... „Widerstand“ gegen Trump und Demokraten: Fake-Opposition und Kriegsfalken – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard über Jemen – US-Politik für Jemen in Frage gestellt – und mehr
September 23, 2018: Photo essay: Yemenis‘ life – Yemen’s three wars – Saudi-Emirati competition in Yemen – Raytheon lobbyist pushed Pompeo to lie on Yemen war – “Resistance” against Trump and Democrats: Fake opposition and war hawks – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Yemen – US approach to Yemen is challenged – 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: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
cp2 Allgemein / General
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
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b 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
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
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B H K)
Meet the families who survive in the rubble of their former lives
The war in Yemen has created the largest humanitarian catastrophe on the planet today.
As Yemen’s brutal conflict enters its fourth year, the sound of air attacks remains the daily wake up call for many families. Attacks on homes, hospitals and schools are the new normal across the country. The violence has forced over three million people from their homes.
The conflict in Yemen is not a Yemeni problem alone. Multiple nations are engaged in the war, from financing fighting factions to providing arms that enable the killings to continue. The United Kingdom, United States, France, Iran and all power players in Yemen’s man-made war can use their influence to bring about an end to the violence.
But until they do, ordinary families continue to bear the brunt of the violence.
This photo essay is provided by the Norwegian Refugee Council – by Becky Bakr Abdulla
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/meet-families-survive-rubble-lives-180920060047832.html
(** B K P)
Yemen’s Three Wars
Gregory Johnsen of the Arabia Foundation describes the three wars Yemen is facing: the struggle against terrorism, the civil war, and the regional struggle encompassing Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran. Each has its own dynamics, and together they are shattering Yemen.
As distinct as these three wars are, each has porous borders, which bleed into one another.
Yemen, which only unified in 1990, is broken and probably will be for years to come. No one peace agreement, no matter how comprehensive, will be able to end each of these three wars. The most likely scenario—which itself will not be easy—is that a UN-sponsored deal will end the regional war, leading to the withdrawal of Saudi and UAE troops and the end of Iranian support to the Houthis, while the fighting on the ground in Yemen continues. UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has made clear his preference that the domestic future of Yemen, including the south, be discussed as part of a future national dialogue, not as part of UN-sponsored talks.
Yemen has been down this road before, with poor results. Indeed, much of the current fighting in the country can be traced back to Yemen’s last national dialogue, which ended in 2014 and left many parties frustrated, most notably the Houthis.
The problem that prevented a conclusive agreement then is the same problem that prevents one today: There are too many armed groups in the country, none of which is strong enough to impose its will upon the entire country but all of which can act as spoilers anytime they don’t like a particular decision. Add a couple of terrorist groups to the mix and you have a recipe for the sort of disaster that can destroy multiple generations and unravel a nation.
The War against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
The Regional War
The regional war—Saudi Arabia and the UAE against what they see as an Iranian-backed proxy—is the war we hear the most about and the one that has done the most damage to the country. But it is also, paradoxically, the war that has the most obvious off-ramp.
As devastating as this war has been, it is also—unlike the other two—solvable. Saudi Arabia wants to avoid the rise of a Hezbollah-like group on its southern border, and Iran, for all its delight in Saudi missteps, is much less invested in Yemen than it is in Iraq or Syria. When it comes to a possible Saudi-Iranian détente, Yemen may very well be the region’s low-hanging fruit.
Such a scenario would have benefits for both sides.
The Civil War
The most intractable of Yemen’s three conflicts is the increasingly ugly and increasingly fragmented civil war. This war existed before Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in Yemen and it will continue long after they leave. Sadly, this means that the worst of the fighting in Yemen may still be ahead of us. The rickety anti-Houthi alliance, which has been mostly held together by the coalition, is likely to break apart when Saudi Arabia and the UAE withdraw.
Much of the south, regardless of economic feasibility, is going to want to secede. President Hadi has little military support he can depend on outside of five presidential protection brigades.
There is, simply put, no longer a single Yemen. There are multiple Yemens and no single individual or group capable of re-uniting them into a coherent whole. Yemen has too many groups with too many guns to ever be a unified state again. The civil war, which has taken a back seat to the regional conflict over the past three years, will eventually resume at full force. And when it does, the fighting it produces will be bloody and protracted – by Gregory D. Johnsen
https://www.lawfareblog.com/yemens-three-wars
(** B P)
Study: Saudi Emirati competition in Yemen and Abu Dhabi role deviation from the targets of the "[Decisive] Storm"
A study by the Strategies Unit in the Abaad Center for Studies and Researches on the UAE influence in Yemen: Saudi-Emirati competition in Yemen and Abu Dhabi’s role has deviated from achieving the objectives of the Decisive Storm to undermining the legitimacy
The study revealed a Saudi-Emirati rivalry in Yemen that has weakened the Yemeni legitimacy and government in liberated areas and given the Houthis an opportunity to strengthen their influence in other areas they control.
The study of "UAE Influence in Yemen: Pillars and Harvest," published by the Abaad Center for Studies and Researches, presents a vision on the role of the UAE in Yemen under the cover of the Arab Coalition, which declared a military operation in Yemen under the name of the Decisive Storm in March 2015 after forces loyal to former president Ali Saleh and the Houthi militias carried out a coup against the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The UAE role developed amid several local, regional and international transformations.
The study points out that the role of the UAE in Yemen has deviated significantly from the main goal of the Decisive Storm towards the overthrow of the legitimate government, casting doubt in the legitimacy of President Hadi, the formation of militias and supporting armed rebellions against the government, as happened in January 2018 in Aden.
According to the study, as the UAE "used the umbrella of the Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, to expand in the south and take control the ports and airports, it also used the fight against terrorism for hegemony and expanding its control to include new governorates and regions."
The study revealed that the UAE is marketing itself as a country that counters terrorism and the Iranian-backed Houthis to achieve its own strategic goals that include a long-term military and investment presence in Yemen, particularly in Socotra and Bab al-Mandab, and the controlling of Yemen's oil, gas, ports and airports as well as monopolizing the sectors of internet, telecommunications and power.
The study identified the pillars and tools of the UAE in Yemen, including the political and military force, such as the Southern Transition Council, which was established after the removal of UAE allies from their positions in May 2017, to ensure its control of the street movement that demands secession, and the formation of militias outside state military institutions (the security belt and the elite forces) in several governorates, allies of the General People’s Congress, the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in addition to Emirati and multinational forces in Yemen within the so-called UAE National Guard forces, which receive orders from the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
Regarding the deviation of the role of the UAE, the study has given an example the torture of prisoners in UAE-run prisons in Aden and the targeting of citizens and arbitrary arrests by forces and militias supported and financed by the UAE on the basis of their opposition political views against the UAE role in Yemen.
The study provides an explanation of the pillars of the Emirati influence in Yemen, which allows UAE a degree of dominance and intrusion performance. On the top of those pillars is the umbrella of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition and the existence of some local forces that are compatible with the UAE role and adopt projects that are against the legitimacy of President Hadi and the federal state project, which came out from the National Dialogue Conference.
The study presented four possibilities for the ambiguity of the Saudi position towards the intervention role of the UAE in Yemen, including the possibility of understandings between the Saudi and UAE leadership, the possibility that Saudi is busy with internal arrangements and defending its southern borders, and the possibility of Saudi need for the UAE influence in the positions of the American administration. The last possibility is that UAE has an influence on the Saudi internal decision and Saudi foreign positions.
The conclusion of the study refers to the harvest of the UAE presence in Yemen. It concludes that as long as the Houthi rebellion exhausted the state institutions in the north, the UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council in the south and the formation of pro-UAE militias outside the Yemeni Army to achieve UAE own objectives weakened the legitimacy of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The study confirms that the presence of the UAE and the activation of its tools caused the disintegration of the legitimate government to the extent that the government became doubtful to manage the southern governorates.
My comment: This is not the first report on differences between the Saudi and the UAE regarding Yemen, fired by the UAE’s own ambitions. It is remarkable that this study originating from the Emirates clearly expresses these problems.
(** A B P)
STATE DEPARTMENT TEAM LED BY FORMER RAYTHEON LOBBYIST PUSHED MIKE POMPEO TO SUPPORT YEMEN WAR BECAUSE OF ARMS SALES
SECRETARY OF STATE Mike Pompeo faced internal opposition to U.S. support for the war in Yemen from State Department staff, according to a recent report. The staffers had become concerned by the rising civilian death toll in the war.
Those concerns, however, were overruled after Pompeo discussed the matter with the State Department’s legislative affairs team. The legislative affairs staff, according to the Wall Street Journal, argued that restricting U.S. support would endanger billions of dollars in future weapons sales, including a massive sale of precision-guided munitions between Raytheon, a U.S. weapons manufacturer, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
That staff — the legislative affairs team at the State Department — is led by a former Raytheon lobbyist.
Before his presidential appointment last June, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Charles Faulkner was paid handsomely by Raytheon to lobby lawmakers on defense procurement issues, ethics records show.
Debate broke out in the State Department around a congressionally mandated deadline for Pompeo to certify that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirateswere taking steps to reduce civilian casualties in the Yemen war. The failure to certify would have immediately banned U.S. refueling efforts to bolster the Gulf monarchies’ war, but, according to the Wall Street Journal, the legislative affairs desk argued that “lack of certification will negatively impact pending arms transfers.” The office also warned that future weapons sales could be jeopardized — and Pompeo ended up issuing the certification.
The main pending sale is a $2 billion deal to give Saudi Arabia and the UAE air-to-ground munitions produced by Raytheon. The Trump administration began moving forward with the sale in the spring, briefing the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Under U.S. law, the Senate can block arms sales and the sale is currently being held up by Sen. Bob Menendez, D.-N.J., the top Democrat on the committee, over human rights concerns.
FAULKNER’S WORK LOBBYING on behalf of Raytheon was carried out from his perch at BGR Group, a firm that has extensive contracts with foreign governments and defense contractors.
Now, leading the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, Faulkner oversees a team of 30 foreign affairs officers “responsible for the Department’s day-to-day relationship with Congress on legislation, budget and appropriations, and foreign policy,” according to the agency website.
Last year, Faulkner was part of the Trump administration push to broadly define the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force as a legal authority to pursue military engagements across the Middle East, including in Syria. A letter authored by Faulkner and sent to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, argued that military action in Syria is “consistent with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense.” – by Lee Fang, Alex Emmons
https://theintercept.com/2018/09/21/mike-pompeo-yemen-war-raytheon/
My comment: This is a glimpse into the “Deep State” within the US. – Full reporting on Pompeo’s certification Yemen War Mosaic 460, cp1.
Comment: The last 48 hours have revealed exactly what is driving US policy towards #Yemen: corruption, greed, and a complete disregard for the lives of millions of people impacted by our actions. Let's take a quick trip through the news, shall we.
To put a finer point on it, four different bureaus of the State Department and the lawyers who reviewed the issue came to the unanimous conclusion that the Sauid-UAE coalition was not in fact making progress on reducing civilian casualties.
This is an eye-opening level of unanimity from parts of Foggy Bottom that often disagree over competing priorities. Of course any glance at the news is enough to remind you that the Saudis and UAE are clearly not reducing their slaughter.
To put it mildly, that's a strange situation. Leg affairs job is to be a liaison between Congress and the State Department. Yet here it is inserting itself into a debate about US policy arguing aggressively (and winning) in favor of corporate interests. Why, one wonders?
So what you have here is a gov't employee using his position to directly intervene in federal policy that stood a good chance of negatively impacting his former (and likely future) employer. That is as black and white as corruption gets, folks.
Meanwhile, because of Pompeo's lies to Congress, based on the work of Raytheon's lobbyist turned Assistant Sec of State, the US will go on actively aiding and abetting the world's largest humanitarian crisis. 1
This is the reality of the deadly consequences of the massive corruption of US foreign policy. Tens of millions of people will be pushed further into famine. More weddings, and school buses, and innocent families will be blown up by bombs that should never have been sold.
Thankfully, we don't have to just take this as the inevitable. There are three things Congress can and should do, but they only will if we make them. 1) Continue blocking the sale of further arms to Saudi/UAE as @SenatorMenendez is currently doing.
2) Introduce privileged resolutions under the War Powers Act to immediately end all US military support for the Saudi/UAE coalition as @RoKhanna @RepAdamSmith @repmarkpocan and @SenSanders have either done or pledged to do.
And 3) launch an investigation and hold hearings into the actions of Charles Faulkner, Sec. Pompeo, and Raytheon to expose and understand the corruption driving US foreign policy. GOP should do it but they likely won't so Dems should plan for if they get gavels next year.
But we need to understand that none of that will happen if we don't make it. You can bet that Raytheon, the Saudis, and the UAE are using their high priced lobbyists, PR firms, and influence in the Trump Administration right now to make sure nothing changes
The only way that changes, the only way anything ever changes, is if we make it. This is all being done in our name, with our tax dollars, and by officials who work for us. Congress has the power right now to stop all of it, and they too work for us. So let's demand a change.
https://twitter.com/SPMiles42/status/1043163367958036480
Comments to this comment: To make things worse: On Mon, Pompeo announced historically low refugee cap of 30k so refugees from Yemen have basically no chance of seeking safety in the U.S. through that program or through immigrant/visitor visas, as Yemen is included in Muslim travel ban. Horrific situation.
https://twitter.com/wardahkhalid_/status/1043221773922254848
Do you know that the US Ambassador threaten the Yemeni delegation to surrender or face the the consequences of a devastating impact of the yemen economy? He promised to have the value of the YR to < the value of its print ink. So, the US is using famin as a weapon to kill us
https://twitter.com/ismailmuta/status/1043421149860962304
(** B P)
The "Resistance" Supports Trump's 'Evil Agendas' While Attacking Fake Nonsense
A new article from the Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lied to congress about the measures Saudi Arabia is taking to minimize the civilian casualties in its catastrophic war on Yemen, and that he did so in order to secure two billion dollars for war profiteers.
This is about as depraved as anything you could possibly imagine. US-made bombs have been conclusively tied to civilian deaths in a war which has caused the single worst humanitarian crisis on earth
Nobody other than war plutocrats benefits from the US assisting Saudi Arabia in its monstrous crimes against humanity, and yet Pompeo chose to override his own expert advisors on the matter for fear of hurting the income of those very war plutocrats.
