 129 humanitarian cargo containers (95X20' WFP oil shipment & 34X20' UNHCR blankets shipment). The container discharge & cargo inspection started today (Tuesday 7 March) in Jezan port in the presence of UNVIM, Coalition & Saudi local authority representatives.
Container feeder (AS Aries) completed in Al Hudaydah port today (Tuesday 7 March) discharging 417 containers of commercial cargo that belong to several Shipping container liners (CMA-CGM, EVERGREEN, COSCO & MAERSK).
Container feeder (Gdynia trader) was granted UNVIM clearance to call at Al Hudaydah port with 588 containers on board. The ETA at Hudaydah port is 8-9 March - conditional to Coalition clearances.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-shipping-update-7-march-2017 and in full: http://www.logcluster.org/sites/default/files/port_situation_7march2017.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/port_situation_7march2017.pdf
and
28.2.2017 – UNOPS (A E)
Infographic: UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen (UNVIM): Operational Snapshot, February 2017
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/un-verification-and-inspection-mechanism-yemen-unvim-operational-snapshot-february-2017 and in full http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Operational%20Snapshot%20February%202017.pdf
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
Look at / Siehe cp1
9.3.2017 – Xinhua (A T)
U.S. drone strike kills mid-level al-Qaida commander in Yemen
A mid-level commander from the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch was killed on Thursday during a U.S. drone strike in the country's southern province of Abyan, a military official told Xinhua.
The unmanned U.S. aircraft bombed a four-wheel drive vehicle on a road by the Wadia district of southern Abyan province, killing the group's mid-level commander on the spot, the military source said on condition of anonymity.
The al-Qaida commander was identified as Qassim Khalil and according to the source he masterminded several terrorist attacks in the war-torn Arab country in the past few months.
The mountainous areas in Shabwa and Abyan provinces have been the scene of U.S. drone attacks and clashes between Yemeni security forces and militants from the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch since the terrorist group emerged in the country eight years ago.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/09/c_136116483.htm and also http://almasdaronline.com/article/89467
9.3.2017 – Reuters (* A T)
Al Qaeda appeals for help to repel Houthis in central Yemen
Yemen's local al Qaeda wing appealed for help on Thursday to fend off an offensive by the armed Houthi movement in central Yemen, and accused the United States of coordinating attacks with the Iran-aligned group, according to an online statement.
Residents say tribesmen in Ansar al-Sharia, the local wing of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and other Islamists known as salafists are the main force holding back the Houthis in Qifa in al-Bayda province, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's internationally-recognized government has little control.
Ansar al-Sharia referred in the statement on its Telegram channel to repeated air strikes by the United States in recent days. Washington has acknowledged it has stepped up operations against militants in Yemen in the past couple of weeks.
"The Christian Americans have focused their military and spy planes on hitting the Sunni tribes in this front ... the Americans have carried out dozens of night raids in past days against those steadfast at this front in a clear coordination between the Americans and the Houthis," the statement said.
"Hurry, hurry to reinforce this front before it falls," it added – by Ali Abdelati
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN16G2X3?rpc=401&
9.3.2017 – Terror Monitor (A T)
Al-Qaeda directed an urgent appeal for Yemenis to strengthen its positions after an intense targeting of US aircraft in Qevh coordination with the Huthi Saleh's forces (see image)
https://twitter.com/TerrorMonitorAR/status/839866359609765888
and
8.3.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A T)
Qaeda Leader in Yemen: ‘Washington Refused to Trade Omar Abdulrahman for Hostage’
Al-Qaeda Leader in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Qassim al-Reymi accused an “unresponsive” United States of refusing to free blind Sheikh Omar Abdulrahman in return for the release of an American hostage it was holding in Yemen.
Abdulrahman, born in Egypt in 1938 and also known as “the blind Sheikh,” died in a North Carolina jail last month while serving a life sentence for conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.
Regarding the US hostage, Journalist Luke Somers, who was kidnapped by AQAP in 2013, was killed with South African Teacher Pierre Korkie after a botched rescue attempt by US commandos in December 2014.
“In the Arabian Peninsula, the mujaheddin kidnapped an American and their only demand was the release of the crippled and blind sheikh and the afflicted sister and Pakistani neurosurgeon Aafia Siddiqui,” Reymi said in an audio recording released late on Monday.
“The Americans were unresponsive … America categorically refused the hostage exchange to the point where they even sacrificed their citizen,” Reymi said.
