Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 304 - Yemen War Mosaic 304

Yemen Press Reader 304: Neuer US-Angriff im Jemen – Trumps Besuch bei den Saudis und Rede – Gewalttätiger Extremismus im Jemen – Jemen und Saudi-Arabien – Cholera breitet sich aus – und mehr

Bei diesem Beitrag handelt es sich um ein Blog aus der Freitag-Community.
Ihre Freitag-Redaktion

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

New US raid in Yemen – Trump’s Saudi visit and “Islam” speech – Violent extremism in Yemen – Yemen and Saudi Arabia – Cholera is spreading – and more

Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Cholera / Most important: Cholera

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

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

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

24.5.2017 – RT (** A K T)

Jemen: Erneute Kommandoaktion der USA gegen Al-Kaida

Am Dienstag stürmten Spezialkräfte des US-Militärs eine mutmaßliche Al-Kaida-Zentrale im Jemen. Es war die zweite Bodenoperation innerhalb der Amtszeit von US-Präsident Trump. Der erste Einsatz endete mit einem Massaker. Dieses Mal lief alles glatt – zumindest laut Darstellung des Pentagon.

Nach eigenen Angaben hat das US-Militär bei einer Kommandoaktion der Navy SEALs im Jemen sieben Mitglieder Al-Kaidas getötet. Die Operation sei am Dienstag in der Provinz Marib erfolgt und richtete sich demnach gegen ein Anwesen, das von dem jemenitischen Ableger der Terrororganisation – Al-Qaida auf der arabischen Halbinsel (AQAP) – genutzt worden sei. In dem dort befindlichen Hauptquartier seien „ausländische Operationen“ geplant worden, erklärte Pentagon-Sprecher Jeff Davis.

Er sprach von „mindestens“ sieben getöteten AQAP-Mitgliedern. Nach CNN-Angaben wurden bei dem Einsatz auch zwei Angehörige des US-Militärs verletzt. Bei der von der US-Luftwaffe unterstützten Erstürmung des Geländes habe es sich um die erste Operation der USA in der Marib-Provinz gehandelt. Nie zuvor seien US-Kräfte so tief ins Landesinnere vorgedrungen, erklärte Davis. Der Angriff sei mit der „jemenitischen Regierung“ abgesprochen worden – gemeint ist die Exilregierung des Ex-Präsidenten Abed Rabbo Mansur Badi in Saudi-Arabien.

Laut US-Militär wurden bei der jüngsten Operation keine Zivilisten in Mitleidenschaft gezogen. Es gebe „keinerlei glaubwürdige Hinweise“ auf zivile Opfer. Nach Angaben der britischen Journalistin Iona Craig, die seit Jahren aus dem Jemen berichtet, wurden jedoch fünf Stammesangehörige getötet, die nicht Al-Kaida angehören. Das habe sie von Verwandten der Getöteten erfahren, mit denen sie in Kontakt steht.

https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/51186-jemen-erneute-kommandoaktion-usa-gegen-al-kaida/

25.4.2017 – World Socialist Web (** A K T)

Zum Abschluss von Trumps Nahost-Reise: US-Kommandoaktion im Jemen

Während US-Präsident Donald Trump am Dienstag seine dreitägige Reise durch den Nahen Osten beendete, führten amerikanische Spezialeinheiten eine Kommandoaktion im Inneren des Jemen durch. Laut dem für den Nahen Osten zuständigen US-Regionalkommando Centcom wurden dabei sieben Mitglieder der al-Qaida der Arabischen Halbinsel (AQAP) getötet.

Centcom und Ortsansässige erklärten, der Überfall in der zentral gelegenen Provinz Ma'rib sei von schweren Luftangriffen amerikanischer Flugzeuge, Drohnen und Helikopter begleitet worden.

Ein Sprecher des Centcom behauptete, das Ziel der Aktion sei nicht die Ermordung oder Gefangennahme einer Person gewesen, sondern die Beschlagnahme von Computern, Festplatten und Handys, die Informationen über die Pläne von AQAP liefern könnten.

Das jemenitische Nachrichtenportal Khabar meldete unter Berufung auf lokale Quellen, es habe ein Feuergefecht zwischen Stammeskämpfern und etwa 30 Soldaten gegeben, die meisten davon Amerikaner, aber auch einige Angehörige der saudischen Koalitionstruppen, die das Land angreifen. Khabar zufolge wurden mehrere amerikanische Angreifer seien verwundet und befanden sich zum Zeitpunkt des Überfalls keine AQAP-Kämpfer in der Gegend.

Am Dienstagnachmittag zitierte CBS News Vertreter des Pentagon, laut denen mindestens zwei Soldaten des amerikanischen Navy SEAL-Team Six verwundet wurden. Sie gaben außerdem zu, dass sie noch „feststellen“ müssten, wen sie bei der Aktion getötet haben. Anfangs hieß es, unter den Toten befänden sich keine „hochwertigen Ziele“, d. h. keine bekannten AQAP-Anführer oder Mitglieder.

Vertreter des Pentagon deuteten an, dass Trump die jüngste Kommandoaktion nicht direkt angeordnet hat. Das Weiße Haus hat den Befehlshabern im Pentagon, u. a. dem Kommandanten des Centcom General Joseph Votel, freie Hand gegeben, die Interventionen der USA im Irak, Syrien, dem Jemen und Somalia eigenmächtig zu eskalieren. - Von Bill van Auken

http://www.wsws.org/de/articles/2017/05/25/yeme-m25.html

Mein Kommentar: Tatsächlich sind wohl 5 der Getöteten Zivilisten, s. englischsprachige Berichte weiter unten.

23.5.2017 – US Dep. Of Defense (** A K T)

Pentagon Spokesman Describes U.S. Raid in Yemen

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is a formidable terror group that remains intent on attacking Americans and the U.S. homeland, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, director of Pentagon press operations, told reporters today. Davis addressed yesterday’s U.S. Special Operations counterterrorism raid that killed seven al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula operatives in Yemen’s Marib governorate, located about 150 miles north of Aden, the country’s capital.

Special Forces raided an al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula compound comprising a few buildings, he said, adding, “[al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was] using this as a headquarters, a place to meet and plan for external operations and to lead the group.”

First Raid Deep In Yemen

The raid marked the first time the United States conducted an operation into Marib governorate, and the location was the deepest the military has gone into Yemen to fight al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Davis said.

“The intent of the raid was to disrupt AQAP operations,” he said, noting that “at least” seven al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula militants were killed with small-arms fire and precision airstrikes from an AC-130 gunship.

No civilian casualties were reported, and based on observations on the ground and in the sky, there are no credible indications of such casualties, Davis said.

Dangerous Terrorists

“AQAP has significant amounts of American blood on its hands,” he said. “It is an organization that has used the ungoverned spaces in Yemen to plot, direct and inspire terrorist attacks against America, our citizens and our allies around the world.”

Yesterday’s raid was conducted under the same U.S. authorities as those granted in advance of the earlier, Jan. 28 raid, which included authorities for airstrikes and follow-on action, he said.

The operation had the support and cooperation of the Yemen government, and was done in conjunction with U.S. partners, the spokesman said.

“We will continue to support Yemen in bringing stability to the region by fighting known terrorist organizations like AQAP,” Davis said – By Terri Moon Cronk

https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1191048/pentagon-spokesman-describes-us-raid-in-yemen/

Comment by Ben Norton: The story on the new US raid in Yemen changed from to "collect intelligence" to "disrupt AQAP operations"

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/867078259267207168

23.5.2017 – Reprieve (** A K T)

Five Civilians Killed in Yemen Raid

Reprieve has learned that five civilians were killed in the raid by US Navy SEALs overnight. It is thought that at least two al-Qaeda fighters were also killed.

This contradicts the version of events put forward by the US military, which claimed seven militants were killed.

Reprieve has spoken to sources from the village of Al-Jubah in Marib province, Yemen who witnessed the raid. They confirmed the names of the five dead as:

Nasser Ali Mahdi Al-Adhal

Al-Ghader Saleh Salem Al-Adhal

Saleh Al-Taffaf

Yasser Al-Taffaf Al-Adhel

Shebreen Saeed Salem Al-Adhal

None of them were fighting for al-Qaeda. One of those killed, Nasser al-Adhal, was around 70 years of age and partially blind. According to witnesses, he was shot when he tried to greet the Navy Seals, mistaking them for guests arriving in the village.

The four other villagers were killed when they started to argue with the Navy Seals after the shooting of Nasser al-Adhal. Six villagers were seriously injured, including another elderly man who was around 69-years-old.

Al-Qaeda fighters gathering nearby, who are thought to have been the original target of the raid, were alerted by the gunshots in the village and firefight ensued in which at least two of them were killed. The Navy SEALs then left with the help of air support from a helicopter.

Commenting, Kate Higham, Head of the Assassinations Programme at Reprieve said:

“This new flawed raid by President Trump shows the US is not capable of distinguishing a terrorist from an innocent civilian. When even a 70-year-old is shot dead, it is clear these attacks are not targeted or precise. President Trump must order an immediate investigation into what went wrong and halt all raids and drone strikes before more innocent Yeminis are killed.”

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/five-civilians-killed-yemen-raid/ and a photo oft he old man killed: https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867112897469702144 and also https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/867101815111909405

Comment by Glen Greenwald: More reporting that US killed 5 more innocent Yemenis yesterday. Will the media tell their stories, hear from their grieving relatives, etc?

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/867102789524180993

24.5.2017 – Daily Mail (** A K T)

Did Navy SEALs botch raid in Yemen?

Human Rights group claims elite troops shot a blind 70-year-old man who tried to greet them, four villagers who argued with them and only two terrorists
Human rights activists claim five civilians, including a 70-year-old partially blind man were killed during a US Special Forces raid in Yemen.

Reprieve said they have spoken to sources in the village of Al-Jubah who witnessed the raid.

According to locals, none of the five men were fighting for al-Qaeda.

One victim, Nasser al-Adhal, who was about 70 and partially blind, was shot dead as he attempted to greet the Navy SEALs mistaking them for guests.

The four other villagers were gunned down when they protested about the killing of al-Adhal.

A further six villagers were seriously injured.

According to Reprieve, al-Qaeda had men nearby, who they believe were the intended target of the raid.

Kate Higham, head of the Assassinations Programme at Reprieve said: 'This new flawed raid by President Trump shows the US is not capable of distinguishing a terrorist from an innocent civilian.

'When even a 70-year-old is shot dead, it is clear these attacks are not targeted or precise. President Trump must order an immediate investigation into what went wrong and halt all raids and drone strikes before more innocent Yeminis are killed.'

A spokesman said: 'Raids such as this provide insight into AQAP's disposition, capabilities and intentions, which will allow us to continue to pursue, disrupt, and degrade AQAP,' the statement said.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters separately that there were no known US casualties and the raid was carried out 25-30 miles north of another US raid that took place in late January. (with Photos)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4536794/Did-Navy-SEALs-botch-raid-Yemen.html

Remark: More on this raid, below at cp14.

22.5.2017 – Los Angeles Times (** A K P)

Citizen Trump was right about the Saudis; President Trump, not so much

“It's the world's biggest funder of terrorism. Saudi Arabia funnels our petrodollars, our very own money, to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people.”

So said Donald Trump, private citizen. But then President Trump made Saudi Arabia his very first foreign destination. Trump rode in a golf cart with King Salman, did a traditional sword dance and speechified about America’s great friendship with “the Magnificent Kingdom.”

What changed Trump’s mind? Apparently, $110 billion. That’s how much the Saudis announced Saturday that they’ll spend to buy advanced American weaponry — one of the biggest arms deals in history.

This weapons deal, the president said, is all about U.S. jobs. Yet how many Americans want to work to arm the country that, as Citizen Trump said, “blew up the World Trade Center”?

The Islam that Saudi is spreading is a severe fundamentalism called Salafism. Citizen Trump tried to sum up Salafism by saying that Saudis “want women as slaves and to kill gays.” In older Salafist school textbooks that the Saudis disseminated globally, Christians and Jews were compared to “swine” and “apes.” A later 12th-grade text explains the religious duty to wage jihad against the infidel to expand the faith. Even recent Saudi textbooks teach the anti-Semitic fable “The Protocol of the Elders of Zion” as history and insist that sorcerers must be killed.

Trump’s speech on Sunday rightly decried the horrors of terrorism and urged international unity to resist it. But the “global center for combating extremist ideology” he announced in the speech, to be credible, will need to start by combating the Saudi government itself.

Decades of Saudi proselytizing have contributed to violent extremism worldwide. According to William McCants, the director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, most of the groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the United States now espouse some version of the Saudis’ intolerant faith. And a close look at the Global Terrorism Database shows that the increase in terrorist killings since 2000 is almost entirely due to attacks by violent Salafists — including nearly 3 out of 4 terrorist killings worldwide in the last 10 years.

And it’s “our very own money” that’s been bankrolling the Saudis in their gigantic ideological campaign. Using U.S. government data, I calculate that America’s 125 million households each sent, on average, around $35 to the Saudis last year just by buying gas — and even more if you count what we spent on plastics and other everyday goods made with petroleum.

The main force behind the weekend’s arms deal is King Salman’s son, Mohammed bin Salman. This young prince is leading Saudi’s war in Yemen.

Citizen Trump once accused a Saudi prince of wanting to “control U.S. politicians with daddy’s money.” A critic might say the same about what Prince Mohammed wants to do to President Trump. Except that the money that lets Saudi Arabia control the president of the United States comes from us, when we pointlessly pay for Saudi oil at the pump – by Leif Wenar

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-wenar-saudi-arms-deal-20170522-story.html

22.5.2017 – Democracy Now (** A P)

Medea Benjamin: Congress Should Halt Trump's $110B Arms Deal over Saudi Atrocities in Yemen & Region

We speak to Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink and author of the book "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection."

MEDEA BENJAMIN: It’s just appalling to see Trump in Saudi Arabia, Amy, touting this $110 billion arms deal, when you look at the history of how those arms have been used. You talked about their use in devastating Yemen. We also have the example of them crushing the democratic uprising in neighboring Bahrain, using those weapons to fund al-Qaeda groups in Iraq and in Syria, and using those weapons internally to crush dissent, particularly in the Shia areas, which is happening right now with the Saudi siege of the Shia town of Awamiyah, that is getting absolutely no press in the United States. So, Congress does have the right—and, I would say, the obligation—to stop these arms deals. It didn’t do it under Obama. It’s time they do it under Trump. They’ll only do it if we, the people, put pressure on Congress to say no weapons sales to the repressive regime of Saudi Arabia.

Congress could stop it. And he also will probably be giving the green light for the invasion of the port of Hudaydah, which is where the majority of humanitarian aid comes in. The humanitarian community says that will be catastrophic.

So, I think, once again, we have to put the pressure on Congress to say no green light for the invasion of that port. And, in fact, what we do need is an emphasis on going back to the negotiating table, find a political solution to this crisis in Yemen, which is the furthest thing from what President Trump wants to do, because you could see from his trip to Saudi Arabia that this is all about encircling Iran, this is all about inflaming even further sectarian violence, which is what the U.S. has been doing by supporting the Saudi involvement in Yemen.

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/22/medea_benjamin_congress_should_halt_trumps

5. 2017 – Rand Corporation (** B P)

What Factors Cause Individuals to Reject Violent Extremism in Yemen?

Why do some individuals engage in political violence in Yemen, while others do not? In this report, the third in a series on this topic, the authors examine the role that social, political, and economic factors play on individual behavior toward violence in the midst of Yemen's bloody and multiyear civil war. This report uses a unique national survey conducted in Yemen in 2016, amidst active fighting, to better understand why Yemenis may reject political violence despite persistent conflict and civil unrest across the country. The report addresses how the U.S. government and its partners can strengthen efforts to undermine violent extremism in Yemen, with implications for future countering violent extremism programs worldwide.

Key Findings

The Best Way to Undermine Violent Extremism Is the Strengthen Those Factors That Motivate Individuals to Reject Political Violence

Choosing not to engage in violence is attitudinally distinct from opposing political violence in theory.

Urban centers represent important populations for strengthening nonradicalization.

Yemenis perceive attacks against local civilians as more legitimate than attacks against foreigners, including aid workers.

Social ties, measured by the degree of influence exerted by family, friends, and religious leaders, also do not affect individual radicalization in one clear direction.

Yemenis view political violence as a form of activism, so redirected pathways — or participation in nonviolent activism — do not diminish a propensity for violence.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1727.html

My comment: What about all the violence and misery brought to Yemen from abroad, by the US and it’s local allies (“Saudi coalition”). This violence fuels and creates – just more violence.

3.2015 – Al Bab (** B K P)

Yemen and Saudi Arabia: a tangled relationship

In 2015 an alliance led by Saudi Arabia began a large-scale military intervention in Yemen aimed at restoring the presidency of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who had been ousted by Houthi rebels. As Zaidi Muslims, the Houthis had some religious affinity with Iran and what had begun as a political conflict within Yemen soon became characterised by the Saudis and their supporters as a war to curb Iranian influence.

Historically, though, Iran's involvement in Yemen has been minimal while Saudi Arabia's involvement has been continuous and extensive. Almost constantly since its foundation in 1932, the kingdom has meddled politically, and sometimes militarily – often with negative consequences for Yemen. The article below looks at the history of this relationship.

Click on these links to jump to different sections of the article:

The Treaty of Taif, 1934

Yemen's civil war, 1962-1970

Yemeni unification, 1990

The Gulf War, 1990-91

Expulsions from Saudi Arabia

The oil factor

The border question

North-south war, 1994

The end of the border dispute

The Houthi rebellion

The Houthi rebellion, though, was partly a result of Saudi missionary activities. A major factor leading up to the Houthi conflict was rivalry between the majority of Zaidi Shiites and a growing minority of men who had converted from Zaidism to the salafi or Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam, according to Shelagh Weir, a veteran Yemen watcher.

Though ostensibly religious, this rivalry also had a social dimension, Weir told a conference in London. Converts included men who occupied the bottom of the traditional status hierarchy and bitterly resented their social disadvantage, as well as youths who resented the power of the older generation or were attracted by the charisma of salafi leaders and their obvious financial resources. "Certain sheikhs openly or tacitly supported salafism for personal or anti-Zaidi reasons or because of the subsidies they received from Saudi Arabia."

"During the 1990s the growth of socially-divisive salafism within the heartlands of Zaidi Islam was encouraged and funded by officials and business interests in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen – including President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"Salafis increasingly mocked or questioned the beliefs and rituals of the Zaidi majority, threatening them in mosques and accusing them of wanting the return of the imam [i.e. the end of the republican system] – though this was publicly denied by the Zaidi clerics."

Inevitably, the aggressive salafi/Wahhabi proselytising triggered a response from the other side, with the Houthis seeking to defend Zaidi rights in the Saadah region. – By Brian Whitaker

http://al-bab.com/yemen-and-saudi-arabia-tangled-relationship

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Cholera / Most important: Cholera

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

24.5.2017 – WHO (** A H)

To date, more than 38,300 suspected #cholera cases and 398 deaths have been reported in 19 governorates

https://twitter.com/WHOYemen/status/867433304982736897 and film by Yemen Press, with WHO figures already outdated.

24.5.2017 – TRT (** A H)

Film: Why should you care about the cholera outbreak in Yemen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywFFC9LeyI

24.5.2017 – The Guardian (** A H)

Scientists race against time as Yemen's deadly cholera outbreak spirals

Health system in Yemen at breaking point as sharp spike in reported cases prompts urgent work to identify suspected new cholera strain

As Yemen’s cholera outbreak gathers pace, an investigation is under way to determine whether a new and more deadly strain of the disease is responsible for a second wave of cases that hit the country last month.

With more than 2,000 suspected cases reported daily, medical supplies are running low and in some hospitals beds are shared by up to six children. Scientists are urgently trying to identify the suspected new strain at specialist laboratories in France.

