Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 410 - Yemen War Mosaic 410

Yemen Press Reader 410: 5.5.2018: Verzweiflung und Hunger–Hunger: Mutter kämpft um Kind–Hebammen–CARE-Helferin, vertrieben–Jugend–Separatisten-Übergangsrat–VAE und Sokotra–US-Truppen an Grenze

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Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

May 5, 2018: Desperation and hunger – Hunger: A mother fighting for her child – Yemen’s midwifes – Woman, CARE humanitarian worker, displaced – Youth in Yemen – Separatists: The Southern Transitional Council – Emirates occupy Socotra – US military assisting Saudi Arabia at Yemeni border – and more

Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

cp1b Am wichtigsten: Emirate besetzen Sokotra / Most important: Emirates occupy Socotra

cp1c Am wichtigsten: US-Truppen an Jemens Grenze / Most important: US military at Yemen’s frontier

cp2 Allgemein / General

cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

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

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

cp9 USA

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis

cp12b Libanon / Lebanon

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp15 Propaganda

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

Klassifizierung / Classification

***

**

*

(Kein Stern / No star)

? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating

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

Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:

Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke

Neue Artikel / New articles

(** B H K)

Desperation, hunger mark trip through war-torn Yemen

Across Yemen, there is a landscape of desperation.

People driven from their homes by war live in tents made of rags and sticks. Hungry mothers beg in markets full of food that few can afford. Families that were once comfortably middle class have been reduced to grinding poverty, unsure where their next meal will come from. Scrawny, underdeveloped children run through unpaved streets.

Yemen’s 3-year-old civil war has pushed the country into near starvation as a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition supporting the government tries to drive back Shiite rebels known as Houthis. Thousands of children are already believed to have died, though there are no solid statistics. Aid agencies warn the worst is potentially still to come.

The Associated Press drove more than 700 kilometers (400 miles) across southern and western Yemen to look at the lives of people in areas that are most at risk of famine. The team’s path took them from the urban center of Aden to isolated mountain valleys, through plains where the mountains sweep down to the Arabian Sea, to towns on the Red Sea coast cut off by the shifting front lines in the civil war.

All along the way was a population in chaos.

Aden

The hallmarks of starvation are clear on 7-month-old Ahmed Rasheed Moqbal. His face is like an old man, the skin on his buttocks sags. He cries constantly, with almost no tears. He weighs only 3.3 kilograms (7 pounds).

His mother, Aisha Mohammed, is also severely thin. At Aden’s Al-Sadaqa Hospital, she steps on the scale: 39 kilograms (86 pounds)

She and her family were driven by fighting from their home, 160 kilometers (100 miles) to the west in the district of Mowza. Here in Aden, her husband works hauling bricks at a construction site. But he hardly makes enough to feed them. Mohammed’s two other children are also malnourished.

Aden’s Al-Sadaqa is the main hospital serving the worst malnutrition cases from around southern Yemen. It’s the best supplied, from aid coming into Aden’s port. Struggling hospitals around the south send their worst malnutrition cases here, since they can’t handle them.

But the large majority of families with starving children can’t afford the trip to Aden. So they sit at home and their children get worse.

And six other places, with photos – Text by Maggie Michael and Lee Keath

https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/5/3/desperation-hunger-mark-trip-through-war-torn-yemen-main

Comment: This is from AP considered to be the most reliable western news agency. It makes horrific reading. How can the UN consider it is doing an adequate job when this happens? Men in work not able to earn enough to feed their families. Soldiers unpaid with their children starving. Mothers not eating so that the meagre bits they do have can go to their children. The UN has allowed this. UK and USA are allowing this. Appalling. What is the UNSC for if it is not to prevent this from happening?

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156652206353641

(* B H K P)

Der vergessene Krieg

In dem Bürgerkriegsland nehmen Leid und Elend abseits der globalen Aufmerksamkeit kein Ende. Nicht nur Bomben und Raketen, sondern auch Hunger und Epidemien setzen der Zivilbevölkerung zu.

Die Waffen in diesem Krieg kommen überwiegend aus den USA und Grossbritannien. Ohne amerikanische Tankflugzeuge könnten die saudischen Jets längst nicht so häufig und lange über dem Jemen operieren. Im militärischen Einsatzzentrum der Saudis in Riyadh helfen amerikanische und britische Spezialisten bei der Zielsuche für die Raketen.

Gleichzeitig hat der Krieg tiefe Wurzeln im Jemen. Bereits sechsmal zuvor führten die Hu­this in den Jahren 2004 bis 2010 gegen die eigene Regierung in Sanaa Krieg, weil sie sich von der Machtzentrale unter dem damaligen Dauerpräsidenten Ali Abdullah Saleh diskriminiert fühlten. Nach dem Arabischen Frühling 2011 und 2012 kam erstmals positive Bewegung in den Dauerkonflikt – und es sah zunächst gut aus für die Anliegen der Huthis.

Entsprechend ideologisch-apokalyptisch ist die Rhetorik. Man führe einen gerechten Krieg, der einem aufgezwungen worden sei, verteidigte Saudi-Arabiens Aussenminister Adel Al-Jubeir kürzlich das Vorgehen seines Landes.

Doch seine hochgerüstete Armee erweist sich bisher den Stammeskriegern der Huthis nicht gewachsen – von Martin Gehlen

http://www.tagblatt.ch/nachrichten/international/der-vergessene-krieg;art120098,5282498

(* B H K)

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen Humanitarian Fund - Annual Report 2017

A deepening humanitarian crisis

The year 2017 was marked by a steady deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The unabating conflict, the steady economic decline and the resulting collapse of basic social services further aggravated the vulnerability of millions of people whose coping mechanisms had been under pressure for two years. Displacement, food insecurity, disease and malnutrition continued to be the primary drivers of needs. As the year unfolded, a cholera outbreak, the worst recorded in history, spread across the entire country affecting more than one million people. By the end of the year the number of people in need had increased by 2 million, resulting in 20.8 million people requiring some form of humanitarian assistance and protection, 11.3 million of whom were in acute need.

Violations of IHL threaten the protection of civilians

The conduct of hostilities continued to be brutal, air strikes and fighting continued to inflict heavy casualties, damage public and private infrastructure, and impede delivery of humanitarian assistance. Serious concerns regarding the conduct of the conflict, in which all parties appeared to have committed violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law continued to be raised.

Forced displacement and returns

Conflict continued to be the main driver of displacement. Since the escalation of the conflict in March 2015, more than 3 million people were displaced within Yemen, including 2 million who remained displaced by the end of 2017.

Collapse of basic services and institutions

Essential basic services and the institutions that provide them continued to collapse under the weight of conflict, displacement and economic decline. As the public budget deficit grew by more than 50 per cent salaries for health facility staff, teachers and other public sector workers were paid erratically, often leaving 1.25 million state employees and their 6.9 million dependents – nearly 30 per cent of the population – without a regular income at a time of shortages and rising prices. The ability of public institutions to provide services contracted at a time while needs were surging. The inability of the health services to contain localized cases of cholera will result in the unfolding of an unprecedented outbreak.

Economic decline and access to markets

Economic decline and import restrictions continued to impact the availability and price of basic goods in markets.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-fund-annual-report-2017

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

(** B H)

Hunger im Jemen: Wie eine Mutter verzweifelt um ihren Sohn kämpft

Die Beine des Babys zucken unter Schmerzen, der kleine Junge weint. Aber er ist so dehydriert, dass seine Augen keine Tränen produzieren können. Der Bauch ist aufgebläht und gespannt wie ein Ballon. Jede einzelne Rippe ist zu sehen, wenn er heftig atmet. Das Video, das ein Arzt aufgenommen hat, zeigt den acht Monate alten Fadl. Er hat keine Krankheit, sondern steht kurz vor dem Hungertod.

Halabi spricht in kurzen, gehetzten Sätzen. «Mehl», antwortet sie auf die Frage, was sie gegessen habe. Immer wieder rutscht ihr das blaue Kleid von den ausgemergelten Schultern. «Wir bleiben geduldig. Wir müssen die Kinder ernähren», sagt sie. Oft ist das Frühstück die einzige Mahlzeit am Tag für sie und ihren Mann. Wenn sie Hunger bekommt, legt sie sich hin und versucht zu schlafen.

Weil sie Fadl nicht stillen konnte, gab sie ihm Ziegen- oder Kamelmilch. Der aber fehlen die Nährstoffe, die in Muttermilch oder Babynahrung enthalten sind. Immer wieder bekam Fadl Fieber und Durchfall. Mehrfach lieh sie sich Geld, um mit ihrem kleinen Jungen ins Krankenhaus nach Motscha zu fahren.

Dort wurden in den vergangenen zehn Monaten rund 600 Fälle von Mangelernährung erfasst. Doch die Vorräte sind so knapp, dass es sogar an Kopfschmerztabletten fehlt.

Fadl war am 29. November das letzte Mal im Krankenhaus. Mit acht Monaten wog er 2,9 Kilo, etwa ein Drittel des Normalgewichts. Sein Oberarm hatte einen Umfang von gerade einmal sieben Zentimetern. Weil seine Eltern einen längeren Krankenhausaufenthalt nicht bezahlen konnten, nahmen sie ihn wieder mit nach Hause. Kurz darauf starb der Junge in den Armen seiner Grossmutter. Seine völlig entkräfteten Eltern schliefen gerade auf dem Boden, als er seinen letzten Atemzug tat.

Die einzigen Bilder aus Fadls kurzem, von Hunger und Schmerzen geprägten Leben sind die Videoaufnahmen, die ein Arzt im Krankenhaus von ihm gemacht hat – von Maggie Michael, AP

https://www.bluewin.ch/de/news/vermischtes/hunger-im-jemen-wie-eine-mutter-verzweifelt-um-ihren-sohn-kaempft-96442.html

und dazu:

(** B H)

Film: Drama im Jemen: Fast neun Millionen Menschen droht Hungerstod

Der acht Monate alte Fadl wog nicht einmal drei Kilo, als er starb

Seine Arme waren so dünn wie der Daumen seiner Mutter. Sein Körper so dehydriert, dass beim Weinen nicht einmal mehr Tränen kamen. Der kleine Fadl lebte nur acht Monate, jetzt ist er jämmerlich im Jemen verhungert. Er wog nur 2,9 Kilo - etwa ein Drittel des Normalgewichts für Kinder in diesem Alter. Fadls Geschichte ist eine, wie sie derzeit alle zehn Minuten in dem Land passiert. Eine Hungerkatastrophe, die traurig und fassungslos macht.

https://rtlnext.rtl.de/cms/drama-im-jemen-fast-neun-millionen-menschen-droht-hungerstod-4157892.html?c=ddbd

(** B H)

Starving Yemen mothers skip meals to save their children

The young mother stepped onto the scale for the doctor. Even with all her black robes on, she weighed only 84 pounds — 38 kilograms. Umm Mizrah is pregnant, but starving herself to feed her children.

And her sacrifice may not be enough to save them.

The doctor's office is covered with dozens of pictures of emaciated babies who have come through Al-Sadaqa Hospital in Aden, casualties of a three-year war in Yemen that has left millions of people on the edge of famine.

Mothers like Umm Mizrah are often the only defense against the hunger that has killed thousands. They skip meals, they sleep to escape the gnawing in their stomachs. They hide bony faces and emaciated bodies in voluminous black abaya robes and veils.

The doctor asked the mother to get back on the scale holding her son, Mizrah. At 17 months, he was 5.8 kilograms (12.8 pounds) — around half the normal weight for his age.

He showed all the signs of "severe acute malnutrition," the most dire stage of hunger. His legs and feet were swollen, he wasn't getting enough protein. When the doctor pressed a finger into the skin of his feet, the indentation lingered.

Around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished; another 400,000 children are fighting for their lives, in the same condition as Mizrah.

Nearly a third of Yemen's population — 8.4 million of its 29 million people — rely completely on food aid or else they would starve. That number grew by a quarter over the past year.

Aid agencies warn that parts of Yemen could soon start to see widespread death from famine. More and more people are reliant on aid that is already failing to reach people.

The AP travelled across southern Yemen, territory held by the coalition-backed government, and visited several districts among the 107 areas nationwide that the U.N. warns are most likely to fall into outright famine.

It is a landscape of desperation – by Maggie Michael, AP

https://apnews.com/c1243e62f8c940a1bbed11311d53a757 = https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/starving-yemen-mothers-skip-meals-save-children-54899365 = http://www.chroniclet.com/national-news/2018/05/03/Mothers-a-last-line-against-outright-famine-in-Yemen-s-war.html = https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/starving-yemen-mothers-skip-meals-save-their-children (with photos)

and slide show https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemens-starving-mothers-slideshow-wp-185819729/photo-p-aisha-yemeni-woman-holds-photo-185819188.html

and continuing

(** B H)

In Yemen, a mother's quest to save her baby from starvation

The baby twitches his legs in pain in the video. He's crying but he is so dehydrated his eyes can't produce tears. His inflated belly is as taut as a balloon. It is easy to count the 12 rows of protruding ribs on his rapidly palpitating chest.

The video, filmed by a doctor, shows 8-month-old Fadl suffering not from disease, but from starvation.

Fadl's mother, Fatma Halabi, recalled the life before the war in the western district of Mowza, near Yemen's Red Sea coast.

The fighting and airstrikes sent people fleeing, some of them scattering across the Great Valley.

Separated from her husband, Halabi led her four children and two goats across the Great Valley, the arid plain spilling down from the mountains toward the city of Mocha on the Red Sea.

These desolate stretches are historically a site of death.

Halabi and the children hid in thorn bushes to avoid artillery and airstrikes along the shifting front line. One day in April last year, she went into labor and, alone, gave birth to Fadl under a tree.

Eventually, she and her husband reunited and settled in an abandoned hut in the valley.

She spoke in short, exhausted sentences. When asked what she had eaten that day, she said, "Bor," the local Arabic word for flour. "We stay patient," she said. "We have to feed the children." When she gets hungry, she lies down and tries to sleep.

Often she and her husband eat one meal in the morning, and nothing again until the next day.

Unable to breastfeed Fadl, she gave him goat or camel milk, which lack the nutrients of breast milk or formula. The newborn kept getting fever and diarrhea, so she repeatedly borrowed money to take him to the hospital in Mocha.

The hospital has seen 600 malnutrition cases within 10 months, but is so short on supplies it doesn't even have pain relievers for headaches, said one doctor, Abdel-Rehim Ahmed. It has no therapeutic feeding center. None of its doctors have been trained in treating malnutrition.

And Mocha is swelling with 40,000 displaced people.

Fadl’s last visit to the hospital was Nov. 29. At eight months old, he weighed 2.9 kilograms (6 pounds), a third of the normal weight. The circumference of his upper arm, a common measure for malnutrition, was 7 centimeters, less than 3 inches. That indicated severe acute malnutrition.

Unable to pay for a hospital stay, Fadl’s parents took him home.

He gave his last breath not long after in the arms of his grandmother. His exhausted parents were asleep on the floor. The grandmother woke them and told them their boy was dead.

“Liberated” and still starving

Even in parts of Yemen that are wrested from Houthi rule, starvation persists — or gets worse – by Maggie Michael, AP

https://apnews.com/c1243e62f8c940a1bbed11311d53a757 = https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemen-mothers-quest-save-baby-starvation-54899982 = http://www.chroniclet.com/national-news/2018/05/03/Mothers-a-last-line-against-outright-famine-in-Yemen-s-war.html

and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-glbFGUK3qU = https://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/video/34507883/babies-in-yemen-starve-in-shadow-of-civil-war/ and variant of film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wTpgZ1U6gQ

and earlier films:

https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/inside-yemens-civil-war-million-people-brink-starvation-54061183

https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/families-suffering-war-torn-yemen-brink-famine-53647703

Comment: Are there ANY wars the Saudis fight that are not "Civil Wars?" It seems to me that "civil war" would be an internal thing...but the Saudis fight all the civil wars in the Mideast.

And we fight with them. We run secret raids into Yemen. The first US troops to die under Trump were fighting in Yemen.

We, the American people, have a memory like a goldfish...and we are easily led... On one hand, our politicians accept hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle from the worst country in the world...and simultaneously, we act concerned about Russia intrfering with our politics.

We Americans simply do not have what it takes to be a free people.

https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/families-suffering-war-torn-yemen-brink-famine-53647703#comment-3796292289

(** B H)

Braving air strikes, Yemen’s midwives go to heroic lengths to save lives

Hajjah, Yemen – “When the war broke out, I left my job in the city and came to Aslam,” Rawthah Ahmed, a midwife with 25 years of experience, told UNFPA. Her services are desperately needed in Aslam, a remote village in Hajjah Governorate. “There are no health facilities or basic services. People are very poor; they cannot afford to travel in search of medical care,” she explained. “I chose this profession to save pregnant women, so I had to come back to help them.”

Yemen has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the Arab region. A woman’s lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is 1 in 60. And the country’s conflict is only exacerbating the situation, disrupting crucial supply lines and eroding health care. Cholera and diphtheria outbreaks have left pregnant women and newborns more vulnerable than ever.

Across the country, there are an estimated 3 million women and girls of childbearing age in need of vital reproductive health services. Food shortages have left an estimated 1.1 million pregnant women malnourished; 75,000 of these women are likely to develop malnutrition-related complications, which could threaten their lives.

Poverty also exacerbates malnutrition, and keeps women from seeking regular check-ups. “Most of the pregnant women in the area suffer severe malnutrition and are not fit enough travel to the clinic,” Ms. Ahmed said.

Midwives like Ms. Ahmed are going to heroic lengths to serve women in need.

“I travel long distances by foot, sometimes at night or in the midst of air strikes, to reach them,” she said. “If I don’t take that risk, pregnant women and their unborn children may be in danger. It is my duty to save them.”

Today, it is estimated that only one third of Yemen’s reproductive health facilities are functional. And many families lack the resources to seek care at their nearest hospital.

Midwives are helping to fill these gaps.

“I operate a small clinic with a delivery room in my house,” Ms. Ahmed said. “I see between 15 and 20 cases in my clinic each month.”

Her clinic is supported by UNFPA.

Still, the challenges are enormous. Poor infrastructure limits midwives’ ability to reach patients and obtain family planning supplies, medicines and other life-saving essentials. As a result, their work can be gruelling and heart-breaking.

“Sometimes, the cases are beyond my help,” Ms. Ahmed explained.

https://www.unfpa.org/news/braving-air-strikes-yemens-midwives-go-heroic-lengths-save-lives and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF6DF9xrFYo

(** B H K)

Mother and son, displaced by one of world’s worst crises, have little reason to smile

One woman has worked to help those displaced by the brutal war in Yemen. Now, she has become displaced herself

Bushra Aldukhainah is not a politician, was not an activist and not, by any means, a military expert. She is a Yemeni woman, the mother of a 12-year-old boy, who ended up working to provide humanitarian aid in her country. She is frustrated and has had it with the war in Yemen, which has left 22.2 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance, of which eight million are on the brink of famine.