AQAP and Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb released a joint statement after the Sheikh’s funeral in his hometown of al-Gamaleya, northeast of Cairo, calling for “the most violent vengeance” for his death.
8.3.2017 – AFP (A T)
Yemen's Al-Qaeda detains two militants believed to be US spies
Yemen's Al-Qaeda has detained two militants accused of being US informants in a district targeted by multiple air raids over the past week, a tribal leader said Wednesday. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) arrested two of its operatives in Mawjan district in the southern Abyan province on accusations they were "spying for the United States", a tribal leader there said on condition of anonymity.
8.3.2017 – United against ISIS (A T)
Film: #Iraq's Rapid Response units find #Saudi number plates in #ISIS car bomb factories in central #Mosul.
https://www.facebook.com/NotoWahabism/posts/1151679054960675
6.3.2017 – Almasdar News (A T)
ISIS bans Nike products, declaring it haram
ISIS has banned Nike products, deeming it “haram”, or forbidden by their interpretations of Islamic law.
Nike is the goddess of victory in Greek mythology, making the victory sign haram.
ISIS follow the puritanical interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism, the official religion in Saudi Arabia, that deems any links to pre-Islamic culture, religion or history as apostasy.
The same radical interpretation of Islam that ISIS and Saudi Arabia share also see’s women driving, social mixing and the cinemas banned in areas of their respective control.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-bans-nike-products-declaring-haram/
Comment: #ISIS terrorists in #Syria have forbidden wearing clothes of #Nike.
They used #Saudi issued Fatwa to justify this! (photo)
cp15 Propaganda
10.3.2017 – Kuwait News Agency (A H P)
Kuwait distributes shelter aid to IDPs in Yemen
Kuwait has distributed the first batch of shelter aid to the directorate of Tur Al-Bahah district of Lahij Governorate for the internally displaced persons (IDP) from Taiz city as part of the ongoing Kuwaiti humanitarian campaign in Yemen.
The "Kuwait is by your side" campaign's aid included cooking gas cylinders, cooking tools, blankets, and other necessary supplies for displaced families from districts of Haifan, Habshi Mountain, Mafalees, and Gabeeta in Taiz city, the Kuwaiti-Yemeni Relief Agency said in a press statement Thursday.
For his part, Alwan Al-Aateri, Director-General of Tur Al-Bahah district, expressed his gratitude to the Kuwaiti campaign for its care and interest in the displaced Yemeni families and persons
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2595564&language=en = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/kuwait-distributes-shelter-aid-idps-yemen
My comment: Kuwait alone has executed 3000 air raids on Yemen. First bomb them, injure them (I do not mentions those who were killed, they do not need any relief any more), destroy their houses, then give them “cooking gas cylinders, cooking tools, blankets, and other necessary supplies” and call it "Kuwait is by your side".
9.3.2017 – Saudi Press Agency (A P)
Iran exports death to Yemen and Al-Houthi sells it to citizen as a medicine
Iran has since its inception continued to export death to all surrounding countries and interfere in the affairs of states by supporting militias to destabilize security in the region.
In Yemen, Iran has supported rebels strategically, logistically and militarily and the Revolutionary Guard used fake companies registered outside the country as a front to help smuggling money and goods to rebels frequently.
In this aspect, press sources said that Al-Houthi militias introduced a drug shipment in large quantities as Iranian aid and medical supplies to Yemen. The sources explained that the drug shipment entered Sanaa and delivered to stores of some traders who have recently established companies for this purpose.
The sources indicated that Al-Houthi militias introduced six containers loaded with 24 varieties of drugs, including narcotic and psychotropic substances whose valued amounted to $ 2,400,000.
The sources said the substances valued in the market at about six million dollars, including narcotics (PTD), (Dezbam) and (midazolam) in large quantities and are sold by Houthi supervisors of pharmacies directly and these dugs cause death directly, which warns of disaster in the Yemen society.
Yemeni observers said that the smuggling of such drugs by Al-Houthi aims to harm the Yemeni society through abuses and addiction, as Iran seeks to sacrifice civilians and help putschists in destroying and looting the capabilities of the country, eliminating the cohesion of Yemen and exporting the revolution to it, in addition to helping Al-Houthi and Saleh in the establishment of illegal trade and smuggling.