Malnutrition, lack of clean water and a conflict that has destroyed infrastructure and hampered access to medical supplies have allowed the epidemic to escalate, according to those coordinating the aid response.

Samples have already been collected by the WHO for testing in Paris. Experts hope the results can help them understand how the disease has been spreading.

The immediate forecast is grim, however. Even by the most conservative estimates, there will be 150,000 cases of cholera within the next six months, said WHO statisticians.

Dr Mohammed Zaid said: “I personally received 180 cases in one day. People are left lying in the corridors and in some cases we are having to put six children in one bed.

“We are urging the international organisations to scale up their response. We are facing so many challenges: we lack medicines and medical supplies, we do not have enough doctors and nurses. We don’t even have a place to wash our hands.” – by Hannah Summers

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/24/scientists-race-against-time-yemen-deadly-cholera-outbreak-spirals?CMP=twt_a-global-development_b-gdndevelopment

24.5.2017 – Red Cross (** A H)

Second cargo plane arrived. Very much needed. Now 398 dead for close to 40'000 suspected cholera cases in Yemen (photo)

https://twitter.com/afaiteICRC/status/867348172972097536

24.5.2017 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen (** A H)

Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Mr. Jamie McGoldrick, on the Urgent need for Funding to Halt the Spread of Cholera

Cholera continues to spread at an unprecedented rate throughout Yemen affecting men, women, and children who have for more than two years withstood the consequences of a conflict that is collapsing institutions and social safety nets. With urgency I appeal to United Nations Members States for financial and political support to help avert what is sure to be an additional and devastating blow to Yemen.

In the last three weeks, health authorities have reported over 35,500 suspected cholera cases, a third of whom are children, and 361 associated deaths in 19 of 22 governorates.

Malnutrition and cholera are interconnected; weakened and hungry people are more likely to contract cholera and cholera is more likely to flourish in places where malnutrition exists. Seventeen million people in Yemen are food insecure, including 462,000 children in the grip of acute malnutrition. Seven million people in Yemen face the possibility of famine and now over one hundred thousand people are estimated to be at risk of contracting cholera.

The speed at which cholera is spreading among the population exceeds the capacity of the health system to respond given its weakened state after more than two years of conflict, import restrictions and the lack of regular salary payments to health workers. Hundreds of thousands of people are at a greater risk of dying as they face the ‘triple threat’ of conflict, starvation and cholera.

Building on their presence in all 22 governorates across the country, national and international humanitarians are valiantly doing everything they can to prevent and treat cholera. However, they are doing so while facing a worst-case scenario - the majority of health care centers are closed, those that are open have limited staff and supplies, water and sanitation services are unable to provide clean water to the population, and humanitarian funds available to cover the existing institutional gaps and thwart the spread of the disease are meager.

Humanitarians are seeking US$55.4 million to prevent and treat cholera at the national, governorate and community level in the next six months. However, every day that funding is delayed the outbreak affects more people and more resources are needed to control it.

Cholera is preventable and treatable and no life should be lost to this disease. Humanitarians are acting and responding and we now need UN Member States to please help us by providing new funds and by ensuring that all funds pledged during the High Level Pledging Event in Geneva are made effective without delay.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-yemen-mr-jamie-mcgoldrick-urgent-need-funding-halt and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/hc_statement_on_cholera_-_23may2017.pdf

24.5.2017 – Centre for International Governance Innovation (** B H)

Yemen, Water, Conflict and Cholera

Jacqueline Lopour: More than two years into the Yemeni civil war, the country is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. Top of the list for many Yemeni civilians is their lack of access to clean, safe, usable water. Currently, the United Nations estimates that 14.5 million people in Yemen are affected, and with the ongoing conflict and drought, this is only going to get worse.

Clean water is something that people in developed countries often take for granted. For millions in Yemen, clean water is inaccessible or simply too expensive.

Using unsafe water and substandard hygiene facilities has dire consequences for the health and well-being of civilian populations, especially during times of war.

The conflict has also damaged much of the country’s critical water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, exacerbating the problem. In some densely populated areas, a lack of sewage management and waste-water treatment poses a serious health threat. Often, these problems are related to the country’s massive fuel shortages, as there is simply not enough fuel to run water pumps or power other infrastructure.

A year ago, I said that Yemen served as a cautionary tale for the region and the world. Since then, the situation has worsened in almost every way.

UN and other humanitarian workers are seriously underfunded.

The situation could not be more dire, yet so many in the international community are ignoring the conflict – interviewed: JACQUELINE LOPOUR

https://www.cigionline.org/articles/yemen-water-conflict-and-cholera = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-water-conflict-and-cholera

23.–24.5.2017 – UNICEF (** A H)

#Yemen: Delivered life-saving supplies to Sanaa, Amran, Aden, Abyan, Dale and other provinces to contain #cholera.

https://twitter.com/RelanoMeritxell/status/867258002675466241

.@UNICEF & partners responding to the #Cholera emergency across #Yemen, but the needs are ever-growing

https://twitter.com/UNICEFmena/status/867304235251240960

23.5.2017 – CBC News (** A H)

Yemen doctor fighting cholera: 'Please stop the war'

One thousand new cases — every day. That's what the growing cholera outbreak in Yemen is producing. Most of those affected are under the age of 15. And according to doctors in the war-torn country it could get a whole lot worse in the coming days and weeks.

Dr. Mariam Aldogani is a health specialist with the charity Save the Children in Yemen's capital, Sana'a.

She tells As It Happens host Carol Off that cholera is spreading quickly in Yemen for a variety of reasons

There is a collapse of the health system. And since last year there's no money to run the health facilities and no salaries for the medical staff. Garbage and a lack of clean water are everywhere. There's more than 14 million people in Yemen with no access to clean water. And in the last month there's been a lot of rain, it's the rainy season. So there's a mix between the garbage and water and it's become contaminated.

The war situation has become aggravated. The flow of essential medicines into the country has fallen by seventy percent. And malnutrition in children has increased greatly in Yemen. And people do not have the money or the salary to pay for clean water.

Last week I went to one of the main public hospitals in Sana'a city you cannot imagine what I saw. I saw a lot of patients lying on the ground. There were six children lying on one bed. And the doctors are struggling to save their lives. One doctor told me that in one day he saw around 180 cases. And the most important thing I saw: the fear in mothers' eyes because they are very worried about their children who are struggling. And these are the people who reach the hospitals. But, you know, in remote areas there's a lot of cases and in most of those cases they are dying there because they cannot make it to the city.

And due to the war some areas are closed. There is a delay. Before now some cases could reach the hospital in Sana'a within two hours. It now takes 12 hours to get to the hospital to get what they need. It's terrible. For example, Yemen Save the Children, we have 195 health facilities and more than 55 mobile teams. But all this does not cover the needs. It's not enough.

We need peace not war. The children and women in Yemen we are not the cause of this war. We paid the highest cost. Yemen now [sniffles] I'm sorry. You know, Yemeni people now are in the eye of the biggest crisis in the world. We just need peace, please. Enough of people dying in Yemen. Women and children are dying (with interview in Audio)

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.4127509/yemen-doctor-fighting-cholera-please-stop-the-war-1.4127941

23.5.2017 – Deutschlandfunk (** A H)

Audio: Bürgerkrieg im Jemen - Die Not durch die Cholera

Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen sterben viele Menschen an Cholera. Die Koordinatorin des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes, Astrid Nissen, beklagt, dass Hilfe schwer durchkommt, weil die Kriegsgegner sie an Checkpoints blockieren.
Astrid Nissen im Gespräch mit Liane von Billerbeck
Hören bis: 29.11.2017 05:50

http://www.podcast.de/episode/333900411/B%C3%BCrgerkrieg+im+Jemen+-+Die+Not+durch+die+Cholera/

23.5.2017 – Reuters (** A H)

Yemen cholera caseload leaps, death toll rises: WHO

The number of cholera cases in Yemen has leapt, a World Health Organization document showed on Tuesday, with 35,217 suspected cases since April 27, when the outbreak began to spread rapidly.

That represents a 50 percent increase in the reported incidence compared with figures given last Friday by the WHO representative in the country, Nevio Zagaria, who said at that point there had been 23,425 cases since April 27.

A WHO epidemiology bulletin covering the period up to May 22 said 361 deaths had been reported, mainly in western governorates of Yemen. That is a rise of more than 100 since Friday, when Zagaria said 242 people had died – By Tom Miles

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-cholera-idUSKBN18J2QL

23.5.22017 – Ärzte ohne Grenzen (** A H)

Cholera-Ausbruch droht außer Kontrolle zu geraten

Die Cholera-Epidemie im Jemen droht außer Kontrolle zu geraten. Die Zahl der Verdachtsfälle hat sich in den vergangenen fünf Tagen mehr als verdoppelt. Betroffen sind mittlerweile nach Regierungsangaben 18 der insgesamt 22 Provinzen des Landes. Um den Ausbruch einzudämmen, fordern wir die Bezahlung des medizinischen Personals, Import-Erleichterungen und sicheren Zugang für Helfende.

„Die schnelle Ausbreitung ist sehr alarmierend”, sagt Ghassan Abou Chaar, Landeskoordinator von Ärzte ohne Grenzen im Jemen. „Schon vor dem Cholera-Ausbruch war das Gesundheitssystem überlastet und der Bedarf an medizinischer Versorgung riesig. Um den Ausbruch unter Kontrolle zu bringen, wird es nicht reichen, die Menschen zu behandeln, die in den medizinischen Einrichtungen ankommen. Wir müssen uns auch um die Ursachen der Krankheit kümmern, indem wir den Zugang zu sauberem Wasser und sanitären Einrichtungen verbessern und vor Ort in den Gemeinden arbeiten, um neue Fälle zu verhindern.“

Wir fordern, dass der Import von medizinischen Gütern erleichtert wird. Außerdem muss das jemenitische Personal bezahlt werden, um ihm eine Weiterarbeit zu ermöglichen

https://www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.at/article/cholera-ausbruch-droht-ausser-kontrolle-zu-geraten

23.5.2017 – ARD (** A H)

Audio: Bürgerkrieg im Jemen - Die Not durch die Cholera

Im Bürgerkriegsland Jemen sterben viele Menschen an Cholera. Die Koordinatorin des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes, Astrid Nissen, beklagt, dass Hilfe schwer durchkommt, weil die Kriegsgegner sie an Checkpoints blockieren. Astrid Nissen im Gespräch mit Liane von Billerbeck www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Interview Hören bis: 29.11.2017

http://www.ardmediathek.de/radio/Studio-9-Deutschlandfunk-Kultur/Cholera-breitet-sich-in-Jemen-aus-Warum/Deutschlandfunk-Kultur/Audio-Podcast?bcastId=42747196&documentId=43027630

23.5.2017 – Mohammed Al-Asaadi (** A H)

As of today, the total #cholera suspected cases reached 35,524 with 361 associated deaths across #Yemen. It's extremely heartbreaking (photo)

https://twitter.com/alasaadim/status/867059930355961857

23.5.2017 – APA (** A H)

Cholera death toll in Yemen rises to 350

The death toll due to cholera in Yemen has risen to 350 since its outbreak on April 27, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency, ICRC's operations director Dominik Stillhart said he spoke to the Yemeni health minister on the issue early Monday.

“The death toll in the Yemen cholera outbreak has risen to 350 and the registered cholera cases have reached up to 30,000," he added.

http://en.apa.az/world-news/asia-news/cholera-death-toll-in-yemen-rises-to-350.html

23.5.2017 – New Scientist (** A H)

Unprecedented cholera outbreak tears through war-torn Yemen

A cholera outbreak in Yemen has killed 332 people, and left more than 32,000 ill in the last four weeks, the World Health Organization reports.

The rapid spread of cholera-causing bacteria is largely due to the collapse of sanitation infrastructure, the WHO says. Rubbish collection services have ceased and sewage pipes have been ruptured by air strikes, allowing faecal matter to leak into water used for drinking and irrigating food crops. Water-treatment plants have also shut down.

Adding to the problem is the weather. Recent warm spells have allowed cholera-causing bacteria to flourish, and heavy rains have washed large volumes of waste into water supplies.

Cholera has now spread to 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates – by Alice Klein

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2132070-unprecedented-cholera-outbreak-tears-through-war-torn-yemen/

22.5.2017 – CNN (** A H)

Film: Cholera epidemic feared in Yemen

A deadly cholera outbreak could become a full blown-epidemic in Yemen, with more than 65,000 cases expected by the end of June. CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports.

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/05/22/yemen-cholera-epidemic-fears-amanpour-dnt.cnn

22.5.2017 – Naji Alkaladi (** A H)

#Cholera cases are increasing and out of control in #Abyan province, South #Yemen (photo)

https://twitter.com/NajTV/status/866788643981144065

22.5.2017 – Save the Children (** A H)

MORE THAN 600 CHILDREN A DAY DIAGNOSED WITH SUSPECTED CHOLERA IN YEMEN

Save the Children staff in Yemen are warning that a deadly cholera outbreak could become a full blown-epidemic, with more than 65,000 cases expected by the end of June at current rates. Yemen is seeing an average of more than 1,000 suspected cases of cholera a day, with nearly two out of three suspected of being children under 15 years.

Doctor Zaid at a hospital in Sanaa told Save the Children:

“Last week, we received 2-3 suspected cases per minute. I personally received 180 cases in one day last month. The number of patients in need is shocking. People lay in the corridors, and in some cases we have had to put six children on one bed as there are not enough to go around. We ask the international organisations to scale up their response. We face many challenges in this hospital. We lack medicines and medical supplies. We do not have enough doctors and nurses. We don’t even have a hand-washing place.”

Muhsin Siddiquey, Yemen Acting Country Director, Save the Children, says:

“The cholera outbreak is moving beyond the ability of humanitarian agencies like Save the Children to control under the current circumstances, if appropriate measures are not taken. It’s spreading too fast and only 20% of the £17 million needed to stem the outbreak has been pledged so far. Children are dying from an entirely preventable disease right in front of our eyes. Save the Children can turn the situation around by raising public awareness, assisting in running Diarrhoea Treatment Centres, distributing medical supplies and oral rehydration kits. But we need ongoing restrictions on imports of medical supplies to be lifted and funding to come in straight away before it is too late.’

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/2017-05/more-600-children-day-diagnosed-suspected-cholera-yemen

Remark: Figures are already outdated.

22.5.2017 – UNICEF (** A H)

Children of Yemen are in the grip of the second cholera outbreak in six months

Yemen is in the grip of a cholera outbreak. With more than 30,000 suspected cases of cholera and 300 associated deaths from acute watery diarrhoea reported across the country so far, Yemenis are staring at yet another public health crisis in the making.

Hospitals and treatment centres are struggling to cope with the large number of patients coming in from all corners of the country. Children, who are the most vulnerable, are seen sprawled on the floor of wards, twisting and turning with discomfort. Many of the cases are critical.

To make matters worse, there is a shortage of doctors and nursing staff, many of whom haven’t been paid in months. There is also a shortage of medicines and intravenous fluids.

UNICEF and partners are supporting diarrhoea teatment centres by providing much needed medicines, oral rehydration salts and water treatment tablets to those affected. But the number of those suffering continues to increase. UNICEF has also started setting up oral rehydration centres across the country where patients with moderate diarrhoea will be treated

Dr. Hussein Hadas is heading the emergency response at the diarrhoea treatment centre in the Al Sabayeen hospital, where Um Taha’s family are struggling with the illness. He says his team is overwhelmed. “There is a shortage of medicines, intravenous fluids, oral rehydration salts and other basic medical supplies. Patients are lying wherever they can find a place. My team is working around the clock to treat patients who are coming in large numbers.”

In another hospital across town, soiled blankets and bedsheets are stacked next to the ward where cholera patients are being treated. The hospital staff tell us there is no water to wash these blankets, which are possible carriers of infection. The toilets have no running water, and the doctor in charge of the hospital pleads for more medicines and medical supplies.

“Poor patients from all across the country are coming to us, but with a shortage of basic medical supplies, our hands are tied. Even though we haven’t been paid for months on end, we often give money to these poor patients from our own pockets to go out and buy basic medical supplies and food,” he explains – by Rajat Madhok

https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/yemen_96026.html

18.5.2017 – World Health Organization (** A H)

Yemen: Cholera outbreak response - 27 April to 18 May 2017

A cholera outbreak has reignited in Yemen, spreading with unprecedented speed across 18 out of 23 governorates and causing a total of 23 425 suspected cases and 242 deaths between 27 April 2017 and 18 May 2017.

This is the second wave of an outbreak which first emerged in September 2016 and had previously shown signs of slowing. The cumulative total number of cases reported across both waves of the outbreak has reached 49 096 with 361 related deaths.

The current rate of spread is alarming, with 44% of the total cases reported over the last 7.5 months and 65% of the total deaths reported in May 2017 alone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has supported health authorities in revising the overall response strategy, summarized in the points below:

Situation

Since 28 September 2016, 49 096 suspected cholera cases and 361 related deaths have been reported.

A resurgence of the outbreak has seen a total of 23 425 suspected cholera cases and 242 deaths reported in 18 governorates since 27 April.

The current rate of spread is alarming, with 44% of the total cases over the last 7.5 months and 65% of the total deaths reported in May 2017 alone.

While the disease is spreading rapidly in 18 governorates, Sana’a City (Amant Al-Asimah) is particularly affected, with more than 7 000 suspected cholera cases. This represents nearly one-third of all cases in the last 20 days.

The number of deaths recorded over the last three weeks is almost two times higher than deaths reported from October 2016 to March 2017.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-cholera-outbreak-response-27-april-18-may-2017 and in full: http://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/yemen/YEMEN_SITREP_Final_20_May.pdf

cp2 Allgemein / General

23.5.2017 – Veterans Today (* B K P)

YEMEN – A Modern Day Concentration Camp

To Restore Hadi to Power – the biggest lie of the century

Hadi, the former deputy to former president Ali Abdalla Saleh, was chosen as a caretaker president following the Arab Spring of 2011 in Yemen to lead the country for a period of 2 years, during which time he was to effect a general election, among other things, under the Gulf Initiative (“the GI”).

It should be noted that as a condition precedent for the validity of the GI all parties who were involved in the Arab Spring revolution had to agree to it and sign it. Ansarullah (Huthi and others), Al-Harak (Southern separatists) and others had neither agreed to it nor signed it.

The GI was made in February 2012 and expired in February 2014 without Hadi having performed any of its mandates!

We are told that the period of the application of the GI was extended by a further a year by a quango of people appointed to their positions by Mr Hadi. That extension itself had expired in February 2015. Thus, there was no legitimacy to Mr Hadi whatsoever both from the start of the GI all the way to its expiry in February 2015.

This therefore makes the attack on Yemen by the Saudico illegal and all the actions taken by them from 26th March 2015 to date amounts to Crimes against Humanity.

Some parts of Ta’iz that are under the control of pro-Hadi militias have committed genocide against the tribes of Al-Rummaymah and Al-Junaid in a manner identical to Daesh practices of crucifixion and skinning people alive and mutilating their bodies. The leaders of these pro Hadi terror militias are Wahabi takfiris called Hammoud Al-Mikhlafi (currently in Turkey) and another one called Abul-Abbas.

At the head of the renegade generals is Ali Mohsin Al-Ahmer. This general belongs to the Party of Islah (the Muslim Brotherhood of Yemen) and he was in charge of recruitment of mujahideens during the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s. He is also behind Aqap in Yemen, and thus Daesh. In fact, there is ample evidence to show that the Saudico fighters are fighting alongside these terror outfits. What connects the two is ideology, the Wahabi takfiri ideology, and, of course, petrodollars.