If the so-called “Resistance” to Trump was ever actually interested in opposing this administration in any meaningful way, this would be the top trending news story in America for days, like how “bombshell” revelations pertaining to the made-up Russiagate narrative trend for days. Spoiler alert: it isn’t, and it won’t be.
It would be so very, very easy for Democratic party leaders and Democrat-aligned media to hurt this administration at the highest level and cause irreparable political damage based on this story. All they’d have to do is give it the same blanket coverage they’ve given the stories about Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Paul Manafort which end up leading nowhere remotely near impeachment or proof of collusion with the Russian government. The footage of the starving children is right there, ready to be aired to pluck at the heart strings of rank-and-file Americans day after day until Republicans have lost all hope of victory in the midterms and in 2020; all they’d have to do is use it. But they don’t. And they won’t.
The US Senate has just passed Trump’s mammoth military spending increase by a landslide 92–8 vote. The eight senators who voted “nay”? Seven Republicans, and Independent Bernie Sanders. Every single Democrat supported the most bloated war budget since the height of the Iraq war. Rather than doing everything they can to weaken the potential damage that can be done by a president they’ve been assuring us is a dangerous hybrid of equal parts Benedict Arnold and Adolf Hitler, they’ve been actively increasing his power as Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military force the world has ever seen.
The reason for this is very simple: President Trump’s ostensible political opposition does not oppose President Trump. They’re on the same team, wearing different uniforms. This is the reason they attack him on Russian collusion accusations which the brighter bulbs among them know full well will never be proven and have no basis in reality. They don’t stand up to Trump because, as Julian Assange once said, they are Trump.
In John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, there are jewelry buyers set up around a fishing community which are all owned by the same plutocrat, but they all pretend to be in competition with one another. When the story’s protagonist discovers an enormous and valuable pearl and goes to sell it, they all gather round and individually bid far less than it is worth in order to trick him into giving it away for almost nothing. US politics is pretty much the same; two mainstream parties owned by the same political class, engaged in a staged bidding war for votes to give the illusion of competition.
In reality, the US political system is like the unplugged video game remote that kids give their baby brother so he stops whining that he wants a turn to play. No matter who they vote for they get an Orwellian warmongering government which exists solely to advance the agendas of a plutocratic class which has no loyalties to any nation; the only difference is sometimes that government is pretending to care about women and minorities and sometimes it’s pretending to care about white men. In reality, all the jewelers work for the same plutocrat, and that video game remote won’t impact the outcome of the game no matter how many buttons you push.
The only way to effect real change is to stop playing along with the rigged system and start waking people up to the lies. As long as Americans believe that the mass media are telling them the truth about their country and their partisan votes are going somewhere useful, the populace whose numbers should give it immense influence is nullified and sedated into a passive ride toward war, ecocide and oppression. If enough of us keep throwing sand in the gears of the lie factory, we can wake the masses up from the oligarchic lullaby they’re being sung. And then maybe we’ll be big enough to have a shot at grabbing one of the real video game controllers – by Caitlin Johnstone
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trumps-opposition-supports-all-his-evil-agendas-while-attacking-fake-nonsense-fb0987722071 = https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-21/resistance-supports-trumps-evil-agendas-while-attacking-fake-nonsense
(** B P)
The Forever War’s Cheerleaders
Democrats, liberals, and progressives have become some of the biggest hawks in Washington. That needs to change.
There is a chasm of awareness that often exists between veterans and civilians, especially during an age in which an all-volunteer military prosecutes never-ending wars, and in which those Americans who end up experiencing combat prove statistically negligible.
I remember what it felt like to believe every word of the Bush-era officials and journalists after the September 11 attacks, and I remember what it felt like when I donned the US Marine uniform in response to those words. I remember what it felt like to step foot in Afghanistan, and I remember what it felt like when I started having doubts about why I was there. I remember what it felt like to realize how wrong I was about the strategic efficacy and moral necessity of the war, how wrong everyone I trusted was, and how wrong the war had always been. The war in Afghanistan, like most of America’s wars, had come to strike me as not only a profitable lie, but a ruinous one. I remember what it first felt like to be an immediate witness to needless destruction and death, and what it felt like to recognize I would live with that feeling for the rest of my life.
The fact that those same Bush-era officials and pundits have now become heroes among partisan Democrats—the fact that the late John McCain, arguably America’s most enthusiastic warmonger, has now become something of a liberal patron saint—drives me toward despair.
It is one thing to welcome investigations into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, and to push for electoral and anti-corruption reforms that might help prevent such interference in the future. It is quite another to allow some of the world’s most fervent jingoists to assume the vanguard of the anti-Trump opposition, and to allow their politics to influence and define the language of the liberal and progressive left.
We are living in an ominous moment when it is Democrats who are the most inclined to charge those who disagree with them on the Russia media narrative of treason, and when it is Democrats who are the most inclined to accept declarations or demands made by a defense establishment that apparently can do no wrong.
I would like to think this ideological shift would have stunned me regardless, but my personal journey has made it all the more shocking. There is something surreal about watching so many Democrats and liberal or progressive pundits adopt the ugliest rhetorical tics of the very post-9/11 chauvinism I once found myself immersed in.
When Obama left office, the defense budget was already higher, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than any other time since World War II. As Beinart notes, it was higher than at the peak of the Vietnam War or the Reagan expansion. In the past two years, however, both parties have managed to swell its size even further, with the Russian and Chinese threats serving as convenient pretexts.
This includes escalating tensions around Russia’s periphery, in large part by arming and funding governments and groups in Ukraine, Poland, and elsewhere that have extensive ties with white nationalists and fascists. It includes continuing to arm and fund Saudi Arabia’s massacre in Yemen or Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It includes more torment in Syria’s civil war, a war that experts thought was drawing to a tragic but necessary close in 2016, just before anti-Russian sentiment was kicked into high gear. It includes the additional feeding of an unparalleled US-led global arms trade that will likely instigate violent outbursts in unexpected corners of the world. It includes a related arms race in surveillance and cyber-technology that will probably put added strain on an already fraying liberal-democratic fabric. Most frightening of all, it includes an anteing up of the nuclear arsenal.
What is needed now is a clear alternative to the present course – by Lyle Jeremy Rubin
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-forever-wars-cheerleaders/
(** B P)
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: It is Outrageous that the US is Supporting a Genocidal War in Yemen
The Progressive Caucus in the U.S. Congress is trying to evoke the War Powers Act and war powers that they have to put an end to U.S. support for the war in Yemen. Let’s listen to Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard introducing this resolution.
TULSI GABBARD: Today in Yemen, our military continues to wage this interventionist war alongside Saudi Arabia unauthorized by Congress. The time for crocodile tears and baseless platitudes is over. Enough is enough. The U.S. must end its support for Saudi Arabia and stop waging interventionist wars that increase destruction, death and suffering around the world, drain our resources here at home and threaten our own national security.
TULSI GABBARD: Well, that’s really the point, is there has not been very many opportunities to really have a real debate. In order for Congress to exercise its constitutional authority, that provides that platform to make that determination of whether or not to declare war, whether or not to involve our troops in these wars. And that just hasn’t happened. Unfortunately, we saw several months ago when the Senate tried to pass a similar resolution, the administration came out very strongly against it and was actually asking senators to vote against that resolution so that the United States could continue to support Saudi Arabia in this genocidal war.
We are seeing now in the House, we are trying to introduce this resolution, again, to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia there and to force this debate. I think that’s really the point here, is to force this debate. We saw a news report come out just this morning that Secretary of State Pompeo basically made the decision to recertify the U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen out of concern of losing a two-billion-dollar weapons deal with Saudi Arabia and the UAE jeopardizing our ability to sell more precision missiles to these countries that are dropping them on innocent civilians.
So again, outrageous when we consider that people in Washington who have power are more concerned about making money than they are about the lives that are being lost, the people being killed and the people who are suffering as a result of this illegal war we’re waging in Yemen.
TULSI GABBARD: Sharmini, we’ve been hearing these arguments for years. Ever since the United States got involved to support Saudi Arabia in this war, we’ve been hearing two very different stories. One is the narrative that you have just shared that the United States is trying to help Saudi Arabia and minimize these civilian casualties and so on. And on the other hand, when Saudi Arabia drops a U.S. made precision missile on a bus filled with forty children in Yemen, the United States, this administration then says, “Oh, well we have nothing to do with their targeting, we have no input on their targeting.”.
So, what’s the real answer here? How involved are they? Because it seems that their story changes when it serves their purpose. There are a few bottom line points here, is that the United States policy in Yemen supporting Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war has failed. We have not seen the Yemeni people moving closer to peace for all the years that we’ve been supporting this war. Quite the contrary. The humanitarian disaster facing the Yemeni people has worsened to be the worst in the world. And as this conflict continues to escalate, we are only seeing their suffering increase, which is why I and my colleagues are pushing very hard and strongly to draw the line to end the illegal US participation in this war and to stop our troops from supporting Saudi Arabia’s atrocities.
TULSI GABBARD: You know, this is where there is unfortunately a lot of hypocrisy, is that you have members of this administration and previous administrations, you have leaders in Congress who tout the necessity of the United States alliance with Saudi Arabia while turning a blind eye to the fact that they are the number one propagator of the Wahhabi Salafist ideology that is driving terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS. And they are spending hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars spreading this ideology around the world and supporting these terrorist activities.
So, you cannot say that on the one hand, Saudi Arabia is our great ally in counterterrorism while on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is the number one country that is fueling the ideology that’s driving these terrorist groups that exist around the world. So, we have to hold leaders accountable for the decisions that they’re making and the policies that they’re furthering and continue to push them on the hypocrisy of these positions, continue to push leaders in Congress to remove this support of Saudi Arabia, and to stop spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on fueling this humanitarian disaster in Yemen.
TULSI GABBARD: You know, there’s no question about how individuals like John Bolton in this Trump administration have long been wanting to start a war against Iran. There is no question we have to realize and recognize that this administration and leaders in the United States government are essentially taking sides in this generations-long Sunni-Shia sectarian conflict that we are seeing continuing to play out today in many of the countries that you’ve just stated, with countries like Saudi Arabia wanting to put extremist Sunni leaders into these different countries and use the United States and our military to continue to conduct these devastating and counterproductive regime change wars to benefit Saudi Arabia, not to benefit the people in these countries, not to benefit the United States.
So, we have to be honest and real about what the real motives are here, and the fact that many of these regime change wars that have cost the American people trillions of dollars since 9/11 alone have not only made the lives of the people in those countries worse, have not only increased their suffering, but have proven to be counterproductive to the United States interests, both in the increasing and strengthening of terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS, but also in the fact that by spending trillions of American taxpayer dollars on these wars, that means we do not have those resources to invest in rebuilding and strengthening our communities right here at home (film and transcript)
https://therealnews.com/stories/rep-tulsi-gabbard-it-is-outrageous-that-the-us-is-supporting-a-genocidal-war-in-yemen = https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/09/rep-tulsi-gabbard-outrageous-us-supporting-genocidal-war-yemen.html
film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy_Y_N8DpYQ
(** B P)
U.S. approach to Yemen is challenged as country splinters and government vanishes
If Mukalla has become a model of resilience during Yemen’s four-year civil war, the city is also a warning about how the country is being pulled apart. Some regions are battlefields, lost to violence. The rule of law has been eclipsed in other places by the authority of militias, gangs and assassins. Most of the country — from cities like Mukalla to rural hamlets — is ill-equipped to fend for itself.
The fragmentation of Yemen has highlighted the challenges facing the policy of the United States, which has strongly supported the internationally recognized central government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi as he tries to reunify the country.
But Hadi, who has spent most of the conflict exiled in Saudi Arabia after his government was ousted by a rebel group known as the Houthis, is widely seen -- including by American officials -- as too weak and unpopular to accomplish that task. His forces have been unable to dislodge the rebels or even decisively assert his authority in the areas his government nominally controls.
The United States has been concerned that Yemen’s disarray will empower Al Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula, one of the extremist group’s most dangerous franchises.
“Yemen, as a state, has all but ceased to exist,” a United Nations expert panel wrote earlier this year. “Instead of a single State there are warring statelets, and no one side has either the political support or the military strength to reunite the country or achieve victory on the battlefield.”
U.S. officials say they are pushing the combatants toward a negotiated end to the war, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently called “a national security priority.” But the U.S. is far from a neutral party; it is also providing military assistance to an Arab military coalition fighting the rebels on Hadi’s behalf.
The coalition’s two leading members, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have also hedged their bets, forming alliances with local political figures and sponsoring proxy forces.
Efforts at peace talks have repeatedly failed over the last three years. And as the fighting continues, a sense of national cohesion is evaporating.
The old Yemen “will never come back,” said Badr Baslmah, a former Yemeni transport minister who lives in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt, Yemen’s largest province. The central state was being replaced by regional autonomy, and the most pressing question now is: “How do you settle [upon] the new Yemen,” he said.
When Bahsani, the governor, talks about the solution to the civil war, his focus is not on Yemen’s unity but rather a settlement that “assures the rights of regions,” as he put it in an interview with reporters earlier this month.
Yemenis have long debated whether some kind of division would be a boon to a country long seen as too highly centralized — a federal system, perhaps, or a split between the north and south, which had long been separate countries until they merged in 1990. But the divisions unfolding now are not negotiated or planned, like the peaceful split of the former Czechoslovakia, for example.
Rather, Yemen recalls Libya in the years after its dictator was toppled in 2011: fractured, increasingly violent and a source of alarm beyond its borders.
Residents have praised the elite forces for maintaining a level of security unusual for Yemen, even in the best of times. Among their accomplishments, they have made Mukalla a weapons-free zone, requiring visitors to the city to leave their firearms at checkpoints before entering.
Human rights groups, however, have accused the force of torturing suspects during anti-terror operations. Local officials deny the allegations.
One segment of the force receives salaries from the UAE and another from the Yemeni government, raising questions about the soldiers’ loyalties. The payments have also led to concerns about friction within the ranks, since the soldiers paid by the government receive far less than their colleagues.