My comment: And so on. Now what? That’s quite odd propaganda again. – “continued to export death to all surrounding countries and interfere in the affairs of states by supporting militias to destabilize security in the region”: that’s a perfect description of what Saudi Arabia is doing since decades. “export death to all surrounding countries”: Bombing Yemen for 2 years now; worldwide spreading Wahabism, the ideology of hatred. “interfere in the affairs of states by supporting militias to destabilize security”: That’s Saudi Arabia’s interference in Syria, supporting jihadists by arming, financing, and by fighters, as it already happened at Afghanistan in the 1980ies. –Midazolam is a medicine certainly urgently needed in Yemen. Of course it should not be freely sold in pharmacies, as people would misuse it as drugs. The Wikipedia article states the danger of addiction, but not of death. It’ odd to state anyway that such a drug would be sold with the intention to damage and kill people; what use this should be for the Houthis or anybody else? Dezbam seems to be a 100 % intervention of Saudi propaganda; try to google Dezbam, or, even better, try Dezbam and drug together. This article really is the only match (2 others junk only). PTD is Pantoprazole, which is a medicine for stomach and bowel and does not have any potential for drug abuse. – What a stupid propaganda this article is!! - The real facts are here: http://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/report-yemen-and-smuggling-anesthetics.html
9.3.2017 – Fox News (A K P)
Iran setting up shell shipping companies to export weapons and illicit goods: investigation
Nearly half of all shipping docks in Iran are operated by the regime’s military, and it is using shell companies to smuggle weapons and other illicit goods, according to a new report.
A total of 90 docks have been taken over by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is using them to circumvent sanctions and fund terrorist activities in the Middle East and beyond, according to the anti-regime People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
“These docks play a key role in the regime’s efforts to evade sanctions," said MEK officials. “Investigations by PMOI sources within the regime concluded that unlawful exports of arms to proxy forces in the region are carried out through these docks.”
Since most Yemani docks are closed to Iranian ships, the IRGC’s shell companies began using ports in nearby Oman to smuggle weapons into Yemen.
My comment: It’s just strange that only very small amounts of arms arrive at Yemen.
8.3.2017 – Saudi Press Agency (A P)
how do yemenis live in the displaced persons camps (look at image)
https://twitter.com/Spa_Eng/status/839448026519330820
The Houthis Are Violating The Sanctity Of Hospitals (look at image)
https://twitter.com/Spa_Eng/status/838401405954183170
My comment: Odd propaganda.
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: The war resulted in 3.1Mil "INTERNALLY" Displaced People and Saudi claims helped #Yemen by doing what now!? Lost IQ points just reading this
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/839809934418145280
8.3.2017 – Al Riyadh (A P)
Arab Foreign Ministers Praise Kingdom's Support for Yemen, Condemn Iranian Interventions
Arab Foreign Ministers have praised the role played by the Arab coalition, which led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to support the legitimate government and Yemeni people, and support the resumption of the peace process, and to stop the war and reconstruction of Yemen.
The Ministers expressed their thanks and appreciation to the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid for supporting the Central Bank of Yemen and provide humanitarian assistance to the Yemeni people.
At the conclusion of the 147th session at the level of Arab Foreign Ministers, chaired by Algeria, Arab Foreign Ministers stressed that the peaceful solution in Yemen must be based on the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism, outputs of the comprehensive national dialogue conference and the Security Council resolutions related to resolution No. (2216).
They condemned abuses committed by the coup in Yemen, including assassinations and arrests, forced recruitment of children into conflict, siege of the cities, forced displacement of the population, mine laying, bombing of houses and houses of worship, prevent the flow of humanitarian needs for the needy and trapped, sale of relief items, looting money from the banks, and the threat of transport and traffic lanes in the regional and international waters and other practices that amount to war crimes and punishable under international law.
Ministers also condemned the continued Iranian interventions that violate the security and stability and the rule of Yemen
My comment: Nice propaganda with an Orwellian touch: The Saudi coalition is praised to “support the […] Yemeni people, and support the resumption of the peace process, and to stop the war and reconstruction of Yemen” – there hardly can be found something they support less. How you could support a people, the resumption of a peace process, a stop to the war and reconstruction” by a relentless 700 days bombing campaign?? And however you could call this bombing campaign “provide humanitarian assistance to the Yemeni people”???
8.3.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)
Yemen President Hadi: Coup Militias Failed National Political Transition
Yemen President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi said that the insurgency led by Iran-aligned Houthi militias and armed loyalists backing ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh is actively blocking the agenda on political transition.