The Islah Party’s spiritual leader is Sheikh Abdelhameed Zandani. Zandani was on the most wanted list for terror offences by the US authorities and is currently hosted in Riyadh. Hadi is their political leader and general Al-Ahmer their military wing leader. The “nobel” peace winner Tawakul Karman is one of their pet soldiers – she was one of the agitators of the Arab Spring in 2011. Hammoud Al-Mikhlafi and Abul-Abbas are their followers.

The Result – Modern Day Concentration Camp known as YemenBy Kevin Barrett

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/05/23/yemen-camp/

22.5.2017 – Pakistan Observer (* B P)

Muslim fraternity is its own enemy

Unfortunately the differences between Arab countries and Iran over fiqa date back to 1400 years, as both sides believe in the righteousness of their cause. Both sects have co-existed during this period; however with sharpening of contradictions between Saudi Arabia and Iran the Muslim world stands divided. Moreover, the US and the West had fuelled the sectarian fracas by supporting Iraq in its war against Iran. With the funding by Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries, Iraq had emerged as the most powerful country in the region posing a palpable threat to Arab countries as well as Israel.

No Muslim polity is at peace with itself. Almost all are in turbulence and turmoil in varying degrees. They are being ruined and ransacked by ever-widening sectarian divide and blighted by confessional antipathies being whipped up by the divided fanatical strands. Unfortunately, most Muslim countries are deviating from the ideological track and are following shadows of opportunism or adventurism. And the present state of affairs is the result of profligacy of unimaginative rulers in majority of the Muslim countries.

In fact, the OIC is divided on sectarian basis. Saudi Arabia and majority of Muslim countries are on one side, and Iran, Iraq and Syria etc., on the other. The simmering conflict can lead to a full blown war. Unfortunately, the Muslim fraternity is its own enemy, as its leaders have not tried to discover the verities of freedom, equality and solidarity, which is why some Muslim countries have become breeding grounds for extremists and criminals. Indeed, Islam stands for love and affection, peace and amity, moderation and enlightenment. However, the shenanigans of the fraternity’s extremist strands have given handle to the compulsive detractors of our religion to depict it as a creed of violence and bloodletting.
Those involved in the 9/11 tragedy definitely brought no victory but only outright hostility of the world community to the predominantly moderate Muslim fraternity – by Mohammad Jamil

http://pakobserver.net/muslim-fraternity-enemy/

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Cholera: cp1a

24.5.2017 – Townhall (* B E H)

Yemen Needs Aid That Helps

Over 17 million people are now experiencing intense levels of food insecurity in Yemen, and an additional seven million require immediate food assistance. Despite these conditions, the United Nations (UN) has yet to declare a famine.

Without successful intervention, the occurrence of a famine appears eminent. The current structure of aid is insufficient with numbers in need far outreaching those being reached. Aid in the form of direct food transfers only addresses Yemen’s symptoms of food insecurity while ignoring the causes.

Yemen’s food crisis is financially driven. Despite the civil war, markets are still functioning and providing food. All of the 22 regions have some level of functioning markets where food is still available, albeit at decreasing rates.

However, half of all families are purchasing food on credit because cash is sparse and communities have already “sold their assets, spent their savings and exhausted extended networks of support”.

Reports from the WFP claim that public salaries have not been paid since September, while the Crisis Group reports that some salaries are still being sporadically received in the south and to a lesser extent in the Houthi controlled north. The people reliant on public salaries or pensions for their livelihood make up 30 percent of the population. Combined with unemployment rates of almost sixteen percent, this situation creates financial barriers that block those in need from buying available food. Actual data for cash availability is unreported, but analyzing the country’s deteriorating central bank provides an indication of the financial situation.

In September 2016, President Hadi moved the central bank from the Houthi-controlled Sanaa to Aden. Prior to this, the bank’s main functions were paying public salaries throughout the country, protecting national currency values, and contributing to the import of basic commodities. All this was accomplished without income generated from exporting hydrocarbon, which prior to the conflict accounted for 70 percent of the government’s budget.

Once the bank was moved to Aden, asset liquidity began to fall. Hadi ordered roughly $640 million worth of riyals printed, in an attempt to relieve the cash shortages. Unfortunately, the disbursement was not transparent and asset liquidity remains a problem. Foreign investment could potentially flush cash into their economy, but it is currently at a $1.2 billion deficit, and the small amount of revenue the government receives is deposited into external accounts in Saudi Arabia instead of flowing into the county.

While underutilized –– with a goal of reaching only one million people last year –– vouchers mark an important step towards a market-based approach to aid distribution. – by Tirzah Duren

https://townhall.com/columnists/youngvoicesadvocates/2017/05/24/yemen-needs-aid-that-helps-n2331138

24.5.2017 – Mona Relief (* A H)

Monareliefye.org launches in Sana’a distributing Ramadan food aid baskets

Monareliefye.org launches in Sana’a distributing Ramadan food aid baskets

May 24, 2017

Mona Relief ground crew started today distributing food aid baskets on the occasion of advent Ramadan month to IDPs and vulnerable families in the capital Sana’a.

Today 90 families in Saref area of Sana’a were able to receive food aid baskets from Mona Relief org.

This project was founded by an anonymous Kuwaiti donor. (photos)

https://www.monareliefye.org/single-post/2017/05/24/Monareliefyeorg-launches-in-Sana%E2%80%99a-distributing-Ramadan-food-aid-baskets and films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsyLGfoOF5o and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9bEpGvPWuA

22.5.2017 – BBC (A H)

Yemen war: Major cholera epidemic feared, says charity

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39996900?intlink_from_url&link_location=live-reporting-story

Comment by Judith Brown: Look carefully at this article by the BBC - would you guess that the major cause of the cholera outbreak was the aerial bombardment of Yemen by Saudi warplanes from this shameful article that makes it appear as if cholera just appeared for no real reason during 'clashes' between Hadi and the Houthis.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155547552933641

22.5.2017 – PRI (* B H)

Survival is what Yemenis think about every day

Bushra Aldukhainah is 7,000 miles from home this week. But Yemen is always with her, as she tells Americans about the war that is tearing her country apart. And she's asking for their help.

"I will try to give hope to the people," she says, "that we're trying to reach our voice out, so people can help us." Aldukhainah, who runs CARE International's northern Yemen operation, speaks with authenticity. She is both an aid worker in the middle of Yemen's war and a Yemeni woman who has seen her country slip from troubled to imperiled.

"There's no more safe place in Yemen to stay in," she says. "I mean, the conflict is reaching out to every place in Yemen: every single village, every single place."

In Washington, DC, Aldukhainah told a group gathered for CARE's annual conference Monday that life for many in Yemen is a daily fight for survival. "All they think about is what will be next, will they live for the end of the day, will they find a meal for their day, will they be able to get clean water to drink, and will they have access to health facilities when they get sick."

Aldukhainah says she is telling her story in the US on behalf of her fellow aid workers and the millions of Yemenis they serve. She hopes to raise awareness of Yemen's humanitarian crisis – By Stephen Snyder

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-05-22/survival-what-yemenis-think-about-every-day

21.5.2017 – Government of Norway (A H)

Norway supporting efforts to fight cholera outbreak in Yemen

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/pm_yemen/id2554060/ = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/norway-supporting-efforts-fight-cholera-outbreak-yemen

15.5.2017 – World Food Programme (* A H)

WFP Yemen Situation Report #30, 1 May - 15 May 2017

In May, WFP is targeting 2.1 million people (highest priority) with full General Food Assistance (in-kind and cash) entitlements– General Food Distributions (GFD) and 3.9 million people (high priority) with 60 percent entitlements. WFP was forced to reduce the number of beneficiaries in May due to a funding gap of USD 5.6 million. Further to this, in July WFP will have a complete commodity pipeline break. Therefore, WFP is appealing for immediate and sustained funding to ensure that the most food insecure populations receive necessary food and nutrition support.

As a result of a recent cholera outbreak, some 124 deaths and 11,046 cases have been reported in 22 governorates as of 14 May. UNHAS will airlift, at the request of WHO, 80 mt of urgently needed medical supplies from the Netherlands. Since one-third of households in Yemen are food insecure and one-quarter are acutely malnourished, a further spread of Cholera would have a significant impact on an already beleaguered population. WFP, in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF and other humanitarian partners, met with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to assure its continued logistical and operational support to address the worsening cholera situation.

WFP plans to targets the most food insecure (6.8 million), provide nutrition support to 1.9 million people and supports refugees, whilst including a contingency component in the event of natural disaster and further displacement.

WFP is closely monitoring the situation in Aden where insecurity, violence, protests in support of the former governor and pro-secessionist movement has been increasing since the 27 April Presidential Resolution ousted the governor from power.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-yemen-situation-report-30-1-may-15-may-2017 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP%20Yemen%20Situation%20Report%20%2330%2C%2001%20-%2015%20May%202017.pdf

12.5.2017 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Protection Cluster (A H)

Yemen | Main Protection Cluster Dashboard [etc.] January to April 2017

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-main-protection-cluster-dashboard-january-april-2017

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-main-protection-cluster-partner-coverage-january-april-2017

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-main-protection-cluster-gap-analysis-january-april-2017

http://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-map-main-protection-cluster-partners-coverage-january-april-2017

30.4.2017 – UNOCHA (A H)

Maps: YEMEN Organizations 3W Operational Presence (as of 30 April 2017)

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-organizations-3w-operational-presence-30-april-2017-enar = https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/yemen/infographic/yemen-organizations-3w-operational-presence-30-april-2017 and in full: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/april_3w_en_v4.pdf = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/april_3w_en_v4.pdf

30.4.2017 – Famine Early Warning System Network (* A H)

Yemen Food Security Outlook Update, April 2017

Key Messages

Conflict in Yemen continues to be the primary driver of the largest food security emergency in the world. Currently, large populations face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or Emergency (IPC Phase 4) acute food insecurity, the latter of which is associated with an increased risk of excess mortality. IDP populations and poor households in conflict zones are likely facing the most severe food security outcomes.

As of January 2017, in-country stocks of wheat flour stood at approximately 1.1 million MT, enough to meet national consumption requirements for approximately four months. Following sharp declines in January and February, wheat and wheat flour imports through Al Hudaydah and Salif ports increased in March 2017. Overall, imports of wheat/wheat flour through these two ports between January and March 2017 were in line with levels seen between October and December 2016.

Recent statements related to the potential for an offensive military operation near the ports of Al Hudaydah and Salif raise concerns that imports through these major ports could be halted in the near term. In a worst-case scenario, significant declines in commercial imports below requirement levels and conflict that cuts populations off from trade and humanitarian assistance for an extended period of time could drive food security outcomes in line with Famine (IPC Phase 5).

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-food-security-outlook-update-april-2017 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/YE_FSOU_2017_04_final.pdf

1.3.2017 – Save the Children (* A H)

Joint Education Needs Assessment Report: Aden – Yemen (March 2016) [EN/AR]

As a direct result of the ongoing and often brutal armed conflict during the past year, children’s lives in Yemen have been torn apart. Girls and boys are now facing daily challenges to both survive the conflict and access enough food, safe drinking water, and basic healthcare. And while the fighting continues and the delivery of vital humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to those most in need is obstructed, the lives of thousands more children are at risk. The future for those that survive is also uncertain. The number of children who are not attending school has more than doubled during the past twelve months and now equates to nearly half of the school-age population. Many children have also been psychologically scarred and will need significant support to recover from their experiences and be able to live happy and productive lives in the future.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/joint-education-needs-assessment-report-aden-yemen-march-2016-enar and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/aden_2016_joint_education_needs_assessment.pdf

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

24.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (A P)

#Houthis militia stormed the building of the General Organization for Standardization in #Sanaa, one of the GPC's institutions!

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/867455344351612928 referring to https://twitter.com/Yemen_Brk/status/867449944772407296

23.5.2017 – Yemen Post (A E P)

Economic COLLAPSE: After 8 months of no salaries for #Yemen employees, Houthi allied Govt pays 50% of April salary & ignores past months (document)

https://twitter.com/TheYemenPost/status/867079379595255808 and also https://twitter.com/ghani774/status/867102248010166272

22.5.2017 – UN News Centre (* B P)

Persistent persecution of Bahá’í in Yemen ‘unacceptable,’ and must stop, says UN expert

In Yemen, Bahá’ís are under pressure to recant their faith, according to a United Nations rights expert, noting that in April, the Public Prosecutor reportedly summoned by phone at least 30 members of the community to appear in court, and de facto authorities in Sana’a ordered the arrest of at least 25 more.

“The recent escalation in the persistent pattern of persecution of the Bahá’í community in Sana’a mirrors the persecution suffered by the Bahá’ís living in Iran,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed. “Many Yemeni Bahá’í families in Sana’a have left their homes and live in constant fear.”

Mr. Shaheed noted that the persistent harassment of Bahá’ís amounted to religious persecution in Yemen, saying “It is unacceptable for anyone, including persons belonging to religious minorities, to be targeted or discriminated based on religion or belief.”

In addition, two Yemeni Bahá’ís, Walid Ayyash and Mahmood Humaid, were reportedly arrested by political security officers at a check point near the city border of Hudiedah. Their whereabouts are unknown since their arrests.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56810#.WSQ-yMZCSUk and http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21643&LangID=E

cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government

23.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Transitional Political Council for the South Vice President Hani Ali bin Brik released a statement condemning Qatar, a member of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, for “interfering in South Arabia” and “assisting terrorists” on May 23. Qatar supports the Muslim Brotherhood, an affiliate of Yemen’s Islah (Reform) party. Islah is the main rival of the Transitional Political Council in southern Yemen. Transitional Political Council leaders praised the UAE and Saudi Arabia during demonstrations on May 21.[4]

Hadramawt governor Ahmed Bin Brik released 18 detainees held on terrorism charges on May 23. Civilians frequently protest against arbitrary detentions in Hadramawtgovernorate. AQAP propaganda highlights these detentions to promote the narrative that AQAP defends Sunnis from Emirati-backed counterterrorism forces. Bin Brik will release more detainees in the coming days.[5]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-23-2017

22.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Tens of thousands of supporters of the recently announced “Transitional Political Council for the South” traveled to Tahrir Square in Aden’s Khormaksar district on May 21 to mark the anniversary of the 1994 establishment of the Democratic Republic of Yemen. The rally called for an independent and federal South Yemen state. Aden Security Director Shalal Ali Shaye'a vowed to confront Iranian involvement in Yemen and fight terrorism. Former governor of Aden and Transitional Political Council President Aydarus al Zubaidi thanked the Saudi-led coalition for its assistance in a televised speech from the UAE. The May 21 southern protests evoked a variety of responses by major actors in Yemen. Internationally recognized Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared that he would not allow Aden to be divided. Hadi’s governor of Aden released a statement attempting to embrace the protests but maintaining loyalty to Hadi. The British and German ambassadors to Yemen both expressed their countries’ support for a more autonomous southern Yemen.[1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-22-2017

22.5.2017 – Aljazeera (* A P)

Film: Yemen protesters call for southern secession

Thousands of Yemenis, who support the secession of the country's south from the north, have been rallying in Aden.

Yemen's internationally recognised government rejects calls for an independent south, saying it is a threat to the country's future.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/news/2017/05/yemen-protesters-call-southern-secession-170522055826307.html

22.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (* B P)

The Gulf will control Yemen forever if the south secedes now

Trying to secede right now is like trying to build a house in a hurricane - and ultimately, it's doubtful the Gulf countries will let it happen

The southerners’ move is especially ill-timed given how weak their movement has grown and how its political context has changed since its founding.

Following Yemen’s 2011 uprising, there has been a violent crackdown against Hirak leaders, including several assassinations which have further undermined the movement’s political wing.

The remaining Hirak leaders now either live outside the country, with many residing in Gulf countries, the UK and the US, and/or are affiliated with the Emirates.

Given Hadi’s spat with Bin Zayed and Zubaidi’s announcement, it’s also clear that the movement is heavily influenced today by what the Saudis and the Emirates want

For the south to achieve statehood within a failing state would only make Gulf countries lose face. The GCC would never allow that to happen.

The GCC went to war in Yemen to restore what it began after Yemen’s 2011 uprising with its political plan, known as "the GCC initiative" - which firmly rejected the division of Yemen - and it won’t cease its engagement in Yemen until its plan is achieved.

The Yemen war has drastically changed the rules of the game. Hirak’s rivalry has changed its face. Southerners used to face enforced control by the north, but now it’s control by their neighbours.

Some believe that because the international community doesn’t support the Hirak, it is doomed to fail, but I disagree. In fact, the fate of Hirak depends on the approval or disapproval by the GCC. History has taught us Yemenis that Yemen is the backyard of Gulf countries and it will always be under their control – by Afrah Nasser

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/gulf-will-control-yemen-forever-if-we-let-south-secede-now-1779853401

22.5.2017 – Iona Craig / Aljazeera (* A P)

Film: A useful brief overview if you're trying to understand what's happening in southern Yemen at the moment.

https://twitter.com/ionacraig/status/866580856462336000

23.5.2017 – Critical Threats (A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Demonstrators protested in response to power outages in Aden city on May 22 and 23. At least three Yemenis died due to rising temperatures and blackouts in Aden on May 22. Some southern Yemeni political actors accused the Hadi government of intentionally causing the power outages to punish southern Yemen for its recent attempts to secure independence.[6]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-23-2017

22.5.2017 – Nadwa Dawsari (A P)

Riots in Aden to protest lack of electricity. Unprecedented heat wave as summer starts (photo)

https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/866728260016758784

and

23.5.2017 – Yemen Updates (A P)

People took to streets of #Aden to protest the deterioration of electricity services in the city!Which authority is responsible?!! (photos9

https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/867081952398016517

26.4.2017 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees (B K)

Map: Yemen - Aden City: Building Damage Density and Residential Areas (2015), as of 26 April 2017

http://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-aden-city-building-damage-density-and-residential-areas-2015-26-april-2017 and in full: http://www.reachresourcecentre.info/system/files/resource-documents/reach_yem_map_aden_buildingdamage2015_density_21may2017_a1_1.pdf

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

24.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

UN Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric confirmed that demonstrators outside Sana’aInternational Airport opened fire on the convoy of UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on May 22. Al Houthi-Saleh security forces also fired into the air to disperse protesters. Ould Cheikh Ahmed met with al Houthi-Saleh Prime Minister Abdul Aziz bin Habtour and al Houthi-Saleh Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf in Sana’a on May 23 to discuss a ceasefire proposal. Its terms include: the unification of the Yemeni Central Banks as a neutral institution, the withdrawal of al Houthi-Saleh forces from al Hudaydah port, and the removal of the Saudi-led coalition blockade on Sana’a International Airport. Bin Habtour agreed on the bank’s unification and the lifting of the blockade but did not address al Hudaydah port. The al Houthi-Saleh Supreme Political Council expressed disappointment toward the UN for “weakness” in addressing Yemen’s humanitarian crisis on May 23. Mohamed Abdel Salam, spokesman for the al Houthi Ansar Allah party, stated that the al Houthi-Saleh bloc will not abide by UN agreements until public employees receive salaries and the Sana’a airport blockade is lifted.[1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-24-2017 and footnotes: https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-24-2017#_ftn1

23.5.2017 – Critical Threats (A P)

Yemen Security Brief

Hadi government Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghir met with Russian Ambassador to Yemen Vladimir Dedushkin on May 22. Bin Daghir called on Russia to apply diplomatic pressure on al Houthi-Saleh leaders to accept a UN-mediated ceasefire and reject “half-solutions” that would legitimize the al Houthi-Saleh government in Sana’a. Russia mediated direct talks between the UAE and former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in pursuit of a peace deal that would bypass the UN process.[7]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-23-2017

My comment: The “Houthi-Saleh” government at Sanaa is even more „legitimate“ than the Hadi government.

24.5.2017 – UN (* A P)

Note to Correspondents: UN Special Envoy to Yemen Concludes Visit to Sana’a

The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, concluded today a three-day visit to Sana’a where he met with political leaders from Ansar’Allah and the General People’s Congress and Representatives of other political parties. The talks focused on possible agreements which would to prevent the spread of military activities to Hudeidah and practical ways to ensure the resumption of salaries to all Yemeni civil servants nation-wide.