“We are desperate. People are barely getting one piece of bread a day and when food is so little, adults often give it to their children while staying in hunger,” Bushra says, crying as she describes the situation. “There are people who are not eating at all and no one is hearing us. We are surrounded by air, by land and by water and we are suffocated,” she continues. But she does not stop with the tears. She pauses and says, “We have no winners and the only true losers are the civilian population and they are mostly women and children. It is us who are suffering and we need a solution to end this.”

Bushra did not start her life as the outspoken woman who is now making a public appeal to end the war and stop the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

“In five months, the city I was living in, Hareb, moved from being a prosperous border city with Saudi, with active development, hotels and a vibrant economy [and] became completely destroyed. The day my colleagues and my family and I left, we could not even take our essentials items. My son Yusuf was only 9 years old at the time and was begging me to allow him to take his favorite toy but I refused as we had to leave in a rush. Two months after we escaped, a missile landed on our home and destroyed everything. Yusuf, until today, is sad that I didn’t allow him to take his favorite toy.”

Life became a migration from one city to another for Bushra. She sought safety but was also on the move for her humanitarian work. “The population of Yemen may have started to split in their support between the two factions, but at the moment most people are simply afraid of all factions,” Bushra explains.

“In truth, schools, hospitals, clinics, factories, bridges, and everything is destroyed at the moment in Yemen,” Bushra says. “Every family has people killed in it. In my case, it is my cousin and her 9-year-old son who recently got killed. And as for me, I used to work in humanitarian work to help displaced and I became a displaced person with everything lost.” She continues to reinforce her message: “We are desperate. No one is hearing us. We are surrounded by air, by land, by water. We are suffocating and need help.”

Last month, Bushra appeared at the Women in the World Summit in New York City and discussed her country’s plight and what life is like for her now that she’s been displaced. Watch the highlights and full panel discussion below.

https://womenintheworld.com/2018/05/02/mother-and-son-displaced-by-one-of-worlds-worst-crises-have-little-reason-to-smile/ and film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXkivRjtwxc and earlier report https://womenintheworld.com/2018/04/13/death-is-everywhere-bombings-cholera-and-famine-ravage-yemen

and another article on Bushra Aldukhainah:

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

(** B H K)

‘I don’t think there’s a safe place in Yemen anymore’

Years ago, when Bushra Aldukhainah was a young woman, she loved to spend time with her family in al-Hudaydah, a western coastal city and the location of Yemen’s key Hudaydah port.

The Yemen that Aldukhainah once knew is undergoing what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Aldukhainah, who works as an area manager for CARE, coordinating humanitarian aid at 10 sites across northern Yemen, said the violence and airstrikes make giving humanitarian aid to those in need extremely difficult.

“I don’t think there’s a safe place in Yemen anymore. Airstrikes are everywhere,” she said, recalling the horror on her coworkers’ faces after a recent return from a field site where they saw dead bodies lined up along the street.

On April 27, 2015, Aldukhainah woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of bombs. Just the day before, an airstrike targeted an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Hara where Aldukhainah was distributing aid with other CARE humanitarian workers. A month before, in March 2015, another airstrike hit anIDP camp in north Yemen, killing at least 40 people.

“I’ve seen the dead bodies of children and men and women who I knew in [the IDP camp] with my own eyes,” she said. More than 2 million people are internally displaced in Yemen.

“The IDP camps in this war were the first to be targeted, so now people are afraid to even gather in camps and have instead pitched tents in isolated areas,” Aldukhainah said.

After notifying her staff to leave immediately, Aldukhainah fled Hara in Ma’rib governorate for Hajjah city in Hajjah governorate, a congested mountainous city three hours northeast.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/i-dont-think-theres-a-safe-place-in-yemen-anymore

(** B H)

In The Face of Impossible Odds

Youth in Yemen make up the majority of the population; it is estimated that people between the ages of 0–24 constitute more than 60 per cent of the population. The youth unemployment rate is at 30 per cent, and this ‘youth bulge’ is mirrored across the Middle East. The increase of violence in countries such as Syria and Yemen can be attributed to increasing numbers of alienated youth. This dismal formula is what caused them to revolt and take to the streets in 2011. However, a recent study[1] found that youth were not the focus of international programming during that period. The same study found that a lack of educational and economic opportunities instigated a feeling of restlessness because of the inability of youth to contribute to their families and society. This frustration was and remains a ticking bomb; the current war has worsened and depleted youth development opportunities, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment by various political and radical groups who promise economic benefits and offer some sense of belonging and accomplishment. The hardship of daily life has become unbearable for all, and is currently the prevalent problem affecting youth.

Another recent study[2] found the most immediate problem youth are facing is related to economic factors, as most believe this war has put an end to their aspirations. For example, Yemenis believe that family is the most important safety net, but price hikes and the failure of many institutions and industries, both private or public, has put great financial stress on families.

After a brief period focusing on youth development projects, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) switched focus to delivering aid into the country.

The absence of any real change for youth leaves them vulnerable to exploitation from different political and radical movements. UN agencies have reported 1,500 cases of child soldiers at the end of 2017, and with all the hardships, joining a militia for economic stability becomes a likely outcome for many people, and the possibility of adopting radical ideologies increases due to a lack of education – hence the rise of religious extremism.

In the future, this negligence will certainly become more problematic with the growth of youth numbers still on the rise, and education stalling, breeding a toxic atmosphere in which millions of young Yemenis become a liability, not only for Yemen but also for the international community. If the ongoing war continues, young uneducated people will continue to fuel future conflicts and become an international threat. Little or no opportunities are currently at hand for them; even the prospect of seeking refuge in different countries is very unlikely due to the immense difficulty of leaving the country, as there are no corridors through which mass migration can be an option, compared with the Syrian scenario, where many disenfranchised youth were able to migrate to different countries in search of better opportunities. Yemeni youth find themselves imprisoned in their country, unable to achieve their dreams and aspirations, and robbed of their basic human rights. There are many examples of countries investing in youth and education and reaping economic and social benefits in a short period of time, for example, South Korea. Lessons should be learned from similar success stories, if we are to avoid a catastrophic future for millions of people, robbed of the chance of a decent life before they are born – by Mohamed Jarhum

[1] Youth in Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa: a Systematic Literature Review and Focused Landscape Analysis, 2015, Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. http://applications.emro.who.int/emhj/v21/12/EMHJ_2015_21_12_916_930.pdf?ua=1&ua=1

[2] Transfield (2017), Coming of Age in a Fragmented State: Everyday Struggles and Perspective of Yemeni Youth, Yemen Polling Center. The research was conducted between 2015 and 2017 and is based on a representative nationwide survey of 1500 youth. The respondents are between the ages of 15 and 25, and there is 50/50 male/female representation.

https://www.almadaniyamag.com/english/2018/4/28/in-the-face-of-impossible-odds

(** B P)

Middle East Research and Information Project: The Southern Transitional Council and the War in Yemen

Since Aden was liberated from Houthi-Salih forces in summer of 2015, four different governors have tried to improve life in the troubled city. Among them, the first one was nominated as a minister in Hadi’s cabinet, one was assassinated, another was sacked and the latest resigned. The sacked governor was Aidrus al-Zubaydi, who in May 2017 stepped into the leadership of the southern movement after mass demonstrators, who were protesting al-Zubaydi’s sacking by Hadi, demanded that he do so.

In May 2017, al-Zubaydi formed the STC to unite all social and political forces in the south in establishing a joint political leadership with the goal of regaining independence. The STC had learned from past failed secession efforts the perils of declaring independence too quickly. Instead, the STC sought to reunite all of the former southern governorates under one body and build a governorate-level organization to run the administration. The next step was to create a national assembly. In the beginning, al-Zubaydi was able to call upon the traditional social forces to join the STC, namely important elite families, tribal dignitaries and regional leaders. Once the national assembly was formed, those political forces that had been hesitant about the STC joined, including key members of the former ruling party of the south, the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP).

Toward a United South

Since Aden was liberated from Houthi-Salih forces in summer of 2015, four different governors have tried to improve life in the troubled city. Among them, the first one was nominated as a minister in Hadi’s cabinet, one was assassinated, another was sacked and the latest resigned. The sacked governor was Aidrus al-Zubaydi, who in May 2017 stepped into the leadership of the southern movement after mass demonstrators, who were protesting al-Zubaydi’s sacking by Hadi, demanded that he do so.

In May 2017, al-Zubaydi formed the STC to unite all social and political forces in the south in establishing a joint political leadership with the goal of regaining independence. The STC had learned from past failed secession efforts the perils of declaring independence too quickly. Instead, the STC sought to reunite all of the former southern governorates under one body and build a governorate-level organization to run the administration. The next step was to create a national assembly. In the beginning, al-Zubaydi was able to call upon the traditional social forces to join the STC, namely important elite families, tribal dignitaries and regional leaders. Once the national assembly was formed, those political forces that had been hesitant about the STC joined, including key members of the former ruling party of the south, the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP).

Ultimately, southern Yemen is part of the UAE’s sea route strategy, one that links Abu Dhabi to a chain of ports along the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. [4] The Saudis, for their part, remain preoccupied with defeating the Houthis and identifying a pro-Saudi leader to rule Sanaa, one who would allow the kingdom to build its long-dreamed oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean. But their partner in Abu Dhabi has meanwhile developed its own regional security strategy. The STC sees little downside to supporting the UAE’s strategy for eliminating the persisting jihadi threat on both sides of the Bab al-Mandab strait. But for southern residents, no foreign country ever should dominate the sovereign people – by Susanne Dahlgren

https://www.merip.org/mero/mero042618 = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/southern-transitional-council-and-war-yemen

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

(** B H)

Study warns of cholera flare-up in beleaguered Yemen

War-torn Yemen, caught in what the UN terms the world's worst humanitarian crisis, risks a resurgence of cholera that could infect millions as the rainy season advances, researchers warned Friday.

Health authorities should "immediately" boost measures to mitigate risk, an international team urged in The Lancet Global Health.

These could include vaccination, distributing equipment for filtering and disinfecting water, and repairing crumbling sanitation infrastructure.

Based on data from previous outbreaks, the team calculated that 54 percent of districts in Yemen could be affected by an epidemic flare-up in 2018, "totalling a population at risk of more than 13.8 million."

"We thus make an urgent call for action on the part of local officials, donors, and international partners, to mitigate the risk of a new cholera epidemic wave in Yemen, which would certainly further weaken a highly vulnerable population."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-5689077/Study-warns-cholera-flare-beleaguered-Yemen.html

and

(** B H)

Yemen risks new cholera outbreak as rainy season begins

Yemen’s rainy season will likely trigger another wave of cholera, putting millions at risk in the war-torn country, which is still reeling from one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the killer disease, scientists warned on Thursday.

Experts also called for a public health campaign during Ramadan, which begins mid-May, after research suggested that traditions linked to the holy month may have helped spread the disease last year. “We expect to see a surge of cases during the rainy season,” said Anton Camacho, lead author of a study on the epidemic published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

“If something is going to happen it will happen now so everyone should be aware and respond quickly. The risk is high,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The rainy season runs from mid-April to the end of August.

The daily number of cholera cases increased 100-fold in the first four weeks of last year’s rainy season, leading to the disease spreading across the whole country, the study said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-cholera/yemen-risks-new-cholera-outbreak-as-rainy-season-begins-idUSKBN1I42T6

and

(* B H)

Islamic Relief: Treating Cholera in Yemen

Malak is 8 years old, and she was diagnosed with cholera. Children like Malak are especially vulnerable, and are in desperate need for immediate treatment.

Malak’s mother explained: “My daughter started to vomit at the beginning, but her condition deteriorated to having serious diarrhoea. As Malak became worse, I started to worry. I heard that there’s a cholera outbreak in Yemen. Many people in my neighbourhood got infected by the epidemic, and I knew it was serious.”

“I sought assistance from the people I know. I was told that I can get necessary health care for my daughter in one of the hospitals, but that hospital was far away from my place. I live on the other side of the city and didn’t have enough money to move my little child to that hospital.“

She continued: “When Malak kept getting worse, I rushed to my brother who was able to give me YER1000 ($3 USD) for transportation in order to reach the hospital and get Malak treated. When I got to this facility, doctors put a needle in Malak’s arm with a liquid to help her. They said she will be better soon. Fortunately, doctors explained to me that all cholera medications are supported by INGO (Trocaire) and I don’t have to pay anything for now.”

Islamic Relief has been working in partnership with Trocaire to provide cholera medicines, hygiene kits, and chlorine tablets to hospitals in Yemen.Yemen is still in a dire state.

Please donate to our Yemen Crisis appeal today. Your donation could help save lives.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/treating-cholera-yemen

cp1b Am wichtigsten: Emirate besetzen Sokotra / Most important: Emirates occupy Socotra

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

(** A B P)

Droht die Spaltung Jemens? Vereinigte Arabische Emirate besetzen strategische Insel am Golf von Aden

Auf der jemenitischen Insel Sokotra sind wütende Proteste ausgebrochen, nachdem die VAE Militärflugzeuge und Soldaten dorthin entsandt hatten. Abu Dhabi möchte die strategische Kontrolle über den Golf von Aden übernehmen und riskiert die Spaltung Jemens.

Die Bewohner erzählten dem Nachrichtensender Al Dschasira, dass die vier emiratischen Militärflugzeuge am Mittwoch illegal auf der Insel ankamen, um Beamte der international anerkannten Regierung einzuschüchtern, die einen seltenen Besuch auf dem Archipel machten.

Die Emirate bauen eine Militärbasis und ein geheimdienstliches Nachrichtenzentrum auf Sokotra. Das Militär habe zudem eine Volkszählung durchgeführt, schreibt das Nachrichtenportal Middle East Monitor.

Hunderte von Jemeniten waren gekommen, um den jemenitischen Premierminister Ahmed bin Daghr und zehn seiner Minister zu empfangen und die Anwesenheit der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate auf der Insel zu verurteilen.

Die Einwohner erzählten Al Dschasira, dass die Menge wütend auf die Einmischung Abu Dhabis sei, nachdem Berichte über die Vertreibung jemenitischer Soldaten auf der Insel aufkamen. Die Soldaten waren damit beauftragt, den einzigen Flughafen der Inselgruppe auf der Hauptinsel zu schützen.

Östlich des Horns von Afrika im Arabischen Meer gelegen, wird die Insel mit 60.000 Einwohnern, die für ihre einzigartige Flora und Fauna bekannt ist, seit fast zwei Jahrhunderten vom Jemen aus verwaltet.

Doch seit die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate im März 2015 als Teil einer von Saudi-Arabien angeführten Koalition gegen die Huthi-Rebellen in den Jemen einmarschiert sind, hat Abu Dhabi das Sicherheitsvakuum ausgenutzt und versucht, auf der strategisch günstig gelegenen Inselgruppe Fuß zu fassen.

Die Emirate bestätigten inzwischen, dass sie Militäroperationen auf Sokotra durchführen. Lokale Medien berichten, dass die Emirate Sokotra und die nahe gelegene Insel Abd al-Kuri für 99 Jahre gepachtet hätten.

https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/69426-droht-spaltung-jemens-vereinigte-arabische-emirate-besetzen-insel-sokotra/

mein Kommentar: Die schlagzeiole ist schlecht, die Spaltung Jemens (in Nord und Süd) hat nichts mit der Besetzung von Sokotra zu tun. Diese ist ein weiteres zeichen der Spaltung zwischen Saudis und Emiraten und ihren jeweiligen jemenitischen Parteigängern.

(** B P)

Socotra island: The Unesco-protected 'Jewel of Arabia' vanishing amid Yemen’s civil war

The Independent presents the first in an exclusive series from Socotra, an island paradise under threat from a neo-colonial takeover, the vagaries of Yemen’s war and the spectre of climate change

The ‘Galapagos of the Indian Ocean’ - home to 700 indigenous species - is the latest acquisition in the UAE’s growing modern empire.

the UAE has all but annexed this sovereign piece of Yemen, building a military base, setting up communications networks, conducting its own census and inviting Socotris to Abu Dhabi by the planeload for free healthcare and special work permits.

In return, critics and activists say, the UAE seeks to transform the island into a permanent military outpost-cum-holiday resort, and may even be stealing its Unesco-protected plants and animals.

Socotra’s 60,000 inhabitants have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years, almost completely isolated from the outside world.

Now, civil war, a foreign occupation and the looming spectre of climate change mean that a perfect storm has finally arrived on the island’s shores.

The intertwined threats are already rapidly affecting the local way of life and the archipelago’s delicate ecosystem.

After three years of war, the fractured Yemeni state is now a free for all – and the UAE, long overshadowed by regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, has discovered the war-torn country is an ideal testing ground for the post Arab Spring ambitions of its de facto ruler, crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammad bin Zayed.

Once at the heart of ancient silk and spice trading routes between the Arab world, Africa and Asia, today the island lies in the middle of one of the world’s most important oil trading channels.

Two and a half years later, the Emiratis are still on the island – and they have no intention of leaving any time soon. Little by little, islanders say, their presence has become a part of everyday life.

“There are no Houthis to free Socotra from,” said local Abdul Wahab Al Ameri. “Why are they here?”

The UAE has not made any future large-scale development or mass tourism plans for Socotra public, and only admitted last May it sends military recruits to the Yemeni island for intensive battle skills, weapons handling and first aid training. Many of those troops end up posted to the front lines on the mainland, the UAE’s defence ministry says.

Losing paradise

“Socotra’s vegetation is actually fairly resilient, despite the creeping effects of climate change. What worries me is development without proper oversight,” said Fabio Attore, a biologist at the Sapienza University of Rome who conducted extensive fieldwork on Socotra between 2004 and 2011.

“The pressure to abandon the traditional Socotran ways of living and managing the land began when the airstrip opened. But it’s speeding up. It is critical the Emirates manages conservation efforts properly, but we don’t know if they are.”

Socotra’s delicate closed ecosystem, the last present day remnants of 20-million-year-old subtropical forest, has been threatened in the last 200 years by human activity such as logging and overgrazing by goats and cows.