President Hadi urged international forces to help out Yemen, especially that forces belonging to the internationally-recognized government led by him have regained control over 85 percent of the country.
“Yemen today faces one of the most tragic humanitarian disasters—the outbreak of endemics and famine, frighteningly receding economic and social indicatives, spiking crime and terrorism rates, all of which urges collaboration for recovery,” Hadi said in his speech at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Hadi stressed that cooperation is key to “go beyond humanitarian relief towards reconstruction of Yemeni provinces, and aiding the government’s efforts on reviving the economy in areas under its control, which makes up for 85 percent of Yemen’s overall territory.”
“My country is suffering from a deteriorating humanitarian situation because of this coup against legitimacy,” he said.
Coup militias had infringed on the Yemeni people’s desire for peaceful change in their political system that exercised authoritarian approaches for over three decades, Hadi added.
“The bloody coup staged by Houthi militias and their allies, had seriously impeded political transition, leaving Yemen in a downward spiral into civil war that destroyed -and still does- its social fabric,” Hadi said. “Despite the insurgency constantly losing ground- -their militias control no more than 15 percent of Yemeni territory– there are those who continue to back coup militiamen against legitimacy, and extending the suffering of Yemenis, fueling the putschist-led war.”
President Hadi also critiqued Iran’s persistent arming of coup militants, saying that it only “augments the suffering of the Yemeni people, and violates international law, the United Nations Charter and the basic principles upheld by the IROA.”
“Whoever wishes to support Yemen and end the war and suffering, ought to extend medicine and food instead of weapons,” he noted.
My comment: A well-known odd Hadi propaganda. The “national transition” failed from the very beginning. In the way it went, it had been imposed on Yemen from foreign forces (USA, Gulf States), who firstly wanted to save their own interests. They imposed a rather undemocratic presidential election with the second representative of the Saleh regime as the only candidate (this very Hadi). And Hadi soon excelled at incompetence, corruption and efforts to secure his own control by nobbing opposing political forces. And main political forces had been excluded from the dialogue process from its very beginning. –
“My country is suffering from a deteriorating humanitarian situation because of this coup against legitimacy”?? Let’s say more than 85 % of the countries deteriorating humanitarian situation is because of Saudi air raids and Saudi blockade.
Comment by Judith Brown (on hadi controlling 85 % of Yemen): . If this is true - how come Hadi can't even visit Yemen except for short trips with massive UAE security. And as UAE seems to have fallen out of live with Hadi - according to two articles on this site in the last two days - then maybe if he can't rely on their security and hitching a lift on one of their warships to get to the Coast near Aden - then he can't visit at all. Really Mr Hadi you are living in cloud cuckoo land. You don't even control Aden. It's tribes and militias that control 99% of Yemen at this moment in time.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155289244698641
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
9.3.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
The Violations and Crimes that are committed by #Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 8/3/2017 (full list):
https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/786626614821039/?type=3 and http://www.lcrdye.org/lcrd/Eng/PageDetails?id=1671 (http://www.lcrdye.org/userfiles/files/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A/Reports%20center/Daily%20reports/2017/3/8%20Mar,%202017.pdf)
8.3.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)
The Violations and Crimes that are committed by #Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 7/3/2017 (full list):
https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/786007178216316/?type=3 and http://lcrdye.org/lcrd/Eng/PageDetails?id=1670 (http://lcrdye.org/userfiles/files/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%8A/Reports%20center/Daily%20reports/2017/3/7-Mar-2017.pdf )
9.3.2017 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
1st #Russia/n-made fighters to jointly carry out combat missions with #RSAF & 1st to operate from a #Saudi AB are the #Sudan/ese AF Su-24 (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/839784322748059655
My comment: How fine. That’s what Yemen really needs.
9.3.2017 – Al Masirah TV (A K PH)
Film: Destruction of education facility at Baqim (Saada prov.) by air raid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slcs-1nIrXY
9.3.2017 – Yamanyoon / Ayad (A K PH)
Hajjah: Aggression Warplanes Wage 6 Raids on Haridh and Medi Districts
http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=67147&lang=en
Again Saudi coalition deliberately bombed civilan house killing a woman and two children and injuring another child in #yemen hajah haradh
https://twitter.com/maddllock/status/839940800813346820
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Arab Coalition airstrikes kill six Houthi militants eastern Sana’a
Three of the militants of the Houthi group and forces loyal to Saleh were killed and six others wounded, at dawn on Wednesday, by air raids launched by the fighter jets of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition in Nehm district east of the capital Sanaa.