During his visit, the Special Envoy met as well with members of the Yemeni Women’s Pact for Peace and Security and representatives of civil society organizations to discuss current political challenges and security concerns in addition to the economic crisis and recent outbreak of cholera.

At the end of his visit, the Special Envoy expressed his deep concern regarding the grave attack on his convoy while traveling from the airport to the UN compound on 22 May. The Special Envoy reminded the parties that it is the responsibility of the local authorities to ensure the safety of all UN personnel in the country and urged them to investigate the incident, hold those responsible to account, and prevent any such incidents in the future.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56838#.WSZJ32jyiUk and http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/note-correspondents-un-special-envoy-yemen-concludes-visit-sana

23.5.2017 – Saba Net (* A P)

Security official denies convey of UN envoy to Yemen comes under fire in Sana'a

A security official on Tuesday denied what were reported by some media outlets that the convoy of the UN's special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh comes under fire in Sana'a.
The official said that news is baseless.
He said that "the shootings were fired on air by the security services who are responsible to protect and to secure the convoy of the UN envoy to disperse the demonstrators who intercepted his parade before Sana'a International Airport yesterday ."
The official stressed that the security services are keen on the safety of Ismail Ould Sheikh, like other arrivals to Yemen.
The official called on the media outlets to be accurate in writing news stories.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465425.htm

23.5.2017 – Pars Today (A P)

Jemen: Demonstrationen gegen Schweigen der UNO gegenüber Jemenkrise

Die Menschen in der jemenitischen Hauptstadt Sanaa haben am Montagnachmittag, gleichzeitig mit dem Eintreffen des Sondergesandten der UNO für den Jemen in Sanaa, gegen das Schweigen der UNO gegenüber den Problemen und Leiden der Bevölkerung dieses Landes demonstriert.

Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed ist nach Sanaa gekommen, um mit den jemenitischen Gruppen die Bedingungen für die zweite Verhandlungsrunde der Jemen-Friedensgespräche zu besprechen.

Die jemenitischen Bürger forderten die Beendigung der allseitigen Blockade.

http://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i27306-jemen_demonstrationen_gegen_schweigen_der_uno_gegenüber_jemenkrise

22.5.2017 – Epoch Times (A P)

Leibwächter von UN-Sondergesandtem im Jemen verjagen Demonstranten mit Schüssen

Beim Jemen-Besuch des UN-Sondergesandten Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed haben dessen Leibwächter mit Schüssen in die Luft Demonstranten auseinandergetrieben. Der UN-Diplomat wollte dort Friedensverhandlungen anstoßen. Bei den Demonstranten handelte es sich den Angaben eines Zeugen zufolge um Anhänger der Huthi-Rebellen, die die Ausfahrt vom Flughafen blockierten.

Vor dem Besuch von Cheikh Ahmed hatte ihr Sprecher die UNO als parteiisch kritisiert: Sie werde nur dann tätig, wenn dies von den „Aggressoren“ gewollt sei. Treffen mit der UNO seien nutzlos geworden.

http://www.epochtimes.de/politik/welt/leibwaechter-von-un-sondergesandtem-im-jemen-verjagen-demonstranten-mit-schuessen-a2124921.html

22.5.2017 – Pars Today (A P)

Jemen/Ansarollah: Wir sind bereit, den Krieg zu beenden

Das jemenitische Volk sei nach den Worten des Vorsitzenden des Obersten politischen Rates der Ansarullah-Bewegung im Jemen, Saleh Ali al-Sammad, bereit, zur Beendigung des Kriegs auf der Grundlage des Respektierung der Souveränität, Sicherheit und Unabhängigkeit des Landes beizutragen.

"Angesichts der Anfrage des UN-Sondergesandten für den Jemen, Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed, für eine Reise nach Sanaa bekunden wir unsere Bereitschaft, mit internationalen und regionalen Akteuren für ein Ende des Kriegs im Jemen, zusammen zu arbeiten", sagte al-Sammad.

Sheikh Ahmed hat am Sonntag eine Reise-Genehmigung nach Sanaa beantragt. "Obwohl wir wissen, dass er keine neue Botschaft überbringen wird, begrüßen wir jedoch jeglichen Friedens-Vorschlag unter Berücksichtigung der Souveränität underes Landes", erklärte der Vorsitzende des Obersten politischen Rates der Ansarullah.

http://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i27266-jemen_ansarollah_wir_sind_bereit_den_krieg_zu_beenden

22.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

Yemen Security Brief

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed traveled to Sana’a to propose ceasefire terms to al Houthi-Saleh leadership on May 22. Ould Cheikh Ahmed seeks to establish a humanitarian ceasefire by the start of Ramadan on May 26, opening the door to peace negotiations in Kuwait or Geneva in June. Al Houthi-Saleh Supreme Political Council President Saleh Ali al Samad accused Ould Cheikh Ahmed of lacking neutrality. Ansar Allah spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam announced that al Houthi-Saleh negotiators would not meet with the UN Envoy, accusing the UN of simply helping the Saudi-led coalition to stall and make more military gains.

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-22-2017

23.5.2017 – Saba Net (A P)

SPC expresses its disappointment for UN weak role in Yemen

The Supreme Political Council (SPC) held its regular meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Saleh al-Sammad, the President of the Supreme Political Council.

The Supreme Political Council expressed its disappointment at the weak role played by the United Nations and the lack of responsibility for the suffering of the Yemeni people as a result of the siege and aggression, the closure of Sana'a International Airport and the suspension of salaries , pointing out that any efforts should be focused on this aspect to prove the credibility of the United Nations and its Special Envoy for Yemen.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465426.htm

25.5.2017 – New News (A P)

Details of the visit of Ould Al-Shaikh to the capital Sanaa .. Throw eggs and pessimism and anger by some Yemeni people and forces

The Media loyal to the Saudi-American aggression on Yemen claimed that the convoy of international envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was shot after arriving to Sanaa International Airport..

A security source in Sanaa said that the shooting resulted because of the security authorities dispersal a group of protesters they threw a rotten eggs on Ould Sheikh were next to the gate of airport.

Witnesses in Sanaa said that the protesters attacked the convoy of UN envoy Ould Sheikh Ahmed by “empty bottles” and rotten eggs after arriving at Sanaa airport heading to his residence.

http://newnewss.net/?p=5719

23.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)

Houthi Supporters Welcome UN Envoy with Demonstrations

The Yemeni Foreign Ministry condemned on Monday the attempted attack against UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed upon his arrival to Sana’a.

Supporters of Houthi militias held demonstrations to protest against the envoy’s arrival to the Yemeni capital. Witnesses reported that Ould Cheikh Ahmed’s bodyguards had to fire gunshots in the air to disperse the protesters as he arrived in Sana’a to resume peace talks.

http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/houthi-supporters-welcome-un-envoy-demonstrations and by Arab News: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1103571/middle-east

My comment: Saudi propaganda also constructed an “assassination attempt” from this incident, look at cp15.

22.5.2017 – Reuters (* A P)

U.N. envoy to Yemen says Houdeidah port should be kept safe

The United Nations' special envoy to Yemen said on Monday he wanted to prevent any attack on the Houthi-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah and also called for the central bank's independence to be maintained to allow it to pay salaries on both sides of the conflict.

Both aims have been the main conditions set by the Houthi group controlling the capital Sanaa for holding talks aimed at reaching a political settlement of the conflict.

Hodeidah port and province is also controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis and has been the entry point for 70 percent of Yemen's food supplies as well as humanitarian aid.

"The first issue that I came for is to try to avoid in every possible way, the idea of a military operation on Houdeidah," the U.N. envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told reporters after his arrival at Sanaa airport.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-idUSKBN18I26L

22.5.2017 – Anadolu (* A P)

Eyeing Ramadan truce, UN Yemen envoy arrives in Sanaa

Envoy arrives in Yemeni capital in hopes of reviving stalled peace talks and concluding Ramadan cease-fire

UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on Monday arrived in Yemeni capital Sanaa in hopes of reviving stalled peace talks and concluding a pre-Ramadan truce.

Ahmed on Monday is due to meet with representatives of the Shia Houthi militia group and allied forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In Sanaa, the envoy will promote a modified version of a UN-backed roadmap that calls for a Houthi withdrawal from the strategic Hudeidah province in exchange for a halt to aggression by an anti-Houthi coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

“I came here to Sanaa to tackle three issues," he told reporters at Sanaa airport.

"The first is to avoid a military operation in the Port of Hudeidah in the west of the country,” he said, voicing hope that a cease-fire might be hammered out before the upcoming fasting month of Ramadan, set to begin later this month.

"The second thing I will focus on is the humanitarian issue, as the cholera epidemic [in Yemen] is worsening and suspected cases now stand at more than 25,000,” he said.

"The third issue has to do with the economic dimension, which concerns recent salary shortfalls for state employees and the crisis affecting central bank," Ahmed said, asserting that the bank should remain independent and salaries should be paid to all Yemenis.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/eyeing-ramadan-truce-un-yemen-envoy-arrives-in-sanaa/823744

23.5.2017 – Critical Threats (* A P)

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed traveled to Sana’a to meet with al Houthi-Salehleaders and advocate for a humanitarian ceasefire on May 22. Protesters affiliated with the al Houthi-Saleh faction threw rocks and eggs at Ould Cheikh Ahmed’s convoy as it left Sana’a International Airport. Initial reports that al Houthi-Saleh forces opened fire on the convoy are likely false. The al Houthi-Saleh Supreme Council of Civil Society Organizations organized the demonstration to protest the UN’s inaction toward the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The Hadi government condemned the convoy attack and called it an “assassination attempt”. [2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-23-2017

22.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A P)

UN envoy in Sana’a seeking peace talks revival, Houthis throw empty cans at him

As the Houthi accusations to Ould Cheikh of non-neutrality grow, he said “our message to the Yemeni people is that we will remain neutral and pursue peace. The UN position is neutral and we are not siding with any party, despite what has been or being said.”

A group of Houthi demonstrators threw empty cans at Ahmed’s convoy as it departed Sanaa airport, accusing him of failing to lift an ongoing siege of the airport imposed since last August

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91422

22.5.2017 – Ruptly (A P)

Film: Yemen: UN Yemen Envoy arrives in Sana'a amid anti-UN protests demanding airport reopening

Around 200 people marched from the United Nations headquarters in Sana'a to the city's airport, on Monday, protesting against the UN and demanding the reopening of the airport. The protest came as UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived in town in an attempt to restart peace talks and establish a Ramadan ceasefire.
The protesters marched on the streets while chanting and holding numerous banners, such as "Lift the blockade of Sana'a airport."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsC4zDnb838

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

22.5.2017 – La Nacion (* B P)

Arabia Saudita, el aliado que profesa una fe extrema

La familia real impone una rama ultraconservadora del islam que interpreta el Corán literalmente

En una sociedad en la que se efectúan ejecuciones públicas por decapitación y los libros de texto califican a los cristianos y judíos "de infieles", no es de extrañar que muchos jóvenes exhiban actitudes intolerantes. Tampoco que la violencia contra las mujeres sea rampante, cuando no tienen derecho a trabajar sin permiso del padre o el marido. La descripción no corresponde a Raqqa, la capital del autoproclamado "califato" de Estado Islámico (EI). Se trata en realidad de Arabia Saudita, un país estrechamente aliado a Occidente desde hace décadas – da Ricard González

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/2026089-arabia-saudita-el-aliado-que-profesa-una-fe-extrema

24.5.2017 – Muftah (* A P)

Yemen Is Not the Only Place Being Besieged by the Saudi Government

On May 10, 2017, security services launched a raid on the predominantly Shiite town of Awamia in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, claiming the narrow streets of its historic Mosawara neighborhood had become a hideout for militants. The town has now entered its fourteenth day of, what local activists and residents have dubbed, a “siege.”

Pictures and videos of bulldozers, escorted by heavily armored military vehicles, cars on fire, and walls covered with bullet-holes were posted online. According to Reuters, security forces were preventing medics reaching the area.

What has now been portrayed in Saudi media as an anti-terrorism operation supposedly began as a redevelopment project slated to raze the 400-year-old walled neighborhood of Mosawara to the ground. Local residents protesting the demolition had been clashing with regime forces since the beginning of the year. UN experts, as well as local andregional human rights groups, have spoken out against the demolition.

“The area is of importance not only to local people and the entire cultural landscape of Awamia, but also has national significance for the history and cultural heritage of Saudi Arabia,” UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, Karima Bennoune said. “The planned demolition would erase this unique regional heritage in an irreversible manner.”

Awamia is, indeed, a unique town. It has long been at the heart of political unrest between the Sunni-led government and the Shiite community, which continues to experience systemic discrimination – by Hiba Zayadin

https://muftah.org/yemen-not-place-besieged-saudi-authorities/#.WSWywWjyiUk

22.–24.5.2017 – Various (A P)

More footage from the Awamiyah siege (look at YPR 302, cp1, cp8 fore more reporting)

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867478371760046082

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867432562188312576

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866603848881885184

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866956842546720768

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866912731701686272

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866916951511244800

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866916951511244800

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867074664778084352

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867045203819057152

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/867040838592942080

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866985253759528960

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866968047965306882

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866931860550668289

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866929630690902017

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866926455460159488

https://twitter.com/nimramen/status/866921250488242176

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaIvZQDAi80

23.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (A P)

#Saudi man celebrate #manchesterexplosion on his twitter account. Saudi Monarchy wont jail him (image)

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/867089774355591168

22.5.2017 – Tarek Fatah (A P)

Film: #Saudi citizen living in #UK says, any 'liberal' who criticizes #Islam or #Sharia should be killed.

https://twitter.com/TarekFatah/status/866908155204300802

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp1

25.4.2017 – World Socialist Web (*A K T)

hatte Trump bei seiner Reise nach Saudi-Arabien am Wochenende Waffengeschäfte mit der dortigen Monarchie abgeschlossen, die sich in den nächsten zehn Jahren auf bis zu 350 Milliarden Dollar belaufen können. Sowohl in seiner Rede vor einem Publikum aus sunnitischen Monarchen und Despoten in Riad als auch bei seinem anschließenden Besuch in Israel machte Trump deutlich, dass das zentrale Ziel seiner Regierung darin besteht, ein regionales Bündnis gegen den Iran zu schmieden. Die Grundlage dafür soll durch vorsätzliches Schüren von Spannungen zwischen Sunniten und Schiiten im Nahen Osten geschaffen werden.

Trump lobte Saudi-Arabien und seine Verbündeten vor allem für ihr „entschlossenes Vorgehen gegen aufständische Huthi im Jemen“.

Zu den Waffen, die Washington an das saudische Regime verkauft, gehören amerikanische Panzer, Kampfflugzeuge, Blackhawk-Helikopter, Schiffe, präzisionsgesteuerte Bomben und weitere Munition und Waffen, die man direkt dazu einsetzen wird, weitere jemenitische Zivilisten zu ermorden.

Saudi-Arabien und Washington stellen die Huthi-Rebellen als Stellvertreterkräfte des Iran dar, obwohl es dafür keine Beweise gibt. In Wirklichkeit geht es darum, dass sie jede Schwächung von Saudi-Arabiens Kontrolle über seinen südlichen Nachbarn als möglichen Einflussgewinn für den Iran ansehen. Washington betrachtet den Iran als das wichtigste Hindernis in seinem Streben nach Hegemonie über die ölreiche Region. Zu diesem Zweck sind die USA jetzt bereit, einen Krieg zu schüren, der Millionen Menschen mit dem Hungertod bedroht.

Ein weiterer eindeutiger Nebeneffekt von Trumps Reise durch den Nahen Osten zeigte sich bei seinem Besuch in Bahrain am Dienstag: Die dort herrschende sunnitische Monarchie ging brutal gegen Demonstranten vor, die Scheich Isa Qassim unterstützen.

Am Sonntag erklärte Trump in Riad während einer gemeinsamen Fotosession mit dem Herrscher von Bahrain, Scheich Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa: „Unsere Länder haben eine wunderbare Beziehung zueinander. Es gab zwar einige kleine Spannungen, aber mit dieser Regierung wird es keine Spannungen geben.“ Die Botschaft war klar: Unterdrückt die Bevölkerung, so viel ihr wollt, aus Washington wird kein heuchlerisches Gerede über Menschenrechte mehr kommen. Die US-Regierung verhandelt auch mit dem bahrainischen Regime über Waffenlieferungen in Höhe von fünf Milliarden Dollar – von Bill van Auken

http://www.wsws.org/de/articles/2017/05/25/yeme-m25.html

24.5.2017 – The American Conservative (* A K P)

Congress Must Oppose the Saudi Arms Deal

Part of the $110 billion is a deal that had already been made by the Obama administration, so that portion is probably not going to be blocked, but the bulk of it still could be. Because it is likely that at least some of the weapons being sold to the Saudis will used in the commission of war crimes and because the Saudi-led coalition has already committed many such crimes, there is a strong argument that the sale itself would be illegal:

Citing “multiple credible reports of recurring and highly questionable [air]strikes’’ by the Saudi military that have killed civilians, the U.S. “cannot continue to rely on Saudi assurances that it will comply with international law and agreements concerning the use of U.S.-origin equipment,” Michael Newton, a prominent Vanderbilt University law professor and former military judge advocate general, said.

Newton, in his 23-page opinion, said the strikes have continued “even after Saudi units received training and equipment to reduce civilian casualties.”

“Continued sale of arms to Saudi Arabia ― and specifically of arms used in airstrikes ― should not be presumed to be permissible” under the two statutes covering most sales of military equipment by the U.S government to foreign nations [bold mine-DL], he said.

There is no hint that the administration has put any pressure on the Saudis regarding their war on Yemen, and there is no reason to expect that they will. During his Riyadh speech Trump applauded the coalition’s “strong action” in attacking the country, and he has consistently shown no understanding of the war or its consequences. Insofar as he thinks he understands what’s going on, he has just been echoing pro-Saudi talking points – by Daniel Larison

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/congress-must-oppose-the-saudi-arms-deal/

24.5.2017 – The American Conservative (* A P)

Bowing Before the Saudis

The Washington Timeseditorial on Trump’s Saudi visit is an exercise in self-parody:

Now a new president is making the rounds in the troubled region, this one with head held high. Mr. Obama bowed deeply to everyone with sword or title. President Trump, understanding that Americans bow only to God, met King Salman of Saudi Arabia with an open hand of friendship and a firm look straight in the eye.

Partisans will inevitably praise presidents from their own side for things they would have condemned if a president from the other party did them, but this is even more ridiculous than that. Trump’s visit to Riyadh was an embarrassing spectacle of groveling and sucking up to some truly wretched leaders, and in policy terms it amounted to bowing very low before the Saudi king. John Glaser and Benjamin Friedman explain:

Whether Trump bent, bowed or curtsied before King Salman in receiving a gold medal, in policy terms, the trip was an emphatic U.S. bow to the Saudis. Trump praised Saudi counterterrorism efforts without a word of criticism for their funding of Wahhabi extremists around the world. He offered the Saudis a massive $110 billion arms deal despite the fact that their brutal bombing of Yemeni civilians makes it potentially illegal. Trump even adopted the Saudi pretense that their Yemen campaign serves counterterrorism.

When the president curries favor with a regime guilty of numerous war crimes and lavishes praise on their leaders, that is bad enough, but doing so while aiding and abetting those crimes with more weapons sales is truly disgraceful. On top of that, despite his posturing as a great negotiator he gave the Saudis everything they wanted while subordinating our policies in the region to theirs.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/bowing-before-the-saudis/

24.5.2017 – Financial Times (* A E P)

Audio: Saudis celebrate Trump visit with giant investment deals

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is investing $65bn in foreign asset managers as part of a plan to diversify the economy away from oil. Nearly a third of that will be put into a fund run by Blackstone to invest in US infrastucture. Andrew England discusses the move with Simeon Kerr, FT Gulf correspondent, and Arash Massoudi, M&A correspondent.

https://www.ft.com/content/edd748a6-3aca-4d5f-a303-4c98ae05cd45

23.5.2017 – The New Yorker (* A P)

Trump’s Big Saudi Arms Deal Will Cause More Misery for Yemen

So what, if anything, is different this time?