A local official said that the part of the force loyal to the UAE has frequently carried out military activities without coordinating with the national government, causing confusion and raising issues of accountability – By Kareem Fahim
Comment: I've read ideas recently on the disappearance, disintegration or lack of a unitary state of Yemen. This analytical genre has repeatedly surfaced since the war's start. It remains inaccurate. What we see is a unitary Yemen with regional autonomy. A federal Yemen in genesis.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1043239937720676359
Comment: Federalism is already taking place. There are almost invisible boundaries forming, and groups are controlling their own territories. It’s just a matter of accepting it, announcing it and creating a frame-work around it.
https://twitter.com/ToEducate/status/1043317437624672256
Comment: The Intl community is trying to carve a a “solution” for the conflict in #Yemen based on assumptions that are completely disconnected for reality on the ground
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1043152438147080194
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
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6 Yemenis died from #cholera on Saturday, 2 in Taiz, 2 in Ibb, one in Dhamar and one in Mahwit, bringing the death toll to 2.493 since an outbreak of the epidemic began in April 2017, Houthi health ministry said on Sunday. More than 1.1 million people have been infected.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1043910348208844801
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Cholera kills 308 in Hodeidah and fears more spread
Health authorities under the control of the al-Houthi group in Sanaa said the number of deaths due to the cholera epidemic in Hodeidah exceeded 300 between April 27, 2017 and August 2018.
The Ministry of Health and population of the Houthis, Yousef al-Hadheri, said that Hodeidah province has been in the forefront of the number of cases since the outbreak began on April 27 April last year.
The "new Arab " website quoted al- Hadheri as saying that the cases in Hodeidah amounted to 174 thousand, 300 and 83 cases, while 308 deaths were recorded.
Most of the cases reaching the health facilities are suspected and suffer from severe diarrhea, he said, "the Ministry of Public Health is working according to its potential to reduce the spread of the disease this year, as happened last year," adding that the deteriorating health situation The war has exacerbated the spread of diseases and epidemics in Hodeidah and other Yemeni governorates.
"Cholera medications are very little available, and the current situation of the epidemic can be met, but there are fears that the disease may be significantly increased and difficult to control if the necessary medicines are not available and the support of the organizations is discontinued to curb the spread of the pandemic, which began with a third wave in The country " he said.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/cholera-kills-308-in-hodeidah-and-fears-more-spread
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
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UN funds for 22,000 displaced families from Hodeidah
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday it has provided cash assistance to 22,000 displaced families from Hodeidah province, western Yemen, during August last August.
"In response to the growing needs of the displaced from Hodeidah, cash assistance has been distributed to 22,000 displaced families, the equivalent of 140,000 people," the organization said in a report obtained by Andolu.
"This assistance is worth two billion Yemeni riyals (nearly $4 million), without mentioning the amount provided to each family," the report said.
According to the report, "73 per cent of the amounts provided were for displaced persons ' shelters, such as housing rental grants."
"UNHCR has also provided relief assistance to 100,000 displaced people from Hodeidah since last June," he said.
"UNHCR will continue to expand as the number of civilians fleeing their homes grows and humanitarian and protection needs increase in the province," the report said.
The organization expressed its dismay at the recent escalation of hostilities in Hodeidah Governorate
http://almasdaronline.com/article/un-funds-for-22-000-displaced-families-from-hodeidah
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Deputy of governor Hodeida Majdy al-Hasiny on Saturday workflow in the docks of ports in Hodeida and uploading the shipments of the commercial ships in the docks.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509093.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi warplanes resume striking Hodeidah
Saudi aggression warplanes resumed bombing the Hodeidah city, an official told Saba on Sunday .
The planes struck parking in al-Hally district two times.
The aerial bombing damaged citizens' houses, public and private properties
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509083.htm
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Two citizens killed in Saudi aggression air strikes on Hodiedah
Two killed were killed and two wounded on Saturday in Saud-led aggression air strikes on Hodeidah province, an official told Saba.
The strikes hit Hali area, killing two citizens and injuring two other.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509052.htm
and
Aggression’s Daily Update for Saturday, September 22nd, 2018
In Hodiedah, two civilians were killed and two others were injured by targeting Commercial Refrigerators on Kilo-16 in Al--Hale district.
In Hodeidah, 11 civilians were injured, including five children, by two airstrikes of the US-Saudi aggression on a car rental company, in addition to destroying the company.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2934&cat_id=1
and
(A K pS)
Three civilians killed in Arab coalition raid, anti-aircraft shrapnel fall in Hodeidah
Residents told al-Masdar online that three civilians were killed on Saturday in a coalition raid and an anti-aircraft shrapnel fell in the city of Hodeidah,
The residents said that a coalition raid targeted a refrigerator “Yousofi ", in Kilo 16 east of Hodeidah city, at dawn on Saturday, killing the director general of the refrigerator and one of his relatives.
A civilian named "Saeed Siddiq" was also killed, and another named "Ahmed Hizam", following an anti-aircraft fall, hit Arwa Street neighborhood in Hodeidah City.
They explained that the Houthis had been fired heavily against aviation in the sky of Hodeidah City
and
(A K pH)
Film: the crime of targeting the refrigerator in the area Kilo 16 in Hodeidah 22-09-2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODN8QTwZaRc
and
(A K pH)
Film: Targeting Airline Aggression Car rental company tracking a citizen in the area of seven July province of Hodeidah, wounding two citizens and burning a number of cars
https://twitter.com/A_mtrz/status/1043538718928322560
(A K pH)
Two Saudi aggression air strikes hit Hodeidah
The airstrikes hit Kilo16 area
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509029.htm
(A K pS)
Yemeni pro-government forces retake military air base
Yemeni pro-government forces have retaken control of the military air base east of Hodeidah following fierce clashes with Al Houthi rebels.
A military source told The National on Friday members of the Al Amalikah brigades stormed the base after retaking Houthi-held areas in the surrounding farms near Kilo 16, a key Houthi supply line that links Hodeidah to the occupied capital of Sanaa. Other troops also secured the palm farms in Baiyat Al Faqih district.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemeni-pro-government-forces-retake-military-air-base-1.772742
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Oxfam: Yemen’s civilians face death and a crushing siege as fighting expands to the city of Hudaydah and its main roads
Summary
The Saudi and UAE-led Coalition has intensified its assault towards Hudaydah’s city and port, with already devastating consequences for civilians. Despite their assertions, international actors should not believe that this can go on without disproportionate harm to civilians, or with any confidence that it will bring Yemen’s conflict to an end.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including women and girls, could be trapped in Hudaydah, without access to adequate food, water and medical care, if fighting continues and the main roads out of the city are blocked. Civilians have suffered so much – from the Houthis as well as from the Coalition and the internationally recognized government. Oxfam asks how the Coalition’s latest actions can possibly be proportionate to the civilian harm that they are causing – when, for instance, airstrikes damaging water supply systems have undermined water supplies to about 58,000 families.
‘The signs of famine that struck two years ago are again visible in the district center.’
Saeed Saleh, a 50-year old school teacher in Tuhyata district, Hudaydah
This urgent briefing adds new evidence – from Oxfam’s interviews with civilians on the ground – to the warnings that the UN and others have already made.
There must be an immediate cessation of all fighting, and a turn towards an inclusive peace process, engaging Yemen’s women, youth and civil society
1. THREATS OF FURTHER SUFFERING FOR CIVILIANS
The Houthis and Coalition alike are reportedly amassing reinforcements for more fighting. Houthi forces’ deployment of weapons and artillery in civilian areas has been frequently reported by residents.
The Coalition has presented no convincing plans to minimize the harm to civilians from its further advance into the city – only empty words. Oxfam asks how that harm to civilians can possibly be proportionate to the Coalition’s military action, which has again and again failed to bring this catastrophic war to an end. We ask this because civilians have suffered so much – and because there are grave fears that they will suffer even more in the near future. Oxfam condemns all violence against civilians.
2a Closure of the main Hudaydah–Sana’a road
2b Threats to main ports
2c Trapped families facing risks of death, thirst and hunger
2d Rundown health and services and resumption of cholera outbreak
- ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE: THE MONTHS HUDAYDAH’S CIVILIANS HAVE ALREADY SUFFERED
All the above threats come on top of everything Hudaydah’s civilians have suffered in recent months – and since this terrible conflict began. The war has fuelled an economic crisis, including hikes in the costs of basic food items and non-payment of full public sector salaries. This has been pushing millions of people to the edge of famine. Inside the city, prices of food and basic supplies are skyrocketing as the local Yemeni currency further depreciates
Spotlight on water
On 4 August, a Coalition airstrike hit the Al-Saleef water tank, 60km north of Hudaydah – a main water source for many districts in Hudaydah – depriving 10,000 people of water. In both al-Duraihmi and Tuhyata districts, water pipes and tanks have been damaged, while sewage channels have been sabotaged. People are suffering dire shortages of drinking water; residents in al-Duraihmi report that their water supply was cut off after the water supply tanks were repeatedly hit during 2–7 August. 8
Spotlight on al-Duraihmi
The district of al-Duraihmi is 28km south of Hudaydah city, with a population of 17,000, as well as 12,000 displaced people from the coast. Govenrment and Coalition forces control its borders, entry points from the south towards Khokha and the coastline, in addition to Mandhar village, north Hudaydah city, near the airport. The eastern parts towards Tuhyata and the district’s centre are under Houthi control. Local sources in al-Duraihmi report that residents have not been able to leave their houses for two weeks, depleting their already insufficient food. Many families have only survived because of the generosity of their neighbours who have donated food. With shops and markets closed, residents are at risk of famine if they completely lose access to food supplies. Even before government forces took over the eastern road, besieged families could not fully use it to move around, because it was continuously targeted by airstrikes, apparently due to the Houthis using it as a supply route. Hundreds of families are without access to water. 14 Despite the risk, 162 families fled al-Duraihmi on 5 and 6 August, with hundreds more families taking the same route during a ceasefire on 8 August
and full document https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/bn-yemen-civilians-hudaydah-210918-en.pdf
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UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen UNHCR Update, 1 - 21 September 2018
Highlights
UNHCR is dismayed by the recent escalation of hostilities in Al Hudaydah Governorate. UNHCR is following with concern the unfolding of events and the resulting surge in humanitarian and protection needs. While UNHCR continues to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and for all parties to adhere to their obligations under International Humanitarian Law, the UNHCR-led Protection Cluster's Civilian Impact Monitoring Project reported two incidents in September, targeting a fishing community and which resulted in 22 civilian casualties.
- Since the onset of the Al Hudaydah Offensive in June 2018, more than 76,500 households have been internally displaced. UNHCR assisted some 100,000 people as part of the Al Hudaydah response, and will continue to scale-up as more civilians flee their homes and humanitarian and protection needs grow. In parallel, strengthening the protection response for persons of concern, including through the expansion of UNHCR's cash assistance programme, remains a priority.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-unhcr-update-1-21-september-2018-enar
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More violence in Yemen’s Hodeidah will push children further into the abyss
Statement from UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore
“Renewed violence in Hodeidah is yet another blow to peace efforts in Yemen, a country sliding further into chaos and misery.
“Escalating hostilities are putting thousands of children living in and around the area at imminent risk of injury or death. Airstrikes and ground fighting could also lead to new waves of displacement and interruptions to the supply of safe drinking water.
“As access to essential goods and services is already severely limited across much of Yemen, the impact of further violence could be catastrophic, with Hodeidah Port being a critical point of entry for life-saving humanitarian supplies, fuel and commercial goods that much of the country depends on for survival.
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/more-violence-yemens-hodeidah-will-push-children-further-abyss = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/statement-unicef-executive-director-henrietta-fore-more-violence-yemen-s-hodeida-will
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Remarkable video by Southern Al-Amalikah Brigades showing the thousands of land mines, IEDs, and other explosives planted by the Houthis in the west coast and Hodeida. Hats of to the team removing these death machines
https://twitter.com/saharyafa/status/1043152516622499840
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Thousands of #Yemen-i people ralling today in #Hodeidah agaist the Saudi war in the country, which led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people, three-quarters of the population, in desperate need of aid and protection (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1043200106957299712
cp2 Allgemein / General
(B K P)
Audio: Oliver Piecha: Der Jemen - Ein Krieg im Schatten
Über den Krieg im Jemen wird in deutschen Medien nur sporadisch berichtet. Zu entfernt scheint das Geschehen, auch zu undurchsichtig. Dabei spielt sich hier am von Europa aus gesehenen südöstlichen Ende der Nahostregion im Grunde ein ähnliches Drama ab wie in Syrien: Ein zerfallender Staat, eine humanitäre Katastrophe und Akteure von außerhalb, die den Konflikt für ihre machtpolitischen Interessen nutzen. Dabei sind die Konstellationen der Konfliktparteien so verwirrend komplex wie in Syrien. Es treten auf: Saudi Arabien, die Emirate, der Iran, Jihadisten, ob von Al Queida oder dem „Islamischen Staat“, Separatisten, Stammesverbände, Warlords, vom „Drohnenkrieg“ ganz zu schweigen. Der Vortrag stellt vor der jüngeren Geschichte des Jemen und den Umwälzungen des „Arabischen Frühlings“ die zentralen Akteure und Konfliktlinien dar, und erläutert die verschiedenen Eskalationsstufen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9GEKFyVONc
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‘Ignore this catastrophe at your peril’: Former Foreign Secretary DAVID MILIBAND says UK must not let Yemen ‘become the next Afghanistan’ as country suffers humanitarian crisis with lack of food and water
The country is suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UN World Food Programme feeds eight million people every month.
Half the population has no access to clean drinking water.
Last year saw the largest cholera outbreak in recorded history. And 22 million people, over 80 per cent of the population, need humanitarian aid.
Shamefully, this crisis is man-made. It’s the result of a brutal civil war, in which Britain is heavily implicated, but which far too few people know about.
My visit to Yemen this week convinced me the world needs an urgent wake-up call.
Yemen matters for reasons beyond the morality tale that people are dying for no good reason.
In its suffering and chaos, the only winners are Al Qaeda and Islamic State, who are gaining ground.
The great danger is that, as more people die, Yemen becomes the new Afghanistan, a terrorist breeding ground that threatens life and limb way beyond its borders.
But you cannot bomb your way to victory in a civil war. Surely that lesson was learnt in Vietnam.