The air raids hit al Miqyadh area between Nehm and Arhab district eastern Sana’a, according to a source in the field.
“The first raid destroyed a military vehicle and wounded a militant, and the second strike killed three and wounded five militants while trying to take the wounded in the first raid to hospital.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89438
and what was reported from the ground:
9.3.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
US-Saudi warplanes drop cluster bombs on Nehm
S-backed Saudi fighter jets waged on Thursday four strikes on Nehm district of Sana'a province, dropping cluster bombs, a local official told Saba.
The warplanes dropped two cluster bombs on Maswarah area and waged also a strike on Yam Mountain and another one on Ramadah junction in the district, resulting heavy damage to citizens houses and farms, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458408.htm
8.3.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Saudi aggression warplanes launch 2 air strikes on Sana'a
Saudi aggression warplanes launched two air strikes on al-Shobanh area of Sana'a province overnight, an official told Saba on Wednesday.
The air strikes on Al-Shobanh, locates between Nehm and Arhab districts, caused damage to private property and citizen's farms, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458314.htm = http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=67059&lang=en
cp17a Kriegsereignisse: Küste / Theater of War: Coast
9.3.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Two military vehicles of mercenaries destroyed in Taiz
The two military vehicles were hit in north of Mocha in the west coast of Yemen
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458444.htm
9.3.2017 – Gulf News (A K PS)
Yemen army battles Al Houthis in Al Zahari on Red Sea
Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition battled Iran-backed Al Houthi snipers in the heart of a small Red Sea area as part of a large military offensive aiming at liberating the port city of Hodeida, Yemen army spokesperson told Gulf News on Thursday.
Brigadier General Abdo Abdullah Majili said government forces are trying to evict the remnants of Al Houthi fighters in Al Zahari region before advancing towards new areas in the province of Hodeida.
Other government forces engaged in fierce battles on the edges of Khalid Bin Walid military camp in Taiz province.
“Our forces are clearing Al Zahari from Al Houthis and then will march towards the Al Khokha region,” Majili said.
Army commanders predict difficult battles ahead as their forces get closer to Hodeida, Al Houthi’s last major port city.
Majili said coalition fighter jets launched massive air strikes on Al Houthi military sites along areas between Al Zahari and Hodeida.
“The jets hit Al Houthi-held military camps in Al Khokha to smooth the way for ground forces to advance.”
If government forces liberate Al Khokha in the coming days, Al Houthis would have lost control of most of its ports where it receives weapons from Iran.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/yemen-army-battles-al-houthis-in-al-zahari-on-red-sea-1.1991211
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Clashes break out in al Zahari northern al Mocha, Arab Coalition bombard camp
Heavy fighting erupted on Wednesday between the Houthi-Saleh forces and the pro-government forces west of Taiz province, southwest of Yemen.
Sources in the field told Almasdaronline that the battles were flaring around al Zahari area north of al Mocha district, while the government forces were shelling the sites of the Houthis and allied forces west of Mawza and the road leading to Khaled camp.
“Three pro-government troops were killed and five others injured, while 7 Houthi militants were killed and 12 others injured”.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition fighter jets have bombarded the Houthis sites in Khaled camp.
On the one hand, the pro-government forces foiled an attack for the Houthis on al Kadaha area south of Maqbanah district.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89440
8.3.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Ballistic missile hits Saudi paid mercenaries in Mokha
Missile force of the army and popular force fired a medium-range ballistic missile on a gathering of Saudi-paid mercenaries south of al-Mokha city in Taiz province, an army official told Saba on Wednesday.
The missile hit the mercenaries accurately, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458312.htm and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=67006&lang=en and http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=67056&lang=en
but from the other side:
8.3.2017 – MbKS15 (A K PS)
#Saudi-led Coalition ADF in #Yemen's west coast intercepted 3 medium-range ballistic missiles fired towards the Residential City in Al Mokha (photo)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/839524807645417472
cp17b Kriegsereignisse: Sonstige / Theater of War: Other
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Houthis bomb two houses and a shop in al Qurayshiah, no casualties
The militants of the Houthi group and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh bombed on Thursday civil targets in al Qurayshiah district of al Bayda governorate, central Yemen, according to a local source.
The source told Almasdaronline that the katyusha missiles and artillery had hit two houses and a shop in the Leqah village.
“The two houses were almost destroyed, but no casualties were reported”.