First, the agreement marks another policy U-turn from Trump.

The second notable aspect of the agreement is its scale.

Third, and perhaps most perniciously, the deal means that the United States is stepping up its support for Saudi Arabia’s proxy war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

Tillerson, who is familiar with the Saudi government from his years as the chief executive of ExxonMobil, didn’t refer to any of this in his remarks on the deal, of course. Instead, he said that the arms sale was intended to help Riyadh counter the “malign Iranian influence and Iranian-related threats which exist on Saudi Arabia’s borders on all sides.”

Yemen’s civil war is a complicated conflict, rooted partly in tribal rivalries and religious differences.

The Saudi-sponsored spread of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist brand of Islam, surely demonstrated that what the House of Saud wants isn’t necessarily good for the United States and other Western countries. In Yemen, the problem isn’t fundamentalist Saudi preachers; it is Saudi pilots dropping American-made bombs. An obvious concern is that, as a result of this deal, terrorist groups will find more recruits eager to strike the West.

Trump and his colleagues are too busy boasting about, and exaggerating, the economic benefits of the new arms agreement to pause and consider its broader implications. But, as President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned more than half a century ago, what’s good for the military-industrial complex isn’t necessarily good for America, or the world. – By John Cassidy

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trumps-big-saudi-arms-deal-will-cause-more-misery-for-yemen

23.5.2017 – The Gazette (* A P)

Pentagon budget and Yemen war grow together

As veterans, we have had too much experience with illegal, immoral and counterproductive wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, El Salvador, etc.). Therefore, we call upon Iowans to insist that the U.S. stop military actions in Yemen, to end weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, and to take the lead in negotiating a cease-fire and ensuring access to food and medical supplies for Yemen. Furthermore, we call upon Iowans to look closely at how their tax dollars are being increasingly siphoned to the Pentagon, and to specifically look at how those tax dollars encourage our illegal, immoral and counterproductive war in Yemen.

The sheer size of the Pentagon budget is a huge concern.

Yemen poses no threat to the United States. It is in the throes of a complex civil war stoked by the arms and bombs of greater powers, including the United States. Trying to figure out in a rational fashion why the U.S. should be killing starving people is a challenge. Saudi Arabia’s goal is to stick its finger in the eye of Iran, which it accuses of helping the Houthi forces.

The new U.S. administration is engaging in more saber-rattling with Iran, even wanting to negate the 2015 nuclear agreement, so bombing starving folks in Yemen is good for business. It would not be prudent to leave any of that $76.6 billion OCO fund unspent.

There never has been a vote in Congress that authorizes our military actions in Yemen – By Ed Flaherty

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/guest-columnists/pentagon-budget-and-yemen-war-grow-together-20170523

23.5.2017 – Russia Indsider (* B P)

How Can You Be Outraged by Assad, and a Happy Guest in Saudi Arabia?

As long as it maintains a special relationship with the Saudis, America's self-serving outrage at real and make-believe human rights violations in the Middle East can not be taken seriously

Well, the next time you hear anyone from the US government going on about the horrors of the Assad ‘regime’, or indeed any other country where the internal arrangements are squalid and brutal (or the government is waging an ultra-violent war against a neighbour, or both), remind yourself of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s words, or rather lack of them, during the bizarre Trump visit to the Saudi despotism over the weekend.

After attacking restrictions on free speech in Iran (which is a good deal less repressive than Saudi Arabia), Secretary Tillerson was then asked by a reporter if he had anything to say about human rights in Saudi Arabia. He left without answering, according to the New York Times.

I am so sorry, but after this incoherent but unpleasant oration, and after the whole extraordinary visit by President Trump to Saudi Arabia, in which the ghastly ‘special relationship’ between Washington and Riyadh has been laid bare as exactly what it is, I find it quite impossible to take seriously any future outrage on the subject of repression or liberty expressed by the US government while these gentlemen remain in office. Whatever it is that bothers Washington about Syria or Russia, it is not the freedoms of the people there – by Peter Hitchens

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/how-can-you-be-outraged-assad-and-happy-guest-saudi-arabia/ri19908

23.5.2017 – The Guardian (* A P)

The Trump administration's Iran policy is dangerous and flawed

Trump’s strong criticism of Iran may have been pleasing to his Saudi Arabian hosts, but it should worry Americans.

Pushing back on Tehran allows Trump to symbolically break with Barack Obama’s policies and is popular among congressional Republicans, but it is also dangerous, with the potential to undermine the nuclear deal, slow the fight against Isis, and embroil the United States more deeply in parochial regional struggles.

Unfortunately, the new administration’s approach to Iran is fundamentally flawed.

The administration has signaled its support for Saudi Arabia’s assertive anti-Iranian foreign policy in other ways too.

Though Iran has sent some weapons to Yemen’s Houthis, the group is not truly an Iranian proxy like Hezbollah. Getting the US military more deeply involved in Yemen’s civil war – helping the Saudis with their assault on Hodeidah port, for example – would only bog down American forces, worsen Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation, and cost Iran little.

Raising tensions with Iran in Yemen and elsewhere also risks slowing the anti-Isis campaign in Syria – by Emma Ashford

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/23/trump-administrations-iran-policy-dangerous-flawed

23.5.2017 – The Week (* B P)

Trump will not bring peace to the Middle East

Peace in the Middle East has been the holy grail for American presidents for decades, stretching back at least to Jimmy Carter. And every American president who has tried to bring peace to this violent and riven part of the world has failed.

But don't worry. President Trump is on the case, and he's sure that Mideast peace is "something that I think is, frankly, maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years." You can get a further sense of his Solomonic grasp of this intractable conflict from an official White House press statement about his visit to Israel Monday, which stated that Trump would "promote the possibility of lasting peach." (Emphasis mine, typo all theirs.)

God only knows what Scooby Doo antics our visibly declining president will get into as he continues to amble and ramble his way around the world on his eight-day foreign tour. But one thing is for sure: President Trump will make zero progress on peace in the Middle East.

Let's take stock of the region.

Yemen. A U.S.-backed Saudi war has reduced Yemen to a smoking wasteland. - America's president responded by visiting Saudi Arabia this weekend and announcing the biggest arms deal in American history. That should help.

The Middle East has long been drastically over-emphasized in American foreign policy. Today, fracking and renewable energy have diminished the need for foreign oil

That coupled with the rise of India and China, and the profound economic difficulties America's allies have gotten themselves into in Western Europe, makes the Washington foreign policy establishment's monomaniacal focus on the Middle East downright ridiculous.

The Middle East still deserves attention, of course. But insofar as peace in the region is able to be influenced at all by American policy, the U.S. ought to rebalance its diplomatic commitments to be more in line with expressed values and a drastic reduction in the use of force.

On the military front, there is simply no reason to think that continuing omnidirectional low-level intervention is doing anything but drastic harm.

Trump is not going to overturn diplomatic or military policy in the Middle East, nor is he going to make a world-historical deal and succeed where his intellectually superior predecessors failed. The Saudis manipulated him with shameful ease, displaying his face on a luxury hotel and distracting him with shiny baubles. It's a safe bet that the Yemen war will now only become more brutal, until the Saudi-backed faction can manage to win, or everyone else is dead – by Ryan Cooper

http://theweek.com/articles/700575/trump-not-bring-peace-middle-east

23.5.2017 – Muftah (* A P)

U.S. Arms Deal Rewards ‘Saudi War Crimes with Weapons’

Trump’s visit to the Kingdom, which was the first stop on his maiden overseas tour, is setting the foreign policy tone for an administration for whom human rights is no barrier to lucrative trade and arms deals. Acutely aware of Trump’s philosophy, Saudi Arabia welcomed him with pomp and pageantry.

As his speech made clear, realigning the United States with Saudi Arabia, Gulf allies, and Israel has been central to Donald Trump and his administration. Indeed, thanks to Trump’s presidency, Saudi Arabia has re-secured pride of place with the United States, a reflection of the deep economic and military interests between Trump’s cabinet, private military companies, and the world’s largest energy provider.

Courting Saudi Arabia will only accelerate continuing U.S. violence in the region. A record arms deal for a country actively engaged in committing war crimes will result in further death and instability and embolden human rights violations in the region, while also increasing domestic repression and fueling sectarian politics – by Charlie Hoyle

https://muftah.org/us-arms-deal-saudi-arabia-war-crimes/#.WSR34WjyiUl

22.5.2017 – Antimedia (* A P)

Trump’s Islam Speech in Saudi Arabia Paves Way for America’s next Big War

The American public is most likely unaware of the giant stranglehold Saudi Arabia has on the U.S. government. Saudi Arabia uses its vast riches to manipulate the U.N., which explains how a country that brutally oppresses its female population was recently gifted a seat on the organization’s women’s rights commission. The Islamic Kingdom also wields incredible control over international media and has arguably had an increasingly unwelcome position of power in America’s foreign policy decision-making. As such, Donald Trump’s political career, in part, rests on appeasing his Saudi Arabian counterparts.

And appeasing the Saudis is exactly what Trump has done. Trump’s speech regarding Islam was delivered to the leaders of 55 Muslim-majority nations, including Saudi Arabia. However, he conveniently ignored the troves of evidence that show Saudi Arabia directly sponsors the terror groups al-Qaeda and ISIS – two groups the U.S. claims to be at war with — as well as the fact that Saudi Arabia has been directly implicated in the 9/11 terror attacks. Instead, Donald Trump framed the entire issue of radicalization as a problem that rests with Iran. As he stated in Riyadh:

Most hypocritical, however, was the following statement:

“Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve.”

Even establishment outlets such as the BBC could not allow this statement to go unchecked. The BBC stated:

How can a coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, combat terrorism and extremism when Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabist philosophy is responsible for most of today’s terrorism-related problems? As noted by the Independent:

The Trump administration’s seeds are being sown in tandem with the corporate media. Trump’s speech had nothing to do with radical Islam. It was written by Stephen Miller, the “architect” of Donald Trump’s travel ban (a policy that also vehemently targeted Iran, among other countries).

Selling a war with Iran to the American public may be difficult considering the Islamic nation twice elected a reformist who is open to making diplomatic deals with the United States. However, selling a war that will take place inside Syria is somewhat less problematic, even if that war is against the Syrian government, as the American public is easily manipulated by Assad’s alleged war crimes. As Iran is Syria’s closest ally, it will be easily drawn into a confrontation.

If Saudi Arabia’s coalition of anti-Iranian Muslim nations illegally joins this battle arena, the resulting war will be catastrophic – by Darius Shahtahmasebi

http://theantimedia.org/trumps-islam-speech-war-iran/

22.5.2017 – Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten (* A P)

US-Präsident Trump macht Iran für weltweiten Terror verantwortlich

US-Präsident Donald Trump hat die islamische Welt zum gemeinsamen Kampf gegen den Terrorismus aufgerufen. Dieser werde „nicht zwischen verschiedenen Religionen, verschiedenen Glaubensgemeinschaften oder verschiedenen Zivilisationen“ geführt, sondern sei „ein Kampf zwischen Gut und Böse“, sagte Trump am Sonntag im saudiarabischen Riad in einer mit Spannung erwarteten Grundsatzrede vor den Staats- und Regierungschefs aus 55 islamischen Staaten. Diese nahm er in die Pflicht: Eine bessere Zukunft sei nur möglich, wenn sie die Terroristen und Extremisten vertrieben. „Jagt sie aus Euren Andachtsstätten, jagt sie aus Euren Gemeinden, jagt sie aus Eurem Heiligen Land und jagt sie von dieser Erde.“

Trump griff insbesondere den Iran an

Mit seiner Kritik am Iran lag Trump auf einer Linie mit seinem Gastgeber, dem saudischen König Salman. Dieser hatte die Führung in Teheran scharf angegriffen. „Das iranische Regime ist die Speerspitze des weltweiten Terrorismus.“ Der Monarch bestritt in seiner Rede zu Beginn des Gipfeltreffens jede Verantwortung der arabischen Staaten für die Verbreitung des Terrorismus.

Während des Saudi-Arabien-Besuchs von US-Präsident Donald Trump wurden am Samstag in Riad unter anderem Rüstungsverträge im Volumen von 110 Milliarden Dollar geschlossen.

https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2017/05/22/us-praesident-trump-macht-iran-fuer-weltweiten-terror-verantwortlich/

Mein Kommentar: Grotesk, umfangreiche Berichterstattung auf Englisch in YPR 303, cp1 und 9, oben in cp1, und hier folgend.

22.5.2017 – Oskar Lafontaine (* A P)

Werft die Terroristen raus
Stolz meldet Bild, dass Donald Trump bei seinem Besuch in Saudi-Arabien mehrfach an die Führer der islamischen Welt appellierte: „Werft die Terroristen raus.“ Da die Saudis mit ihm weiter Geschäfte machen wollen, haben sie ihn nicht sofort rausgeschmissen. Denn nach deutschem Recht ist derjenige ein Terrorist, der „rechtswidrig Gewalt als Mittel zur Durchsetzung international ausgerichteter politischer oder religiöser Belange“ anwendet. Und Trump – man denke nur an den völkerrechtswidrigen Militärschlag gegen Syrien – ist ohne Zweifel ein Terrorist wie seine Vorgänger.
Aber auch die Saudis hätten sich selbst rausschmeißen müssen, da sie weltweit den islamistischen Terror finanzieren, Waffen an den IS liefern und im Jemen einen blutigen Krieg führen.
Da auch wir uns an dem völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg in Syrien beteiligen, fallen alle deutschen Politiker, die diese Militärmission unterstützen ebenfalls unter das Verdikt des deutschen Antiterrordateigesetzes, da sie „eine solche Gewaltanwendung unterstützen, vorbereiten oder durch ihre Tätigkeiten, insbesondere durch Befürworten solcher Gewaltanwendungen, vorsätzlich hervorrufen“. Demnach hätte man die Bundeskanzlerin und ihre Entourage auch rausschmeißen müssen.
Es zeigt sich wieder einmal, wie verlogen in der „westlichen Wertegemeinschaft“ über Terrorismus diskutiert wird und wie sich auch die deutsche Öffentlichkeit beharrlich weigert, das Antiterrordateigesetz ernst zu nehmen.
Erst wenn wir begreifen, dass man mit Terror (Krieg, Waffenlieferungen) den Terrorismus nicht bekämpfen kann, werden wir eine Chance haben, das Morden in der Welt zu verringern.
https://www.facebook.com/oskarlafontaine/photos/a.198567656871376.47953.188971457830996/1423916101003186/?type=3

22.5.2017 – Channel 4 (* A P T)

Film: The writer Andrew Sullivan attacks Donald Trump’s decision to make Saudi Arabia his first stop on his first foreign trip as President

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/866753055898738689

22.5.2017 – Middle East Eye (* A P)

Trump's arms deal with Saudis raises humanitarian concerns on Yemen

The prominent humanitarian Jan Egeland has criticized US President Donald Trump’s freshly-inked $110bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia, saying it would deepen the conflict and suffering in neighbouring Yemen.

Egeland, a former UN aid chief, said he “was saddened to see that the war in Yemen was not mentioned” when Trump sealed his huge arms deal and other investments totalling $350bn during his maiden voyage to the desert kingdom.

“Trump has always been clear that his intentions are to make great business deals, and it’s obvious what the purpose of the trip was,” Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Harvard University scholar who was born and raised in Yemen, told MEE.

“But, in light of the enormous humanitarian toll that the war is taking on Yemen, it’s shocking and disappointing that there was no pushback from the Republican Party about this deal, which will only make the situation in Yemen much worse.” – by James Reinl

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/trumps-arms-deal-saudis-raises-humanitarian-concerns-yemen-264494168

22.5.2017 – CNBC (* A K P)

Hidden cost of Trump's $110 billion Saudi arms deal: Support for 'endless quagmire' in Yemen

The Trump administration approved a $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

The deal represents a softening of the U.S. position on the widely criticized Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's civil war.

Both sides are accused of committing war crimes, and the conflict has allowed al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to expand in Yemen.

An arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth $110 billion marks a softening of the U.S. position on the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's civil war, which is widely blamed for a high civilian death toll. Backing Saudi Arabia so stridently — while tabling civil and human rights issues — requires the White House to invest political capital with no guarantee Riyadh will pay a dividend by prioritizing the fight against terror.

To the extent U.S. support prolongs Yemen's war by emboldening the Saudis, the Al Qaeda and Islamic State branches that have exploited Yemen's lawlessness could gain more ground.

Now, the Trump administration has unequivocally hitched the nation's wagon to Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies, Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.

That position is too one-sided unless Riyadh — an absolute monarchy — changes its behavior, he said. While Shiite Muslim-ruled Iran remains a U.S. and Saudi rival, the White House should acknowledge it is a capable actor with a "real economy," he said – by Tom DiChristopher

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/23/hidden-cost-of-trumps-saudi-arms-deal-support-for-yemen-quagmire.html

22.5.2017 – Defense One (* A E K P)

What Really Matters in Trump’s $110B Saudi Arms Package

U.S. and Saudi officials cobbled together a $110 billion arms package in just two weeks — lightspeed by government standards — so President Donald Trump could announce the deal last Saturday in Riyadh.

It’s not clear, for example, when or whether any of the individual deals that make up the eye-popping total will translate into actual revenue for the U.S. manufacturers.

Many top executives from American defense firms — including Lockheed’s Marillyn Hewson and Boeing’s Dennis Muilenburg — were in Riyadh for a CEO summit that coincided with Trump’s Saudi visit.

Here’s a list of the companies and weapons involved in the $110 billion deal: – by Marcus Weisgerber

http://www.defenseone.com/business/2017/05/what-really-matters-trumps-110b-saudi-arms-package/138069/

22.5.2017 – 21th Century Wire (* A P)

Trump’s Speech in Riyadh Signals US Alignment with Global Terrorism and Extremism

Riddled with hypocrisy, clichés and absurdities, President Donald Trump’s speech Sunday before an assembly of monarchs and despots in Saudi Arabia spelled out an agenda of escalating US militarism throughout the Middle East and a buildup in particular toward war with Iran.

Hailed by a fawning American media as “presidential”–supposedly eclipsing for the moment the crises and factional struggles engulfing the administration–the speech was reportedly drafted by Stephen Miller, the extreme right-wing ideologue credited with being the chief architect of Trump’s abortive executive order banning people from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the US.

Like Obama before him, Trump had no interest in dealing with who brought Al Qaeda and similar forces in, as the historical trail leads directly to the CIA in Afghanistan and US imperialism’s longstanding support for right-wing Islamist organizations and terrorist groups as a counterweight to left nationalist and socialist influence in the Arab and Islamic world. Jointly, the US and Saudi Arabia continue to fund and arm such forces in their drive for regime-change in Syria.

Both speeches were laced with flowery tributes to Islamic culture.

What separated the two addresses were the different shifts in strategy by Washington. While Obama sought to repair the damage done by the Bush administration’s criminal war in Iraq by offering a new face for US imperialism, Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia to make clear his administration’s break with his predecessor’s policy of seeking a rapprochement with Iran based on the 2015 nuclear deal. He adopted an openly confrontational stance toward Tehran.

Above all, America seeks peace–not war,” Trump proclaimed, in what stood out as the most blatant of the many lies in his brief address. The reality is that US wars in the region have killed millions over the past decade-and-a-half. And the thrust of the US president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, his first stop in a nine-day foreign tour, is the preparation for new and even bloodier conflicts.