Nothing comes to mind as strongly as the old adage: When in a hole, stop digging. We should all be imploring Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, as they head to New York for the UN General Assembly this week, to get a grip.
The UK ‘holds the pen’ at the United Nations, which means we are in charge of the process to draft and agree UN Resolutions.
At the moment there is inertia where there needs to be action.
Yemen’s war needs a new approach. And Britain should provide it. Don’t let anyone tell you that nothing can be done.
Step one is a ceasefire. Freeze current positions. Stop the killing. It is bold but necessary.
Four years of war have delivered nothing but misery, so we should try a period of peace. That would allow a massive injection of vital humanitarian relief.
The key is that the ports, above all Hodeidah, start operating at full capacity. The priorities are food, supplies and medicines.
The best solution would be for the UN to take over Hodeidah’s administration from the Houthis.
Then a massive issue: Yemeni doctors, nurses and teachers are not being paid because of the war.
At the International Rescue Committee clinic in Sana’a the staff were desperate: they could not support their own families, but were expected to help others. It is criminal for soldiers to be paid but not vital life-saving staff.
Yemen needs to revive its economy.
Opening Hodeidah would allow commercial traffic to flow. Sana’a airport needs to be opened, too, if the economy is to get off its knees.
A ceasefire would also allow the experienced (British) UN Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, to broker the peace. There are multiple fronts to Yemen’s conflict, but two players are key.
Saudi Arabia wants an end to rocket attacks from over the border. They want a legitimate, stable and unified government restored. Fair enough.
The Houthis want a share in political power, reflecting their 25 per cent of the population. Also fair enough.
Yemen’s lesson, like that of Afghanistan and Iraq, is that there is no winner when each side insists that winner takes all.
One of the people I met in Yemen talked about the ‘death channel’ into which the country has been plunged.
It is a chilling phrase, but it captures the cycle of violence, poverty and crisis that is consuming soldiers and civilians alike. Yemen needs to be hauled out of its death channel. Instead of sponsoring the conflict, outside powers need to get on with stopping it.
I wish I could report that America was going to lead this effort. But it won’t. President Trump says his sole interest is defeating extremism.
But despite the fact that the current strategy is fuelling extremism, there is going to be no leadership from him. He has abandoned America’s role as the diplomatic motor.
Supporters of Brexit, including the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, say that it liberates Britain to play a global role. Well, here is their chance.
It should not be called ‘brave’ to break with a failing strategy. It should be called leadership.
That is what the world needs to see this week – by David Miliband
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6197679/DAVID-MILIBAND-UK-not-let-Yemen-Afghanistan.html
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Al Jazeera’s Contrast wins OJA’s Immersive Storytelling award
Al Jazeera’s Contrast was awarded the Online Journalism Awards (OJA) in the category Excellence in Immersive Storytelling category for its 360-film Yemen’s Skies of Terror.
The awards were presented on September 15, in Austin, Texas, as part of the US-based Online News Association 2018 conference, said a statement.
Yemen’s Skies of Terror is an immersive film by Contrast that sheds light on the suffering of Yemeni population, under the indiscriminate bombing and air raids over the past three years by Saudi led coalition against the Houthi rebels. The film features heart-breaking stories of three children from Sana’a and Al Hudayeda who have lost their family members and loved ones in addition to losing homes after being destroyed during raids by the coalition forces.
Yemen’s Skies of Terror was filmed by two local journalists Manal Qaed Alwesabi and Ahmad Al Gohbari, following remote training by Al Jazeera’s Contrast team on 360 immersive filming, Manal and Ahmad were given the necessary equipment to document the day to day reality of life in war-torn country during the ongoing conflict.
The film is a testament to a true collaboration across borders, as Al Jazeera journalists worked hand in hand with the brave Yemeni journalists on the ground, alongside other Yemeni and international talent, from composers to animators.
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Trump administration 'continuing support for Saudi-led operation against Yemen to protect US arms sales'
State Department says it has urged all parties in the conflict to avoid harming civilians in Yemen
The Trump administration is reportedly continuing US support for the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians, in order to safeguard American arms salesto Gulf allies.
Since 2015, the US and UK have been supporting the Saudi-led bombing operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen that Riyadh say are necessary to support what it considers the legitimate government in Yemen and to try and counter alleged Iranian support for the rebels.
The UK is also providing logistical and intelligence support and British prime minister Theresa May has ignored demands to block the sale of UK-manufactured munitions being used in the operation.
Activists said the latest revelations underscored the need for the US and UK to halt their support for the coalition.
Mark Curtis, the historian and author of Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam, said: “This sorry tale tells me that US officials, like their counterparts in the UK, are perfectly aware of the impact that their arms exports policies are having on civilians.”
He added: “Tragically, however, political leaders care much more about preserving alliances, and currying favour with foreign elites, than they do actual people. To the US administration, Yemenis are unpeople.”
Remark: Overview article.
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The School Bus Massacre and Pompeo’s Bogus Certification
PBS NewsHour interviewed Larry Lewis last night in a report on Yemen and Pompeo’s dishonest certification of Saudi coalition conduct. Lewis worked for the U.S. government to try to improve Saudi coalition targeting up through 2016, but stopped after that. He wrote an analysis of Pompeo’s claims earlier this week. During the interview, Lewis made an important point about the coalition’s supposed admission of error in the Aug. 9 school bus massacre.
The Saudi coalition has never acknowledged that they were wrong to attack the school bus, and their spokesman said earlier this month that there were no children on the bus they destroyed. The coalition’s admission of error amounted to saying that they attacked the bus later than they should have. The Saudis and their allies have never acknowledged that they killed dozens of schoolchildren, and instead they continue to claim that the target was “legitimate.”
I bring this up once again because there is a widespread misunderstanding that the Saudi coalition made a meaningful admission of error in this case, and that misunderstanding has in turn helped Secretary Pompeo to issue a bogus certification that the coalition is making progress in reducing harm to civilians. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article mentions that the coalition’s shoddy investigation into the massacre probably played a role in the decision to give the coalition a pass:
The Saudi coalition has never acknowledged that they were wrong to attack the school bus, and their spokesman said earlier this month that there were no children on the bus they destroyed. The coalition’s admission of error amounted to saying that they attacked the bus later than they should have. The Saudis and their allies have never acknowledged that they killed dozens of schoolchildren, and instead they continue to claim that the target was “legitimate.”
I bring this up once again because there is a widespread misunderstanding that the Saudi coalition made a meaningful admission of error in this case, and that misunderstanding has in turn helped Secretary Pompeo to issue a bogus certification that the coalition is making progress in reducing harm to civilians. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article mentions that the coalition’s shoddy investigation into the massacre probably played a role in the decision to give the coalition a pass.
The problem here is that the Saudi response was neither contrite nor robust. It was a cynical and deceptive response that paid lip service to the idea that the coalition had made a mistake, but it showed no understanding or acknowledgement of the appalling crime that their forces had committed against dozens of children. Contrition would have meant acknowledging that the attack on the bus itself was wrong and admitting that they had wrongfully killed 40 kids, and that should have been followed by profuse apologies and offers of compensation. Obviously none of that has happened, and the Saudi coalition has been let off the hook by Washington once again after shedding a few crocodile tears while clinging to the lie that their murder of 40 small boys was a “legitimate” military action.
The good news is that the credibility of the coalition and the administration has been shredded in the weeks that followed this horrific attack. The coalition’s investigation into the massacre and the administration’s certification were both done in such obvious bad faith that they are practically begging Congress to cut off all U.S. military assistance and block all arms sales. That is exactly what Congress needs to do – by Daniel Larison
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Lost hopes, lost dreams, lost generations
Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt - The youth of these countries face a bleak future. How many more generations are to be lost before people say no to proxy wars that are destroying innocent lives?
This week, all that has changed. Now, there is interest. Every front page is discussing the Yemeni crisis. The numbers of people dying and at risk are even greater than they were nine months ago. This is the crux of the matter. How great do the numbers have to grow before we sit up and take interest? How many children have to starve to death? How many people have to die?
Now, it seems likely that the Yemeni crisis will take center stage, pushing the Syrian crisis into the wings. The Syrian crisis actually took the stage from the Iraqi crisis, which superseded other crises...
There are so many nations that have faced or are facing serious threats to human life. War, invasion, bombs, starvation...
People are dying all over the world. Poverty and hunger are insurmountable problems for people on the African continent, on the subcontinent, in South America, in North America, even in Europe.
The tragedy in Yemen is that a generation will be lost. Since 2015, when a coalition of Arab States - Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Senegal joined forces to "defeat" the Houthis - children have died. Schools have been bombed. Teachers not only have not been paid, they don't have classrooms. If they have classrooms, they don't have students.
Any war is a tragedy. The death of civilians is always a tragedy. But there is a deeper tragedy, one that is often overlooked. While bombing "the enemy," while fighting against "the enemy," the infrastructure is shred to pieces. Life "as normal" stops. People are no longer able to work, as their workplace no longer exists. People are starving and not getting medical attention, they lose their homes, their limbs... All of these are horrific events. But what is also horrific is that when the dust settles life does not return to "normal."
In Yemen, even if the bombing, the starvation, the cholera and the lack of medical care were to stop tomorrow, the problems would not end there. Getting education back on its feet will take years. For the employment market to have any vitality will take years. Even the basic establishment of order will take years. And in these years an entire generation will be wasted.
As said above, the tragedy in Yemen goes beyond today's tragedy. If a child manages to survive this terrible time, this onslaught of aggression in a proxy war, what does the future hold? There are reports that child marriage in Yemen is already on the rise.
That is Yemen. We know that there is a lost generation in Syria. The young people growing up there today have very little hope for the future. And now it seems that the same will be true for Yemen. Another lost generation – by Jane Louise Kandur
https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2018/09/22/lost-hopes-lost-dreams-lost-generations
My comment: “In Yemen, none of the warring parties seem to be systematically withholding food from civilians. Instead, the war is making it impossible for most civilians to earn the money they need buy food“ is definitely wrong. This totally neglects the negative effects of the Saudi blockade, the destructions in Yemeni agriculture and infrastructure caused mainly by air raids. It’s the lack of sufficient supply which attributes to rising prices, which many cannot afford: They starve even if there is food in the shops and in the markets.
(B H K)
Thread about my country #Yemen today: -3 years of #Saudi bombardment on civilian targets. -5 million children at risk of starvation. -3 million people displaced. -1 million have contracted #cholera in the largest outbreak of the disease in history.
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1043177691690807297
(* A K P)
Human Rights Updates (11-17 September, 2018)
http://belqeesrights.org/2018/09/18/human-rights-updates-11-17-september-2018/
(B H P)
We can, and must, prevent the next Yemen
In Yemen’s case, a toxic mix of political marginalization, inequitable treatment and human rights violations inflamed tensions and led to the emergence of violent extremist groups. By 2011, the U.S. government recognized this threat and devoted nearly 55 percent of its assistance in Yemen to counterterrorism support. Yet programs to promote good governance, strengthen civil society and support political consensus-building amounted to less than 1 percent of total U.S. aid to Yemen. Economic failure and climate-related difficulties added to the growing troubles, sparking Yemen’s civil war in 2015.
These early warning signs that contributed to the outbreak of civil war are not unique to Yemen, and we should be alert to them throughout the world.
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
(B H)
5 Millionen Kinder drohen im Jemen zu verhungern
„Bei der Krise im Jemen handelt es sich ohne Frage um eine der größten Katastrophen unserer Zeit. Millionen Menschen sind auf der Flucht, leiden unter Hunger und Mangelversorgung“, erklärt Nahost-Experte Sebastian Sons von der DGAP.
„Bei der Krise im Jemen handelt es sich ohne Frage um eine der größten Katastrophen unserer Zeit. Millionen Menschen sind auf der Flucht, leiden unter Hunger und Mangelversorgung“, erklärt Nahost-Experte Sebastian Sons von der DGAP.
„Die internationale Gemeinschaft ist – genau wie im Fall Syrien – eine Koalition der Unwilligen“, sagte Nahost-Analyst Aaron David Miller vom US-Forschungsinstitut Woodrow Wilson Center zu BILD.
„Leider konnte die Weltgemeinschaft bislang auf die Konfliktparteien kaum einwirken, ein Ende des Krieges zu erreichen. Die Lage ist verfahren. Die Huthi sowie die durch Saudi-Arabien angeführte Allianz wollen noch immer einen militärischen Sieg“, erklärte DGAP-Experte Sons. „Doch ohne eine politische Lösung kann es keinen Frieden geben.
Er fordert: „Europa und Deutschland sollten auf Saudi-Arabien und die USA einwirken, intensiver an einer politischen Lösung zu arbeiten. Dies ist natürlich sowohl mit Saudi-Arabien als auch mit Trump schwierig, bietet aber die einzige Chance auf einen Ausweg. Europa allein hat im Jemen zu wenig Einfluss. Weiterhin sollte versucht werden, so viel humanitäre Hilfe wie möglich ins Land zu bekommen.“
Familien stehen vor einer unmöglichen Wahl: Ihre Kleinsten ins Krankenhaus zu schicken – oder den Rest der Familie zu ernähren. Seit 2015 sind die Lebensmittelpreise um 68 Prozent gestiegen, ein Versorgungskorb mit Grundnahrungsmitteln und Konserven verteuerte sich vergangenes Jahr um 35 Prozent.
Die ohnehin schon katastrophale humanitäre Situation wird aktuell durch den Kampf um den lebenswichtigen Hafen Hodeida verschärft. Die Stadt an der Küste des Roten Meeres wird von Rebellen kontrolliert und von Saudi-Arabien und seinen Verbündeten blockiert, womit die ohnehin schon fragile Versorgung des Landes komplett abzureißen droht. Am Montag wurden dort tödliche Kämpfe vermeldet, nachdem Gespräche unter UN-Vermittlung in Genf gescheitert waren.
„Es fehlt an allem – Lebensmitteln, Medikamenten, Kleidung und Unterkunft. Das staatliche Versorgungssystem ist in weiten Teilen des Landes zusammengebrochen: Schulen haben geschlossen, Krankenhäuser wurden zerstört, Beamte erhalten seit Monaten kein Gehalt mehr. Diese Lage hat sich dramatisiert“, erklärte Sons.