The emerging threat of climate change has speeded up expected changes in less than a generation, however, and fresh water in the arid climate is now a vanishing resource.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/socotra-island-yemen-civil-war-uae-military-base-unesco-protected-indian-ocean-a8331946.html

Comment: Civil war? The threat comes from the #UAE which may be asserting it is 'doing good in #Socotra' but we wonder what a private census, military drills, confiscation of land, Emirati flag flying mean

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1729597633759926

(* A K P)

A military source told Aden al-Ghad newspaper that three warplanes and a ship loaded with heavy weapons and tanks arrived in the island of #Socotrafrom the United Arab Emirates.
The source said that these forces arrived unexpectedly, without informing the Yemeni side. (photo)

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1729619470424409/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1730531776999845 (photos)

https://twitter.com/uunionnews/status/992052036223909888 (photos)

https://twitter.com/uunionnews/status/992051846935121921 (photos)

(* A K P)

We're from Khaleefa Establishment for Relief, the UAE plane told the airport of Soctra. After landing, more than 100 UAE soldiers disembarked from the plane to arrest all security & take control of the airport. Then,4 more huge planes came with tanks & armored vehicles (photos)

https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/992065510480207872

(* A K P)

100 UAE soldiers arrived to Socotra along with presence of Bin Daghr there

Special Source confirmed to Almasdaronline that, around 100 UAE soldiers have arrived to Socotra Airport today (Wednesday) at the time of the presence of the prime minister Ahmed bin daghr there.
The source said that 4 airplanes arrived to Socotra airport and carry around 100 UAE soldiers and four armed vehicles with other military equipment.
The UAE soldiers deployed at the Airport and kick out the Airport security which follows the first marine brigade.
The deployment synchronizes a speech festival for Bin Daghr in the governorate.
On the other hand, a demonstration by (Southern Transitional council) allied to UAE opposing the government at the site were the festivals took place.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98670

(* A K P)

Yemen officials say Emiratis boost forces on Socotra island

Yemeni security officials say the United Arab Emirates is boosting its troop presence on Yemen's remote island of Socotra in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, a move they say is triggering local resentment.

The officials say Emirati cargo flights have unloaded tanks, armored transports and heavy equipment on Socotra in what some locals have seen as an affront to Yemen's internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/yemen-officials-emiratis-boost-forces-socotra-island-54882327 = https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/yemen-officials-say-emiratis-boost-forces-on-socotra-island/2018/05/02/84efa860-4e27-11e8-85c1-9326c4511033_story.html?utm_term=.b8fe4c026777

Remark: For the visit of the Hadi government’s prime minister at Socotra, look at YPR 409, cp6. The arrival of the UAE soldiers, the pro-separatist protests against his visit clearly show that the UAE demonstrate their grip on the island; the separatists are backed by the UAE.

Comment: Locals: UAE deployed large forces to Yemen's Socotra Island in what appears to be an attempt to provoke "and maybe collide with" government which is paying a heavy price for UAE participation in Saudi coalition. UAE is eying Yemen islands for military and investment purposes.

https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/991790215441330176

(* A P)

Anger erupts on Yemen's Socotra as UAE deploys over 100 troops

Emirati aircraft arrive illegally on famed island, prompting angry protests demanding their immediate withdrawal.

Angry protests have erupted on the Yemeni island of Socotra after the United Arab Emirates deployed four military aircraft and more than 100 troops to the famed UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hundreds of Yemenis had come out to welcome Ahmed bin Daghr, Yemeni prime minister, and 10 of his ministers and to denounced the UAE's presence on the island.

Videos posted on social media showed protesters chanting slogans in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and a unified Yemen.

Residents told Al Jazeera that the crowds were angry after reports emerged that Emirati forces had expelled Yemeni soldiers assigned to protect the main island's airport.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/anger-erupts-yemen-socotra-uae-deploys-100-troops-180503072636773.html and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucPGxocwY1E = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1730456780340678

(* B K P)

Film: What is behind UAE’s military build-up in Socotra?

Some locals see it as a power grab at the expense of their internationally recognised government led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Hadi government says the UAE action is an act of hostility.

Formally, they are allies in the Saudi-led war against the Houthi rebels in the capital Sanaa. But the UAE has promoted separatists in the south and now calls the shots in large parts of that region and Socotra.

And it is not just in southern Yemen: the Gulf country has been expanding its military influence across the Red Sea and Horn of Africa regions.

So, why is the UAE deploying troops in Socotra and elsewhere?

Presenter: Jane Dutton

Guests:

Mohammed Jumeh - columnist for Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper

Samuel Ramani - researcher at Oxford University and specialist on the conflict in Yemen

Bethan McKernan - Middle East reporter for The Independent and author of the first witness report on UAE troops in Socotra

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2018/05/uae-military-build-socotra-180504205318190.html

(* B K P)

UAE forces beef-up presence in Yemen’s Socotra Island

Locals have accused the UAE of stealing Socotra’s natural resources, including plants and seeds to take back to the Emirates, according to the Independent. But Socotra is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) protected territory which makes it unlawful to disrupt. Some locals deem the UAE’s presence as a front to exploit Socotra and use it for future tourism enterprises.

The UAE has been vying over Socotra’s inhabitants by first building a military base, an intelligence communications centre and even conducting a census. Socotra’s inhabitants have also been flown to Abu Dhabi for free to access healthcare and potential work opportunities which can be lucrative for them.

Early this year, Yemen’s Ministry of Tourism called on the UAE to stop destroying Socotra and spoiling the natural resources on the Island. The General Council of Mahra and Socotra rejected a call last year to merge or form a UAE-backed military force in the southern governorates.

While the UAE’s Jebel Ali port continues to thrive in the Gulf, a new port on Socotra could uptick maritime commercial business in the Red Sea region amid on-going threats posed by the Houthi armed group

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180503-uae-forces-beef-up-presence-in-yemens-socotra-island/

Comment: Temperatures running high over increased #UAE troops & aircraft on #Socotra island off SE #Yemen. Many in #Mahra (once a sultanate with Socotra) suspect coordination with new #Saudi military presence in Mahra & stress Socotra is far from Houthi fronts but commercially important

https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/992370048525307904

and

(* B K P)

Extensive Deployment of The UAE Occupation Troops in Vicinity of Yemen’s Socotra Airport

Al-Andband newspaper reported that UAE has quietly begun to control Yemen, and has only included this part of sovereign Yemen, built a military base, set up a communications network, conducted its own census and invited inhabitants of island to Abu Dhabi by “planeload”
It is noteworthy that the governor of Socotra late conducted a series of appointments in the province limited the powers of government, and enabled UAE side in several institutions, such as political security and Central Agency for Control and Accountability and Public Security, which objected to the President of Republic and demanded the suspension of such appointments and cancellation.

http://www.newnewss.net/extensive-deployment-of-the-uae-occupation-troops-in-vicinity-of-yemens-socotra-airport/

and

(* B K P)

Governmental official: Emirates armed vehicles headed toward a military camp and signs of military escalations

A high official in the Yemeni government said to Almasdaronline , since the morning a UAE armed vehicles headed toward a brigade follow the Yemeni Army and reached to the gates, and after the arrival of the Saudi mediation committee , UAE forces prevented the commander of the brigade from the reception of the delegation at the airport.

Sources expected an escalation in case the UAE forces insist to breach the brigade or try to seize control of it.

According to the source , the prime minister and supposed to but the foundation stone for the port project in inauguration ceremony but the UAE forces sent an armed vehicles and destroyed it in a clear message to the prime minister prohibiting him from performing any activity .

The source also mentioned the damages that happened in the port due to fencing procedure to the lands and also to the reserves.

On the other hand the source denied the claims saying that the prime minister is banned from leaving the island and he said the government is not prevented in any way but they delayed the travel till resolving the exploding situation.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98688 v

(* B K P)

Either the government neither the president knew about it: Socotra dominated by UAE armed vehicles

The Sudden Military presence of UAE troops in Socotra seems surprising specially that it comes synchronizing the presence of the prime minister and governmental member at the island.

More than 100 soldiers and 4 armed vehicles dropped Yesterday (Wednesday) by 4 military transportation aircrafts at Socotra airport, and deployed on the ground and discharged the security forces responsible for the Airport and the area there.

This is the first time UAE deploy its soldiers on the island since its presence was symbolic by some officers their duties are planning and buying loyalties at the strategical located, charming and one of the important environmental islands in the world.

During the past 3 days the prime minister Ahmed bin Daghr has inaugurate many of the projects on the island and attended to many speech festivals attended by island crowds, this presence aggravated some of the separation supporters allied to UAE to form demonstrations against the government which was few in numbers and with no effect. Government activities came in the effort to retain its presence in the island after a period of isolation, UAE took advantage of this situation and was very active in that area through repeated cruises to island and butting the island within its cellphones networks and buying the island officials loyalties.

on the other hand, an official form the the government and in his answer to Almasdar online question about the wither the government was noted by the UAE landing he said, either the government neither the president was informed about this issue.

A source indicated that this UAE move came as a response the evade of president Hadi of a verbal promise made to UAE, the UAE allowed the prime minister to come back to Aden in return of moving the interior minister Ahmed Almaisary out of Aden which consider practically under UAE control and run it by allied forces formed and on a direct contact with it to serve this purpose.

Since Bin Daghr return to Aden the UAE officials and through Saudis kept reminding Hadi of his promise to remove interior minister, Hadi consider this as blackmailing and opposed the idea even with the repeated persuasion attempts by Hadi advisors but he refused to comply, UAE sees that Al Maisarri presence prevents the militia which formed by it to seize control the entire city.

In addition to that UAE military presence at Socotra looks non logic since the island is away from the current war and Houthis did not reach that far.

The military presence of UAE in Socotra also provoke Yemenis which they look at what happening in Socotra as an occupation on the other hand Saudis have no benefit what so ever from those movements and but Saudis in uncomfortable zone since such actions is out of the goals announced by the Arabic coalition and insure the hypothesis of UAE privet agenda in Yemen away from the coalition represented by expansion to control the islands and strategic ports of Yemen.

In Early 2017 journalist reports talked about Emirates investors purchasing lands in the island and make development in areas considered environmental reserve, a journalist visited the island in 2017 conirmed that an Emirates officer was there as a representative of (Khalifa foundation ) purchased a land in Dexim natural reserve and build a wall around it , the officer was acting as ruler of the island and he got married to Socotrian girl to have the local support also.

Later on Hadi issued a decision the governmental land authorities in the island prohibiting any illegal proceeding in island lands including selling procedures.

Recently UAE decide to interfere directly by military force instead of soft control by its officials there.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98686

Remark: By a pro-Hadi website.

(* A P)

Yemenis will not give up island of Socotra: Official

The Yemeni people will not give up any of their sovereign territory, including the strategic island of Socotra, a Yemeni official asserted on Friday, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

“Yemenis will safeguard their land -- islands and coastland; we will not surrender one grain of sand,” Youth and Sports Minister Nayef al-Bakri told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Bakri said that the people of Socotra -- an island in the Arabian Sea -- supported Yemen’s internationally-recognized government (currently based in the city of Aden) and were ready to defend their land.

Tension has mounted between Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since Wednesday, when the latter dispatched a military force to the island.

The deployment was reportedly carried out without prior coordination with the Yemeni government.

Notably, Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr has been in Socotra since Saturday with a view to reasserting Yemen’s sovereignty over the island.

In March, activists submitted a report to Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in which they accused the UAE of seeking to take control of Socotra and its resources.

Earlier Friday, a Saudi delegation arrived to the island in an apparent bid to mediate the dispute.

http://en.apa.az/world-news/asia-news/yemenis-will-not-give-up-island-of-socotra-official.html and also http://almasdaronline.com/article/98693

(* A P)

UAE forces 'occupy' sea and airports on Yemen's Socotra

Criticism follows Arab Gulf country's occupation of airports and sea ports after deploying craft and soldiers on island.

United Arab Emirates forces have occupied sea and airports on Yemen's remote island of Socotra, a day after deploying four military craft and more than 100 troops there, according to a Yemeni government official.

Condemning the move as an "act of aggression", the official said UAE soldiers also blocked Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, Yemen's prime minister, and 10 ministers from leaving Socotra on Friday.

"The UAE has occupied the airport and seaport of Socotra island, despite the Yemeni government's presence there. What the UAE is doing in Socotra is an act of aggression," the official told Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia has pledged to send investigators to Socotra, according to the official.

The UAE recently leased the island for 99 years and has confirmed carrying out military operations there.

Residents of the island said the flag of the UAE and images of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan now adorn official buildings.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/uae-forces-occupy-sea-airports-yemen-socotra-180504181423573.html

(* A P)

Emirati forces prevented local Yemeni political and military officials from greeting a Saudi committee that arrived at the airport on Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden on May 4, according to local sources. The Saudi committee is reportedly tasked to review Emirati military developments on the island. [1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-4-2018

(* A P)

Saudi mediation committee arrives to Socotra

A Saudi governmental committee arrived this Afternoon (Friday) to Socotra airport to witness the new Emirates military developments in the island.

A source said to Almasdaronline that the committee formed by Saudis and did not include any Yemeni representatives since the Emirates refused that.

According to the source the governor Fahmi Mahroos assigned his deputy to be in the reception of the delegation but the UAE forces prevented them from entering the airport.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98691

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The government and government officials were due to arrive this morning to lay the foundation stone for the development of the port of Socotra, but the UAE forces and half an hour before the arrival of the Prime Minister sent a vehicle and destroyed the foundation stone that was built (photo)

https://twitter.com/sameer_alnamri/status/992395163447234560

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Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Dajar receives the Chairman of the Saudi Committee responsible for resolving the existing problem between the Yemeni government and the UAE forces in the Socotra archipelago (photo)

https://twitter.com/sameer_alnamri/status/992456175840120833

The two sides reviewed the reasons for the tension that erupted in Socotra, which occurred after the arrival of the Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation to the island by two days, and raised many questions about the reasons and motives (film)

https://twitter.com/sameer_alnamri/status/992462499004940289

cp1c Am wichtigsten: US-Truppen an Jemens Grenze / Most important: US military at Yemen’s frontier

(** B K P)

US Army hilft Saudis gegen Schiiten aus dem Jemen

Ein Dutzend Green Berets sind seit dem letzten Jahr mit dem Aufspüren von Raketenbasen beschäftigt

Die New York Times hat von nicht namentlich genannten amerikanischen Behördenmitarbeitern und europäischen Diplomaten erfahren, dass die US Army - anders als vorher vom Pentagon dargestellt - Saudi-Arabien im Jemenkrieg nicht nur mit dem bereits während der Präsidentschaft Barack Obamas begonnenen Auftanken von Flugzeugen und dem Teilen von Geheimdienstinformationen hilft (vgl. USA: Parteiübergreifende Initiative zum Krieg im Jemen), sondern seit Dezember 2017 auch Soldaten entsandt hat, die sich daran beteiligen.

Dabei handelt es sich um etwa ein Dutzend Angehörige der aus dem gleichnamigen John-Wayne-Film bekannten Green Berets. Sie haben die Aufgabe, Raketenstellungen im Jemen aufzuspüren, in denen schiitische Huthi-Milizen auf saudische Städte wie Chamis Muschait, Nadschran oder Riad zielen, wo ihre Geschosse mehrmals Häuser trafen. Die Grenze zum Jemen müssen sie dazu angeblich nicht überschreiten, weil ihre Überwachungsflugzeuge die Stellungen auch von Saudi-Arabien aus aufspüren können.

https://www.heise.de/tp/features/US-Army-hilft-Saudis-gegen-Schiiten-aus-dem-Jemen-4041152.html

(** B K P)

US Army hilft Saudis gegen Schiiten aus dem Jemen

Die USA sollen laut einem Medienbericht insgeheim Soldaten einer US-Eliteeinheit nach Saudi-Arabien gesandt haben. Offenbar helfen sie Riad seit Monaten im Kampf gegen die Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen.Die US-Armee hat laut einem Zeitungsbericht insgeheim Spezialkräfte zur Unterstützung von Saudi-Arabien im Kampf gegen die jemenitischen Huthi-Rebellen entsandt. Die rund ein Dutzend Elitesoldaten der Einheit Green Berets seien auf der Saudi-arabischen Seite der Grenze zum Bürgerkriegsland Jemen seit einigen Monaten im Einsatz, berichtet die "New York Times". Zu ihren Aufgaben gehöre es, beim Aufspüren und Vernichten geheimer Raketenlager und -stellungen der Rebellen zu helfen.

Es gebe allerdings keine Hinweise darauf, dass die US-Soldaten die Grenze zum Jemen überschritten hätten, hieß es in dem Bericht, der sich auf Angaben von US-Regierungsmitarbeitern und europäischen Diplomaten berief.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/jemen-us-elitesoldaten-unterstuetzen-riad-gegen-huthi-rebellen-nyt-bericht-a-1206130.html und auch http://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/nachrichten/international/usa-staerker-in-jemen-buergerkrieg-involviert;art46446,1246084

(** B K P)

Army Green Berets Secretly Help Saudis Combat Threat From Yemen Rebels

For years, the American military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States.

But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America’s secret wars.

With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities.

Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to The New York Times by United States officials and European diplomats.

They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that American military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing.

There is no indication that the American commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission.

But sending American ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen.

The Green Berets, the Army’s Special Forces, deployed to the border in December, weeks after a ballistic missile fired from Yemen sailed close to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

A half-dozen officials — from the United States military, the Trump administration, and European and Arab nations — said the American commandos are training Saudi ground troops to secure their border. They also are working closely with American intelligence analysts in Najran, a city in southern Saudi Arabia that has been repeatedly attacked with rockets, to help locate Houthi missile sites within Yemen.

Along the porous border, the Americans are working with surveillance planes that can gather electronic signals to track the Houthi weapons and their launch sites, according to the officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the mission publicly.

A half-dozen officials — from the United States military, the Trump administration, and European and Arab nations — said the American commandos are training Saudi ground troops to secure their border. They also are working closely with American intelligence analysts in Najran, a city in southern Saudi Arabia that has been repeatedly attacked with rockets, to help locate Houthi missile sites within Yemen.

Along the porous border, the Americans are working with surveillance planes that can gather electronic signals to track the Houthi weapons and their launch sites, according to the officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the mission publicly.

Pentagon officials told the senators what had already been said publicly: that American forces stationed in Saudi Arabia only advised within the kingdom’s borders and were focused mostly on border defense.

The Green Berets have stepped in to deal with an increasingly difficult problem for the Saudi military. Their presence is the latest example of the expanding relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia under President Trump and Prince Mohammed – By HELENE COOPER, THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF and ERIC SCHMITT

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/politics/green-berets-saudi-yemen-border-houthi.html and abridged by RT https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201805031064118174-us-army-operating-yemen/ and by Newsweek https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/05/us-troops-yemen-border-ruffle-feathers-congress.html and The Independent https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/05/us-troops-yemen-border-ruffle-feathers-congress.html and also https://www.nationalreview.com/news/yemen-us-involvement-more-pentagon-acknowledges/

(** A K P)

US troops on Yemen border ruffle congressional feathers

The Trump administration maintains that US support for the Saudi-led coalition is limited to targeting, logistics, intelligence and midair refueling support for coalition warplanes. But in recent months the US role in the war has fallen under heightened scrutiny from lawmakers as coalition bombings result in mounting civilian casualties and the country struggles with famine and the worst cholera outbreak in history.

“The Trump administration’s purposeful blurring of lines between train and equip missions and combat, from Niger to Yemen, is unacceptable,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Al-Monitor in a statement. “It runs afoul of our system of checks and balances in war powers and is deepening our involvement in endless wars without a vote of Congress.”

Progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Tea Party stalwart Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, forced a floor vote on ending US participation in the war after House leadership forestalled a similar effort by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., last year in the lower chamber. Although the Senate blocked the joint resolution 55-44, the vote reflected growing bipartisan frustration with the war — frustration that continues to fester.