In his speech, Trump painted Iran as the principal state sponsor of terrorism, accusing Tehran of providing terrorists with “safe harbor, financial backing, and the social standing needed for recruitment,” and fueling “the fires of sectarian conflict and terror,” all charges that could be leveled, with justification, against his Saudi hosts.

That he was speaking in Saudi Arabia, a brutally repressive absolute monarchy, just two days after more than 70 percent of Iranian voters participated in a sharply contested election, did nothing to blunt Trump’s call for regime-change.

He specifically praised Saudi Arabia and its allies for having “taken strong action against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Beyond the drive to militarily confront Iran, a principal regional rival of US imperialism in the Middle East, and the huge profits that Saudi arms purchases reap for the US military industrial complex, there are broader strategic considerations in the US turn toward a closer alliance with Riyadh.

Some of these issues were outlined on the eve of Trump’s trip in a piece published by the influential Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies and authored by Anthony Cordesman, a longtime Pentagon adviser. First among them is, according to Cordesman, “the continued level of US dependence on Saudi help in securing the stable flow of Gulf oil.”

Cordesman continues:

“The real-world nature of US influence and power in the Pacific would be cut massively, China’s leverage over other major Asian economies like Japan and South Korea would be sharply increased, and the potential rise in tension between China and India–and cut in India’s relative position–would have a massive impact on the balance of power in South Asia and the Indian Ocean.”

In other words, the turn toward closer relations with Saudi Arabia and the related Gulf oil sheikdoms is bound up with US imperialism’s mounting conflict with China, which it has identified as the principal challenge to the drive for American global hegemony. Washington is determined to dominate Asia, including China, by maintaining the military power to choke off the region’s energy imports.

The fact that the sclerotic House of Saud, one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, has become a lynchpin of Washington’s imperialist strategy, not only in the Middle East but globally, is a measure of the crisis of American and world capitalism – by Bill van Auken

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/05/22/trumps-speech-in-riyadh-signals-us-alignment-with-global-terrorism-and-extremism/

22.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (* A P)

GCC-US Leaders Committed to Opposing Iran’s ‘Malign Interference’

The leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the United States have expressed commitment to oppose Iran’s meddling in the region, prevent the supply of arms to Yemen’s Houthi insurgents and confront terrorism.

The final statement issued following the summit that the GCC leaders held with US President Donald Trump in Riyadh on Sunday, said there was commitment to tackle “the root causes of crises in the Middle East, as well as taking more urgent steps to intensify efforts to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda,” and “oppose Iran’s malign interference.”

The statement, which was issued on Monday, also said that the summit’s participants “stressed strengthening the ability of GCC countries to address threats wherever they originate, confront Iran’s destabilizing activities and work together to reduce sectarianism and regional tensions that fuel instability.”

“They expressed their condemnation of Iran’s interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region, in violation of the sovereignty of the GCC States, and its attempt to spread division and stir sectarian strife among their citizens, including in the Kingdom of Bahrain, by supporting violent extremists, training proxies, smuggling weapons and explosives, inciting sectarian strife, and making statements at various levels to undermine security, order and stability.”

They also affirmed their full commitment to Yemen’s unity, respect for its sovereignty and independence, and the rejection of any meddling in its internal affairs.

http://english.aawsat.com/asharq-al-awsat-english/news-middle-east/gcc-us-leaders-committed-opposing-irans-malign-interference

My comment: More reports on the Trump visit at YPR 303, cp1, cp9, and above in cp1. The US is fully dancing to the Saudi tune.

22.5.2017 – Arabian Business (* A P)

Trump's Saudi trip had all the markings of a traditional Arab wedding

Relationship between America’s First Family and the ruling royals in KSA marks a turning point in GCC-US ties

In what was repeatedly described by analysts as a monumental turning point in US-Saudi relations, the Gulf state spared no costs to roll out the most lavish celebrations in honour of the president’s first overseas visit.

Scenes broadcast from the Saudi capital resembled those of a traditional Arab wedding, with a line of limousines; sword and traditional dances; music concerts; grand buffets; and a red carpet with flower girls. To top it off, the president was given a gold medal, the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud, the nation’s highest honour - much like a dowry.

"There was a lot of excitement from all sides,” Mohammed Khalid Alyahya, a Saudi political analyst and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said from Riyadh. “The reception was very much unprecedented in terms of festivities. I have not seen something like this before.”

Ali Shihabi, the executive director of Washington-based Arabian Foundation, said the war in Yemen allowed Saudi Arabia and the Gulf at large to realise their military blind-spots.

“Certainly it is a risk that advanced weapons cannot be fully absorbed, but GCC militaries have gone up a sharp learning curve in the Yemen war and absorptive capacity is increasing rapidly.” – by Ola Salem

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/trump-s-saudi-trip-had-all-markings-of-traditional-arab-wedding-674912.html

22.5.2017 – Time (* A P)

The Big Problem with President Trump's Record Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia

Much of that military hardware will likely be pressed into service in the Saudi fight against its neighbor Yemen, where more than 10,000 people have been killed over more than two years of heavy airstrikes and fighting.

This puts the U.S. in a precarious ethical position, say human rights groups and former U.S. officials.

“There’s a humanitarian aspect that tends to be ignored. This is something that will come back to bite the Saudis as well, and by implication the Americans, because we’re the ones providing the bombs and bullets,” says Robert Jordan, the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia appointed by George W. Bush.

Far from Washington and the ever-expanding investigation into Trump’s relations with Russia, the president trumpeted the weapons deal as a step that will boost Saudi security and the American economy. The agreement was exactly the sort of decisive, business-oriented deal on which Trump bases his personal brand. But in this case, the deal also further entangles the United States in a political and humanitarian crisis that threatens to spiral out of control – by Jared Malsin

http://time.com/4787797/donald-trump-yemen-saudi-arabia-arms-deal/

22.5.2017 – The Guardian (* A P)

'One orb to rule them all': image of Donald Trump and glowing globe perplexes internet

Photo taken at opening of anti-extremism centre draws comparisons to Hydra, the villainous comic book organisation bent on world domination

A startling photograph of Donald Trump, the Egyptian president and Saudi king placing their hands on a glowing orb at a summit in Riyadh has prompted comparisons between the US president and villains from comic books and film.

Trump, King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi were pictured standing with their hands on the miniature globe at the opening event for the new Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology on Sunday. The US president is in the Gulf kingdom on his first state tour.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/22/one-orb-to-rule-them-all-image-of-trump-and-glowing-globe-perplexes-internet

21.5.2017 – Telesur (* A P)

US and Saudi Arabia, the Imperial Alliance That Creates Terrorism, Vows to ‘Fight’ It

With both the United States and Saudi Arabia hostile to Iran, Trump’s meeting in the kingdom signaled to many as a prelude to openly declaring war against Iran, as the nation’s two leaders fear-mongered about the threat of “terrorism” there.

"For decades, Iran has fed the flames of sectarian conflict and terror," declared Trump, as he stood on the soil of the regime he and his predecessors have funded and armed to commit atrocities in Yemen, Iraq and beyond.

Saudi King Salman also weighed in, saying, "Our responsibility before God and our people and the whole world is to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism wherever they are ... The Iranian regime represents the tip of the spear of global terrorism."

Despite the U.S. being the largest arms dealer in the world, sponsoring and bankrolling terrorism in nearly every part of the world including Saudi Arabia, the leaders of the two nations also announced the formation of the newly created Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, TFTC. The U.S. Treasury described the initiative as a "collaborative approach to confronting new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing." Saudi Arabia is both a hotbed, and exporter of, the Wahhabi Salafi ideology that fuels groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic state group.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-and-Saudi-Arabia-the-Imperial-Alliance-That-Creates-Terrorism-Vows-to-Fight-It-20170521-0018.html

21.5.2017 – Washington Post (* A P)

In Trump’s speech to Muslim world, some see a businessman’s focus on the bottom line

He talked about Islam. He thundered against extremism. But after President Trump’s hotly anticipated speech in Saudi Arabia was over Sunday, many in the Arab world latched on to another theme from his address, one that explained why a leader who had shown hostility toward Muslims would travel to the religion’s birthplace.

The answer? The bottom line.

“This summit has nothing to do with security. It’s all about business,” said Khalid Kilany, a 28-year-old engineer in Cairo, reflecting the views of an Arab public that had taken note of the vast sums — in arms sales and other business deals — that were announced during Trump’s visit.

The trip had delivered “more power to the Saudi royal family. More money to the U.S. Case closed,” Kilany said.

There was broad agreement that the president’s visit signaled a change in tone toward the region, and from Trump’s own previously strident anti-Muslim rhetoric. It was well-received among the assortment of monarchs and leaders who sat in the audience Sunday, under crystal chandeliers, grateful for a show of solidarity from an American president as well as his promise not to meddle in their affairs.

Beyond the gilded ballroom, there was also plenty of skepticism about the close U.S. embrace of Saudi Arabia, a country with its own troubled legacy of extremism that made it an awkward stage for a speech about the dangers of radicalism.

Madawi al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at the Middle East Center of the London School of Economics, said the president had chosen the kingdom for a different reason.

“Trump only recognizes regimes who can pay for a wide range of US services, military, economic and otherwise,” she wrote in the online Middle East Eye. “He believes in their pockets, rather than their faith.”

For better or worse, Trump’s visit — the pageantry, the personalities and the bizarre contradictions — captivated the region.

Then there was Yemen, site of one of the Arab world’s bloodiest and most tragic armed conflicts, which Trump referred to only obliquely, as a theater of influence for Iran — even though his Saudi hosts lead an Arab coalition fighting there and play a predominant role in the continuation of the war.

But the Saudis “definitely want a freer hand” in the conflict, said Farea al-Muslimi, head of the ­Beirut-based Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, making it unlikely that Trump would have spoken out forcefully for a settlement.

The president “had three priorities” in Saudi Arabia, Muslimi said. “Deals, deals and deals.” – By Kareem Fahim and Heba Farouk Mahfouz

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-trumps-speech-to-muslim-world-some-see-a-businessmans-focus-on-the-bottom-line/2017/05/21/98e86f3a-3caf-11e7-a59b-26e0451a96fd_story.html

20.5.2017 – Ben Norton / The Hill (A P)

Satire is obsolete (photo)

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/866129054956752896

22.5.2017 – Andrew Hammond (A P)

Some of those who turned up to speak on sidelines of the Riyadh sectarian conference (photo)

https://twitter.com/Hammonda1/status/866762394428735489

22.5.2017 – Antimedia (* A P)

WTF? After Praising Saudi Treatment of Women, Ivanka-Backed Fund Receives $100 Million

Ivanka and Melania Trump lauded Saudi Arabia’s progress on women’s rights while visiting the country with the president over the weekend. The first lady praised Saudi Arabia’s “empowerment of women” Sunday during her visit to a General Electric all-female service center and was well-received by the press, which focused on her wardrobe, describing her style choices as “classy and conservative.”

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump met with prominent businesswomen, civil society leaders, and Saudi elected government officials at a forum where World Bank President Jim Young Kim announced that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will donate a combined $100 million to a World Bank fund for women entrepreneurs, originally proposed by Ivanka.

“We thought it was a fantastic idea, but we had no idea how quickly this would build. This is really a stunning achievement. I’ve never seen anything come together so quickly, and I really have to say that Ivanka’s leadership has been tremendous.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that although the president’s daughter proposed the fund along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, she does not control it or raise money for it – by Josie Wales

http://theantimedia.org/ivanka-women-saudi/

23.5.2017 – Consortium News (* B P)

Trump Lets Saudis Off on 9/11 Evidence

Like his predecessors, President Trump made nice with the rich royals of Saudi Arabia, despite damning evidence that they have supported Islamic terrorists, including the 9/11 attackers, notes 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser.

President Trump has cut a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis. As someone who is trying to hold the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accountable for the mass murder of 3,000 on 9/11 (of which my husband Ron was an innocent victim), I’d think President Trump would be up in arms with the Saudis, not selling arms to them — especially given the information set forth below.

Many people know the explicit evidence found from 2009 that Saudi Arabia was, “a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups.

Just like many know the more recent and far more damning 2016 revelation that Saudi Arabia continues to provide “clandestine financial and logistical support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups” in the Middle East.

[Also, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The Long-Hidden 9/11 Saudi Trail” and “America First or Saudi Arabia First?”]

And, anyone who cares about women’s rights and human rights should also know about the latest human rights report produced by Rex Tillerson’s own State Department that details, “Saudi Arabia’s restrictions on universal rights, such as freedom of expression, including on the internet, and the freedoms of assembly, association, movement and religion, as well as the country’s pervasive gender discrimination.”

Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked among the “worst of the worst” in Freedom House’s annual survey of political and civil rights, among the 11 least free nations in the world giving the country a score of 10 out of 100 on its freedom index. Interestingly, Iran is ranked better on human rights issues than Saudi Arabia; Iran’s Freedom House ranking is 17 – By Kristen Breitweiser

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/23/trump-lets-saudis-off-on-911-evidence/

22.5.2017 – RT (* A P T)

Widow of 9/11 victim to Trump: Saudis should be held accountable for ‘role in murdering 3,000’

Saudi Arabia should be held accountable for the role it “played in murdering nearly 3,000 people” in the 9/11 attacks, the widow of one victim told RT. She wrote a letter to Donald Trump, calling on him to support the “quest for justice” during his visit to Riyadh.

“Since the president was going over to Saudi Arabia and they are named in our lawsuit, I was prompted to write this letter to ask him to please not forget about 9/11 families,” Terry Strada, national chair of the 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, told RT.

“We are just asking for our government to support us in our quest for justice against the murder, against Saudi Arabia for the role they played in murdering nearly 3,000 people,” said Strada who represents some 10,000 family members of those who were killed during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

According to Strada, it’s time “we have some accountability for this atrocious act that happened here [in the US] on 9/11.”

“It’s time that the Saudis stop pretending like they didn’t have any part of it and come to the table and discuss settlement for the families or our lawsuit will pursue in the courtroom.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/389236-wife-911-letter-trump-saudi/

14.5.2017 – Thilo Jung (* B P T)

Film: US-Drohnenkrieg: Regisseurin Sonia Kennebeck über „National Bird“ – Jung & Naiv: Folge 307
Sonia ist eine unabhängige Dokumentarfilmerin und investigative Journalistin. Wir sprechen über ihren Film „National Bird – Wohin geht die Reise, Amerika?“, der am 18. Mai in die deutschen Kinos kommt und von euch allen gesehen werden sollte. Ihr Werk dreht sich um den zunehmenden militärischen Einsatz von Drohnen durch die Vereinigten Staaten – dabei geht es zum einen um die Täterseite, zum anderen um die Opfer von Drohnenangriffen in Afghanistan. Sonia berichtet, wie schwierig es war, die Protagonisten des Films zu finden: „National Bird“ begleitet junge Veteranen des US-Militärs, die in unterschiedlichen Funktionen beteiligt an gezielten Tötungen im Zuge des ‚Krieges gegen den Terror‘ durch Drohnen waren. Die drei Protagonisten Lisa, Daniel und Heather werden zu Whistleblowern, die ausführlich von ihrem Erlebten berichten und sowohl ihre individuelle Haltung und Wandlung darstellen sowie auch Stellung zur politischen und militärischen Entwicklung beziehen.
Tilo spricht mit Sonia über die Sinnhaftigkeit des Drohnenkriegs: Bekämpfen wir damit wirklich den Terror? Was sind die Folgen dieser Kriegsführung? Wie leben die Opfer in Afghanistan mit der ständigen Bedrohung aus dem Himmel?
Filmausschnitte „National Bird“: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von NFP marketing & distribution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud5OWgiaQbw

24.5.2017 – Critical Threats (A K P)

Yemen Security Brief

The Director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Vincent R. Stewart, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 23. He stated that al Houthi-Saleh forces struck Taif, Saudi Arabia, with a ballistic missile in 2016.

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-24-2017 referring to http://www.dia.mil/News/Speeches-and-Testimonies/Article-View/Article/1189500/statement-for-the-record-worldwide-threat-assessment/

My comment: No new news. It’s interesting that the US among “worldwide threats” while the daily Saudi air raids against Yemen are no “threat” at all.

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

24.5.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A P)

The day after #Manchester Arena, UK ambassador meets #Yemen's Baba Al Qaeda, General Ali Muhsin Al Ahmar @alimohsnalahmar. (image)

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867486977469427713

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867486473649573888 referring to https://twitter.com/SimonShercliff/status/867460299615555584

My comment: Muhsin is “president” Hadi’s vice president. Bafana is right: Muhsin supported Al Qaeda for many years.

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

19.5.2017 – sevim dagdelen (* A P)

Keine weitere Beihilfe zum Morden der saudischen Diktatur

Plenarrede am 18. Mai anlässlich der Beratung des Antrags „Für einen radikalen Kurswechsel in der Jemenpolitik“ (Druchsache 18/12121) von Bündnis90/Die Grünen:

Der machtpolitisch motivierte Krieg Saudi-Arabiens gegen den Jemen, der vor allem die jemenitische Zivilbevölkerung trifft, ist die Hauptursache für das sich täglich zuspitzende Elend.

Herr Außenminister Gabriel hat vorgestern im Gespräch mit der saudischen Marionettenregierung des Jemen erklärt, Deutschland wolle bei der Lösung des Konflikts eine aktive Rolle einnehmen. Zugleich muss man aber konstatieren: Deutschland spielt schon eine sehr aktive Rolle. Deutschland liefert weiter Waffen an Saudi-Arabien, und Frau Bundeskanzlerin Merkel hat darüber hinaus bei ihrem jüngsten Besuch bei der Kopf-ab-Diktatur Saudi-Arabien zugesagt, saudische Militärs von der deutschen Bundeswehr ausbilden zu lassen.

Saudi-Arabien ist ein Großkunde der deutschen Rüstungskonzerne. 2016 betrug das Exportvolumen 529 Millionen Euro. Die Saudis bekommen Patrouillenboote und Technik für Radarüberwachung. Diese Kopf-ab-Diktatur darf sich zudem deutsches Waffen-Knowhow ins Land holen.

Wer sich nicht weiter am Massensterben mitschuldig machen und am Massenmord im Jemen beteiligen will, der muss sofort alle Rüstungsexporte nach Saudi-Arabien und an die anderen Golfdiktaturen stoppen.

Wer gerade in dieser Region keine weiteren Fluchtursachen schaffen will, der muss sofort jegliche Ausbildung saudischer Sicherheitskräfte unterbinden. Wer tatsächlich etwas gegen den islamistischen Terrorismus unternehmen möchte, der muss seinem größten Förderer, dem Schreckensregime in Riad, endlich die Rote Karte zeigen.

https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/keine-weitere-beihilfe-zum-morden-der-saudischen-diktatur/

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

24.5.2017 – European Commission's Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (A H P)

Statement by Commissioner Stylianides on the unprecedented cholera outbreak in Yemen

In light of an intensifying cholera outbreak, Commissioner Stylianides expresses EU support for the people of Yemen.

"As Yemen is facing a fast spreading cholera outbreak of unprecedented scale the EU is increasing its response with further funding to help those in need.

The European Union remains fully committed to helping the most vulnerable in need in Yemen."

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-commissioner-stylianides-unprecedented-cholera-outbreak-yemen

My comment: This is hypocrisy. The EU is the 2. largest arms supplier for Saudi Arabia and by this is fueling war and catastrophe – and the EU is fully supporting US foreign policy _ and the Saudis as well.

25.4.2017 – World Socialist Web (* A K T)

Ein weiterer eindeutiger Nebeneffekt von Trumps Reise durch den Nahen Osten zeigte sich bei seinem Besuch in Bahrain am Dienstag: Die dort herrschende sunnitische Monarchie ging brutal gegen Demonstranten vor, die Scheich Isa Qassim unterstützen.