The Houthis and allied forces’ missile and artillery shelling are being launched from their positions in al Thaaleb and al Ulaib mountains.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89469
9.3.2017 – Sputnik News (A K)
Yemeni Government Forces Approach Houthi-Held Capital of Sanaa
The Yemeni government forces have approached the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa and have taken control of a number of strategically important targets in its vicinity, a military source told Sputnik Thursday.
"The forces of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi backed by the coalition have taken control of strategic positions… and are close to capturing the center of Nihm district, which is located in 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] from Sanaa," the source said.
The source also added that the air force of the coalition have been mass bombing the area for 14 hours. At least 25 people from both sides have died in the altercations on the ground and over 30 have been wounded.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201703091051408549-yemen-war-capital/ and by Islah Party media: https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-4808
My comment: There have been similar reports since more than a year now. Wait and see.
Comment by Soraya Tebbani: (in image)
https://twitter.com/2flamesburning1/status/839988787975487489
9.3.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)
Six popular resistance members wounded in a landmine explosion in al Bayda
A source in the field in al Bayda province, central Yemen, said on Wednesday that six fighters of the popular resistance were injured in a landmine explosion planted by the Houthis and the forces loyal to former president Saleh in al Zaher district.
The source told Almasdaronline that the resistance members found four mines in the al Jamajim and al Ajradi areas, planted when the Houthis were controlling the region.
The source pointed out the demining teams cleared three of the mines, but the fourth exploded.
It is noteworthy that the Houthi-Saleh militants have planted hundreds of mines in the areas they controlled, in anticipation of the advancement of the popular resistance in the region.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89442
8.3.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)
Mercenaries launch missile strike on citizens farms in Mareb
Saudi paid mercenaries launched heavy missile strikes on citizen's houses and farms in Serwah district of Mareb province, an official told Saba on Wednesday.
The mercenaries targeted different areas in Serwah, causing damage to houses and farms, the official added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458322.htm
Houthi / Saleh reports:
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458443.htm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458445.htm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458352.htm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458311.htm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news458315.htm = http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=67038&lang=en
Pro-Saudi / Pro-Hadi reports
http://almasdaronline.com/article/89468
Houthi / Saleh films:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUeeGp8pcDU&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_eOMwKi6gU&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DfdVOPX-uU&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFYENuONH4k&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMUiab9Myps&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TYU3JBi_mI&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnYDrSVxAg&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvamX2-niQ&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtvi0MOb2kk&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMhL1K3AO5w&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2lyL-q2zt4&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h1Rl7HQbOs&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THXGZX_aaSE&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKeBwNKUlDY&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwwkoyV7DFw&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-LYJbVqX4&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Cf0R7v8v8&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gaBP1o7T8&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQiOmODKjTM&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fSch5H9KEc&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbhMUykExCM&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-8UhT1r5ZA&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhL-tcDM3JY&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_RrvSKB8Rg&feature=youtu.be&a
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
8.3.2017 – Synkroniciti (*)
Portraits of a Nation: The devastating Beauty of Yemen
This is the first post of a series exploring foreign cultures. We begin with Yemen, focusing not on the bloodshed and the destruction wreaked upon her, but the humanity and beauty that make her both vulnerable and resilient. I’ll be posting more about the culture and arts of Yemen later this week.
The images that follow were graciously shared online by Rod Waddington, yeowatzup and Valerian Guillot, who have made most of their illuminating and risky work available with Creative Commons Licenses. Click on the captions beneath the the photo collages to see their full albums and link to more of their images. Synkroniciti is indebted to the generosity and boldness of these travelers and artists. Please follow their magnificent output on Flickr.
As I curated these sets of people, places and animals, which date from 2010 to 2016, I could not help but wonder what has been lost in these few years. Are these buildings still standing? What has become of these people, especially these bright, playful children? I had to stop several times in my gathering to mourn the innocence and beauty that has surely been changed, if not destroyed. The human and cultural price in Yemen is very high.
Mismanaged from within and exploited from without, it is a place that is lost to the outside world. Some might think that the poorest country in the region, a desert nation without an oil industry, doesn’t hold much. They couldn’t be more wrong. It’s a beautiful country, with fantastic architecture and a long, proud history – by katmcdaniel (with many photos)
https://synkroniciti.com/2017/03/08/portraits-of-a-nation-the-devastating-beauty-of-yemen/
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-277-yemen-war-mosaic-277
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-277 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-277:
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 / and http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
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