“I have strong concerns that the Trump administration is getting the US more involved in a war in Yemen without congressional authorization,” Sanders tweeted today, following the Times report. “I’ll be seeking further clarification on these activities. We must prevent the US from getting dragged into another never-ending war.”

But opponents of US anti-Houthi operations in Yemen contend that The New York Times revelations indicate that the Trump administration was less than forthcoming in the debate leading up to the Senate's tabling of the Sanders-Lee joint resolution in March.

“The bigger question here is the credibility of the arguments the Pentagon made during the debate and how forthcoming they’re being with members who are trying to do oversight and weigh in on this,” Stephen Miles, the director of Win Without War, a coalition of anti-war groups, told Al-Monitor.

The Pentagon did not respond to Al-Monitor’s inquiry as to whether they had informed lawmakers of the Green Berets stationed at the border – by Bryant Harris

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/05/us-troops-yemen-border-ruffle-feathers-congress.html

(* A K P)

The U.S. is deeper into Yemen’s civil war than it wants to admit

The Pentagon has remained cagey when it comes to official U.S. activity in Yemen, insisting that American troops are taking a supporting role in the Saudi-led campaign — one officials insist is limited to logistics, intelligence sharing, and the refueling of aircrafts. But the Green Beret operation appears to go beyond that capacity and features commandos working closely alongside Saudi forces to find and destroy Houthi rockets and launch sites.

For Adam Baron, a Yemen analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, the revelation was not entirely surprising, but he said the lack of transparency over the deployment is concerning.

“Let’s face it: The U.S. and U.K. have been pretty deeply involved in this war since the outset,” he told VICE News “It’s not completely unreasonable that the U.S. would be providing support to one of its key allies in the region to prevent missile attacks heading to the border.”

The Green Beret operation reportedly came about in response to the Houthis tactic of firing missiles across the border. After one was intercepted near Riyadh’s airport in November, Salman reissued a request to the U.S. to deploy troops in support, and the deployment was sent within weeks.

Regardless of whether the move was the right one, Baron said, the lack of debate over the operation was troubling, and it raises the risk of “mission drift.”

“Isn’t this something that should be the subject at the very least of some internal attention? It’s symptomatic of the expansion of the U.S. into a variety of different arenas of conflict that no one’s really paying attention to.” – by Tim Hume

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wj7vax/the-us-is-deeper-into-yemens-civil-war-than-it-wants-to-admit

(** A B K P)

Green Berets Are Now On The Ground Assisting The Saudi War On Yemen In "A Marked Escalation"

Once again a creeping, years' long shadow war is expanding from indirect proxy intervention to direct engagement, complete with US "boots on the ground" where no American ground forces were previously thought to exist.

And it's not Syria, or Libya, or central Africa where the now familiar pattern played out before, but in the Arabian peninsula where the Pentagon has long claimed to merely coordinate intelligence, refuel jets, and provide logistical support to the Saudis which have been bombing Yemen since March of 2015.

Like all administrations going back to 2001, the White House is relying on the the 9/11-era Authorization For Use of Military Force (AUMF) to give legal justification for its actions in the Arabian peninsula. But this time the target is not primarily al-Qaeda, ISIS, or Sunni Islamist militants, but Iran — which the Trump administration has repeatedly accused of supplying Yemen's Shia Houthis with its ballistic missile arsenal.

To underscore the US perception that it is fundamentally in a struggle against Iranian influence in Yemen, the Times quotes Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who stated during a visit to Riyadh on Sunday, “Iran destabilizes this entire region.” Pompeo further charged Iran with supporting “militias and terrorist groups" — specifically that it is “an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.”

However, even the usually national security state-friendly New York Times isn't fully buying the "it's necessary to counter Iran" narrative spun by the Pentagon, instead calling the Green Beret presence "a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen."

The NYT further notes that, “There is no evidence that the Houthis directly threaten the United States; they are an unsophisticated militant group with no operations outside Yemen and have not been classified by the American government as a terrorist group.”

So if we are once again on the slow and creeping path of American "boots on the ground" in yet another Middle East proxy war, how did we get here?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-04/green-berets-are-now-ground-assisting-saudi-war-yemen-marked-escalation

(* B K P)

New York Times: Why Are American Troops in the Yemen War?

The Pentagon and the Trump administration apparently have misled Americans about growing military involvement in a war in Yemen that we should have nothing to do with.

This involvement puts the lie to Pentagon statements that American military aid to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and intelligence, and is not related to combat.

When senators at a hearing in March demanded to know whether American troops were at risk of entering hostilities with the Houthis, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the Central Command, assured them, “We’re not parties to this conflict.”

Such significant military decisions require public debate to force presidents and their generals to justify their decisions and be held accountable for the consequences. But checks and balances have eroded since Sept. 11, 2001, as ordinary Americans became indifferent to the country’s endless wars against terrorists and Congress largely abdicated its constitutional role to share responsibility with the president for sending troops into battle.

The United States initially deployed troops to Yemen to fight Al Qaeda’s forces there, under post-Sept. 11 congressional authorization measures. But Congress never specifically approved military involvement in the Saudi-Houthi civil war.

As the Houthi missiles attest, Saudi Arabia is less secure now than when it began its air campaign three years ago. Only a peace agreement is likely to bring the fighting and the killings to an end By The Editorial Board

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/opinion/american-troops-yemen.html

(* A K P)

US special forces operations in Yemen presage wider regional war

Nobody should buy the claim by the Times that the deployment of the Green Berets—carried out behind the backs of the American people and with no knowledge of, much less authorization by, the US Congress—is merely for the purposes of operations on the border aimed at protecting Saudi territory. Something closer to the truth was revealed May 3 when reports emerged that the Pentagon is seeking contractors to provide two fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters to rescue US special forces “in and around Yemen.”

Similar self-serving arguments have been deployed in the past to cover up the predatory character of secret US special forces operations elsewhere, including in the West African country of Niger, where they are engaged in a counterinsurgency war against Islamist rebels. After four Green Berets were killed in a firefight with militants last October, it was revealed that they were involved in an assassination mission when the gun battle occurred.

In Iraq and Syria, special forces ostensibly serving as “advisers” to Iraqi troops and Kurdish militias fired thousands of shells into densely populated areas of Mosul, helping push the death toll into the tens of thousands.

Washington’s involvement in the Yemen war, which was initiated under the Obama administration, is part of US imperialism’s broader agenda of securing its unchallenged predominance over the energy-rich and strategically vital Middle East. The driving force behind this is the economic decline of American imperialism, which the US ruling elite has unsuccessfully sought to offset by employing military violence.

The main regional impediment to Washington’s predatory ambitions is Iran, which is being targeted for war preparations by a US-led alliance encompassing Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Sunni Gulf sheikdoms.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/05/pers-m05.html

(* A K P)

Warning of 'Another Never-Ending War,' Sanders Demands Answers Over US Ground Troops in Saudi Arabia

"I'll be seeking further clarification on these activities. We must prevent the U.S. from getting dragged into another never-ending war."

Responding to the Times report on Thursday—which indicates the U.S. has significantly escalated its involvement in Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed alarm at the covert activities of American special forces and said he will be demanding answers about "these activities."

"I have strong concerns that the Trump administration is getting the U.S. more involved in a war in Yemen without congressional authorization," Sanders—who in March helped lead a failed effort to halt U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's relentless and illegal assault on Yemen—wrote on Twitter. "We must prevent the U.S. from getting dragged into another never-ending war.

Sanders wasn't alone among progressives in condemning the secret military activity in Saudi Arabia.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/04/warning-another-never-ending-war-sanders-demands-answers-over-us-ground-troops-saudi = https://www.mintpressnews.com/bernie-sanders-demands-answers-us-ground-troops-saudi-arabia/241630/

(* B K P)

Film by TRT: Should the US pull out of Yemen?

A joint resolution in Washington called for the removal of US armed forces in Yemen, with experts saying their presence contravenes international law.

Interviewing Oona Hathaway, prof. of International Law at Yale law School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Jiscr1suM

cp2 Allgemein / General

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YEMEN’S HOUTHIS SEE BALLISTIC MISSILES AS LAST HOPE TO DETER SAUDI AGRESSION

Saudi Arabia’s bloody war on Yemen has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, including more than a quarter of a million children, since it’s onset in March 2015, and it shows no signs of letting up.

It is in this context that, following three years of war, Yemen’s Houthi military leadership announced a new wave of retaliation for the ongoing Saudi-led coalition’s campaign against the country.

Despite the odds against it, Yemen’s military has given no indication it plans to cede to Saudi pressure. It began this week with a campaign of retaliatory strikes against the Gulf Kingdom and its allies, using unmanned drones and a barrage of domestically produced long-range ballistic missiles to hit vital facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The strikes are the latest evidence of a long-running effort to shore up domestic military capability, including missile production, since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and their Western backers began their assault in March of 2015

To better understand the impetus for the missile program, and the motivations behind it, MintPress spoke to Yemeni Brigadier-General Aziz Rashid, Supreme Political Council Secretary Dr. Yaser Al-Houri, and a retired Yemeni Army brigadier.

The Houthis have stated they now consider high-value economic sites to be legitimate military targets, adding that impacting Riyadh and Abu Dhabi’s sources of capital — their lifeblood — is an appropriate defensive response to the siege and blockade that has devastated Yemen’s economy and adversely affected the value of Yemen’s currency, the Rial.

Awash in weapons

Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies have been quick to lay blame on Iran for providing the Houthis their ballistic missile arsenal — a move they claim violates Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen, which has been denounced by both the United Nations and Human Rights Watch for its devastating humanitarian impact, as well as a violation of the ‘spirit’ of the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA). However, documents from the Yemeni Ministry of Defense reveal that both the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) purchased ballistic missiles from the Soviet Union and Korea during the Cold War in the 1980s and 2000s.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/yemens-houthis-see-ballistic-missiles-as-last-hope-to-deter-saudi-aggression/241549/ = https://maps.southfront.org/yemens-houthis-see-ballistic-missiles-as-last-hope-to-deter-saudi-agression/

(* B H K)

Film: Guerre au Yémen : pourquoi un tel silence ?

Des chercheurs spécialisés en santé publique lancent une nouvelle alerte concernant la situation sanitaire du Yémen. Avec l'arrivée de la saison des pluies, ils craignent une reprise de l'épidémie de choléra. Notons que le pays est en proie à une guerre civile depuis 2015. En trois ans, les combats ont déjà fait plus de 10 000 morts. Quelles sont les issues possibles de ce conflit ? On en parle avec François Frison-Roche, spécialiste du Yémen.

https://www.i24news.tv/fr/tv/revoir/i24newsroom/x6ivr50 = https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ivr50

(* B P)

Kriegsreporter im Jemen: “Es ist schwer neutral zu bleiben”

Viele Journalisten sind als Folge ihrer Arbeit gezwungen, den Jemen zu verlassen; andere wie Jamal Al Sharabi und Mohammed Al Abssi, wurden getötet. Der Fotojournalist Al Sharabi wurde 2011 von jemenitischen Sicherheitskräften getötet, als er über die Anti-Regierungsdemonstrationen berichtete. Al Abssi kam während der Recherchen für einen Beitrag ums Leben, in dem er über die Korruption im Jemen berichten wollte. 41 andere Journalisten befinden sich momentan in Haft.

Für meine Studie habe ich acht Kriegsreporter, die für insgesamt neun Medien tätig sind, interviewt. Die Befragten stammen aus dem Jemen (5), aus dem Irak (1), aus Ägypten (1) und aus Libyen (1).

Alle Befragten geben an, aufgrund ihrer Berichterstattung über den Krieg im Jemen unter psychologischen Auswirkungen zu leiden. Einige von ihnen haben auch physischen Druck (Todesdrohungen) sowie technische Schwierigkeiten (Probleme mit der Übermittlung von Informationen in Echtzeit) erfahren. Ein Korrespondent, der für einen internationalen Fernsehsender arbeitet, hat mir anvertraut: „Es ist schwierig, die Todesszenen zu vergessen; und die Folgen zeigen sich nicht sofort, sondern erst im Verlauf der Jahre.“

Bei der Beschaffung von Daten sind Journalisten stark abhängig von Regierungsquellen, militärischen Institutionen und deren Repräsentanten, Augenzeugen, den Medien und dem Internet. Die Journalisten, mit denen ich gesprochen habe, haben außerdem viele Informationen erhalten, die nicht veröffentlicht werden durften. Die meisten geben zu, Fehler gemacht zu haben, indem sie möglicherweise falsche Informationen ohne weitere Überprüfung veröffentlicht haben.

„Jede Konfliktpartei versucht, Journalisten auf ihre Seite zu ziehen. (…)“, erklärt ein Journalist, der für einen weiteren internationalen Sender arbeitet. „Der Journalist sollte nicht eine feindselige Haltung gegenüber einer bestimmten Seite einnehmen, sondern sollte sich auf die Suche nach der Wahrheit begeben, die wiederum keine Seite vorteilhaft darstellt.“

Alle befragten Journalisten schildern, dass sie während ihrer Arbeit physischen Gefahren ausgesetzt seien (Ziel von Anschlägen, Schießereien, Überfälle aus dem Hinterhalt, Raketen, Autobomben, Entführungen). Ihre Sicherheit werde nicht genug geschützt.

So sagt ein Journalist eines internationalen Mediums: „Es ist schwer, neutral zu bleiben. Manchmal konnte ich nicht anders, als zu weinen, weil die Tatsachen mich so sehr getroffen haben. Es ist nicht leicht, neutral zu bleiben, wenn es um humanitäre Krisen geht. Der Reporter kann oft nicht die Ansichten beider Seiten vermitteln und riskiert deshalb, zum Sprachrohr der Seite zu werden, auf dessen Gebiet er sich befindet.“ – von Al-Sharmani Amani

https://de.ejo-online.eu/pressefreiheit/kriegsreporter-im-jemen-es-ist-schwer-neutral-zu-bleiben

(B K P)

Jemen: „Wollen Houthis an Verhandlungstisch zwingen“

Der Sprecher der von Saudiarabien geführten Militärallianz, Oberst Turki al-Malki, beschuldigt den Iran, an die schiitischen Houthi-Rebellen weitreichende Raketen zu liefern. Vorwürfe, die Allianz greife zivile Ziele an, weist er zurück (nur im Abo)

https://diepresse.com/home/ausland/aussenpolitik/5416952/Jemen_Wollen-Houthis-an-Verhandlungstisch-zwingen

(* B H K)

Die Aichacherin Aenne Rappel, Vorsitzende der Jemenhilfe, über den Krieg in dem bettelarmen Land

Die heute 83-Jährige aus Aichach war unzählige Male in dem bettelarmen Land, baute ab 1998 in Al Mihlaf ein Krankenhaus für die ländliche Bevölkerung auf - und gründete 2000 mit einigen Gleichgesinnten den Förderverein Aktion Jemenhilfe. Die Mitglieder gewährleisten seither unter anderem den Betrieb der Klinik. Später gründete Aenne Rappel noch die Jemen Kinderhilfe. Dass das Land im Krieg versinkt, berührt sie sehr.

Raeppel: Der Geruch von seit Jahren nicht abgeholtem Müll mischt sich mit dem von verwesenden Leichen, die unter Trümmern liegen. Es ist absolut katastrophal. Auch in unserem Krankenhaus gibt es trotz eigener Quelle kein Wasser mehr, da es am Diesel für den Generator mangelt, der wiederum die Pumpen antreibt. Dazu kommt, dass die Zivilbevölkerung bombardiert wird. Auch meine Wohnung im Jemen liegt in Schutt und Asche. Und auf den Dächern sitzen die Scharfschützen, die auf alles feuern.

Unser Krankenhaus in Al Mihlaf funktioniert derzeit noch - was vielleicht auch daran liegt, dass hier Freund und Feind gleichermaßen fair medizinisch versorgt werden. Wir versorgen auch viele Menschen weiter mit Medikamenten, was natürlich immer schwieriger wird, da das Land zunehmend schwerer zu erreichen ist. Auch Lebensmittel werden immer teurer. Dann unterhalten wir mit der Kinderhilfe in der nahen Stadt Taizz eine Einrichtung, in der Waisen und verstoßene Kinder ein Zuhause finden. Inzwischen ernähren wir dort 60 Mädchen und Buben.

http://www.donaukurier.de/nachrichten/topnews/Man-weiss-oft-nicht-wer-gerade-schiesst;art154776,3763515

(A K P)

Interactive Map of Yemen

https://yemen.liveuamap.com/

(B K P)

Film by Press TV Iran: Saudi Arabia helpless in facing Yemenis' steadfastness: Commentator

Mohammad Obaid told Press TV in an interview on Friday, the United States’ secret deployment of ateam of elite commandos to the Yemeni border to help the Saudi military in battles against the Houthi Ansarullah movement shows Riyadh’s “helplessness” in facing the Yemenis' “steadfastness” in confronting the years-long war on the impoverished Arab nation.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/04/560614/US-Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-war-Houthis-New-York-Times-report

(* B K P)

Kriegsreporter - die große Stille

Ob Syrien, Jemen oder Libyen, in den Kriegen unserer Zeit wird gemordet, gelitten und gestorben - aber die Beobachter internationaler Medien berichten aus weiter Entfernung. Wer füllt die weißen Flecken unserer Zeit?

Aber nicht nur in Syrien, auch in Afghanistan, Libyen, im Jemen und in weiten Teilen des Irak ist es gefährlich bis unmöglich für ausländische Journalisten zu berichten. Durm beschäftigt die Frage, was passiert, wenn es immer weniger unabhängige Berichterstattung über Kriege gibt: Kühles, nüchternes, aber auch in Teilen fragwürdiges Nachrichtenmaterial ersetzt recherchierte und erlebte Geschichten über das Leben der Bevölkerung im Krieg. Berichte, die, wie er findet, der Wirklichkeit des Krieges nicht gerecht werden. "In Wirklichkeit ist ein Krieg analog: Es wird analog gelitten und gestorben, und man muss im Grunde auch mit dem, was man vor Ort sieht, hört und riecht, die Berichterstattung füllen."

Die weißen Flecken der Kriegsberichterstattung haben fatale Folgen

http://www.dw.com/de/kriegsreporter-die-gro%C3%9Fe-stille/a-43558425

(* B K P)

Yemen - Massacres and Assassinations Trigger a New Phase of War

In mid April some 20+ of Sudanese soldiers were killed in an ambush in northern Yemen. Sudan, which sent up to 10,000 soldiers to Yemen in hope of Saudi money, is reconsidering its engagement. The Gulf states had promised investments in Sudan and the lifting of U.S. sanction in exchange for sending cannon fodder. Neither happened.