Während der Aktion von Dienstag belagerten Sicherheitskräfte das Dorf Diraz im Nordwesten des Landes und gingen mit Tränengas, Vogelschrot und scharfer Munition gegen einen Sitzstreik vor. Mindestens zwei Demonstranten wurden getötet, und mehrere Verwundete sollen sich in Lebensgefahr befinden. Das Haus von Scheich Isa Qassim wurde gestürmt, und über sein Schicksal wurde unmittelbar nichts bekannt. Das bahrainische Innenministerium verkündete, dass mindestens 50 Demonstranten in diesem Dorf verhaftet wurden – von Bill van Auken

http://www.wsws.org/de/articles/2017/05/25/yeme-m25.html

24.5.2017 – AP (* A P)

Over 5 killed, 286 held in Bahrain raid on Shiite cleric hometown

Bahrain police raided a town on Tuesday that is home to a prominent Shiite cleric facing possible deportation, arresting 286 people in an assault in which officers fired tear gas and shotguns at protesters. At least five demonstrators were killed and others wounded.

The Interior Ministry said the operation targeting Diraz, home to Sheikh Isa Qassim and a long-running sit-in supporting him, was to "maintain security and public order." It called the area a "haven for wanted fugitives from justice."

Activists shared photographs and videos showing youths throwing stones and climbing on an armoured personnel carrier. Gunfire could be heard in one video as white smoke from tear gas hung in the air. Another video showed a bulldozer smashing through the area that once hosted the sit-in.

Police arrested 286 people, including "terrorists and convicted felons" who hid inside of Qassim's home, the Interior Ministry said. It said 19 members of the island's security forces were wounded in the raid that saw protesters throw gasoline bombs.

"Forces were able to remove a series of illegal road blocks and barricades," the ministry said in a statement. "Police remain deployed in the area to ensure the safety of people."

Amnesty International later said Qassim was not arrested.

At least five protesters were killed, activists and police said. Activists shared images of other protesters suffering what appeared to be birdshot wounds.

The operation followed a Sunday court decision giving Qassim a year's suspended prison sentence and seizing assets belonging to him and his ministry.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2017/may/24/over-5-killed-286-held-in-bahrain-raid-on-shiite-cleric-hometown-1608481.html

23.5.2017 – New News (* A P)

Bahrain King Responsible for any Harm on Sheikh Qassim: Amal party

Bahrain’s Islamic Action Society opposition party says Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah, the king of the Persian Gulf’s island country, is personally responsible for any harm, whatsoever, inflicted by regime forces on Sheikh Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s Shia majority.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the society, also referred to as Amal Party, strongly denounced the Al Khalifah regime for its brutal attack on protesters across the country, particularly in Diraz village, in which security forces “obnoxiously” stormed Sheikh Isa Qassim’s house, arresting dozens of people.

The unrest comes amid Bahraini clerics’ call on all people to hold protests across the kingdom in response to a one-year prison term issued against the senior cleric.

On Sunday, a Bahraini court convicted Sheikh Qassim of illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years. It also ordered him to pay $265,266 in fines. The court ruling sparked widespread demonstrations across the country.

Zia al-Bahrani, a top leader of Bahrain’s opposition February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition, said the Al Khalifah regime, emboldened by US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, was aided by troops from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to launch an offensive on Diraz.

Separately, the former head of the Bahraini Forum for Human Rights, Youssef Rabih, said regime forces had encircled Sheikh Qassim’s house with barbed wire fences, practically putting him in a compulsory stay at his residence.

http://newnewss.net/?p=5693

23.5.2017 – Josephjo1221 (A P)

Bahraini forces want to storm the birthplace of Sheikh Qassem (photo)

https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/866944785801777152

The Bahraini regime forces kill a citizen and injure a large number of unarmed citizens. Secure the system thanks to Trump’s reassurance two days ago (photos)

https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/866947563680927745

24.5.2017 – Reuters (* A P)

Gulf rift reopens as Qatar decries hacked comments by emir

* Qatar says state news agency hacked

* Report cites Emir criticising US

* Some other Gulf media run story regardless

* Any Gulf disunity awkward after Trump summit trip (Updates lead and adds new info on blocking)

Qatar got into a war of words with some Gulf Arab allies on Wednesday after it said hackers had posted fake remarks by its emir against U.S. foreign policy, but their state-run media reported the comments anyway.

The development suggested behind-the-scenes disarray among U.S. Gulf allies just days after President Donald Trump visited Riyadh and signalled a possible revival of a 2014 rift between Qatar and its neighbours over Doha's backing of Islamists.

Qatar and it Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have used their oil and gas revenues to influence events in other Arab countries, and rifts between them can alter the political balance in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Qatar's official news agency reported on Tuesday that Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, at a military graduation ceremony, criticised renewed tensions with Tehran, expressed understanding for Hezbollah and Hamas, and suggested U.S. President Donald Trump might not last long in power.

Doha issued a robust denial that the remarks had ever been made, but Gulf Arab countries including oil giant Saudi Arabia permitted their state-backed media to run them throughout the day on Wednesday quoting Qatar's official news agency.

A government spokesman told Reuters the emir had not made any comments at the graduation ceremony for Qataris doing national service.

But Saudi Arabia's Okaz daily thundered: "Qatar splits the rank, sides with the enemies of the nation." Riyadh's Arab News said the comments sparked "outrage" among other Gulf states.

A Qatari Foreign Ministry official expressed "surprise at the position of some media and satellite channels". – By William Maclean

http://news.trust.org/item/20170524034945-a2nz1/

24.5.2017 – Ali AlAhmed (*A P)

Saudi & #UAE monarchies Block @AJArabic + Qatari newspapers websites. More actions to follow include recalling ambassadors

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/867352467851358208

#Saudi Monarchy launches full media war on #Qatar & Saudi troops are headed to the border

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/867349570187137025

23.5.2017 – Reuters (A P)

Amid regional strains, Qatar says hackers post fake comments by Emir

Qatar said on Wednesday its state news agency had been hacked, after it reported remarks purportedly by its ruler criticizing aspects of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia.

The comments attributed to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani continued to be carried by media in some other Gulf Arab states, even after Qatar said the report was fake, suggesting renewed strains between Qatar and some of its Gulf Arab neighbors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-cyber-idUSKBN18K02Z?il=0

24.5.2017 – Hussam Al-Sanabani (A P)

The Saudi TV @AlHadath presents evidence that the Qatar News Agency web site was not hackered as claimed by Qatar (film)

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/867435488776531968

22.5.2017 – Foreign Policy (A P)

Qatar Needs to Do Its Part

the president would be well-advised to make the tiny emirate of Qatar one of his top priorities — a putative ally, wholly dependent on America for its security, that for more than 20 years has systematically pursued a number of policies that not only have failed to advance U.S. interests in the Middle East, but in too many cases have actively undermined them.

Indeed, Qatar has been the poster child for two-faced friends, consistently seeking to have it both ways when it comes to the United States: On one hand, a reliable host of some of the most important U.S. military facilities in the Middle East, but on the other, perhaps the key backer — politically, financially, militarily, and ideologically via Al Jazeera, the Doha-based state-funded broadcaster — of some of the region’s most radical, destabilizing, and dangerous forces – by John Hannah

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/22/qatar-needs-to-do-its-part/

14.6.2017 – Wezal TV Indonesia (B P)

Film: Wahabism in Indonesia, In Arabic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQE1N8ig1hk

Remark by Ali AlAhmed: #Saudi Monarchy spent $100s of millions 2 spread extremism #indonesia including pro #ISIS TV station

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/867532673635536896

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

Siehe / Look at cp 1, cp9

23.5.2017 – U.S. State Department (* A K)

U.S. State Department approved a $250 million possible FMS to the Royal #Saudi Naval Force for a Navy blanket order training program (look at image)

https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/867099280372314113

23.5.2017 – Boeing Media Room (* A K)

Boeing Completes Radar Upgrade for Saudi Arabia’s AWACS Fleet

Airborne Warning and Control System upgrades improve radar, simplify maintenance

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has completed a series of upgrades that substantially enhance the technological capabilities of Saudi Arabia’s E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

Among the enhancements to improve radar capabilities and reduce repair time for the airborne surveillance fleet are systems that increase the original equipment’s radar sensitivity and expand the range for tracking targets.

The upgrades, called the Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP), comprise a new radar computer, a radar control maintenance panel and electrical and mechanical software and hardware.

"The AWACS’s main mission is to provide real-time situation awareness, and our teams have stayed true to that mission,” said Keith Burns, Saudi AWACS programs manager for Boeing. “The modernized software, multiple radar nodes and overall enhanced operation make this is the most significant upgrade to the AWACS radar since it was developed in the 1970s.”

Boeing engineers and technicians performed the installation and checkout of the first upgraded aircraft at Boeing Field in Seattle. The remaining aircraft were modified at Alsalam Aerospace Industries in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with support of Boeing engineers, technicians and a test and evaluation team.

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2017-05-23-Boeing-Completes-Radar-Upgrade-for-Saudi-Arabias-AWACS-Fleet

23.5.2017 – Reuters (* A E K P)

Banks urged to stop multi-billion dollar investments in deadly cluster bombs

Financial firms invested $31 billion in the last four years in companies that produce cluster bombs, weapons banned under international law and used in conflicts from Syria to Yemen, an advocay group said on Tuesday.

More than 160 banks, pension funds and insurance companies, mostly from the United States, China and South Korea, invested in six cluster munitions producers between June 2013 and March 2017, Dutch charity PAX said in a report.

"Cluster bombs are banned for a clear reason, because they disproportionately harm civilians..., " Firoz Alizada, a spokesperson for the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international network of charities working in around 100 countries to eradicate the weapons, said in a statement.

"That is why no banks or financial institutions should put a penny in companies that produce these illegal and harmful weapons, and no company or country should produce cluster munitions," said Alizada.

An international convention that prohibits the use and production of cluster bombs came into force in 2010 and more than 100 nations have signed it.

The majority of firms named by PAX are from countries which are not party to the convention, including the United States, China and South Korea.

However, 15 financial institutions that have invested in producers of cluster munitions are from countries that have joined the convention: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the report said – By Anna Pujol-Mazzini

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-clusterbombs-funding-idUSKBN18J0LH

22.5.2017 – Al Akhbar (* B K P)

Madrid also arms Saudi Arabia: «Reviving relations» ... over the bodies of Yemenis

"Arms, ammunition and other military equipment are often shipped through the port of Bilbao ... but it was the first time I was about to participate in the transfer of arms to a country that violated human rights ... committing war crimes and killing innocent civilians in Yemen." Spanish firefighter Inacio Robles last month explained why he refused to supervise the shipment of 4,000 tons of Spanish arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia in March this year.

While Robles faces a four-year suspension, his case highlights the arms deals between Riyadh and Madrid, which in recent years have seen a boom in arms trade, particularly in the Middle East.
According to a study conducted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the global arms trade reached its highest levels in the past five years (2012-2016) and arms imports by the Middle East rose by 86 percent, Continued military operations and fighting in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and increased tension between the countries of the region, especially between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia is today the second largest customer of Spanish weapons – by Rana Harbi

http://al-akhbar.com/node/277574 and translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ar&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fal-akhbar.com%2Fnode%2F277574&edit-text=

cp13b Flüchtlinge / Refugees

23.5.2017 – International Organization for Migration (A H)

84 Stranded Migrants Returned from Yemen

The UN Migration Agency (IOM) transported 84 stranded migrants from Al Hudaydah Port in Yemen to Djibouti on 21 May. Following a hiatus due to rough seas and security challenges, this was the first voluntary humanitarian return organized out of Yemen in two months.

Most were Ethiopian nationals. The group consisted of 29 unaccompanied migrant boys, seven women and 48 other vulnerable cases. Seven migrants had severe injuries; some were receiving medical care and temporary shelter from IOM in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital. As soon as they were well enough to travel, IOM transported the migrants by bus to Al Hudaydah earlier in the week.

Most of these migrants had intended to transit Yemen to reach Saudi Arabia but found themselves trapped in Yemen’s conflict. Many had their basic human rights violated by migrant smugglers and other criminal gangs

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/84-stranded-migrants-returned-yemen and photo: https://twitter.com/ldeboeck/status/866537678128508928

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

US raid; Look also at cp1.

23.5.2017 – AFP (* A K T)

Angriff im Jemen: US-Soldaten töten Al-Kaida-Kämpfer

Die US–Armee hat bei einem Einsatz im Jemen nach Angaben des Pentagon sieben mutmaßliche Kämpfer des Al–Kaida–Netzwerks getötet.

Die Soldaten seien am früheren Dienstagmorgen von Luftangriffen unterstützt mit Handfeuerwaffen auf das Gelände in der zentralen Provinz Marib vorgerückt, erklärte das zuständige US–Zentralkommando (Centcom).

http://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/id_81250742/us-soldaten-toeten-sieben-al-kaida-kaempfer-im-jemen.html

Mein Kommentar: Die Opfer sind in den Berichten immer „mutmaßliche Kämpfer des Al–Kaida–Netzwerks“, in der Überschrift sind es schon einfach „Al-Kaida-Kämpfer“. – Und tatsächlich waren fünf Zivilisten (siehe cp1).

23.5.2017 – NTV (* A K T)

US-Soldaten bei Razzia im Jemen verletzt

Bei einer Operation gegen die Terrororganisation Al-Kaida sind im Jemen mehrere US-Soldaten verletzt worden. Das bestätigte ein Sprecher des Pentagons der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. Zur genauen Zahl der Verletzten wollte er sich nicht äußern. Die Verletzungen seien aber nicht so schwer, dass eine Evakuierung der Soldaten aus medizinischen Gründen notwendig sei.

http://www.n-tv.de/der_tag/US-Soldaten-bei-Razzia-im-Jemen-verletzt-article19857076.html

23.5.2017 – Reuters (* A K T)

Seven al Qaeda militants killed in Special Forces raid in Yemen: U.S. military

Seven militants were killed during an intelligence-gathering raid by U.S. Special Forces troops against an al Qaeda compound in Yemen on Tuesday morning, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants were killed "through a combination of small-arms fire and precision air strikes" in the Marib governorate, with the support of the Yemeni government.

"Raids such as this provide insight into AQAP's disposition, capabilities and intentions, which will allow us to continue to pursue, disrupt, and degrade AQAP," the statement said.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters separately that there were no known U.S. casualties and the raid was carried out 40-45 km (25-30 miles) north of another U.S. raid that took place in late January.

One of the U.S. officials said there were no immediate reports of civilian casualties in the raid, which was carried out by U.S. Special Forces troops.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-yemen-raid-idUSKBN18J0D7 and by AFP: http://www.france24.com/en/20170523-us-forces-kill-seven-al-qaeda-militants-yemen-raid-pentagon and by Critical Threats: https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-23-2017

Comment: They killed 7 people to gain intelligence.
'People' are referred to as 'militants'. Where is the proof?

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1381546265231733

23.5.2017 – Fox News (* A K T)

Yemen raid against Al Qaeda was 'deepest' US special ops have gone

In the latest operation, the U.S. partnered with an Arab force and backed up the raid with "numerous" airstrikes, a senior defense official told Fox News. An AC-130 gunship was called in to support the SEALs after the firefight began, Davis added.

The raid was launched from Navy ships, including the USS Bataan, off the Yemeni coast, CENTCOM said in a statement.

The operation “was conducted with the support of the Royal Government of Yemen,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “In conjunction with our Arab allies, the U.S. will continue to support their efforts in bringing stability to the region by fighting known terrorist organizations like AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula].”

The goal of the raid was to snatch more laptops and mobile phones and other intel to learn more about AQAP; it was not a raid to kill or capture a high-value target such as the terrorist group's emir, officials told Fox News.

President Trump did not authorize this specific raid, as the authority to order such strikes had been granted to Gen. Joseph Votel, head of CENTCOM, who ordered Tuesday's attack.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/05/23/yemen-raid-against-al-qaeda-was-deepest-us-special-ops-have-gone.html

23.5.2017 – ABC News (** A K T)

U.S. military conducts ground raid in Yemen on AQAP compound

U.S. military forces conducted a ground raid in Yemen early Tuesday morning, targeting a known al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) compound, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
According to Colonel John Thomas, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, U.S. military forces conducted a raid in the early hours of May 23 local time on a known AQAP compound in Marib Governorate in central Yemen.
Thomas said the mission was intended as a site exploitation mission to gather more information about AQAP.
The U.S. forces encountered some resistance and a small number of AQAP militants were killed in the raid. Thomas said there were no reports of civilian casualties or any U.S. military casualties in the raid.
The raid targeted a known AQAP compound but included "focused actions over a fairly large area" that were miles from each other said Thomas. They included pre-planned coordinated airstrikes before the arrival of the ground forces.
The spokesman said that the nighttime mission was conducted "in full coordination with Arab partners in the area "and was conducted under the broader authorities given to U.S. military commanders by the Trump administration. The mission did not require presidential authorization.
Social media reports from local residents provided the first indication of possible U.S. military activity in the area of central Yemen.
This was the U.S. military's first ground operation in Marib Province.

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/world-news/us-military-conducts-ground-raid-in-yemen-on-aqap-compound.html and by Long War Journal: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/05/us-special-forces-raid-al-qaeda-compound-in-central-yemen.php

23.5.2017 – Reuters (* A K T)

Multiple U.S. troops injured in Yemen raid: Pentagon

Multiple U.S. troops were injured in a Tuesday raid against a compound associated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen in which at least seven militants were killed, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters the injuries were not serious enough to require medical evacuation. He declined to say specifically how many troops were injured.

Davis added that this was the first time the U.S. had carried out a ground raid in the Marib governorate and the deepest the U.S. had gone into Yemen to target AQAP – by Idrees Ali

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-yemen-military-idUSKBN18J2EY

23.5.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A K T)

I've been informed that 2 US soldiers were killed in the AQAP raid last night on #Yemen's Marib province. Names given.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867117069518729216

My comment: The US would report this, remember the US Seal killed at the Jan. 28 raid.

and

24.5.2017 – Fars News (* A K T)

Several US Soldiers Killed in Clashes with Yemeni Tribal Fighters

Yemeni tribal fighters have reportedly killed several American troops after they launched a heliborne attack on a village in Yemen’s Central province of Ma’rib, Arab media sources said.

At least 30 troops from the US and some Persian Gulf states were deployed in the rural area of Khathla and engaged in a gun battle with fighters from two prominent tribes in the village, Yemen's Khabar news agency reported.

It added that during the ensuing fierce battle at least seven of the invading troops were fatally injured, who had come there with the purported mission of gunning down militants of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Takfiri terrorist group.

The report, however, added that no militants of the terror group were in the area when three Apache choppers and two military transport aircraft of the US approached the village.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960303001485

My comment: Not confirmed by the US, thus doubtful. I Think this is a minsunderstanding of reports quoting that US Seals were injured.

23.5.2017 – Defense One (* A K T)

''Another USSOF raid in Yemen''

Not a kill/capture mission: “The raid, in Marib about 100 miles northeast of Sanaa, the capital, wasn’t a mission to take out ‘high value’ targets associated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a U.S. defense official told NBC News. Instead, the official said, U.S. forces were seeking ‘laptops, cellphones’ and similar materials that could help the United States learn more about the terrorist group.”

Battle-damage assessment still ongoing: “Col. John Thomas, a Central Command spokesman, said in a telephone interview afterward…it was too early to tell if the early-morning raid on Tuesday was successful. He said there were no indications of American casualties,” The New York Times adds.