(A H)
Doctor dies at Sanaa University after unable to buy pressure and diabetes medications
A prestigious academic at Sanaa University died Saturday after being unable to provide diabetes and pressure medication following the deterioration of the living conditions in which he lives since the salaries of government sector employees have been disrupted for two years.
Academics said in identical posts on social media that the former head of antiquities department at Sanaa University's Faculty of Arts, Dr. Abdul Ghani al-Sharabi, died destitute after he was unable to buy diabetes and pressure medications.
(B H)
Every #Girl should have a chance to #Education! During @UNICEF summer camps, held in 35 schools for displaced and conflict-affected #children in #Yemen, children, particularly girls, attend compensatory classes and take part in recreative activities, with @KfWpress & @Sida (photos)
https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/1043845002860859393
(* B H)
Map: World Food Programme: Yemen: Access Constraints as of 19 September 2018
https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-access-constraints-19-september-2018
(A H)
Activists launch electronic campaign to rescue the people of Aslam district in Hajjah
Journalists and activists on social media launched an online campaign Saturday evening under the slogan “rescue Aslam people” to raise donations to the people of the Aslam district in the dire famine-stricken province of Hajjah.
The campaign said they were aiming to raise donations to carry out an urgent relief campaign for the directorate, whose residents were forced to take leaves to survive, causing most of the children of those areas to suffer severe malnutrition resulting in the death of a number of them.
During the past week, a video footage of the directorate's population, which feeds on tree leaves as a result of their lack of food, spread. And the absence of any relief role in the region.
(* B H)
Film: Zaumala Ali Ibrahim has experienced what no parent should have to. His daughter was killed in an airstrike. His story is not unique. People in #Yemen have suffered for more than three years. The violence has to stop!
https://twitter.com/NRC_Norway/status/1043453665330319360
(* B H)
Yemeni children brave new school year as war rages on
Two million children across the country have no access to education, according to the UN children's agency (UNICEF), three years into a war that has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine and shows no sign of waning.
Hisham al-Saka, 12, also dropped out to help support his mother and sister after his father's death in 2015.
"I wish I could go to school," Saka said.
"But my mother cannot afford to pay for school supplies... she can't even afford to get me and my siblings the uniforms."
Yemeni children face significant risks, with a high proportion of girls marrying at an early age.
More than 40 percent are married before the age of 15, while three-quarters wed by 18, according to UNICEF.
Boys, meanwhile, are threatened with being drawn directly into the conflict as child soldiers, fighting in a war which has killed nearly 10,000 people.
Fifteen-year-old Mokhtar Yehya is one of the fortunate few enrolled at Al-Wahda.
"We want to carry on studying to become doctors, engineers, and pilots," he told AFP.
"We hope that things will get better, so that our future is bright."
UNICEF estimates 4.5 million children risk losing access to state schools in Yemen, as teachers have not been paid in nearly two years.
More than 2,500 schools have been damaged or destroyed, while some are now used as shelters for displaced people or as camps run by armed groups.
Christophe Boulierac, a UNICEF spokesman, said many teachers "have looked for other work to survive or are only teaching a few subjects. So, obviously, the quality of education is at stake."
"Children are not getting their full lessons due to the absence of their teachers."
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/yemeni-children-brave-new-school-year-as-war-rages-on/article/532597#ixzz5RiN08nVx = https://www.msn.com/en-xl/middleeast/life-arts/yemeni-children-brave-new-school-year-as-war-rages-on/ar-AAAqLaA = https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/yemeni-children-brave-new-school-year-as-war-rages-on-10743998
(B H)
GCC countries pledge $10m to help fund the printing of textbooks in #Yemen?! 2 million children across the country have no access to education! 4.5 million children risk losing access to state schools, as teachers have not been paid in nearly two years! Does it make any sense?!
https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/1043039751199223808
(* A H)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen Humanitarian Update Covering 7–17 September 2018 | Issue 27
KEY ISSUES:
The school year has opened but two million children remain out of school; about 67 per cent of public school teachers have not been paid for nearly two years.
Fighting escalated around Al-Hudaydah, rendering the main road to Sana ’a inaccessible to humanitarian traffic.
Clashes have decreased in Taizz city as heavy weapons and fighters are relocated to frontlines outside the city.
OCHA organised the first UN field mission in several years to Shabwah Governorate and visited Bayhan and Usaylan districts.
114 humanitarian partners were active in 320 out of 333 districts in Yemen during July 2018.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-humanitarian-update-covering-7-17-september-2018-issue-27
(* B H)
REACH Initiative: Yemen: Fluctuating prices, disrupted supply chains and challenges – Tracking Yemeni markets amidst conflict
In November 2017, price levels for staple commodities soared as the Saudi-led coalition imposed an economic blockade on the country. These developments created a demand for regular market updates, and so in March 2018, REACH supported the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster and the Cash and Market Working Group in establishing the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative or JMMI. The JMMI has since tracked price levels, supply chains and challenges vendors of fuel, water and hygiene items face across Yemen.
During the past months of monitoring, price levels for assessed commodities have largely remained stable, though recent JMMIs have revealed notable variations between regions. Despite the recent intensification of conflict, the port city of Al Hudaydah has remained open, yet the price of fuel in the districts it supplies in the north-west are higher than those in the south-west supplied by the port of Aden. Price inflation remains the most frequently mentioned challenge by vendors across the country, followed by supply shortages and issues in transportation.
From a WASH perspective, the most significant finding of the JMMIs has been that reported fact the vast majority of water trucking vendors sell unchlorinated water. This has been noted as a worrying sign in light of efforts to curb the spread of cholera by educating people on the importance to treat water.
(A H K)
Films: What does peace mean to you?
"It means on TV, I watch cartoons, instead of watching people die." We asked Ala'a, 12, from Yemen, what peace means to her.
https://twitter.com/UNICEF/status/1043122676338962432
12-year-old Mohammed from Yemen just wants to go to the park without feeling scared.
https://twitter.com/UNICEF/status/1043213277369708550
(A H)
After publishing a report talking about the hungry children in Aslam area of Hajjeh. Finally, the #WFP delivered 10000 food aid baskets to families in that area. I'm wondering why the #WFP didn't reach out people there before the report? (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1043248859382734848
Remark: Here is the report: https://www.apnews.com/5a4645766b414fe59b5f00ca3e543bd9/Isolated-and-unseen,-Yemenis-eat-leaves-to-stave-off-famine
And
(A H)
To help starving civilians living on tree leaves in Aslam village in Hajja #Yemen, consider make donations through Al-Kuraimi Bank (http://kuraimibank.com). Donations in $ account: 221083525 Donations in Saudi Riyal: 421090208 Effort run by CSSW http://csswyemen.org/
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1043788596677922816
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(* B H)
Film: Yemenis find refuge, little else, in Djibouti's Obock camp
More than 1,500 Yemenis are languishing at a camp in the Horn of Africa country, where hunger and anguish is widespread.
Last year, more than 111,500 refugees and migrants crossed into war-ravaged Yemen in the hope of using it as a transit point to enter Saudi Arabia.
But in recent months, scores of Yemenis have clambered aboard tiny fishing vessels taking a route in the opposition direction, as fighting escalates.
Several of the Yemenis who managed to make it to Djibouti have said they have found themselves hungry and lacking support.
"We don't receive anything but enough to survive from the UN," said Ahmed Ali, a resident at the camp.
"We don't have the nutrition needed for our children, the elderly, even us."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/starvation-threatens-yemeni-refugees-djibouti-180923081241937.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHH0zn0RTlc
and older films:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGmzAl2ttlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaUGcaWiqVw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMdvrLh8LM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWcaomiX_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ljrLtRnec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQbUAfw_rsk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmtJalyhIpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNlnS-BzeBc
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A B P)
Houthis continue blowing up mosques in Yemeni governorates
Houthi militias in Hajjah governorate on Saturday blew up a three-floor mosque in Abas district of Hajjah governorate
On footsteps of ISIS, militias of the Houthis have blown up over 30 mosques and turned out 146 others to military barracks and depots for weaponry since they took over Yemen and until the early of 2006.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-23922
Remark: By anti-Houthi Islah Party website.
(A)
Al-Houthi arrests a citizen of Raima killed and injured 16 of Houthi militants
The Houthi militia arrested a citizen who had previously clashed with militia elements in Raima province, killing and wounding several of them.
(A P)
Houthi Supervisor kills fuel station owner Nephew in Al-Baydha
A citizen was shot dead by a leader of the al-Houthi armed group, Saturday, in Radaa district, al-Baydha province, central Yemen.
Local sources told "Al-Masdar online ", that a supervisor called "Abu Haidar absi ", forcibly entered the "Jeff “fuel station in the district of Radaa, bypassing the cars that were in long queues waiting for the their order to fuel their cars.
They explained that the supervisor Absi arrived at the station and asked to fill his car, but the owner refused to which made him shoot, killing the son of the owner's brother.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/houthi-supervisor-kills-fuel-station-owner-nephew-in-al-baydha
(A P)
Two civilians were abducted and forcibly disappeared by Houthi militia a week ago because they traveled to get their salaries from #Aden, the interim capital of the legitimate government
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1043574499210407938
(* A E)
Film: Fuel crisis leaves drivers in #Sanaa queuing around the block
https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1043568109104164864
(A P)
Despite explicit promises and written directives by #Houthi former president, the "tyrants in Sanaa" refused to release 15 #journalists who have been behind bars for 4 years on charges of "intention" to establish a media center to support the legitimacy in the capital #Sanaa.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1043237114429755392
My comment: In every war, the intention to “establish a media center to support the legitimacy [= the enemy side] in the capital” would have caused a severe reaction.
(A P)
#Houthi militia gunmen have stormed the house of Yemen's #Ambassador to the United Kingdom (#UK) Dr. Yassin Saeed Noman, and according to local and official sources, they gunmen have kicked out the inhabitants of the house and occupied it.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1043229340362784769
(A P)
Yemeni Muslims stage massive rally to mark Ashura / Pics
The Yemeni people from every walk of life, poured into streets in the capital, Sana’a, to commemorate the day of Ashura, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shiite Imam, and his companions.
Tens of thousands of Yemeni people gathered to participate in the rally, which opened with a speech of Leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah Movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi in Sana’a on Thursday.
During the demonstration, the Yemenis chanted slogans against all oppressors and arrogant powers in the world.
Ashura, the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram, marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and his 72 faithful companions in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD
Remark: Ashura was combined with the celebarion of the 4. Year of the Houthi uprising on Sept. 21, 2014.
(A P)
President Al-Mashat Congratulates Yemen On Revolution Day 21, Sep
President of Yemen Mahdi Al-Mashat has congratulated the people of Yemen on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the September 21 Revolution.
President Al-Mashat praised the people and the armed forces of Yemen for the successful revolutionary record and the heroism that the people have displayed.
http://www.newnewss.net/president-al-mashat-congratulates-yemen-on-revolution-day-21-sep/
and what he also said: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/a.963391330380564/1931926923526995/?type=3&theater
(A P)
Yemenis’ struggle for liberty behind Saudi aggression: Houthi leader
The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has described the ongoing struggle of his fellow countrymen and women for liberty and dignity as the main reason behind the Riyadh regime’s devastating military aggression against their homeland, which has claimed the lives of thousands of people and left the country’s infrastructure in ruins.
“The Yemeni nation will never surrender, no matter how far the Saudi-led coalition would press its campaign of criminality and brutality. The problem of the Riyadh-based alliance with the Yemenis is rooted in the latter’s fight to live a free and dignified life,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addressed his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday evening.
He added that the main responsibility of the Yemeni nation is to fight relentlessly against the enemies at every front.
(A P)
A citizen killed by Houthi gunmen in Ibb
A local source told "Al-Masdar online" that disagreements between a citizen and armed Houthi in the area of Kitab, in the Directorate of Yrim north of August Province, resulted in the killing of the citizen "Ghamdan Ahmed Muhammad Madfa’a".
http://almasdaronline.com/article/a-citizen-killed-by-houthi-gunmen-in-ibb
(A P)
Funeral of civilians who were killed by Houthi bullets in Ibb and slogans against the militia
Hundreds of sons of al-Nadera district, Ibb Province, central Yemen, on Saturday laid the bodies of civilians killed by al-Houthi militia on Friday.
According to sources of, "Almasdar online “, the funeral of the bodies of two people killed in al-Nadera, turned into a demonstration against the militia, where mourners chanted slogans denouncing the Houthis and demanding their departure.
The protesters called on to just retribution for the priests and denounced the continued lawlessness in the province.
(A P)
Ibb.. Hundreds of citizens take part in the funeral of the child “A’tran” who killed by Houthi gunmen
Hundreds of citizens Saturday morning attended the funeral of the child's body, "Abdel Rahman A’tran", two weeks after he was shot dead by a gunman in Ibb city.
The body of the child was buried in a Jarafa cemetery in Ibb city, amid great sadness over the city, which was shocked by a horrific killing of the child from a distance of zero on 7th of September.
The mourners demanded the speedy accountability of the offender and the imposition of the harshest punishments as a public opinion issue and no longer a case for the child's family only as said by a number of participants in the funeral process.
(A)
Two killed and five wounded in clashes between two tribes in Hadda east of Dhamar
Clashes erupted between tribal militants belonging to the two al-Thawban and Al Nusrah tribes in the district of Hadda, east of Dhamar city, which claimed two lives and wounded five, just two days after the clashes erupted.
A tribal source told the Al-Masdar online that the clashes broke out in the house of the two tribes with light weapons and medium machine guns, last Tuesday, against the backdrop of a dispute over the ownership of farmland.
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
(A T)
The assassination of a privat school director in Aden by unidentified gunmen
The director of a private school was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the interim capital of Aden on Sunday noon in the city of Mansoura.
Unidentified gunmen wearing military uniforms and riding in a Hilux car fired their machine guns at Ramzi zagheer, director of Al-Bunyan privet schools, while he was in front of his school in Mansour
(A T)
Unknown gunmen shoot and kill a military officer in the city of Tarim in Wadi Hadramout (photo)
https://twitter.com/Mukalla_Now_EN/status/1043862801649999878
(A P)
The success of Yemeni government efforts in keeping “Socotra " within the "World Heritage List "
The Yemeni government has managed to keep Socotra Island on the UNESCO list as one of the world's leading heritage sites.