The war Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the powers behind them wage on Yemen aims to install a proxy-government that defers to them. The Yemeni people do not want that. They resist against the overwhelming forces of their rich neighbors. Especially the Zaidi people of north Yemen dislike their proselytizing Wahhabi neighbors. Their Houthi movement leads the fight. Yemeni in general regard them as 'monkeys with laptops'. To overcome the resistance the Saudi launched a genocidal campaign of blockading, bombing and starving the people into submission.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/05/yemen-massacres-and-assassinations-trigger-a-new-phase-of-war.html

Remark: Some sort of commented overview, with a plenty of links.

(* B K P)

Film: Journalists in Yemen targeted by both sides of the war

It's becoming harder to tell the story of what's happening in Yemen, and human rights groups say the threat is coming from both sides.

Journalists are under increasing attack by both sides of the war in Yemen.

They're often threatened by kidnappings, raids and missile strikes.

One reporter was killed and three others injured in Bayda province last month.

On World Press Freedom Day, Al Jazeera's Mohamad ElBardicy reports on what life is like for journalists in Yemen.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/journalists-yemen-targeted-sides-war-180503185616230.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8iJ8V3Y9tc

(B K P)

24 Yemeni Journalists killed during the war

Journalism’s Union in Yemen said that 24 journalists have been killed during the war in Yemen and demanded the immediate release of the abducted journalists by Houthis and AlQaida,the union denounced and violation against the journalists what so ever.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98680

Remark: By a pro-Hadi news site; do they also count the journalists killed by Saudi coalition air strikes?

And this is from the other side’s media union:

(A K P)

Yemeni Media Union (YMU) on Thursday called on the international community to work seriously to stop the aggression and lift immediately the all-out blockade imposed on #Yemen.
In its statement on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Union called for the free world peoples to show wide-ranging solidarity with the Yemeni media in view of the violations committed against them by the Saudi-led coalition.

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1730672073652482/?type=3

(* A H K)

Photo: The battles of aggression prevent Yemeni fishermen from entering the sea and threaten to target them

https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/photos/a.1434086430220680.1073741828.1434084576887532/1808300369465949/?type=3&theater

(B H K)

Film: In French: Interview to Sadek Alsaar, President of Salam For Yemen, on the Coalition's aggression on #Yemen and the latest developments.

Mon intervention sur le plateau de FRANCE 24 samedi soir dernier, une occasion précieuse et nécessaire pour évoquer la situation humanitaire au #Yémen.#

https://www.facebook.com/sadek.alsaar/videos/vb.1241076153/10216696837553599/?type=2&theater

(B H K)

Paula Hawkins wants you to remember Yemen

It’s difficult to comprehend this reality through statistics. The numbers are large, and the devastation vast and distant. But when I met with someone from the British Red Cross who had recently returned from the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, I began to get a better understanding of what the conflict in Yemen means for ordinary people.

I heard the story of Sameer, 28, whose life has been radically disrupted by the war. Unable to get a job despite his accountancy degree, Sameer has been volunteering with the Yemen Red Crescent Society (YRCS), the local branch of the Red Cross Red Crescent, since 2011, teaching first aid skills.

As the political power struggle, which developed during the Arab Spring, morphed into a full-scale war, Sameer’s role changed.

The lack of engagement with Yemen’s tragedy is, in part, unsurprising. In a world obsessed with the tweeting of Donald Trump and the latest twists in the Brexit saga, attention to the tribulations of a poor Middle East country in the throes of a fiendishly complicated conflict was always likely to be small.

https://www.stylist.co.uk/long-reads/yemen-war-crisis-famine-red-cross-paula-hawkins-girl-on-the-train/204525

(* A K)

Film by Press TV Iran: Yemen: 120 journos killed in 3 years of Saudi attacks

Yemen’s media union says 120 journalists have been killed in Saudi attacks since the start of the war in March 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmyaB8OUarg

(B K)

Film: Les ravages des armes explosives au Yémen

Le Yémen connaît l’une des plus graves crises humanitaires de la planète. Malgré des conditions de travail compliquées, Handicap International apporte son aide à un maximum de personnes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3o6oxqXirs

cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade

(* B H P)

Yemen: Commodity Tracker (as of 3 May 2018)

This tracker monitors commercial imports to Hudaydah and Saleef ports via the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) and prices of food and fuel,. The map below illustrates the final stages vessels progress through before reaching the port of destination.

Overall imports: In April 2018, commercial food and fuel imports via UNVIM declined 22% and 12% from March import levels, respectively. No containerized cargo was imported for the fifth consecutive month. Since November, half as many vessels (19) are berthing at Hudaydah and Saleef on average, compared to pre-blockade average (35).

Food Imports: In April, food imports were half (51%) of the monthly national requirement, the lowest since the start of UNVIM operations, 341 MT less than February 2018, the previous record low. Since the blockade, monthly food imports had met 68% of national requirements. Prior to the November blockade, nearly all (96%) of Yemen’s monthly food import requirements were being met on average.

Fuel Imports: In April, fuel imports were 27% of the monthly national requirement. Since November, monthly fuel imports had met one-fifth (21%) of national requirements on average. Prior to the November blockade, nearly onethird (29%) of Yemen’s monthly fuel import requirements were being met on average.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-commodity-tracker-3-may-2018

(B P)

Yemen setback as Houthi rebels block aid deliveries

Aid situation deteriorating in rebel areas as commanders target supplies

Houthi forces were accused on Thursday of blocking aid deliveries in Yemen as the rebel commanders profiteer from taxes and impose ideologically-driven barriers to vaccination campaigns.

Alistair Burt, Britain's middle east minister, told parliament that efforts to ensure greater access for aid to the Yemeni population with the Arab coalition should not draw away attention from the role of the rebels in blocking distribution within the country.

“We have all noticed that Houthi-controlled areas have become more difficult to access,” Mr Burt told members of the upper chamber, the House of Lords. “They take taxes from goods that come in, in order to finance themselves, enrich themselves. They’ve been restrictive in relation to vacccines as well.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/yemen-setback-as-houthi-rebels-block-aid-deliveries-1.727166

My comment: There obviously are restrictions caused by the Houthis. But emphasizing them is grotesque and hypocritical – if told by the Saudis’ most important allies.

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

Siehe / Look at cp1

(B H)

US Agency for International Development: Yemen - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7, Fiscal Year (FY) 2018

Humanitarian actors are concerned for the safety of more than 4,000 civilians located near the frontlines of the conflict in Al Hudaydah Governorate, according to the UN. In response, relief organizations have pre-positioned emergency relief commodities, such as hygiene kits, for rapid dispatch to displacement sites in the governorate.

Two ships chartered by USAID/FFP partner the UN World Food Program (WFP) discharged 57,000 metric tons (MT) of U.S. in-kind wheat grain¾sufficient to feed more than 5 million people for one month¾at Yemen’s Aden and Al Hudaydah ports in April.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-complex-emergency-fact-sheet-7-fiscal-year-fy-2018

Yemen ‑ Active USG Programs for Yemen Response (Last Updated 05/04/18)

https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-active-usg-programs-yemen-response-last-updated-050418

(A H)

Human Needs Development - HND :

HND NGO in #Sanaa: a thank you to the donors in #Pakistan who helped 56 families.So glad to let you know that we just have finished our project in Alhabab school in the capital of Yemen, Sana'a. (photos)

https://www.facebook.com/HndOrg/posts/1011454912339309

Students there NOW can access to water and sanitation services. We have helped them with rebuilding the school "5" toilets and providing them with a water station and rubbish barrels.

(€10,800) was invested to make all that possible for the students who were so happy to be helped with this. (photos)

https://goget.fund/2J6UEyW

https://www.facebook.com/HndOrg/posts/1010893102395490 = https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156648965088641

(B H)

Map: World Food Programme: Yemen ETC Services May 2018

https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-etc-services-may-2018

(B H)

UN Children's Fund,: Yemen Nutrition Cluster Bulletin, Issue 1, January-March 2018

There has been a clear shift in Yemen towards integrated (multi-sectoral) programming in 2017 following the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) classification of acute food insecurity in Yemen in February 2017. As the risk of famine rose, there was widespread realisation of the complexity of the situation that is not only related to malnutrition and food insecurity, but also to underlying causative factors emanating from other sectors.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-nutrition-cluster-bulletin-issue-1-january-march-2018

(B H)

WFP Yemen Monitoring Highlights: Emergency Food Assistance, Quarter Four 2017

Between October and December 2017, an average of about 6.7 million beneficiaries per month received general food assistance (GFA) against the targeted 7 million. This represents 97% of the planned target. There is a significant increase of 2.5 million beneficiaries reached in Q4 compared to Q1 2017. In addition, the ration size increased from 37 percent of the required Kcal in Q1 to 100 percent in Q4 2017.

In Q4, a total of 232,337 MT were distributed to the beneficiaries, receiving GFA; 255 percent more compared to quarter one (Q1), when a total of 65,424 MT of food were distributed.

In Q4, monitoring activities, including (field visits and remote calls), covered 263 districts out of the total 277 assisted districts. This represents a monitoring coverage of 96 percent of the assisted districts.

In Q4, a total of 512 field visits were conducted in 183 districts

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-yemen-monitoring-highlights-emergency-food-assistance-quarter-four-2017

(* B H)

WFP Yemen Quarterly Monitoring Report: Q3 | 01 July - 30 September 2017

Highlights

In quarter three (Q3) 2017, an average of about 6.5 million beneficiaries per month received emergency food assistance against the target of 6.9 million. In August, a record high of about 7 million beneficiaries received emergency food assistance.

Post-distribution monitoring mobile surveys indicated that general food distribution (GFD) beneficiaries' acceptable food consumption has consistently increased with a 9 percentage points over the last four quarters, Nevertheless, about half of beneficiaries still do not reach acceptable food consumption level.

In Q3, assistance was the main source of food for 59 percent of GFD and 82 percent of commodity voucher beneficiaries. This has substantially increased - about 15 percentage points - from Q2 when 44 percent of GFD and 68 percent of commodity voucher beneficiaries reported assistance as their main source of food.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-yemen-quarterly-monitoring-report-q3-01-july-30-september-2017 and full PDF https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP_Yemen_ME_Report_Q3_2017.pdf

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

Siehe / Look at cp1

(* B H)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Somalia: Response to Yemen situation 1 - 31 March 2018

After three years of conflict in Yemen, over 190,000 Yemenis have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. As of 31 March 2018, 6,383 Yemenis fled to Somalia. Upon arrival to Somalia, Yemeni refugees are assisted by UNHCR and its partners who provide protection assistance and support to Yemeni refugees through access to territory; registration and documentation; education; health; livelihood and self-reliance; cash-based interventions and provision of core relief items; legal support; sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) prevention and response; peaceful coexistence and community-based protection.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Yemen in 2015, a total of 6,383 Yemeni refugees have arrived in Somalia.

In the month of March 2018, 102 Yemeni refugees arrived in Somalia from Yemen by boat (397 since January 2018).

https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/unhcr-somalia-response-yemen-situation-1-31-march-2018

(A H)

International Organization for Migration: IOM Yemen Weekly Situation Report 22-28 April 2018

47 IOM-supported healthcare facilities are currently operational in Yemen, providing much needed care for Yemenis and migrants. A total of 8,146 IDPs and other conflict affected Yemenis and 630 migrants were provided healthcare assistance during the reporting week.

306,250 Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) were distributed in the Hodeidah Governorate, with the 25 April–2 May LLINs Campaign aiming to distribute 470,300 LLINs in high Malaria prone districts.

A total of 1,390 migrants were provided direct assistance

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-weekly-situation-report-22-28-april-2018

(B H)

Danish Refugee Council: RMMS Mixed Migration Monthly Summary: East Africa and Yemen (March 2018)

covering mixed migration events, trends and data for Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia / Somaliland and Yemen.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/rmms-mixed-migration-monthly-summary-east-africa-and-yemen-march-2018

(* B H P)

Unwelcome to Canada

We opened our homes and hearts to those fleeing war in Syria. But we aren’t doing the same for people in Yemen.

Almost everyone in the association’s office is counting on Canada to accept them. The Canada they’ve chosen to believe in—perhaps out of desperation or because reports in Arabic-language media tended to praise Canada for the way it welcomed Syrian refugees—is a utopia where tolerance and respect for Islam prevail and Canadians welcome refugees at the airport with banners, warm clothing, and fully furnished apartments.

In March 2017, the Canadian government committed $34 million in “life-saving humanitarian assistance” to conflict-affected people in Yemen, with a special focus on children and women. A few months later, it allocated an additional $7.7 million through its Famine Relief Fund, and in January, Marie-Claude Bibeau, the minister responsible for international development, announced an additional $12.1 million in aid, to be split among the Red Cross and various un agencies. It amounts to about $54 million—a small fraction of what we spent to bring Syrian refugees to Canada. Despite attempts by some members of the Canadian public and media to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the federal government has not announced any major refugee-resettlement plan.

Images of starving or dead children since the start of the war in Yemen—or South Sudan, for that matter—have yet to prompt Canadians into action in the same numbers and with a similar dedication. No “mobs of do-gooders,” as the Toronto Star described Canadians who hounded then immigration minister John McCallum in 2015 to help Syrian refugees, have turned up for the Yemenis.

In his book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom argues that empathy is “a spotlight focusing on certain people in the here and now.” He adds that “spotlights only illuminate what they are pointed at, so empathy reflects our biases.” Those outside our immediate world and gaze can’t rely on our collective empathy, even if their need is as great as in those places where we do shine a spotlight. Yemen’s location on the southern tip of the Arabian penninsula, and, in broad historical terms, its political and social isolation from power centres in Europe and North America, mean that only the very geopolitically engaged or those who devote themselves to humanitarian aid will—absent circumstances like a photo that makes the front pages or a politician who chooses to focus on it—likely notice the country or its people – by Kamal Al-Solaylee and Ian Teh

https://thewalrus.ca/why-do-some-refugees-matter-more-to-canadians/

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

(A P)

Welcome to #Yemen. The Houthis (Death to America!) increase security deployment protecting US Embassy site in capital Sanaa over fears that other Houthis plan to attack it. (photo)

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/992602228769939456

(A P)

Mass rally held in Sanaa to support the Palestinian cause
Thousands of Yemenis gathered at Bab al-Yemen square in the capital Sanaa on Friday to participate in the mass rally under the slogan “Jerusalem, the land of Muslims and their first Qibla” in solidarity with the Palestinian people. (photos)

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1731924406860582/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1731591490227207

https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/992438285460033539

(A P)

Civil society organizations hold Peace Festival in #Sanaa
A group of civil society organizations on Thursday held a peace festival in the capital Sanaa.
The event included artistic artifacts, an exhibition of products from local women and artistic contests all centred on peace. (image)

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1730894543630235/?type=3

(A K P)

Mahweet tribes announce public mobilization to fronts

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495056.htm

(A K P)

Hamadan tribes continue to support fronts with men

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495038.htm

(A P)

Disputes escalate between Houthi warlords over financial resource collection

Conflict has escalated between the Houthi militia's warlords over the looting of financial resources in Sana'a and Hodeidah, prompting them yesterday to resort to the armed militia's chief Mahdi al-Mashat to judge who of the figures is entitled to collect the most resources for himself.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-18045

Remark: As claimed by anti-Houthi Islah Party news site.

(A K P)

Houthis embed themselves in villages, use civilians human shields in Al-Tohaita

Local sources have confirmed that the Houthi militia has prevented the villagers of the district of Al-Tohaita, south of the province of Hodeidah to escape their areas, where Houthi-army clashes are expected, and are therefore keeping these villagers as human shields.

The sources expect battles to erupt soon between Houthi rebels and the advancing army forces who want to liberate the district as part of the government's plan to liberate the whole Hodeidah Hodeidah and restore its vital seaport from the grip of the Houthi rebels.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-18047

Remark: As claimed by anti-Houthi Islah Party news site.

(A P)

President reveals plan to activate control on state institutions

President of the Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat on Wednesday revealed a plan being prepared to activate the role of control and combating corruption in the state institutions and it would be announced later.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494896.htm

(* B P)

New Houthi leader in Yemen

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have chosen a new and hawkish leader, refocusing attention on their intentions

Yemen’s Houthi rebels quickly chose a successor to Salah Al-Sammad, head of the movement’s Supreme Political Council, this week after his death in an air strike by Coalition forces in the coastal city of Al-Hodeida two weeks ago, raising questions about their intentions and the future of the war-torn country.

The movement’s new “president,” as the Houthis like to refer to him, is Mahdi Hussein Al-Mashaat, described as a “hawk” by his rivals and as a man who has been handed a “mission impossible” by his supporters.

Al-Mashaat returned to politics as a negotiator for the Houthis at meetings in Switzerland and Kuwait. As soon as he was named head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, the pro-Hadi media in Yemen immediately described the move as a mistake because the current situation needs “doves” not hawks, it said.

His rivals also noted that his appointment overlooks several prominent Houthi figures, which could trigger disputes within the movement.

Sultan Al-Atwani, a former adviser to Hadi, said Al-Mashaat’s marriage into the Houthi family was the reason he was appointed, pushing aside other candidates such as Mohamed Abdel-Salam (the main Houthi spokesman), Hamza Al-Houthi, Hussein Al-Ezzi and Abdel-Malek Al-Ajzi.

Others believe that marginalising moderate figures such as Youssef Al-Fishi, who left the Supreme Political Council because of his close ties to Saleh, could anger those who want to end the war.

Mohamed Jemeh, a Yemeni commentator living in the UAE, said there had been serious rifts between Al-Sammad and Mohamed Ali Houthi, chair of the Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, who is accused of trying to seize control of the oil trade, tariffs and territory.

Jemeh said that these disputes could resurface between Houthi and Al-Mashaat. Both accuse the other of corruption, but no independent party has confirmed the claims – by Haitham Nouri

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/24441.aspx

(A H P)

Deputy premier for security, defense affairs meets ICRC delegation

Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defense Affairs Mag. Gen. Jalal Ali al-Ruwayshan on Wednesday met with deputy head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen, Johannes Bruwer.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494950.htm

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

For Socotra, look at cp1b.

(* A T)

Emirati-backed Hadhrami Elite Forces concluded Operation Black Mountains, which aimed to clear al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants from northwestern Hadramawt governorate on May 2, according to Yemeni Second Military District Spokesman Hisham al Jabari. Hadhrami Elite Forces launched Operation Black Mountains and deployed to roads in Daw’an, al Dhlia’ah, Yabuth, and Hajr districts, western Hadramawt on April 28.[3]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-3-2018

(A P)

#Aden: Mothers Demonstrate Asking for the Release of Relatives Held in Secret Prisons
The mothers of the abducted in Aden, south of Yemen, demanded that the government authorities disclose the fate of their relatives in the prisons and secret detention centers of the city's Security Belt.
This came during a protest on Wednesday in front of the home of Yemeni Interior Minister

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1730855193634170/?type=3&theater

(A P)

President Al-Zubaidi Declares the Launch of a Southern-Southern Conversation by the Southern Transitional Council

In celebration of first anniversary of Adan Historic Declaration and the establishment of the southern transitional council, General Aidarous Kassem Al-Zubaidi, president of the southern transitional council, delivered a speech during the public festival held in Shamsan Sports Club Court in Al-Mualla. In his speech, Al-Zubaidi send the council’s greetings to the soles of all martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the rightful southern cause. He also declared the launch of a southern-southern conversation among all southern political and social powers with the purpose of unifying the southern word and creating a unified negotiation team to represent the south in any upcoming negotiations.

http://en.smanews.org/president-al-zubaidi-declares-the-launch-of-a-southern-southern-conversation-by-the-southern-transitional-council

(A P)

During the Graduation Ceremony of the Eighth Patch of Security Forces, Chief of Adan Security Department: Loud Voices of Our Enemies will Never Affect Our Solid Relations with the Arab Coalition

http://en.smanews.org/during-the-graduation-ceremony-of-the-eighth-patch-of-security-forces-chief-of-adan-security-department-loud-voices-of-our-enemies-will-never-affect-our-solid-relations-with-the-arab-coalition

My comment: What a crazy propaganda speech. He seems to be a supporter of the southern separatists.