Interestingly, the CENTCOM statement cites “the support of the Royal Government of Yemen” during the operation—a curious claim (and very possibly an oversight) considering Yemen, in the best of circumstances, has a president and not a monarch.

http://www.defenseone.com/news/2017/05/the-d-brief-may-23-2017/138078/

Comment: With reference to ''Another USSOF raid in Yemen'' last night, Centcom (The United States Central Command of the US Department of Defense) still thinks #Yemen is a kingdom.
This is how they come to war: droning, killing, butchering and have no clue where they are.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1381633461889680/?type=3&theater

and this is the official statement:

23.5.2017 – US Central Command (* A K T)

U.S. forces conduct counter-terrorism raid

http://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/1190002/us-forces-conduct-counter-terrorism-raid/

My comment: This is a corrected version, originally, as reported above, CENTCOM really had mentioned the “Royal Government of Yemen”, as in this screenshot: https://twitter.com/samueloakford/status/866849264722485248

23.5.2017 – AP (* A K T)

Clashes between US troops, al-Qaida militants in Yemen

According to Yemeni officials, the raid took place in the al-Sirim area in the province of Marib in the early morning hours. Tribal members said explosions were heard in al-Sirim, followed by helicopters and gunfire.

The helicopters landed in the outskirts of the town of Jouba near al-Sirim, which is known as one of al-Qaida's hideouts and which has been targeted by a series of airstrikes in the past month that reportedly killed six al-Qaida militants.

According to the officials, there was also bombing in nearby Bayda province. The officials and the tribesmen spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to reporters. They also did not have any specifics on casualties – by Ahmed Al-Haj

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_YEMEN_US_RAID?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-23-05-01-08

Comment by Judith Brown: Now read to the bottom of this article and it says what is well known to all in Yemen - Al Qaeda are de facto fighting for Hadi and Saudi Arabia. Whom USA and U.K. are supporting. A strange war indeed.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155550203533641

23.5.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A K T)

#Yemen : Tribe of 7 AQAP militants killed by US raid last night say all were members of Saudi-paid anti-Houthi resistance & "National Army".

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867038492592939010

23.5.2017 – Haykal Bafana (A K T)

Unconfirmed talk : US raid in #Yemen Marib province last night captured 6 to 9 #Saudi Al Qaeda militants. All flown away to parts unknown.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/867069896273924097

cp15 Propaganda

24.5.2017 – Saudi Press Agency (A P)

Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, officials participate in workshop in London on Yemeni crisis

Saudi ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Saeed Al Jaber and a number of officials today participated in a workshop organized by the Gulf Research Center in cooperation with the Middle East and North Africa Foundation at Chatham House and the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London on Ways to Resolve the Yemeni Crisis.
Al-Jaber reviewed Saudi support for Yemen in all fields stressing that the solution in Yemen is political according to the three international references, the Gulf initiative, the Yemeni national dialogue and the Security Council resolution 2216.
The ambassador called on the Huthis to hand over weapons and withdraw, participate in the government and state institutions according to their size, pointing out the need to stop the Iranian interventions in Yemen to ensure the security and stability of the country in addition to protecting the region and navigational corridors.
Other speakers highlighted aid to the Yemeni people and Saudi humanitarian efforts in Yemen.

http://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1634117

My comment: Propaganda event in Britain.

24.5.2017 – Arab News (A P)

Houthis ‘using dead child soldiers for propaganda’ in Yemen: Saudi envoy

Militias of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi group in Yemen are using dead child soldiers for propaganda targeted against the Saudi-led Arab coalition, a senior diplomat said on Wednesday.
Mohammed Al-Jaber, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, said that the number of child soldiers recruited by the Houthis is on the rise.
When these children are killed, the militia uses their deaths for political purposes, he said.
“The Houthis — when these kids are killed on the battlefield — they took these kids, and bring them to the UN organization and say, ‘oh, the coalition attacked the kids,’ ” Al-Jaber told Arab News.
“They use it for their propaganda.”
Houthi militias have for a long time been known to use child soldiers in Yemen. Amnesty International said in February that new evidence had emerged that the Houthis are actively recruiting boys as young as 15 to fight on the front lines of the conflict in violation of international law.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1104526/middle-east

My comment: This really is odd propaganda which tries to use the evidence of the Saudi war crimes against the Houthis, combining this evidence to quite another story. The evidence of Saudi war crime victims is not only by photos, but in many cases also by films which show the singular victims seen in the photos within the whole setting and surrounding of the scene of the effect of an air raid. And often, you also without a film can clearly tell that different photos must belong together, i. e. must refer to the same event, when comparing details – and even such details like the pattern of the floor of the hospital… – And as always, the Saudi propaganda just claims; proofs, clear examples: none. – And further on, child soldiers are used by all sides of the conflict. – And a bulk of other anti-Houthi propaganda is added here. One joke: Lamenting in a Saudi media on others suppressing freedom of speech. And, another joke: The photo of the article shows a well-known scene of air raid victims – the victim being an old woman.

24.5.2017 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)

Ould Cheikh Discusses with Houthi, Saleh Militias in Sana’a 3 Files

Yemeni Minister of Human Rights Dr. Mohammad Askar stressed the importance of achieving permanent peace based on clear references and foundations.

“The Gulf initiative and its mechanisms, outcomes of the national dialogue and the Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 2216” are the most important references, Askar told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The Yemeni Minister said that insurgents “won’t give up Hodeida port, which is considered the first place for the introduction of Iranian weapons and the collection of revenues in favor of what they call the war effort.”

Askar called on the United Nations to benefit from all the national and international expertise to manage the port of Hodeida, considering that it will help deliver humanitarian aid and prevent smuggling arms and military equipment.”

“We, the legitimate government, under the leadership of President Abed Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who holds Yemen’s federal project, want peace now and not tomorrow to dedicate ourselves to reconstruction and building our future away from war and destruction,” he said.

http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/ould-cheikh-discusses-houthi-saleh-militias-sanaa-3-files

My comment: these “3 files” grant absolute supremacy to the Hadi government. They are among the greatest obstacle to peace, as all negotiations based on them would be totally one-sided.

22.5.2017 – FDIK (A P)

Der Propaganda-Artikel des Tages in der Kategorie Dumpfbackenpropaganda: Trump in Saudi-Arabien – “Er hat die richtigen Worte gefunden”

Mit seiner Rede hat sich US-Präsident Trump Respekt in der arabischen Welt verschafft, ist sich ARD-Korrespondentin Ina Ruck sicher. Zum Beispiel durch seine respektvollen Äußerungen zum Islam. Bei der Menschenrechtspolitik der USA deute sich ein Kurswechsel an.

Kann Trump immer alles nur falsch machen? Nein, weit gefehlt! Wenn Trump den grössten Waffendeal mit Saudi-Arabien aller Zeiten macht, und mit den Hauptfinanziers des islamistischen Terrors tanzen geht, dann bekommt er ein dickes Ausnahmelob von der ARD-Tagesschau!

https://blog.fdik.org/2017-05/s1495452074.html

22.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (A P)

Yemen: Houthis attack on UN envoy convoy an ‘assassination attempt’ of diplomat

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry has described the Houthis attack on UN envoy convoy on Monday as “assassination attempt” of the diplomat, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

Houthi militants fired shots at the UN envoy’s convoy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, sources told Al Arabiya News Channel.

There are no details if there were any casualties.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/05/22/Sources-Houthi-militants-fire-shots-at-UN-envoy-convoy-in-Sanaa.html and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-7217

My comment: That’s not what really happened. Even Al Arabiya, in another article, tells it, look at cp7.

23.5.2017 – Anadolu (A P)

Arab coalition slams Houthi attack on Yemen’s UN envoy

The UN envoy’s convoy reportedly came under fire as he left the Sanaa airport

The Arab coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday condemned an “assassination attempt” against UN envoy Islami Ould Cheikh Ahmed in the capital Sanaa.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/arab-coalition-slams-houthi-attack-on-yemen-s-un-envoy/824523

23.5.2017 – Emirati News Agency (A P)

Qatar condemns Al-Houthi militia attack on convoy of UN Special Envoy for Yemen

According to the Qatar News Agency, the Foreign Ministry of Qatar described the attack as "a heinous and desperate attempt to impede UN efforts to find a political solution to the Yemeni crisis".

http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302615348

21.5.2017 – The Hill (A P)

OPINION: Trump gets it right in Saudi Arabia

For all the sound and fury over his public remarks and tweets in Washington, President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia has been a very different story. The president gave the right speech in the right place at the right time. There will still be critics on issues like human rights and Yemen, but the president had a different focus — and almost certainly the right one.

First, he needed to reassure the Saudis, the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the other leaders of the 50 some Islamic countries meeting in the Kingdom that he was not anti-Islamic and did not see Islam as an enemy. He did just that — and in ways far more suited to the culture of his audience than the take-no-prisoners rhetoric he often employs in the U.S. – By Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/334488-trump-gets-it-right-in-saudi-arabia

My comment: Whow. For the author, look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Cordesman . And referring to this article is: http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/05/22/trumps-speech-in-riyadh-signals-us-alignment-with-global-terrorism-and-extremism/

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

24.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by#Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 24 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/831140627036304/?type=3

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

24.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by#Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 23 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/831139363703097/?type=3

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

24.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by#Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 22 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/831136837036683/?type=3

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

22.5.2017 – Legal Center (* A K PH)

The Violations and Crimes that are committed by#Saudi_Arabia and its alliance in #Yemen 21 May 2017 (full list):

https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/829955503821483/?type=3

24.5.2017 – Al Masirah TV (A K PH)

Film: The fall of a martyr as a result of targeting the coalition of aggression Farm of a citizen in the Saada district

The martyrdom of a citizen as a result of a raid by the American-Saudi Aggression Coalition targeted a farm for a citizen in the district of Muzaz in Saada province.
This comes in the context of daily crimes committed by the aggression and its mercenaries against the civilians in Yemen for more than two years amid silence and Arab and international complicity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPitHpGDTo4 and photos: https://twitter.com/maddllock/status/867485462310641665

24.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Three Saudi airstrikes hit Marib

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465478.htm

24.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Saudi fighter jets continue fierce strikes on citizens in several provinces

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465473.htm

23.–24.5.2017 – Sanaa at night (A K)

11:34 pm Sana'a time, a new Saudi air strike, a huge explosion in the southern part of Sana'a

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/867132155985629184

Now in capital Sana'a, #Yemen, a massive explosion by Saudi airstrike hitting western part of the capital.

https://twitter.com/Shuaibalmosawa/status/867131771334406145

The second Saudi airstrike on capital Sana'a,

https://twitter.com/Shuaibalmosawa/status/867148120324542464

The third Saudi airstrike on capital Sana'a, #Yemen, hitting the Missile Brigade, where ballistic missiles were supposedly launched from

https://twitter.com/Shuaibalmosawa/status/867152988888068097

3 seconds after sent last tweet about disease and death, a friggin airstrike hit next door jolting out of bed. Keeps getting better..

https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/867131882613374976

Massive explosion from airstrike rocks #Yemen capital now 1:58 AM

https://twitter.com/hashemalameer/status/867152924551544838

What a huge explosions! #Saudi fighter jets targeted Sana'a the capital of #Yemen with 3 air strikes within the last 40 min. It's 2:10am now

https://twitter.com/marwan18/status/867156829457051648

What the heck is that, explosions all night long and #SaudiaArabia jets circulating over #Sanaa

https://twitter.com/SaifOliby/status/867155141128007685

I don't know what else the #Saudis are targeting in #Sanaa. More than 2years of countless bombing should have been enough. PURE Saudi TERROR

https://twitter.com/Abdulghani72/status/867155129996333060

Hell nooooo with such a huge massive destructive for sure by the non-stop #Saudi bloody airstrike agnst Sanaa #Yemen after midnight…

https://twitter.com/dhamariibrahim/status/867156709177012224

23.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Saudi airstrike hits Marib

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465350.htm

22.5.2017 – New News (A K PH)

Girl Martyred, Four Civilians Injured in US-Saudi Air Strike

According to local source , four civilians were killed and a girl lost her life in an air strike by US-KSA aggression’s fighter jets . The air raid targeted Yakhtel area of Al-makha district . http://newnewss.net/?p=5637 and also http://newnewss.net/?p=5711

and

22.5.2017 – Saudi War Crimes (A K PH)

Pictures of the wounded and the martyr who were targeted by the American air aggression in the region of Yakhl district of the Mukha province of Taiz, which resulted in the injury of four children and the death of his child.

https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1679791315650189

22.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Aggression launches nine raids o Sa'ada

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465319.htm

23.5.2017 – Al Masirah TV (A K PH)

See cluster bombs scattered widely in large areas in Saada province

The Saudi-American aggression deliberately bombarded residential areas in the city of Saada and surrounding areas with prohibited weapons. On Saturday night, the attack with cluster-loaded rockets hit a number of lanes and populated areas, causing severe damage to housing and property.
Quantities of these weapons were thrown at the farms and markets, some of them did not explode, which could endanger the lives of thousands and limit the movement of citizens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tFxbzgjgw

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

24.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

A citizen was killed by the mercenaries' fire in Al Batan area of al Maton district of Jawf province.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465473.htm

24.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

Saudi-paid mercenaries waged heavy artillery shelling on citizens' houses and farms in Serwah district, Marib prov.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465478.htm

24.5.2017 – Arab News (* A K PS)

Houthi-Saleh militia carried out massacre in Taiz: Govt

Militias of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi group committed human rights violations when dozens of civilians in Taiz were killed or wounded in missile attacks earlier this week, according to a report issued by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.
The report, which was made available to Arab News, said the attacks occurred last Sunday through Tuesday.
“Today, Tuesday, the militia committed a new massacre against civilians by launching three missiles toward neighborhoods in downtown leaving 18 victims, dead and injured,” the report said. “The initial toll resulted from direct targeting and indiscriminate shelling in three days, from 21 to 23 of May, 2017, has escalated to more than 36 civilian victims, 14 killed and 22 injured, most of which have serious injuries,” said the report.
It further added that at least 11 children were killed or injured.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1104426/middle-east and photos: https://twitter.com/BasemAlabsi/status/867044887463690245 and https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/867461046793097216

My comment: Saudi media, quoting the Hadi government, figures unproofed, look below.

23.–24.5.2017 – Taiz at night (A K)

Now: Fierce battles, with huge blasts rocking eastern parts of #Taiz city ,

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/867140501945946115

23.5.2017 – Yemen Post (* A K)

COLD BLOOD: 6 civilians killed & 12 injured including children/women by Houthi rocket attacks in #Yemen region #Taiz today, local officials (photo)

https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/867109869349982210 and also https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/867029970148839424

A civilian was killed& his daughter wounded in a shell fired by #Houthis at al-Dhaboah zone in #Taiz. It hit near our place.

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/867021083429543936

Two civilians wounded in a shell fired by #Houthis now at al-Dhaboah zone in #Taiz. There is a crazy escalation...

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/867018974218899456

but the anti-Houthi side is shelling civilians as well:

22.5.2017 – Yemen Today TV (A K PH)

Film: 5 civilians were killed and wounded by artillery bombardment of the Al-Gamaa neighborhood in Taiz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa4InAzncpk

23.5.2017 – Doctors Without Borders (* A H K)

While #MSF is treating people for #cholera, our health centers in #Taiz treated 57 war wounded in one day of which 75% women and children (photo)

https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/867021803163725825

22.5.2017 – Mohammed al-Qadhi (A K)

Residential areas continue to be shelled by #Houthis in the under-siege city of #Taiz now.

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/866738445795942400

It is another horrific night as clashes and bombings in different parts of #Taiz city!!!

https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/866764635936104450

22.5.2017 – Almasdar Online (A K PS)

Suhail TV cameraman shot by Houthi sniper while covering the battles in Taiz

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91425

23.5.2017 – Saba Net (A K PH)

the Saudi-paid mercenaries launched an artillery shelling on different areas in the Serwah district, Marib prov.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465350.htm

23.5.2017 – Saba Net (* A K PH)

Army eradicates entire Sudanese contingent of 83 soldiers paid by Saudi

The army and popular forces killed and wounded 83 of Sudanese soldiers paid by Saudi in Midi desert near the Red Sea coast in a fierce battle late on Monday, a military official told Saba on Tuesday.
The killed foreign mercenaries included four senior officers.
Dozens of the mercenary bodies were still lying at the scene near Saudi border.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465368.htm and by Fars News: http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960303000768

Comment by Judith Brown: By Iranian news. Propaganda is the name of the game whoever is purporting to report the Yemen war. So maybe this is true or maybe it isn'

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10155553080988641

and

23.5.2017 – New News (* A K PH)

Sudanese Troops’ Heavy Losses Increased to 100 Killed, Wounded Including Leaders, commanders

Sudanese Troops’ and the aggression’s forces’ heavy losses in Midi district of Hajja province have increased to more than 100 killed and injured including commanders and leaders . Their heavy losses came as result of Yemeni army and public forces defeating their attacking toward Midi.

Military source confirmed for the First Yemeni Scene that the Sudanese soldiers’ heavy losses have increased for more than 83 killed and 4 others wounded . The source pointed out , tens of Sudanese dead bodies were still at the hands of the Yemeni army and public committees .(photos)

http://newnewss.net/?p=5689

22.5.2017 – Various (* A K PH)

Pics #Saudi #UAE CO failed attempt to advance in North Medi NW #Yemen result was dozens of #Sudan-ese soldiers kild&injrd

http://www.yamanyoon.com/?p=74822&lang=en

https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/866905250296365056

https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/866749880651403264

https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/866746654220791808

https://twitter.com/JosephJo1221/status/866905250296365056

https://twitter.com/HussamSanabani/status/866734636239642624

https://twitter.com/maddllock/status/866756961232187393

https://twitter.com/IbraheemNq/status/866738556559122432

Film by Almasirah TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKTobOD1DEk

22.5.2017 – Janes (A K)

Saudi Arabia confirms long-range Yemeni ballistic missile attack

Saudi Arabia effectively confirmed that the Yemeni rebels the kingdom is fighting have a ballistic missile with a range of at least 675 km.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces (RSADF) intercepted a ballistic missile that targeted an unpopulated area in the north of Al-Rayn district at 20:45 on 19 May. It said there were no casualties and Saudi-led coalition aircraft retaliated by attacking the missile launch site in Yemen.

The town of Al-Rayn is just over 675 km from Sadah province, the rebel stronghold in northern Yemen.

Yemen's pro-rebel Al-Masirah TV released footage showing what it said was a Burkan-2 being launched at Riyadh late on 19 May.

http://www.janes.com/article/70636/saudi-arabia-confirms-long-range-yemeni-ballistic-missile-attack

Pro Houthi / Pro Saleh reports:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465480.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465477.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465475.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465454.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465452.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465451.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465450.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465449.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465370.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465367.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465365.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news465349.htm

Pro Hadi / Pro Saudi reports:

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91405

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91423

http://almasdaronline.com/article/91424

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

24.5.2017 – Reuters (A)

Australian national kidnapped in Yemen freed after 7 months

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oman-yemen-australia-idUSKBN18K0WR and more details http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-24/australian-coach-craig-mcallister-kidnapped-in-yemen-released/8556026 and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/24/australian-kidnapped-in-yemen-safe-and-well-after-negotiators-secure-his-release also https://twitter.com/Sophiemcneill/status/867309257577951232

24.5.2017 – Outlook India (A P)

Oman flies 'missing' Australian out of Yemen: ministry

The ministry said only that it had acted at the request of the Australian authorities

http://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/oman-flies-missing-australian-out-of-yemen-ministry/1058595 and also http://timesofoman.com/article/109710/Oman/Oman-helps-in-finding-missing-Australian-in-Yemen

Vorige / Previous:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-303-yemen-war-mosaic-303

Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-303 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-303:

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/

Dieser Beitrag gibt die Meinung des Autors wieder, nicht notwendigerweise die der Redaktion des Freitag.
Geschrieben von

Dietrich Klose

Vielfältig interessiert am aktuellen Geschehen, zur Zeit besonders: Ukraine, Russland, Jemen, Rolle der USA, Neoliberalismus, Ausbeutung der 3. Welt

Dietrich Klose

Was ist Ihre Meinung?
Diskutieren Sie mit.

Kommentare einblenden