The head of the public authority for environmental protection, Dr. Abdelkader Kharaz, said that considerable and intense efforts by the Government represented by the Commission in the past period have been successful in order to keep the Socotra archipelago in its natural world location as an important site on the World Heritage list despite Hurricanes Chapala, Mege and Mukono that swept it.
(A P)
Angry protesters cut streets in al-Mukalla to protest currency deterioration and lack of fuel
Scores of angry protesters cut through the streets of al-Mukalla, the center of Hadramawt province, in protest at the ongoing collapse of the local currency and the lack of oil derivatives, eyewitnesses said Sunday.
Witnesses told Al-Masdar online that the protesters blocked the passage of cars in the area of al-Arbaeen and a number of other areas, and lifted slogans denouncing the Yemeni government, the central bank of Yemen and local authorities.
(A P)
#Aden- a new chapter of assassinations: the victim this time was a headteacher. Ramzi Al-Zaghir was shot dead in Al-Mansourah district on Sunday. Police and army officers and clerics have been targeted in UAE-run city, in south Yemen, since it was retaken from Houthis in mid-2015
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1043824922081087488
(B P T)
Assassinations increases in South Yemen
Aden is has been witnessing a wave of assassinations against activists of the Islah party, mosque preachers, government soldiers and political activists. All the assassination cases remain an unresolved mystery since no one case was investigated into or any arrests in connection with the crime were made.
It is widely feared that extremists could be behind the assassinations of mainstream clerics to create a vacuum for extremist preachers.
While the political parties strongly condemned the crimes against civilians, they affirmed that such acts risk security and public order and hold Aden’s security authorities fully responsible for maintaining security, protecting civilians, pursuing perpetrators of assassinations and bring them to justice to be punished.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-23920
and
(A P)
Statement on ongoing assassinations in the temporary capital of Aden
The Yemeni political parties are deeply concerned at the criminal assassinations carried out in the temporary capital of Aden and other governorates against dozens of social, political and military figures, resistance leasers, religious scholars and mosque imams. The most recent crimes were the assassination of an activist of the Islah party, Ali al-Da’usi, the assassination attempt against the activist Dabwan Galib and the illegal arrest of two other activists in the governorate of Abyan.
While the political parties strongly condemn the crimes against civilians, th they affirm that such acts risk security and public order and hold Aden’s security authorities fully responsible for maintaining security, protecting civilians, pursuing perpetrators of assassinations and bring them to justice to be punished.
We assure that targeting political activists from any party is endangering political life as a whole and damaging coexistence and social peace, and driving the country to be embroiled in a state of turmoil and turbulence in favor of hidden agendas which do not wish Yemen to be stable and secure.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-23883
(A H)
UAE-controlled Yemeni province witnesses the spread of sexual stimulants, drugs spread
Medical sources in Yemen’s Aden province on Thursday warned of the use of unlicensed sexual stimulants known as the Languos, which were recently promoted in the southern provinces.
According to the sources, the promotion of such stimulants is very dangerous because they have not been subjected to medical supervision and have not been tested to ensure the safety of the integrity of components or active rates in them.
The Health Bureau of Bin Dagher authority in Aden called for informing the police to arrest promoters of sexual stimulants in Aden city.
(* A E P)
Until today no salary increase .. Is the government waiting for a hungry revolution!
Civil servants, including retirees and contractors, have received a significant shock in the past two days from Yemen's legitimate government, which has approved a 30% increase in salaries starting this September.
"Over the past few days, they have been surprised by the fact that there has been no increase in their monthly salaries for this month," said civil servants working in several government institutions and retired individuals, despite a government decision to raise salaries by 30 percent, a decision taken by the government on September 2. The payrolls prepared for this month remain as they were the previous month and have not changed.
They added that they were shocked by the fact that angry protests and civil disobedience continued in Aden and some other provinces, condemning the current government and its procedures, which they described as corrupt and false.
They added that their resentment was that their officials and institutions had assured them that so far no notice had been given to the facilities, institutions and the Ministry of Finance about the increase, which was supposed to be launched this month according to previous government resolutions and promises, despite the passage of more than 20 days. Issuing and approving the resolution
The economic experts have confirmed earlier that all the decisions and actions issued by the government and the Central Bank and the Economic Commission lacks credibility, transparency and seriousness in their implementation .. stressing that there is no sincere intention to implement those decisions that are taken and remain on paper and do not exceed the walls of the room taken inside.
http://akhbaralyom-ye.net/news_details.php?lng=arabic&sid=104527
(A E P)
Protests and civil disobedience in Seiyun governorate called for an end to the disregard towards Yemenis and to the manipulation of the prices of oil derivatives that doubles the people's suffering.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1042923728378765312
(* B P T)
The Gulf Country That Will Shape the Future of Yemen
As the United Arab Emirates’ bloody war against the Houthis drags on, it’s also playing a key role in the fight against al-Qaeda
But with the extent of the Emiratis’ ambitions in Yemen unclear, anxiety in some quarters over the long-term effects of their presence in the country continues to grow.
In interviews, Emirati officials have described both the ongoing offensive against the Houthis and the operation against AQAP as twin fronts in the UAE’s broader war against regional threats. But while the anti-Houthi campaign has devolved into a bloody stalemate, the battle against AQAP has morphed into something quite different: an often lightning-fast series of operations that have, at least for now, put one of al-Qaeda’s most powerful franchises on its back feet.
In these UAE-led counterterrorism operations, the Emiratis and their Yemeni partners have appeared to prioritize not just military action, but stabilization. Even when previous efforts by Yemeni forces to push al-Qaeda out succeeded, they failed to eradicate the conditions that allowed it to gain control in the first place. In places like Jaar or Zinjibar, a lack of rebuilding and development aid and the uneven provision of government services meant the area remained marginalized. “After al-Qaeda left, nothing changed,” Peter Salisbury, a fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, told me, referring to the fallout of previous counterterrorism offensives. “In some cases security and local governance actually got worse.”
In Mukalla, Emirati officials have prioritized restoring basic services, shoring up state institutions, and reinvigorating the local economy—efforts that, for now, appear to be working. It helps that Mukalla—in contrast with cities like Mosul and Raqqa in Iraq—emerged from the fight against extremist militants relatively intact. This helped ease its shift from terrorist sanctuary into what, in Yemen’s current context, constitutes a relatively stable and economically active city.
But the UAE’s deepening involvement in Yemen has come under criticism. A recent report by the Group of Regional and International Eminent Experts on Yemen, a UN-mandated body tasked with investigating claims of human-rights abuses in the country, alleged that some detainees in Emirati-run prisons have been held without charge and tortured; these cases have, at times, spawned sit-ins and small protests by relatives of detainees.
Elisabeth Kendall, a senior research fellow in Arabic & Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, said an open-ended UAE presence in the South could spark conflict. “First, it would exacerbate coalition tensions between the UAE and the Saudi-backed government of President Hadi, some members of which have already labelled the UAE presence an occupation. Second, it would play into the hands of AQAP which has stirred up suspicions of UAE ambitions for power and resources across the South. Third, it could ignite old North-South fault-lines as well as sparking anger among significant areas of the South which remain resistant to the notion of southern secession which they believe the UAE is backing.”
Kendall’s analysis is well supported by facts on the ground. While it’s clear that the UAE has built a productive partnership with key officials in Hadramawt, their relations with other figures in the Yemeni government have at times come under strain. Many Yemenis have criticized the Emiratis for providing financial backing and support for militias that fail to sufficiently support, or even actively undermine, the country’s internationally recognized government. In some cases, they’ve accused the Emiratis of engaging in a de facto occupation of Yemen.
The UAE’s presence in Yemen has also sparked blowback, as traditional players have been weakened and once-marginalized secessionists have been empowered – by Adam Baron
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/yemen-mukalla-uae-al-qaeda/570943/ = https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/09/uae-will-shape-future-yemen/151495/
My comment: This article is neglecting main points. The long-term military and economic ambitions of the UAE remain unmentioned. The UAE intends to establish a ring of bases and UAE-controlled harbours stretching from the Arabian Peninsula via Yemen to the Red Sea and Eastern Africa. – The Saudi coalition cooperation with Al Qaeda forces against the Houthis stays unmentioned. – The way the UAE had been “fighting” against Al Qaeda many times (by paying money to leave), as revealed by AP (and others), stays unmentioned. – Detention and torture in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen are heavily downplayed here.
Comment: Hard to believe journalists who should know #Yemen - Adam Baron in this case - can get close to praising #UAE's occupation of Yemen and tell the lie of AQ being wiped out.
The article belongs to the category of 'PR', result of a media mission sponsored by the Emirates.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1933096696743351
(A K P)
UAE completes withdrawal of troops from Yemen’s Mahrah province: Report
The last batch of Emirati troops, who had served in a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen’s eastern province of Mahrah, have arrived home after the Abu Dhabi regime ordered them to withdraw.
Informed sources, requesting anonymity, told Arabic-language Yemen Shabab television network on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates withdrew its forces the previous day, and handed over buildings used by its troops to local authorities.
The sources added that mercenaries and military advisers from African countries would most likely replace Emirati soldiers.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/09/22/574889/UAE-completes-withdrawal-of-troops-from-Yemens-Mahrah-province-Report = http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970701000392
Remark: The population of Al Mahrah several times had protested against occupation forces. Saudi troops had played a greater role there; the Saudis are interested in using Mahra as transit for shipping oil.
And
(* A B P)
Mahara: Saudi companies establishes cement points inside Yemeni border
Tribal sources revealed that Saudi Arabia companies established points for the project of the Saudi oil pipeline within the Yemeni territory, 30 km in the direction of the province of Mahrah, east of Yemen.
The sources confirmed that the company has worked to develop new points of the project in the desert areas of Dhahia and Shahr adjacent to the Khrakhir region in the far east of Mahrah province.
The sources pointed out that Dhahia and Shahr tribes has formed a committee to know the Saudi movements in the region, which the Saudi elements fired on the tribal committee, in clear preparation and occupation visible and strong.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to extend its oil pipeline from Kharakhir region for a period of 300 km, through the Yemeni regions to reach to Nashtoon port which Saudi Arabia is trying to turn into its own oil port on the Arabian Sea.
The tribes of Shahar, Dhahia and Qutaoua considered the Saudi project illegal and a violation of national sovereignty, while Mahara tribes continue their ongoing meetings to unify the ranks to repel Saudi expansion in Yemeni territory.
In last week, 11th Brigade force stopped construction work following Saudi companies inside the Yemeni border.
(A P T)
Aden Reform Party condemns assassinations and arrests targeting its cadres
The Islah party in Aden has renewed its condemnation of the vicious campaign which is targeting it and the continued assassinations of its cadres.
"In Aden," the party said in a statement obtained by the Al-masdar online that it is facing "a significant escalation of this criminal and terrorist campaign, which has so far claimed the lives of 23 persons of its finest members between assassination, arrest, violation of the Houses of the House and the burning and closure of the party's headquarters."
(A P)
Thousands in Taiz protest anniversary of Yemen's catastrophe of 21 September
Thousands of Taiz sons protested on Friday at the Freedom Square in the provincial capital, commemorating the occupation of Yemen's capital Sana'a by the Houthis.
The demonstrators lifted banners and slogans reminding Yemenis of the catastrophe that took place in the country, when the Houthis controlled the verdict on September 21, 2014, and the ensuing events that Yemen continues to pass to date.
(A P)
Demonstration in Taiz in support of the Presidential Commission and Demand for the liberation of the city
Thousands protested Thursday in the southwestern city of Taiz in support of the Presidential Commission and demand the liberation of the province from the control of the al-Houthi group.
In the demonstration, which was called freemen of Taiz, the demonstrators expressed their support for the government forces and demanded the liberation of the province four years after the failure of the Arab coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the legitimate government.
(A T)
Emirati-backed Shabwani Elite Forces raided an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) camp and killed AQAP commander Naif al Sayari al Daiyani in the Khora area, Merkhah As Sulfa district, western Shabwah governorate on September 21. Shabwani Elite Forces also secured the district capital Nassab, neighboring Merkhah As Sulfa to the east, on September 21.[4]
(A T)
Al-Qaeda leader killed in Al-Shabwaniya elite forces attack on their positions in Shabwah
Local sources told " Al-Masdar online " that the elite forces ("non-gov Forces ") launched an attack on al-Qaeda positions in the Directorate “Markha ", Shabwah Governorate, on Friday morning.
and
(A T)
Shabwani elite forces raided an al-Qaeda camp in the Khoura area on the outskirts of al-Bayda province, killing the leader of Abu Qa'qa'a and seven terrorists and controlling the organization's camp, cars, weapons and ammunition. During the raid, 3 soldiers kild and 3 wounded.
https://twitter.com/Mukalla_Now_EN/status/1043737537964072960
(A T)
One soldier killed and another kidnapped by gunmen believed to be al-Qaeda in Abyan
A local source told the Almasdar online, that gunmen attacked a security point in the loader follow the so-called "security belt " in Abyan Province on Friday noon.
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
(* A B P)
Opportunities for resolving Yemen crisis at UN General Assembly
UN General Assembly 2018: Yemen's government seeking ongoing support in the face of the Houthi stand-off
Martin Griffiths, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy on Yemen, enjoys a good rapport with Khaled Al Yamani, the country’s foreign minister.
At the abortive peace talks between Yemen’s warring factions in Geneva, the two men were ensconced in minute-by-minute diplomacy as the Houthi delegation scuppered the effort by not turning up. On the sidelines, Mr Al Yamani was relaxed enough to discuss the advice he was offering to “Martin”.
There is a formal meeting between the Yemen stakeholders scheduled for next week. There is also a series of humanitarian focused events to address the shortages and disease threats plaguing the country of 30 million.
Mr Griffiths spent last week travelling to Sanaa and Riyadh in an effort to recover lost ground. He is said to be optimistic all the parties will agree to confidence building measures on prisoner swaps, flights to Sanaa and the central bank operations in the near future. When he meets again with Mr Al Yamani in New York, the two men will have a hefty agenda to plough through.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, last week acknowledged to The National that the “tireless efforts” of Mr Griffiths were in trouble. A dispute with the government of Yemen over a World Health Organisation-brokered deal to fly out injured civilians has soured the atmosphere around the mediator’s mission.