(A P)

Al-Zubaidi Sends Messages to All Parties Excluding the Government, saying: The Council Achieved Major Progress and We Warn from Repeating Last January’s Events

General Aidarous Kassem Al-Zubaidi, president of the southern transitional council sent several messages to the southern people, especially martyrs’ families, president Abd Rabu Mansour Hady and the Arab Coalition but not the government. In his interview with Adan Press, General Al-Zubaidi warned against repeating the scenarios of January 30th in Adan and called all southern people to support the principles of tolerance and reconciliation to exhaust the efforts of those who are trying to push them towards the ambush of events similar to January 30th.

Al-Zubaidi also indicated that the council and the southern people are still in war against terrorist groups related to Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to the services war declared by the government against the south. He also praised the strategic roles of the Arab Coalition troops under commandership of Saudi Arabia and UAE. He confirmed that the council is committed to its partnership with the Arab Coalition.

http://en.smanews.org/al-zubaidi-sends-messages-to-all-parties-excluding-the-government-saying-the-council-achieved-major-progress-and-we-warn-from-repeating-last-januarys-events

My comment: Obviously, a document of conflict with Islah Party (Muslim Brotherhood) and the government of Ben Daghr.

(A P)

[Reports showing the separatists’ Southern Transitional Council acting like a government]

http://en.smanews.org/department-of-culture-of-the-southern-transitional-council-launches-the-cultural-rest-project-for-reading-for-all

http://en.smanews.org/secretary-general-of-the-southern-transitional-council-visits-public-service-and-health-care-facilities-and-greets-workers-in-their-international-day

http://en.smanews.org/memorial-of-unknown-soldier-in-adan-restored-to-be-memorial-of-southern-martyrs

(A P)

South Yemen celebrates first anniversary of declaring a ruling council under the UAE occupation forces President of this council,Aidaros Zubaidi, does not recognize "legitimacy" of Saudi puppet Hadi (photos)

https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/992058319094284288

The @STCSouthArabia leaders today in #Aden. General Aidarous Zubaidi called for a dialogue between the southern factions. (photos)

https://twitter.com/MuradAbdu/status/992030813146570753

(* B P)

Im Süden was Neues

Die VAE verfolgen im Jemen-Krieg zunehmend einen eigenen Kurs, der die Interessen im Golf von Aden schützen soll – und den engsten Verbündeten Saudi-Arabien brüskiert. Vor allem eine Bewegung sieht nun ihre Stunde im Jemen gekommen.

Die internationale Kritik an den verheerenden Folgen des Krieges für die Zivilbevölkerung im Jemen wächst stetig. Viel größere Sorgen bereitet den Golfstaaten aber die politische Sackgasse, schließlich verteidigt die Koalition ihr Eingreifen mit dem Argument, die territoriale Integrität und politische Autorität der Regierung im Jemen wiederherzustellen.

territoriale Integrität und politische Autorität der Regierung im Jemen wiederherzustellen.

Doch die musste im März fluchtartig ihren provisorischen Sitz in Aden räumen – vertrieben von den Separatisten des »Übergangsrat des Südens« (STC). Nach drei Jahren Krieg ist die Bewegung, die sich die Rückkehr des Südjemens zur Unabhängigkeit auf die Fahne geschrieben hat, der einzige schlagkräftige Verbündete der Koalition – und offenbart die Differenzen zwischen Riad und Abu Dhabi (kostenpflichtig)

https://magazin.zenith.me/de/politik/die-vae-im-jemen

(* A P)

A new cycle of armed clashes among Saudi coalition's back factions in Yemen Taiz just erupted again,days after Hadi officials mediated a ceasefire. Locals are reporting a scary nigt, with all kinds of weaponry being used in multiple areas in the city.

https://twitter.com/Shuaibalmosawa/status/991816680933380097

(A T)

Bomb Explosion Rocks Aden City

The blast was caused by a bomb detonation near house of Osan al-Hanshali, a southern personality loyal to UAE occupation forces, in October Neighborhood of Khor Maksar district.

http://www.newnewss.net/bomb-explosion-rocks-aden-city/

(* A P)

The General People’s Congress, the Islah party, the southern resistance, the Southern Peace Movement, and other southern-aligned groups announced the formation of a southern political coalition in order to create a framework for national leadership under the name “Southern National Coalition.” The signatories of the coalition expressed its support for internationally recognized Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and declared the its commitment to peaceful political action in a statement by the coalition. A member of the Transitional Political Council of the South (STC) denied their involvement with the new coalition saying the creation of the coalition undermines the STC. President of the Southern Congress Mohammed Ali Ahmed reiterated his support for the coalition after sources reported Ahmed had withdrawn from the group.[1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-2-2018

and

(* A P)

“Southern National Coalition “ New party Declared today

In a statement issued today by many Southern parties, political groups and coalitions, a new party has been declared under the name of “Southern National Coalition “.

The declaration came after rounds of dialogs between all of its components and includes the southern separation movement and many national , Youth and feminine component to form one southern national wide rang body represent the south.

The main goals of this coalition is to support the government and the United Yemen future also to support the southern case and preserve its gains and accomplishments according to the national references and related international decisions.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98663

My comment: This report is from a pro-Hadi government website, that means it is opponent to the Southern separatists’ case. The goals of the new party as reported here are contradictory to each other: Supporting a united Yemen and “the southern case” (i.e. separatism) cannot work. And, the separatists’ “Transitional Political Council of the South” refused. All the parties in this “Coalition” are backers of president Hadi. Among this “coalition”, only the GPC and the Islah Party are relevant at all.

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

(A K P)

FM's Senior Aide: Iran to Continue Supporting End to Yemen Crisis

Senior Assistant to the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari renewed his country's support for resolving the Yemeni crisis and putting an end to Saudi Arabia's crimes against civilians in the country.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970214000444

(A P)

WFP Chief: Got some great news today: @WFP just received $442 million from #UAE and #SaudiArabia to bring food to hungry people in #Yemen. Thank you!

https://twitter.com/WFPChief/status/992010837945708546

Comments: So the @WFP Executive has “great news” about #Saudi Arabia & #UAE donating $442 million to feed the people of #Yemen whom the same Saudi Arabia & UAE bomb and starve to death, then Saudi diplomats retweet him with joyful humanitarian heart feelings ?? Disgusting! (images)

https://twitter.com/alihmourad/status/992168786601050114

Sickening smokescreen to help cover up the humanitarian crisis caused by #Saudi-led coalition bombs and blockade.

https://twitter.com/YemenSource/status/992336681738096640

(A P)

UN envoy to Yemen still looking for a framework for the dialog

The Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said today that he will visit many of the region countries in order to find a framework for the dialog.

Mr. Martin met the foreign minister and the head of the governmental delegation for the peace talks Dr.Abdulmalik Al Mikhlafi and the director of the presidential office Dr. Abullah Alalimi today (Wednesday).

The envoy said he is committed to the Untied Nation decisions and all the documents issued by it and he will visit the region to put a framework for the next dialog before heading New York and address the Security Council.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98668

(A P)

UN special envoy to Yemen meets with officials in Riyadh

UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, met with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Adel Al Jubeir, in Riyadh on Wednesday.

Mr Griffiths, who replaced Mauritania's Ould Cheikh Ahmed in February, is looking to present a peace plan to the UN within two months to end the three-year conflict in Yemen.

He has warned against military escalation saying it could take peace "off the table".

https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/un-special-envoy-to-yemen-meets-with-officials-in-riyadh-1.726653 and https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/991691567940472834

cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran

(* B P)

Iran v Saudi Arabia: Growing tensions are 'BIG ISSUE' - Middle East on brink

THE ONGOING tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the civil war in Yemen are “a big issue” which could disrupt the fragile stability of the Middle East economy, a Fitch Ratings expert said.

The Yemeni civil war could cause chaos for Saudi Arabia’s fiscal consolidation, said Jan Friederich, head of Middle East and Africa sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings.

He said: “Clearly the escalation of tensions with Iran is a big issue, no question about it.”

While analysts consider it unlikely tensions in Yemen will strike a blow to the Saudi market, Mr Friederich believes this is a dynamic still worth keeping under control.

He said: “It's totally something that is now becoming pretty core to the assessment even though the probability of anything really dramatic happening probably is still quite low, because both sides know how much is at stake.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/954241/saudi-arabia-news-riyadh-iran-houthi-rebel-yemen-civil-war-world-war-3-middle-east-tension

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

(* A P)

Saudi Arabia launches initiative to improve country's lifestyle

Saudi Arabia plans to spend 50 billion riyals ($13.33 billion) by 2020 on an initiative to promote entertainment, health, sports and education as part of a modernizing drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

At an event in Riyadh on Thursday, Ahmed al-Khatib, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), said the program, called Quality of Life, should generate 300,000 jobs by 2020, most of which will come under the General Sports Authority.

“The initiatives will cost a total of 50 billion riyals, and government spending will be around 60 percent, with 40 percent from the private sector,” Khatib told Reuters.

“The entire benefit from this big spending will be for the private sector, and this supports the 2030 Vision that strengthens the role of the private sector.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-entertainment/saudi-arabia-launches-initiative-to-improve-countrys-lifestyle-idUSKBN1I42PM

My comment: Bread and games. As bread is getting less, more games are needed.

Comment: 'Quality of Life' is the new PR drive as attention is diverted off #war on #Yemen, Shia persecution, bloggers and poets arbitrary imprisonment, torture, beheadings binge and similar trifles

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1731673533552336

And

(* A P)

Giant Saudi project dwarfs Disney

The ground-breaking ceremony of a huge new entertainment resort just outside of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, took place last week, attended by the Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured centre and right). The location is at Qiddiya, around one hour’s drive from the capital.

The land allocated to the new project is 334sq.km. This makes the location over twice the size of Disney World. The venue will contain a Six Flags theme park, water parks, motor sports, cultural events and holiday homes. It is expected to attraction 1.5m visitors each year. The first phase is due to open in 2022 and the cost is estimated at US$8bn.

A temporary auditorium was erected for the ground-breaking ceremony and it was accompanied by an orchestra, concert and fireworks.

https://www.intergameonline.com/coin-op/news/giant-saudi-project-dwarfs-disney

and

(A P)

Saudi Arabia launches $34.7bn entertainment revolution

American film star Katie Holmes and British actor-cum-director Idris Elba attend launch event

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/media/395789-saudi-arabia-launches-347bn-entertainment-revolution

(* B P)

Why Saudi and the UAE shouldn’t bet on Trump

Expensive miscalculation

Curiously, bin Zayed’s biggest disappointment and his most expensive miscalculation may turn out to be none of the above: Somalia, Libya or Yemen. He could yet lose on the most substantial bet he has placed: on US President Donald Trump himself.

The pair of crown princes spent literally a fortune buying Trump’s favours - up to $500bn in defence contracts from Saudi alone over the next decade.

All of this patient groundwork was to culminate in a series of royal visits to Washington, of which bin Zayed positioned himself to be the last. It was scheduled to come at the end of April, but I am informed that it has been postponed.

Far from being the stage upon which bin Zayed and bin Salman can strut, the US is not providing firm terrain on which to manoeuvre. True enough, the mass media is gullible and easy to hoodwink. Washington’s think-tanks are also venal and eminently buyable – by David Hearst

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/why-saudi-and-uae-shouldn-t-bet-trump-677313055

(* B P)

How Powerful is Saudi Arabia’s Soft Power Push?

From hobnobbing with Oprah to championing new art centres, millennial crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is following a well-trodden path

The concerted isolation of Qatar and the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen have been all but eclipsed by MBS’s recent flashy US tour in which he hobnobbed with Oprah and Dwayne Johnson (the Rock). The millennial prince wants to modernize Saudi Arabia and the media can’t get enough.

And now, with reports that Saudi Arabia is finally opening itself up to tourists, MBS has been making moves in the arts sector too. Recent announcements include the Misk Art Institute, directed by Ahmed Mater, whose aim is to support emerging Saudi artists and promote cultural diplomacy and exchange.

The thing is, MBS is following a rather well-trodden path. Discover oil and watch quietly as your country’s profile booms overnight. Realize that it will run out one day and draw up a new plan that happens to be the same plan your neighbours are following. Remember the adage, if you build it, they [tourists] will come, and build as much and as fast as you can. Liberalize the economy and embrace technology. Hire world-famous architects to build beautiful, world-class museums. Import culture from France and arms and intelligence from the United States. Get into contemporary art; go to war.

On the face of it, Saudi Arabia’s modernization drive does not look so different from that of other Gulf states. Cities like Dubai and Doha are arguably decades ahead in the regional one-upmanship stakes. Yet while it is dangerous to wholly equate the two, Saudi soft power is underwritten by a self-described moral and cultural authority derived from Islam. It allows Saudi Arabia to exert an influence in the region that no US-supplied weaponry or French savvy can ever compete with.

With this kind of military-economic muscle underwriting the enterprise, MBS’s recent cultural overtures begin to look more like window dressing – by Rahel Aima

https://frieze.com/article/how-powerful-saudi-arabias-soft-power-push

Comment: Nothing amusing in Saudi Arabia copying/pasting what we have seen in Dubai 30 years ago. There is nothing enlighted in regimes polishing their murderous nature. See what they are doing in #Yemen

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1729456403774049

(* B P)

Saudi Arabia's whistleblower returns with more palace intrigues

Mujtahid’s short Twitter statements oscillate between predictions, facts and rumour, thus pointing out a continuum between fact and fiction in the context of Saudi politics

Mujtahid, the anonymous but famous Saudi online source of information on Saudi palace intrigues, has returned to inflame social media with new revelations. Using his Twitter account, he discussed new security measures put in place by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and his aides, some of them foreign Egyptian advisors and consultants.

Secret royal circles and the quest for more information about royal intrigues gave rise to a novel and unique Saudi Twitter phenomenon, namely Mujtahid ibn Harith ibn Hamam, dubbed a "Saudi Julian Assange", a mysterious "whistleblower", and "rebel tweeter". He has captured the imagination of international and regional media since he started his account in 2011.

Although there is no way to separate truth from fiction in his claims, many observers are convinced that he is an estranged member of the royal family and are engaged in a guessing game over his possible identity. Others think that Saudi London-based dissident Saad al-Faqih is the real Mujtahid.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/saudi-arabia-s-whistle-blower-returns-more-palace-intrigues-802056088

(A E P)

Saudi bourse to ensure Aramco's weighting in index is not too big

Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange will ensure the weighting of national oil giant Saudi Aramco in its main stock index is not too large when the company lists its shares, the exchange’s chief executive said on Wednesday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-economy-aramco/saudi-bourse-to-ensure-aramcos-weighting-in-index-is-not-too-big-idUSKBN1I30YO

(B P)

The Saudi-Israeli embrace will doom both regimes

Whatever the full truth, it seems pretty clear that US and Saudi elites are working closely hand in hand. The main victims are normal Saudis who suffer under the undemocratic regime and the tens of thousands who have died in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

But another victim of such machinations is the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Kushner, the man who Trump laughably wanted to devise “the ultimate deal” between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, is, in fact, a fanatical anti-Palestinian ideologue, whose family has made donations to Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180501-the-saudi-israeli-embrace-will-doom-both-regimes/

(A E P)

HSBC mandated on several privatizations in Saudi Arabia: executive

British bank HSBC (HSBA.L) has been mandated for several privatizations in Saudi Arabia and will announce them very soon, a senior bank executive said on Wednesday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-saudi-privatisation/hsbc-mandated-on-several-privatizations-in-saudi-arabia-executive-idUSKBN1I312D

(* B P)

Film: Reforming Saudi Arabia chopping heads off

While top American officials and media outlets praise Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a "revolutionary," 12 people are beheaded per month. Professor Asad AbuKhalil says the Saudi monarchy "has become far more repressive than it has ever been."

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/videos/1731318896921133/

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp1c

(* A P)

Congress Wants to Give Trump a Bipartisan Blank Check for Declaring War

Presidents have been declaring war by executive fiat. A new bill to replace the AUMF would rubber stamp it.

It may be too late. The president of the United States is now a veritable autocrat in the realm of foreign policy.

Though there have certainly been many critiques of their piece of legislation, most miss the larger point: the Corker-Kaine bill would put a final congressional stamp of approval on the inversion of the war-making process that, over the last three-quarters of a century, has become a de facto constitutional reality. The men who wrote the Constitution meant to make the declaration of war a supremely difficult act, since both houses of Congress needed to agree and, in case of presidential disagreement, to be able to muster a supermajority to override a veto.

The Corker-Kaine bill would institutionalize the inverse of that. It would essentially rubber stamp the president’s authority, for instance, to continue the ongoing shooting wars in at least seven countries where the U.S. is currently dropping bombs or firing off other munitions. Worse yet, it provides a mechanism for the president to declare nearly any future group an “associated force” or “successor force” linked to one of America’s current foes and so ensure that Washington’s nearly 17-year-old set of forever wars can go on into eternity without further congressional approval.

By transferring the invocation of war powers to the executive branch, Congress would, in fact, make it even more difficult to stop a hawkish president from deploying U.S. soldiers ever more expansively – by Danny Sjursen

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176418/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_hail%2C_%28donald%29_caesar%21/#more = https://original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2018/05/03/war-and-the-imperial-presidency/ = http://inthesetimes.com/article/21120/Donald-Trump-war-congress-kaine-corker-bill-blank-check-executive

(A P)

US-Gericht: Iran nicht Saudi-Arabien soll 6 Milliarden Dollar an Opfer der Anschläge von 9/11 zahlen

In der Klage wird behauptet, dass der Iran die Attentäter vom 11. September 2001 ausgebildet und unterstützt haben soll - wofür es jedoch keine Belege gibt. Das im Jahr 2016 in den USA verabschiedetes Gesetz JASTA macht die Strafverfolgung von Staaten möglich.