Mr Guterres was forced to say that such contacts did not constitute “the recognition of a Houthi camp” in an acknowledgement of the fine line that mediation must tread.
With the Houthi leadership demanding guarantees to re-engage with the process, Mr Al Yamani has said he asked the UN envoy to be clear that he will not cross the line in promises to the group.
An important aspect of the diplomacy in New York will be to ensure that the Arab Coalition’s international partners and others remain supportive of the government in the face of the Houthi stand-off.
My comment: As long as the UN would not finish its bias on Yemen – that means unless the UN prefers one side in the conflict (refusing “the recognition of a Houthi camp”) – the UN will fail as a peace broker. Peace broker must be neutral and keep equal distance to all parties in the conflict. – And the Hadi government’s Foreign minister really should not take the role of an advisor to the UN envoy, this is rather ridiculous: “Al Yamani was relaxed enough to discuss the advice he was offering to “Martin””.
(* A H P)
Wenn Menschen Blätter essen vor Hunger
Im Jemen wird die Not immer schlimmer. UN-Experte Lowcock sagte im Sicherheitsrat, die Lage habe sich auf eine geradezu alarmierende Weise verschlechtert. Manche Menschen würden sogar Blätter essen.
Im kriegsgeplagten Jemen droht der Kampf gegen eine schwere Hungersnot nach UN-Angaben verlorenzugehen. Das das Land leide unter der schlimmsten humanitären Krise der Welt, warnte der UN-Experte Mark Lowcock im Sicherheitsrat in New York. Die Lage im Jemen sei trostlos, so der Untergeneralsekretär für die Koordinierung humanitärer Angelegenheiten der UN.
Lowcock sagte, die Situation habe sich auf eine geradezu alarmierende Weise verschlechtert. Das liege insbesondere am Wertverlust der Währung um etwa ein Drittel. Lebensmittel hätten sich damit drastisch verteuert. Schon jetzt gebe es in dem Bürgerkriegsland kleine Gebiete, wo man von einer Hungersnot sprechen müsse. Menschen würden aus lauter Not Blätter essen.
Die Währung des Landes müsse gestützt werde, so Lowcock. Sie sei um rund 30 Prozent gesunken. Und der Kampf um den Hafen von Houdeida westlich der Hauptstadt Sanaa am Roten Meer dürfe nicht dazu führen, dass diese Lebensader für den Jemen blockiert werde. Kämpfer müssten Zivilisten und zivile Einrichtungen schützen. So würden etwa in den "Red Sea Mills" in Houdeida 45.000 Tonnen Getreide lagern, genug um Millionen Menschen einen Monat lang zu ernähren. Doch aufgrund der Kämpfe seien die Silos unzugänglich.
Schon jetzt seien 22 Millionen Menschen, drei von vier Einwohnern des Landes, auf Hilfe angewiesen, so Lowcock. Acht Millionen Menschen wüssten nicht, wo sie ihre nächste Mahlzeit herbekämen. Diese Zahl drohe deutlich anzusteigen (mit Audio-Datei)
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/hunger-jemen-103.html
(* A H P)
UN Security Council: Humanitarian Affairs Chief Decries Widespread Famine in Yemen, Urging Immediate Security Council Action to Prevent ‘Massive’ Loss of Life, Economic Collapse
MARK LOWCOCK, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said the situation in Yemen is “bleak” and deteriorating alarmingly against a backdrop of a losing fight against famine. “We may now be approaching a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to prevent massive loss of life as a result of widespread famine across the country,” he added. Noting that years of fighting has triggered a devastating cholera outbreak and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, he said a dramatic economic collapse at the beginning of the year has meant that 75 per cent of the country is in need of assistance or protection, with 18 million people being food insecure.
The humanitarian situation remains stable because the worst crisis has attracted the world’s largest, and among the most effective, humanitarian relief efforts, he said, citing such initiatives as the United Nations response plan, which sees organizations providing assistance to 8 million of the most vulnerable people, and an intensive campaign that has kept a third wave of Yemen’s cholera outbreak at bay. The relief effort has made gains through support from United Nations agencies, Yemeni aid workers, generous funding and the Coalition’s deconfliction system, which makes humanitarian operations possible.
However, two recent developments threaten to overwhelm aid operations, he cautioned. Economic deterioration is expected to result in an additional 3.5 million people becoming food-insecure, and the situation is exacerbated by the depreciation of the rial, as well as access problems, which led to sharp increases in fuel prices. At the same time, intensified fighting around the port of Hodeidah and surrounding roads is choking the lifeline upon which aid operations and commercial markets depend, he said, adding that fighting has also blocked access to World Food Programme (WFP) supplies and that armed groups have occupied humanitarian facilities.
He went on to state that as efforts continue to scale up the humanitarian response, organizations simply cannot respond to the needs of all 29 million Yemenis. “That is untenable,” he stressed, asking the Council for support in three key areas in order to prevent a complete collapse while safeguarding the lives of millions of the most vulnerable people: take immediate measures to stabilize the economy; ensure that all stakeholders uphold their civilian-protection obligations; and request that all parties find practical solutions to pressing issues, including the opening of an air bridge that will enable civilians to seek medical outside treatment for diseases no longer treatable inside Yemen. “Of course, the parties need to get around the negotiating table and engage seriously with the efforts of the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on a positive path towards peace,” he said.
[And statements by the 15 members representatives, including the basic propaganda by the Yemen Hadi government and by Kuwait and hypocritical blab la by the US and the UK.]
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/humanitarian-affairs-chief-decries-widespread-famine-yemen-urging-immediate-security = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/briefing-security-council-humanitarian-situation-yemen-under-secretary-general
and in shorter reports
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/threat-famine-worsens-yemen-un-aid-chief-1838693200
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/threat-famine-worsens-yemen-un-aid-chief-1838693200
and how Saudi media twist it to fit to anti-Houthi propaganda: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2018/09/22/UN-warns-of-famine-in-Yemen-while-Houthis-loot-resources.html
(* A P)
Showdown looms as UN rights experts in Yemen hindered
Saudi Arabia and allied states balked at efforts to renew work by U.N.-backed “eminent experts” investigating human rights violations in Yemen, setting up a possible diplomatic showdown with some Western countries over scrutiny of a 3-1/2-year war that has killed thousands of civilians and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The standoff comes just three weeks after the experts issued a scathing report saying the governments of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could be responsible for war crimes.
Before a late Thursday deadline at the Human Rights Council, the “Arab Group” led by Tunisia floated a resolution calling for “capacity building and technical assistance” to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, but no extended mandate for the experts.
A rival resolution from Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, among other things, seeks to extend the experts’ mandate by a year.
The two sides could bridge their differences before the council session ends on Sept. 28.
Mona Sabella, an international advocacy officer at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said independent investigations like those led by the experts were important for the credibility of the council.
“The choice is clear for U.N. member states: Support the renewal of independent and international investigations into war crimes in Yemen, or bow to Saudi threats and allow these investigations to be quashed,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Nothing would make Saudi Arabia and the UAE happier than to do away with independent investigations into war crimes in Yemen.”
The looming faceoff is a familiar one at the 47-member rights body. The Dutch and Canadians have repeatedly sought over the years to ensure that U.N.-backed investigators get access to as much of the country as possible — including areas hit by airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly thwarted such efforts – by Jamey Keaten, AP
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/09/21/showdown-looms-as-un-rights-experts-in-yemen-hindered.html = https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/showdown-looms-over-work-by-un-human-rights-experts-in-yemen/
and also by AFP: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6193947/Saudi-trying-quash-Yemen-war-crimes-probe-HRW.html
by Aljazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/saudi-accused-impeding-backed-war-crimes-probe-yemen-180921154423929.html
and
(* A P)
Human Rights Watch: Human Rights Council Should Stand Firm on Yemen
Renew and Strengthen International Experts Inquiry
The United Nations Human Rights Council cannot afford to falter on Yemen.
For too long after the Yemen war began, the Human Rights Council was silent. Last year, the council finally acted, adopting a resolution by consensus – with the support of the Yemeni government and coalition members Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to empower a group of experts to investigate abuses since September 2014 and identify those responsible.
In August, the Group of Experts presented their first report, describing horrific war crimes and other abuses that the coalition, the Yemeni government, and the Houthi armed group committed. Given the severity, breadth, and scope of abuses, the experts asked for more time, urging the council to renew their mandate.
The coalition, unhappy with the findings, has sought to quash the inquiry. Human Rights Council member countries should not give in to this pressure.
Last year’s resolution brought an unprecedented level of scrutiny to the warring parties’ horrendous conduct.
If the council folds to pressure and fails to renew the mandate, the opposite message will be sent this year: the world no longer cares. Yemeni civilians will continue to suffer without the scrutiny that only an independent international monitoring body can provide.
The Group of Experts has much more work to do to ensure investigations into the numerous abuses that have already occurred—and continue to occur—are completed. Members of the Human Rights Council, entrusted with standing up for victims of grave violations, should ensure that work can continue.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/21/human-rights-council-should-stand-firm-yemen
(A P)
Saudi Backs UN Efforts in Yemen so Long Peace References Are Met
Saudi Arabia reiterated on Thursday its support for United Nations efforts to find a settlement in Yemen. It stressed, however, the need to abide by recognized peace references that are the Gulf Initiative, the outcomes of the national dialogue and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
The stance was made during a meeting between Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al Jaber and UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths in Riyadh. Both diplomats met at the headquarters of the Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen.
My comment: “the need to abide by recognized peace references” which actually means: as far as the UN brings the Houthis to capitulate (this in fact is part of UN SC resolution 2216). Thus, this really means: The Saudis never will accept a real peace for Yemen.
(A P)
UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths discussed the peace process with Hadi government Vice President Ali Mohsen al Ahmar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 20. Ahmar highlighted how the Hadi government delegation attended the September 6 Geneva consultations and the al Houthi movement did not.[3]
(* A P)
Yemen: UN to Sign Aid Arrangements with Internationally-Recognized Government
Yemeni UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lise Grande broke her silence on an alleged deal signed between the international body and Houthi militias in Yemen for establishing an air bridge out of the war-torn country.
Grande reaffirmed that the global body upholds all United Nations Security Council resolutions, and recognizes the freely-elected Yemeni government as the sole legitimate authority in Yemen.
The air bridge project, which was a hot topic for debate between UN and Yemeni government delegates, will be signed with the legitimate government at the right time and place, reported the Yemeni official Saba news agency.
For his part, Undersecretary of the Yemeni Foreign Ministry for Political Affairs Mansour Bajash said that UN-affiliated offices and organizations operating in Houthi-held Sanaa, coercively signing agreements with militia groups that do not represent the Yemeni people is unjustifiable, saying that the Aden-based government will not recognize the arrangement as legitimate.
Yemen's government has said it will not recognize an agreement struck with Iran-aligned Houthis granting safe passage for airlifts claiming to be transporting critically ill civilians abroad for treatment.
My comment: ???
(* A P)
Source in Salvation Government Responds to UAE’s Claims in Security Council
An official source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yemen's National Salvation Government ridiculed the message of the Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, addressed to the President of the Security Council on 14 September.
The source said in a statement to the official Saba news agency that "the letter of the representative of the UAE included many contradictions, lies and falsification of facts, especially those relating to the responsibility of the inability of the national delegation of consultations to travel to Geneva."
The official source pointed out that "the delegate of the UAE deliberately disavowedand, in an attempt to mislead members of the Security Council, from the fact that the two countries of aggression, Saudi Arabian and the UAE, hindered the arrival of the national delegation for consultations and did not basically want to start any peace consultations."
The source explained that the letter was drafted in a "provocative and arrogant manner, in a way that has nothing to do with what is recognized in the diplomatic work of relations between states."
"The message of the UAE dropped the mulberry leaf, which was the countries of aggression Saudi Arabia - UAE hiding behind, arguing that they came to restore the so-called government of legitimacy, which does not exist on the ground," the source added.
The source explained that the UAE message is sufficient proof and an explicit position on the attack of a member state on another member state of the United Nations and carried a clear and explicit threat that the coalition of aggression will carry out military action on the West Coast in Yemen, in violation of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2915&cat_id=1
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(B P)
Washington’s MbS dilemma
Although MbS clearly has reformist instincts, some of his actions show a reckless side that needs to be tempered. Take his disastrous foray into Yemen.
The Trump administration and members of Congress need to pay closer attention to the actions of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince because they have serious consequences for the stability of this long-time ally, as well as America’s national security.
Collectively, Washington must ask MbS to do the following: …
Mohammad bin Salman must be applauded for allowing Saudi woman to drive and for opening the cultural space in this religiously conservative country. Yet, as one of Saudi Arabia’s longtime allies, Washington must reserve the right to raise objections when actions by its leader run contrary to America’s foreign policy interest, to its traditions of free-market enterprise, and to our national ethos of philanthropy.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/407841-washingtons-mbs-dilemma
My comment: Nothing new. The 879. article of exactly this kind.
(A E P)
Pakistan invites Saudi Arabia to join China's Belt and Road corridor
Islamabad has invited Saudi Arabia to become the third partner in the Beijing-funded Belt and Road corridor of major infrastructure projects inside Pakistan, Pakistan’s information minister said on Thursday.
and
(A E P)
'Saudi induction in CPEC could build new trade troika'
The proposed induction of Saudi Arabia in the multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would not only boost trilateral trade but could also serve to weaken U.S. and Indian opposition to the project, according to experts and analysts.
Islamabad last week announced that it had invited the oil-rich kingdom to join the CPEC as a third partner to bring a “huge” investment to cash-strapped Pakistan. Though the government has not revealed the volume of the investment Riyadh has promised, local media, citing anonymous officials, reported that the kingdom is going to invest $10 billion for construction of an oil city at the strategic port of Gawadar.