Das US-Gericht Southern District Court of New York hat in seinem Urteilsspruch den Iran aufgefordert, mehr als sechs Milliarden Dollar an die Opfer der Anschläge vom 11. September 2001 zu zahlen. In dem Urteil vom Montag werden die Islamische Republik, die Revolutionsgarden und die Zentralbank des Iran für den Tod von mehr als 1.000 Menschen infolge der Anschläge vom 11. September verantwortlich gemacht.

https://deutsch.rt.com/international/69293-us-gericht-iran-soll-6-milliarden-dollar-an-die-opfer-der-anschlaege-vom-11-september-zahlen/

and English report (YPR 409, cp9): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-iran-pay-6bn-victims-911-attacks-180501120240366.html

Mein Kommentar: Absurd.

(B K P)

Why won't Trump condemn Saudi attacks on Yemen? | Letter

Why is Trump not affected by the killing of young children? Surely he was affected by the images of children suffering. So will he strike the kingdom of Saudi Arabia? No. Trump can only see dollars; instead of providing humanitarian aid like Europeans, Trump sells more missiles to the kingdom.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/05/khaku_column.html

(* A K P)

US Special Operators Scattered Across Yemen Might Soon Rely On Contractors To Rescue Them

With its own search and rescue units under strain, the US military continues to lean heavily on private firms for casualty evacuations.

The Pentagon is interested in having contractors provide two fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopters on call to rescue wounded American special operators in and around Yemen if necessary, as well as to perform various other missions. The announcement comes as it becomes increasingly clear that the U.S. military’s own aerial casualty evacuation capabilities are stretched thin and just months after it weathered serious criticism over relying heavily on private companies for these services following a deadly ambush in Niger.

U.S. Transportation Command, acting on behalf of U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations across the Middle East and Central Asia, posted the notice on FedBizOpps, the U.S. government’s main contracting website, on April 30, 2018. The draft documents say the basic requirements are for the four contractor-operated aircraft to provide casualty and medical evacuation, personnel recovery, and passenger and cargo services.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20598/us-special-operators-scattered-across-yemen-might-soon-rely-on-contractors-to-rescue-them

(* A K P)

US seeks airborne rescue and recovery for SOF in Yemen

The US military is looking for contractors to provide personnel recovery, as well as airborne casualty and medical evacuation services, for special forces personnel operating in and around Yemen.

The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) issued a request for information (RFI) on 30 April for third parties that are capable of undertaking aircraft- and helicopter-based personnel recovery, casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) duties within the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) in general, and within Yemen in particular.

“Market research is being conducted to identify air carriers with fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft capable of providing airlift, MEDEVAC, and CASEVAC support within the CENTCOM AOR primarily within Yemen. The Yemen AOR for this requirement is defined as [but not limited to] the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate Oman, Republic of Djibouti, United Arab Emirates, State of Qatar, Kingdom of Bahrain, and locations supporting Yemen Joint Special Operations Area [JSOA],” the solicitation, which was issued on behalf of Special Operations Command Forward – Yemen, said.

http://www.janes.com/article/79723/us-seeks-airborne-rescue-and-recovery-for-sof-in-yemen

(My comment: The Brave New World of neoliberalism: privatization everywhere.

(* B P)

Cooperation And Diplomacy Is Better Than Containment On Iran – OpEd

This clear message that we are hearing from Secretary Pompeo about Iran destabilizing the region as the main threat that needs to be contained is somewhat misleading. However, despite all the ratchet rhetoric towards Iran, Tehran has shown a lot of restraint. Iran does not bulk large in Trump’s own imagination, but he wants to undo everything that President Obama did, and Trump’s targeting of the JCPOA is actually somewhat irrational and not connected to other policies.

The so-called threat of Iran in the Middle East is vastly hyped and overexaggerated. Sure, Iran has a long hand in the region throughout Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, but to solely blame Iran for the Middle East’s cancerous problems is simply a one-sided analysis. In fact, no Iranian officials have said that Iran controls any capitals whether it be Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, or Sanaa.

Containment is a very dangerous policy for the Trump Administration, but cooperation and diplomacy with Iran is a cheaper and reasonable option than another conflict in the Middle East. In fact, a regional summit between Iran, the Gulf countries, and Israel could set a new paradigm for the region along with a nuclear free zone that was proposed by Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud – by Vincent Lofaso

www.eurasiareview.com/03052018-cooperation-and-diplomacy-is-better-than-containment-on-iran-oped/

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

(B P)

Everything you need to know about UK policy towards Yemen in a single sentence: “We do not maintain records of casualty figures for the conflict in Yemen”.

https://twitter.com/markcurtis30/status/992335352697425921 referring to https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2018-04-17/HL6989/

(* A B P)

UK government could be forced to ban Saudi arms sales after campaigners win right to appeal ruling

Government says it has 'robust' arms control regime after High Court found in its favour last year

British weapons sales to Saudi Arabia could be ruled unlawful after the second round of legal action by campaigners was given the go-ahead.

Judges have granted the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) permission to appeal a ruling by the High Court in July that allowed the UK to continue granting export licences despite allegations British weapons had been used to kill civilians in Yemen.

The fresh case against the Secretary of State for International Trade will be heard by the Court of Appeal in the coming months.

Giving permission for the appeal at the Court of Appeal on Friday, Lord Justice Irwin and Lord Justice Flaux said that the criterion was put in place by legislation under the Export Control Act 2002, in response to obligations arising from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty 2013 and from a common position adopted by the European Union.

The judges warned that the law did not permit "political considerations" or opinions on the outcome of Saudi bombing to override the ban on exporting weapons that could be used to commit war crimes.

"It is obvious that withholding this licence, or renewal of this licence, is likely to have significant implications for the international relations of the United Kingdom, and potentially for employment," they added.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-yemen-unlawful-court-appeal-ruling-a8336326.html

(* A P)

Court allows appeal against British arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Campaigners who want to stop Britain from selling arms to Saudi Arabia as it could potentially use them in the deadly conflict in Yemen can appeal after losing their case at the High Court last year, a British court ruled on Friday.

Last July, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) sought a High Court order to block export licenses for British-made fighter jets, bombs and other munitions, which it said were being used by the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen’s civil war.

But the High Court found that the granting of license for arms exports from the UK to Saudi Arabia was not unlawful.

The case will now be heard by the Court of Appeal in the coming months.

Andrew Smith of CAAT said his group believed the sales were immoral.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-saudi-britain/court-allows-appeal-against-british-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1I51JR

(* A P)

CAAT gets permission to appeal lawfulness of arms sales to Saudi Arabia

This morning (4 May 2018), two Court of Appeal judges, Lord Justice Irwin and Lord Justice Flaux, granted permission for Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to appeal against a High Court judgment which allows the UK Government to continue to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.

The appeal will be heard by the Court of Appeal in the months ahead.

CAAT was asking for permission to appeal against a judgment by the High Court on 10 July 2017 which did not find the granting of licences for the export of arms from the UK to Saudi Arabia unlawful, despite global concern over the use of these weapons where there is a risk they will be used in serious violation of international humanitarian law.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/25797

and

(* A P)

Campaign Against Arms Trade: Judicial review

CAAT is challenging the UK government's decision to continue to licence the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

Success! The Court of Appeal has granted permission for CAAT to appeal the legality of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

CAAT took its legal case to the Court of Appeal on 12 April 2018 for a one day hearing in an attempt to overturn a High Court judgment which allows the UK Government to continue to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.

On 4 May 2018 two Court of Appeal judges, Lord Justice Irwin and Lord Justice Flaux, granted permission to appeal, and the case will be heard by the Court of Appeal in the months ahead.

Read about the case so far and view the legal documents.

For more than three years the government has refused to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia – despite overwhelming evidence that UK weapons are being used in violations of International Humanitarian Law in Yemen.

Ignoring massive public pressure to stop the arms sales, the government has instead done everything it can to maintain its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the UK's biggest arms customer.

Our action continues. We can’t and won’t let this stand.

https://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/stop-arming-saudi/judicial-review

and the day before:

(* A P)

Judgment due in legal battle over UK arms deals to Saudi Arabia

The Court of Appeal will give its judgment on Friday 4 May 2018 in a legal battle by campaigners to overturn a High Court judgment which allows the UK Government to continue to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.

The judgment, which will determine whether the appeal is to be heard by the Court of Appeal, follows a one-day permission hearing which took place on Thursday 12 April 2018.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is asking for permission to appeal against a judgment by the High Court on 10 July 2017 which did not find the granting of licences for the export of arms from the UK to Saudi Arabia unlawful, despite global concern that these weapons could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Lawyers Leigh Day, representing CAAT, argued that the decision to grant the licences was in breach of the UK arms export policy, which clearly states the government must deny such licences if there is a 'clear risk' arms 'might' be used in 'a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law'.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/25785

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

(* A P)

Lobbyismus wirkt: Auswärtiges Amt stimmt bizarren Lobgesang auf saudischen Kronprinzen an

Auch das Auswärtige Amt versteht sich in der Kunst der selektiven Wahrnehmung und Empörung. Im Fall Duma waren Beweise für einen Luftangriff nicht nötig - die Pflicht humanitärer Verantwortung wog zu schwer. Ganz anders im Fall Saudi-Arabien.

Trotz etlicher nachgewiesener Kriegsverbrechen von Seiten Saudi-Arabiens und seiner Verbündeten im Jemen, drückt die Bundesregierung lediglich ihre "Sorge" über die humanitäre Katastrophe und die tausenden getöteten Zivilisten aus. Im Kampf David gegen Goliath, wird von einem "Stellvertreterkrieg" im Jemen gesprochen, auch wenn es keinerlei Beweise dafür gibt, dass die Huthi-Rebellen tatsächlich aktiv vom Iran mit Waffen unterstützt werden. Doch selbst wenn dies der Fall wäre, würde dies nichts am grotesken Ungleichgewicht der militärischen Machtverhältnisse vor Ort ändern.

Von der Verwicklung des Kronprinzen gänzlich unberührt, ist die Frage für die stellvertretende Sprecherin des Auswärtigen Amts, Maria Adebahr, offensichtlich lediglich eine Gelegenheit ihrer Begeisterung über dessen "Reformpläne" freien Lauf zu lassen. Nicht unerwähnt lässt Adebahr auch die Tatsache, dass "Frauen in Saudi-Arabien jetzt Auto fahren dürfen."

Wohl ungewollt machen die Worte Adebahr auch die Doppelmoral der Bundesregierung deutlich, deren außenpolitisches Handeln keineswegs von moralischen Werten angetrieben wird, sondern sich ein ums andere Mal dem Diktat wirtschaftlicher Interessen unterwirft – in diesem bizarren Fall garniert mit blumigen Worten die keine Fragen mehr offenlassen.

https://deutsch.rt.com/inland/69271-auswartiges-amt-bizarrer-lobgesang-auf/ und Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gag5__7E_co n

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

(A P)

EU bezeichnet Gespräche mit Iran über Jemen als konstruktiv

Die Europäische Union hat am Donnerstagabend in einer Erklärung die Gespräche mit der Islamischen Republik Iran über den Jemen als konstruktiv bezeichnet.

http://parstoday.com/de/news/iran-i40012-eu_bezeichnet_gespräche_mit_iran_%C3%BCber_jemen_als_konstruktiv

(A P)

New Zealand: Trade meeting with UAE unacceptable

“This week’s meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, United Arab Emitrates (UAE) Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is of grave concern,” said Auckland Peace Action member Valerie Morse.

“The two ministers met to discuss trade, energy and other links between the two countries. Yet somehow, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs didn’t bother to address the UAE’s role in creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than two million people displaced and millions more living on humanitarian assistance. The UAE is heavily involved in the Saudi war, bombing and mass starvation campaign in Yemen. It’s disgusting.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1805/S00045/trade-meeting-with-uae-unacceptable.htm

(A P)

Jemenitische Delegation hofft auf Unterstützung Österreichs und der EU

Beim heutigen Besuch einer Delegation aus dem Jemen im Parlament standen vor allem die komplexe politische Situation, die große humanitäre Krise sowie die Bemühungen in Richtung einer friedlichen Lösung im Mittelpunkt des Gesprächs mit den Abgeordneten.

berichtete der jemenitische Informationsminister Moammar Al-Eryani. 2012 wurde Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi zum neuen Präsidenten gewählt und im Rahmen eines nationalen Dialogs alle Gesellschaftsschichten eingebunden. Durch den Einmarsch der vom Iran unterstützten radikalen Huthi-Milizen in der Hauptstadt Sanaa im Jahr 2014 sei diesem neuen Lebensfühl jedoch ein jähes Ende gesetzt worden.

Auf Fragen der österreichischen MandatarInnen bezüglich der von Saudi-Arabien seit dem Jahr 2015 angeführten Militärintervention in Jemen, gab Al-Eryani zu bedenken, dass sein Land von der Weltgemeinschaft vergessen worden sei. Einzig das Nachbarland Saudi-Arabien, in dem über 2,5 Millionen Jemeniten arbeiten, habe umfassende Hilfe auf humanitärer und wirtschaftlicher Ebene angeboten. Es handle sich daher nicht - wie fälschlicherweise in den vielen Medien berichtet werde - um einen Stellvertreterkrieg zwischen Saudi-Arabien und dem Iran.

https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20180502_OTS0149/jemenitische-delegation-hofft-auf-unterstuetzung-oesterreichs-und-der-eu = https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/PR/JAHR_2018/PK0478/index.shtml und noch ausführlicher https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000079057584/jemenitischer-minister-beklagt-unterdrueckung-der-medien-durch-houthis

Mein Kommentar: Eine Delegation der Hadi-Regierung; natürlich machen sie die Houthis für die Lage des Landes verantwortlich und stellen ausgerechnet die Saudis (sogar als einzige!!) Wohltäter hin, eine krasse Verfälschung der Realität. Der Jemenkrieg ist in der Tat kein Stellvertreterkrieg zwischen Saudi-Arabien und dem Iran – schon wseil Iran dort nur eine untergeordnete Rolle spielt – ganz im Gegensatz wiederum zur Propaganda der Hadi-Regierung.

cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis

(A P)

Yemeni government arrests a Qatari officer on suspicion of cooperation with Houthi militia

Media reports in Yemen said that a Qatari Officer was arrested as he was travelling from Yemen to neigboring Oman.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1295421/middle-east

and

(A P)

Qatar complains after citizen held in Yemen

Qatar has complained about the detention of one of its citizens in Yemen, in an incident that could further exacerbate Doha’s diplomatic rift with its Gulf neighbors.

Qatar’s state-linked National Human Rights Committee condemned what it said was the April 21 detention of Mohsen Saleh Saadoun Al-Karbi by a Saudi-led coalition that is fighting in Yemen against the Houthi movement that controls the capital.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-yemen/qatar-complains-after-citizen-held-in-yemen-idUSKBN1I41ER

(A P)

NHRC calls for release of Qatari citizen detained by Saudi

Qatar National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) condemned in the strongest terms the detention of Qatari citizen Mohsen Saleh Saadoun al-Karbi, who was on his way to visit his family and relatives in Yemen.

He was arrested by the Saudi-led coalition forces at the border between Yemen and Oman on 21 April 2018, without explaining on what charges he was detained.

http://menafn.com/1096802811/NHRC-calls-for-release-of-Qatari-citizen-detained-by-Saudi

Comment: My view: The Al-Karb tribe is rather large and well-known tribe in north & west Hadhramaut, all the way into southern Saudi Arabia. That this Al-Karbi arrested bears Qatari, and not Yemeni, citizenship is common for many Hadhramis: We're all over the world.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/991707866628227072

(A E P)

Banks Forced Into Qatar-Saudi Feud

J.P. Morgan, HSBC, fearing for relationship with Saudi Arabia, pull out of Qatari bond issuance

Bankers have tried to stay neutral in the diplomatic fight between Qatar and its neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Now, they are being forced to choose sides.

In early April, JPMorgan and HSBC executives informally told Qatar officials that their banks couldn’t work on the emirate’s upcoming bond issuance, according to two people familiar with the matter. The reason: It could jeopardize their relationship with the Saudi Arabian government, which was arranging its own bond sale, the people said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/banks-forced-into-qatar-saudi-feud-1525253401

cp12b Lebanon / Libanon

(* A P)

Saudi scheme to manipulate Lebanon parliamentary elections uncovered

A recent document has pointed to Riyadh regime’s fiendish plot to assert enormous influence on Lebanon’s May 6 legislative elections, and engineer the polls in favor of House of Saud.

According to a report published by Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network, which is affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has written a letter to the kingdom's ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Bukhari, assigning him the mission.

The report added that Jubeir has asked Bukhari to offer his generous support to the Future Movement, led by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and the Lebanese Forces political party in order to draw up mechanisms aimed at keeping Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and building up pressure on Hezbollah in Beqaa Valley as part of efforts to change the demographic population of the Shia-populated region.

The Saudi foreign minister also urged the kingdom’s envoy to spare no effort in undermining Hezbollah’s popularity in various strata of the Lebanese society, and inciting people against the presence of Lebanese resistance fighters in neighboring Syria.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/04/560620/Saudi-scheme-to-engineer-Lebanon-parliamentary-elections-uncovered

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

(* A K P)

Saudi Arabia's military expenditure surpasses Russia, world's 3rd

Having trapped itself in a deadly war against the people of Yemen over the past years, Saudi Arabia has surpassed Russia to become the world's third largest military spender.

The oil-rich kingdom increased its spending to $69.2 billion in 2017, up 9.2 percent from the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a new report Wednesday. This is 10 percent of the country's GDP.

This puts the Riyadh regime higher on the list than Russia ($66.3bn), France ($57.7bn), India ($63.9bn) and the UK ($47.1bn), according to the report.

As expected, the United States topped the list with $609.7 billion, followed by China at $228.2 billion.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/02/560431/Saudi-Russia-military-sepnding-SIPRI-Yemen

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

(* A K P)

The commander of Sudanese forces participating in the Saudi-led coalition assured the coalition that Sudanese forces will remain in Yemen until “legitimacy is restored” on May 4. Sudan’s defense minister Ali Salem announced that Sudan was reconsidering its support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on May 2. Sudan has deployed at least 3,000 troops to Yemen. [3]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-4-2018

(* A K P)

Sudan assessing role in Saudi-led war on Yemen

Sudan’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs Ali Salem has announced that his country is making a re-evaluation of its contribution to a deadly campaign led by Saudi Arabia against Yemen.

Salem said Wednesday that a decision on whether Sudan would continue to participate in the Yemen war or downgrade its presence in the military conflict would come after a thorough assessment of the case in the defense ministry.

“We are conducting studies and assessments these days about the participation of Sudanese forces in Yemen,” said Salem, adding, “...and then we will take a decision that will benefit the country and its stability.”

The minister acknowledged that there have been negative consequences for Sudan to contribute to Saudi Arabia’s more than three years of military campaign against the kingdom’s neighbor to the South.

“This (assessment) involves various sides, the negatives and positives of the participation,” said Salem in first official acknowledgement of the repercussions of Sudan’s military presence in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest nation.

The announcement came after a group of lawmakers condemned as “unconstitutional” the Sudanese military’s participation in war, urging President Omar al-Bashir to withdraw Sudan’s troops from the war-torn country.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/02/560434/Sudan-military-presence-Yemen-war and by Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-sudan/sudan-assessing-its-military-participation-in-yemen-defense-minister-idUSKBN1I3245

Remark: For critics in Sudan, read YPR 409, cp13b.

Comment: Many Sudanese mercenaries have been killed in Yemen and I guess this is to offset pressures at home as the body bags keep piling up in someone else's war.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10156648076613641

cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy

(B K P)

Yemen Military Expenditure 1990-2018

Military Expenditure in Yemen decreased to 2510.20 USD Million in 2014 from 2609 USD Million in 2013. Military Expenditure in Yemen averaged 2591.07 USD Million from 1990 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 3439.30 USD Million in 2009 and a record low of 1511.20 USD Million in 1996.

https://tradingeconomics.com/yemen/military-expenditure

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

(A T)

#AlQaeda #Yemen claims it ambushed a Houthi vehicle at 8pm last Thurs 26 April in al-Zawb area of al-Bayda'. That makes a total of 11 #AQAP ops for April, 40% down on April 2017. 10 were vs Houthis (all in al-Bayda') & only 1 in vs #UAE-backed Security forces (in Abyan)

https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/991996288689496064

(A T)

Al #Shabaab's emir told #AQAP in #Yemen to be patient while facing adversity and urged the group to increase its attacks against #SaudiArabia, the #UAE, and the Hadi government. Things must be rough for AQAP if Shabaab is telling it to get its act together.

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/991438212064260097

(A T)

And another one: Julaybib al-Habashi. Killed, like all other #IslamicState #Yemen's claimed "martyrs" this year, in al-Bayda', i.e. fighting Houthis rather than security forces. Name implies he may be from Ethiopia or Eritrea though al-Habashi can be found more broadly (photo)

https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/991634218429173760

cp15 Propaganda

(A P)

US ambassador to Yemen: Houthi militia’s rule is barbaric

The US ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Toler, said that the rule of the Houthi militia of the areas controlled by them is a brutal and barbaric rule for the Yemeni people.

Toler said during an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Youm7, that the American side is witnessing daily violations of civil and human rights, accompanied by corrupt practices on a large scale by the Houthis.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2018/05/04/US-Ambassador-to-Yemen-Houthi-Militia-s-Rule-is-barbaric.html

My comment: US ambassador Tueller is a fierce Saudi backer; he had played a disastrous role in Yemen; a horrible figure who has much more influence as a normal “Ambassador” would have: https://theintercept.com/2017/12/13/yemen-war-peace-talks-matthew-tueller/

(A P)

We are not adversaries to anyone, and we welcome any alliances to end the coup

The Head of the Information and Culture Department of the Yemeni Islah Party, Ali Al-Jaradi, spoke frankly and transparently about Yemen's political developments and the roles of Islah and its position on many issues and events taking place in the Yemeni arena.

This came yesterday evening during a talk-show conducted by the announcer Aref al-Surmi for the program "Beyond the Politics" broadcast by "Yemen Shabab Satellite Channel" and this dialogue was recorded by the editor of "Alsahwa.net".

Al-Jaradi stressed that Islah today is the political leverage and the national pillar in the social and political life in Yemen, and the wall of resistance against the coup and rebellion in Yemen.

Al-Jaradi welcomed any internal or regional alliances within the framework of Yemeni legitimacy and the national project, pointing out that Saudi Arabia provides all forms of support to Yemen and the legitimate authority and also the United Arab Emirates that contributes effectively to the management of the Arab alliance.

He pointed out that prolonging the war increases tragedies, poverty and homelessness in Yemen. He added that it needs the GPC as a political force has an experience and has many wise-men who have participated in major political transformations in the country.

Al-Islah.net publishes the full text of the talk-show

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-18100

(A P)

Army spokesman: 100 Iranian experts spotted in Saada

Over 100 Iranian experts have been spotted in Saada, the Houthi rebels stronghold, providing logistical and technical support to the Houthis, the army's spokesman Brigadier General Abdu Mujalli said on Thursday.

In a statement to al-Sharq al-Awsat daily, he said that the army spotted "the presence of about 100 Iranian experts who provide various forms of support for the Houthis in Saada, such as manufacturing and launching rockets and planting and manufacturing mines."

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-18083

(A P)

Sharjah to celebrate Yemeni heritage

Sharjah Institute for Heritage (SIH), a specialised institution that preserves and promotes cultural heritage, will host 'Yemeni Heritage Week' from tomorrow, as part of ‘Cultural Heritage Weeks.' Cultural Heritage Weeks focuses on different cultures from around the world and offers communities in Sharjah and beyond educational activities and seminars. This week, SIH will focus on Yemeni heritage from 6th until the 10th of May, open every day from 5 pm to 10 pm at the Heart of Sharjah, Al Bait Al Gharbi.

The event will celebrate Yemeni heritage and will host varied customs and traditions of the nation including folkloric dance and songs, food, handicrafts, costumes, embroidery activities, poems and proverbs and the country's exclusive honey.

The event will also offer visitors an opportunity to experience the Yemeni city of Sanaa, a region described by the UNESCO as the "immaterial cultural legacy of humanity." Visitors will also have a chance to witness the wonders of the old city of Shebam, its ancient wall and skyscrapers.

http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302686533

My comment: This really is absurd when looking at the Saudi coalition bombing Yemeni heritage into ruins.

Comment: They destroyed most of #Yemen trying to erase the country's heritage but - hey! - the #UAE is on a 'celebrate Yemeni heritage week! binge. Surreal

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1730331893686500

(A P)

Arab Coalition Command in Aden discusses issues facing merchants, investors

The Arab Coalition Forces Command in Aden has met with several merchants, investors and delegates from chambers of commerce in the liberated areas of Yemen, at its headquarters in the temporary capital, Aden, to discuss the obstacles and issues faced by merchants and investors in conducting commercial activities, which were caused by the war started by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia that directly affected the lives of Yemenis

http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302686696

(A P)

"Iran Is Part Of The Problem, Not The Solution To Yemen Crisis"

The Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdul Malak al-Mekhlafi has stressed that Iran can never be part of the solution to the Yemeni civil war as they are involved in the war itself.

He said: “[Iran’s interference in Yemen] represents an additional disaster to the Yemeni people’s sufferings.”

Mekhlafi made these comments during an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday, underlining the Yemeni government’s commitment to a peace process that would include the handover of arms, the release of detainees and the formation of a transitional government.

Mekhlafi said: “There are already concerted efforts by the international community to get Iran out of the scene in Yemen, but Tehran is trying to convince everyone that it can contribute to the solution in an attempt to ease the pressure exerted by the United Nations.”

https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/terrorism-fundamentalism/24708-iran-is-part-of-the-problem-not-the-solution-to-yemen-crisis

My comment: Iran’s role in Yemen is secondary to others. And, what else does Mekhlafi wants to tell us here? “Our enemies are so bad, so we cannot negotiate a peace with them. We only want to negotiate with our friends”.

(A P)

Iran's Proxy Wars

The Four Battlegrounds Iran Uses to Threaten Israel and the Middle East

One of Donald Trump's main arguments for cancelling the Iran nuclear deal has been Iran's role in devastating conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/the-four-battlegrounds-iran-uses-to-threaten-israel-and-the-middle-east-1.6049886

(A P)

Yemeni Vice President Praises Saudi's Strong Support For Yemen

Yemeni Vice President Ali Mohsin Al-Ahmar praised the Kingdom of the Saudi Arabia's firm stance and its strong support for Yemen and its people under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

http://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1758976

My comment: praising the Saudis is one main task of their Yemeni puppet government.

(A P)

Houthis hijack education in Yemen

When the Houthis took over Sanaa three years ago, they arrested many of their opponents, some of whom were university professors

While some Yemenis have rejected the thoughts and beliefs forced on them, few dare to oppose the rebels openly

The Houthis are touting their ideology at Yemen’s universities and changing the curriculum to promote their own political and religious agenda, according to professors and students at rebel-controlled institutions.

When the Houthis took over Sanaa three years ago, they arrested many of their opponents, some of whom were university professors who fled overseas or to other provinces. It gave the Houthis a chance to infiltrate public and private universities, appoint new professors and introduce fresh courses into the curriculum.

One mandatory course that all first-year university students must attend is “The Arab-Israeli Conflict.” Instead of teaching a core piece of Middle East history as the title suggests, it promotes Houthi ideology and includes teachings by their founder, Hussein Badr Al-Deen Al-Houthi.

The course praises Shiites and glorifies Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah for fighting against Israel. It lauds their foreign allies in Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

The course describes Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries as mercenaries, and portrays the role of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen war as “an aggression.”

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1295651/middle-east

(A H P)

More Saudi / UAE “We are benefactors” propaganda

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/8672178e-d95d-48e1-82a5-2567f41abd39.aspx

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/king-salman-relief-centre-distributes-food-baskets-yemen

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1296191/saudi-arabia

https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/991830729511309313

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

(* A K pH)

Saudi coalition air raids day by day

May 1: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1525264644./1020678628082502/?type=3

(A K pS)

Arab Coalition Air Forces Launch Air Raids on Al-Houthis in Mukiras

http://en.smanews.org/arab-coalition-air-forces-launch-air-raids-on-al-houthis-in-mukiras

(A K pS)

#Saudi-led coalition airstrike hits an al #Houthi operations center in al Sawma district, central #Yemen, where #AQAP also fights against al Houthi forces.

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/991473705707540480

(A K pH)

Film: A raid on the Saudi-American aggression on the Dahyan district of the Muzaffat district in Saada Governorate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnwbspn53w

(* A K pH)

Film: Crimes of the Saudi - American aggression in the provinces of Taiz and Saada 02-05-2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mkr8ZVbz4s

(A K pH)

Film: Targeting the US-Saudi aggression against a mosque and gas stations in the Directorate of Baqam, north of Sa'ada Governorate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPivK-jXAp4

(A K pH)

Report: 39 Saudi airstrikes hits in3 Provinces during a day

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494896.htm

(* A K pH)

Film: Yemen: Saudi-Led Airstrike Hits Blood Bank in Sana'a

The National Centre for Blood Transfusion and Research in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a sustained serious damages following a Saudi-led coalition airstrike, conducted on April 27, footage filmed on Thursday shows.

http://en.farsnews.com/player.aspx?nn=13970214000386

Remark: Published now; the raid happened April 27.

(* A K pH)

More Saudi coalition air raids:

May 4:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495059.htm Saada p.

May 3:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495004.htm Hodeidah p.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494985.htm Hajjah p.

May 2:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494882.htm Saada p.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494881.htm Hajjah p.

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

(B K pS)

Photos: Wherever you go in the Medi desert, dozens of mutilated Huthi bodies left behind by the Huthi militias who have been dragged into death.

https://twitter.com/moh_Yfrosi/status/992477041386762240

(A K pH)

Civilian killed, 3 injured in Saada

A civilian was killed and three others were injured, a father and his two children, when Saudi-led coalition aggression on Friday waged military operation on Saada province, a security official told Saba.
The civilian was killed by the fire of Saudi border guards in Shada border district, said the official.
The two children and their father were injured when Saudi missile force shelled their home in Batlan area of Haidan district, the official added.
Furthermore, artillery and missile shelling targeted several areas of Shada district, damaging residents’ properties.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495102.htm

(A K pS)

Members of the #RSNF Special Security Group on a patrolling mission off #Yemen’s southern coastlines. (photos)

https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/992367934961016832

(A K pH)

Film: Targeting the mercenaries of the Saudi - American aggression for children in Taiz province 03-05-2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26cGCeLjKnw

(A K pS)

Houthis Land mines kills again

a land mine planted by Houthis and carried by the floods to the area killed a child and injured three others in Alhazm precinct – Al Jawf east north Yemen.

A local source said that a child killed and his mother and two of his sister were injured by the mine, the source said the mine was carried by the floods Yesterday and explode in Alhazm precinct.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98678

(A K pH)

Woman injured in Saudi shelling in Saada

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494989.htm

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news495115.htm

(A K pS)

Hasan Dubalah, commander of the Tahami resistance in the West Coast front, along with six of his guards were killed in a roadside bomb on the road between Hays and Khokha district of the port city of #Hodeidah (photo)

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/991962039810756609 and http://almasdaronline.com/article/98674

Journalist Ali Abu Al-Haya, was wounded in the same roadside bomb that killed the Tahami resistance commander and six others. (photo)

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/991963982205505536

(A K pS)

Houthi sniper kills a civilian in Taiz (photo)

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98662

(A K pS)

Houthis targets the “recruited children” rehabilitation Center in Marib

Two Katyusha missiles has been launched by Houthis and targeted the recruited children rehabilitation Center in Marib and fall near the building.
The source said that the missiles left collateral damage in the building and caused panic among the children in the center which the receive psychological care and treatment after their participation in the war among Houthis militia.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98669 and photos https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/991721548766642178

and

(A K pS)

Government of Saudi Arabia: Houthi Missile Attack on Saudi Child Rehabilitation Centre in Yemen Condemned

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/houthi-missile-attack-saudi-child-rehabilitation-centre-yemen-condemned

My comment: The devil complaining about the smell of fire.

(A K pS)

Civilian killed, others wounded by the Houthi bombardment in Beidha

targeting Qaniya market in Beidha province in central Yemen on Wednesday.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-18050 and photo https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/991690491073875968

(A K pH)

the aggression artillery shelling on Manaba border causing, dozens of house and farms of the citizens were destroying.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494882.htm

(A K pH)

Fisherman Kill with Marine shell in Hodiedah

A fisherman was killed when the US-Saudi aggression shelling attacked with battleship at fishers boats in the crossing point in Hodeidah coast, a secretary office told Saba on Wednesday.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news494884.htm

(A K pH)

Yemen: 82 killed, 41 injured from Saudi army during April

82 solders were killed and 41 were injured from the Saudi Army in the month of April, reported Al-Masirah TV.
Al-Masirah Net monitored the number of dead and injured army individuals, with their names, from Saudi official and non-official media. Those were killed and injured as a result of military operations against Yemeni Army and Popular Committees in Jizan, Najran and Asir fronts. The official media admitted the killing of only 53.

http://en.abna24.com/news/middle-east/yemen-82-killed-41-injured-from-saudi-army-during-april_891830.html

and, different figures:

(A K pH)

Saudi Media Admits The Killing of 65 Leaders ,Soldiers by Fire of Yemeni Army and Popular Committees

Unnamed military source saaid , the Yemeni army and the Popular Committees kill tens of Saudi Army and its mercenaries in Jizan, Najran and Aseer in past 24 hours as well ,a spy plane was shot down in Saada.

The media of aggression admitted killing of 65 Saudi officers and soldiers during April.

http://www.newnewss.net/4308-2/

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

(A H P)

Audio: Yemen's Ethiopian coach Mebratu on amazing journey

Yemen's Ethiopian coach Abraham Mebratu talks to BBC World Football's Mani Djazmi about the incredible journey of leading the war-torn nation to the 2019 Asian Cup.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44002001

(-)

LESESTOFF: IM WILDEN YEMEN

Black Powder Red Earth (BPRE) ist die Graphic Novel, die PMCs in den internationalen Einsatz bringt. Jetzt ist der zweite Band der neuen Yemen-Serie erschienen. Wir haben für Euch einen Blick hinein geworfen.

Da geht es stressig zu wie immer. Die Contractors von Black Harbor führe Krieg gegen einen gefährlichen Feind.

http://spartanat.com/2018/05/lesestoff-im-wilden-yemen/

Mein Kommentar: In Anbetracht des Krieges im Jemen – wie vollkommen krank ist denn das hier bitte??

(A)

Maeen Dam Collapsed

Heavy rain dropped on Marib Yesterday (Tuesday) evening and water floods Led to the claps of Maeen Dam in Alrahba directorate .

The locals said the Heavy raining dropped on the area and flood formation led to the collapse of the Dam and some of the local’s houses destroyed.

http://almasdaronline.com/article/98651

(* B K)

Gesundheitsschäden durch den Einsatz von Bomben und Granaten aus abgereichertem Uran

Dieses Thema hat leider nichts von seiner Aktualität und Dringlichkeit verloren, seitdem die Nachdenkseiten das letzte Mal darüber berichtet haben. Im neuen Artikel greift Klaus-Dieter Kolenda neue Aspekte auf und gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der Debatte, soweit sie geführt wird. Denn insgesamt wird das Thema von den etablierten Medien eher stiefmütterlich behandelt. Dies liegt auch daran, dass es wenig gesicherte wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse gibt. Es gelingt dem Autor darzulegen, dass dies am Fehlen von Daten zum Einsatz oben genannter Waffen liegt. Diese Daten müssten von den Personen kommen, die den Einsatz der Uranmunition befehlen, bzw. befohlen haben, und hier schließt sich der Kreis des Desinteresses an einer Diskussion über das unbequeme Thema.

Bomben und Granaten aus abgereichertem Uran (auch Uranwaffen oder Uranmunition genannt) werden aus einem Abfallprodukt der Atomindustrie (abgereichertes Uran, englisch: depleted uranium, abgekürzt: DU) hergestellt. Sie wurden zum ersten Mal im ersten Irakkrieg 1991 von den USA und Großbritannien eingesetzt. Weitere Einsätze erfolgten in den Kriegen des Westens 1999 auf dem Balkan, in Afghanistan seit 2001, im zweiten Irakkrieg 2003, außerdem in Somalia, in Syrien, wahrscheinlich auch in Libyen und zuletzt auch in Syrien. Der Irak ist das Land, in dem bisher wohl die größte Menge an Uranwaffen eingesetzt worden ist. Im ersten Irakkrieg sollen es etwa 600 Tonnen und im zweiten Irakkrieg bis zu 2000 Tonnen gewesen sein [1].

Über das tatsächliche Ausmaß der Gesundheitsschäden beim Einsatz von Uranmunition herrsche Uneinigkeit, heißt es bei Wikipedia [1]. Während von Gegnern dieser Waffen, wie der Organisation IPPNW (Ärzte für die Verhütung des Atomkrieges), Uranmunition für Krebserkrankungen, angeborenen Fehlbildungen und Folgeschäden wie dem Golfkriegssyndrom verantwortlich gemacht würden, liege nach Studien der WHO (Weltgesundheitsorganisation) und IAEO (Internationale Atomenergieorganisation) keine besondere Gefährdung vor. Im „WHO Guidance on Exposure to Depleted Uranium“[2] heiße es explizit, dass keine Studie eine Verbindung zwischen Kontakt mit abgereichertem Uran und dem Auftreten von Krebs oder angeborenen Defekten habe finden können.

Was sagen unabhängige WissenschaftlerInnen zu dieser Einschätzung und was sind die Hintergründe dieser konträren Aussagen? – Von Klaus-Dieter Kolenda

https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=43752

Vorige / Previous:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-409-yemen-war-mosaic-409

Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-409 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-409:

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

http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/

http://www.yemenwar.info/

und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:

http://yemendataproject.org/data/

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

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