The development follows Prime Minister Imran Khan's two-day visit to the kingdom, and powerful army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s simultaneous three-day visit to China last week.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/saudi-induction-in-cpec-could-build-new-trade-troika/1262129
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
Saudi funded pundits who often appear in Western media and DC panels are tweeting in support of a terrorist attack which killed children and disabled veterans. (image)
https://twitter.com/thekarami/status/1043611950054178816
(A P)
Washington calls for protection of grain silos and warehouses in Hodeidah
Washington on Friday evening called on all parties to the Yemeni conflict to "protect silos and grain depots near the port of Hodeidah, stop fighting near the port and return to the negotiating table with UN envoy Martin Griffiths."
This was the briefing by the United States Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Nikki Healy, who presented it to members of the UN Security Council at the emergency session, which was held on Friday evening at the UN's permanent headquarters in New York.
"The Yemeni crisis is catastrophic, but the worst part is what we know about the crisis, which is that civilians are eating the leaves starving," said the US ambassador.
"The international community must do everything possible to help children, civilians and the hungry in Yemen," she added
My comment: hypocritical bla bla by one of the main perpetrators.
(A P)
Demonstration in NYC in front of Hotel where Saudi delegation is staying protesting their war crimes in Yemen and demanding UN General Assembly protect Yemeni civilians. Thank you to all those who participated in uncovering the media blackout on Saudi/UAE atrocities
https://twitter.com/AishaJumaan/status/1043639353556197376
(* B P)
Donald Trump to support plan for 'Arab Nato'
UN General Assembly 2018: GCC members supportive of Trump's stand on Iran could join new alliance
President Donald Trump has backed plans to offer a Middle East Security Alliance (MESA) to members of the GCC supportive of America’s stand on Iran, a proposal that is expected to be discussed behind the scenes at the UNGA meetings in New York.
Diplomats see the evolving position of Washington towards a new core group as a product of the Iran situation but also a plank of the Middle East peace process review undertaken by Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“It’s encouraging to us that something like an Arab Nato could be on the table to help provide a context for US involvement in regional security,” one Middle East diplomat said.
While Mr Trump has been confrontational in his handling of the European partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, officials suggest the model can inspire a new formation in the region.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/donald-trump-to-support-plan-for-arab-nato-1.772804
(* A P)
Congress Must Hold Pompeo Accountable for the Bogus Yemen Certification
Mike Pompeo was annoyed when Andrea Mitchell had the temerity to ask him about his decision to lie to Congress to protect arms sales to the Saudis and Emiratis.
Pompeo’s feigned outrage routine has become as tedious as it is unconvincing. The “suggestion” that he finds so offensive wasn’t made up by Mitchell or by anyone outside the administration, but comes from officials inside his own department. The WSJ report that revealed this information was relying on evidence contained in a classified department memo.
It would have been good to corner Pompeo about this and force him to confront the claims being made by his own officials, but that didn’t happen. It would have been even more instructive to see Pompeo’s reaction when asked about the ties between the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs and Raytheon. Alex Emmons and Lee Fang reported on Friday about the role of a former Raytheon lobbyist in the decision to certify Saudi coalition conduct.
Isn’t it convenient that the official whose side Pompeo took in the internal department debate used to work for a company that stands to profit from pending and future arms sales to the governments in question? That “suggestion” might really bother Pompeo.
Pompeo goes on to claim that “the Saudis have taken responsibility” for the killing of children in their airstrikes in Yemen. This isn’t true of the Aug. 9 massacre in Saada, and it isn’t how the coalition has conducted itself so far. Even when the coalition admits some error in a strike, they will usually insist on blaming the victims or shifting the blame to the Houthis.
The Saudi coalition isn’t taking responsibility for any of this, and they are working overtime to make sure that the U.N. experts that detailed the numerous war crimes they have committed in Yemen do not get a new mandate.
As ever, the Saudis and Emiratis abhor independent investigations that can properly document their crimes and hold them accountable for them. They have never been interested in taking responsibility for the crimes they commit against Yemeni civilians, and this administration is doing everything it can to help them evade responsibility. Pompeo’s desperate attempt to use Iran as a distraction at the end of his answer is typical for an administration that is aiding and abetting some of the biggest war criminals in Yemen.
It is unfortunate that Pompeo was able to get away with another lie to cover for his bogus certification, but he may not able to get away with it for much longer – by Daniel Larison
Remark: More in cp1 above
and
(* A P)
Mike Pompeo denies Saudi arms sales swayed humanitarian debate
Foreign military sales did not determine the outcome of internal State Department debate over whether Saudi Arabia is indiscriminately killing civilians in Yemen’s civil war, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday.
“I find that suggestion offensive,” Pompeo told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “The reason we’re continuing to work in Yemen is to try and resolve that situation through the U.N.-directed peace operation. We support that effort. We’ve continued to support that effort.”
Pompeo certified to Congress last week that the coalition is “undertaking demonstrable action” to reduce the civilian casualties, but subsequent leaks portrayed the certification as an attempt to preserve arms sales agreements with the Saudi Arabians.
Pompeo dismissed that claim. “The killing of the children is tragic,” he said. “[The] Saudis have taken responsibility for that. [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis and myself have both worked closely with the entire Saudi-led coalition to reduce the risk of civilian causalities and collateral damage. They were all imperfect, but we’re working hard towards that end.”
My comment: Shamelessly putting a new lie onto another one. – Look at cp1 above and at Yemen War Mosaic 460, cp1.
and the interview in full, only the passage on Yemen is quoted here:
(* A P)
Interview With Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC
QUESTION: On Yemen, you have indicated continued backing of the war in Yemen even after the killing of 40 schoolchildren by a Saudi airstrike, a school bus. A lot of people in this State Department believe that we should not be continuing this support, and the argument is that you and the administration are doing it because of the $2 billion in arms sales, to avoid jeopardizing those arms sales to the Saudis and to the others in the region.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, I find that suggestion offensive. The reason we’re continuing to work in Yemen is to try and resolve that situation through the UN-directed peace operation. We support that effort. We’ve continued to support that effort. The killing of the children is tragic. The Saudis have taken responsibility for that. Secretary Mattis and myself have both worked closely with the entire Saudi-led coalition to reduce the risk of civilian casualties and collateral damage. We’re all imperfect, but we’re working hard towards that end. Peace in Yemen is important, and if Iran would cease arming the Houthis and firing missiles out of Yemen into the Gulf states, we’d be a lot closer to that peace.
https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/09/286135.htm
(* B K P)
Trump’s Dirty War in Yemen
The president is aiding Saudi Arabia in an unlawful, unpopular, inhumane bombing campaign at odds with the foreign policy that he promised Americans.
Congress never approved a war in Yemen. Most Americans are unaware of the conflict or of the involvement of their military and tax dollars. The ongoing intervention is at odds not only with the Constitution, but with the campaign rhetoric of President Trump, who led his voters to believe that he would preside over an “America first” foreign policy. And polling data suggests that the American public as a whole is specifically averse to funneling weapons and money to the Saudi Arabian regime (much like the citizens of both Britain and France).
Yet months after a serious congressional effort to stop the U.S. intervention, Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, is pushing to continue America’s involvement, even as bureaucrats in the State Department—the sorts of people Trump supporters denigrate as the “deep state”—are urging an end to U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia, the position that is more consistent with the Constitution, public sentiment, and the campaign rhetoric of the president.
Weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition have already made the United States complicit in the grisly deaths of innocents.
Unlawful. Unpopular. Inhumane.
Those are the characteristics of the war that the U.S. became involved in during the Obama administration and that it persists in prosecuting under Trump, even as the prospect of death by starvation for millions mounts. It is one more example of Trump rising to power by critiquing an unsavory aspect of America’s governing elite, only to enter the White House and continue the same behavior with less shame and more callousness – by Conor Friedersdorf
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/trumps-dirty-war-in-yemen/570940/
(* A P)
Senator Bernie Sanders: Secretary Pompeo’s certification last week that the Saudi-led coalition was taking appropriate steps to protect civilians in Yemen was ridiculous on its face. But now we find out that Pompeo overruled the advice of his own State Dept experts and legal advisers in order to make that certification to Congress, because he feared not doing so would endanger US arms sales to the Saudis and Emiratis currently destroying Yemen. Mr. Pompeo: human lives are worth far more than defense contractor profits. The Senate must also investigate this effort to mislead us.
https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/posts/10157324528607908
(A P)
Menendez cheers State Department leak revealing split on Yemen policy
“This insight suggests that individuals in the executive branch are increasingly aware that maintaining the status quo of current U.S. policy on Yemen is difficult to defend,” New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Menendez, who said that he has been waiting “three months” for a reply to a letter about U.S. involvement in Yemen, welcomed the report, leaked or not.
“If true, it is reassuring to know that so many bureaus within the State Department were united against certifying to Congress that the Saudi and Emirati governments are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations in Yemen,” he said.
(A P)
An ad targeting world leaders, delivered on a big red bus
A media group based in Washington, DC, launched an ad campaign this week in New York City that targets an exclusive audience: World leaders in town for the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. The goal? An end to the war in Yemen.
“This is a body that has the power, the resources, the influence to work to stop this war,” says Elisabeth Myers, whose publication, Inside Arabia, is behind the campaign. Provocative images and messages are being shown on billboards, kiosks and on some of Manhattan’s bright red double-decker tour buses.
“Looking out from the back of a bus is the eye of a Yemeni child,” Myers says. Inside the eye, if you look closely, she says, is the reflection of two flags: the Saudi flag and the Emirati flag.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-20/ad-targeting-world-leaders-delivered-big-red-bus
and
(A P)
Media Campaign Targets UN Leaders in NY Over Yemen
The war on Yemen and the resulting humanitarian crisis have been severely neglected by the rest of the world, and the U.N. response has been hamstrung because of the unstinting support for the Saudis and Emiratis provided by the U.S., Britain, and other Western governments.
An ad campaign timed to coincide with the U.N. General Assembly should embarrass some of the governments responsible for the disaster in Yemen and it may cause others to pay more attention to the war. Confronting the American public with the horrific costs of a war fueled by our government is an important step in bringing political pressure to bear on members of Congress and the administration.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-media-campaign-to-save-yemen/
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
(A P)
Labour would seek way to end Yemen war `tomorrow´ if it was in power - Corbyn
A Labour government would go to the United Nations “tomorrow” to present a resolution to end the war in Yemen, Jeremy Corbyn said at a vigil for those affected by the brutal conflict.
He criticised the Government’s role in arming Saudi Arabia as he and several senior shadow ministers joined members of Liverpool’s Yemeni community on Sunday evening.
The Labour leader said that the Government must stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia to help bring an end to violence and suffering.
He told a crowd of around 50 people the humanitarian disaster in the country was “a human-made condition” brought about by “the bombardment of the people of Yemen by Saudi forces and, I’m sad to say, some of those weapons are provided by Britain”.
(* B K P)
Britain’s arms exports grow by billions – as it sells more bombs to drop on Yemen
Britain has dramatically increased arms sales to foreign governments despite warnings that controversial deals to allies including Saudi Arabia are costing the UK its reputation as a “force for good”. Documents seen by i weekend show that Britain almost doubled the value of defence equipment, including fighter jets and munitions, it cleared for export in 2017, as it vies with Vladimir Putin’s Russia to be the world’s second largest weapons supplier.
Brexit
The £6.6bn of UK arms licences represents an 83 per cent rise on the previous year. Senior ministers have promised to grow defence exports ahead of Brexit and manufacturers have been boosted by a succession of lucrative deals, particularly in the Middle East.
Sales to Saudi Arabia, Britain’s largest arms customer, alone rose by two-thirds and the export of Typhoon jets to Oman in a vast £1.4bn deal underlined the UK’s strength in military aviation – the most profitable defence sector. The eventual value of sales last year will reach £9bn – the second highest for a decade, according to separate Government figures.
The increase represents a boon for the UK’s defence companies and communities supported by the sector, which is worth £22bn a year to the British economy. But the Labour Party and campaigners last night argued that the bolstering of the UK’s world-leading defence sector is fuelling conflict and instability. They called for an immediate suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of atrocities in the ongoing Yemen conflict. Exports to Saudi Arabia last year rose by 66 per cent to £1.13bn and those to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rose by 94 per cent to £260m, according an analysis of defence exports cleared by Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade (DIT).
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/uk-arms-exports-statistics-increase-saudi-arabia-bombs-yemen/
(A H P)
Photo: Days before it will be expired. Here is a kind of aid that being delivered by #WFP to #Yemen-i people. As it was written in the bag, production date is October 2017 Best to be used before end of October 2018. For me actually, I have no comment.
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1043251134239006721
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
(A K P)
Grüne: Anton Hofreiter zu den Waffenexporten an die Jemen-Kriegsallianz
„Die Koalition muss die Genehmigung dieser Rüstungsgüter sofort wieder rückgängig machen. Sie unterstützt mit diesen Waffenlieferungen indirekt die Eskalation des Jemen-Krieges und verspielt damit ihre außenpolitische Glaubwürdigkeit. Noch vor wenigen Monaten erklärte sie wohlfeil keine Waffen mehr an die Kriegsparteien im Jemen liefern zu wollen. Kein halbes Jahr später wird diese richtige Entscheidung im Vorbeigehen eingesammelt. Die Bundesregierung unterstützt mit den Waffenlieferungen zwei Länder die für die humanitäre Katastrophe maßgeblich mitverantwortlich sind. Union und SPD brechen damit nicht nur ihren eigenen Koalitionsvertrag, sondern auch die geltenden Rüstungsexportrichtlinien.“
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(* B K P)
Waffen und Öl: Das Schmierfett der Abhängigkeit
Waffenlieferungen in Konfliktregionen und an autoritäre Staaten können ein Land die Unabhängigkeit kosten. Das Beispiel Frankreich.
Seit eineinhalb Jahren empfängt das offizielle Frankreich im Élysée-Palast in regelmässigen Abständen Vertreter von Menschenrechtsorganisationen. Bei den Treffen sprechen diese oft von der Tragödie, die der Krieg im Jemen verursacht hat. Aber auch der reichliche Verkauf von französischen Waffen an Diktaturen – nicht selten an die Länder am Persischen Golf und an Ägypten – werden angesprochen. Die NGO’s würden dabei stets sehr gut empfangen, ihre Standpunkte von den Regierungsvertretern angehört und die «Warnungen und Empfehlungen» stiessen auf Zustimmung, schreibt «mediapart» unter Berufung auf einen Teilnehmer dieser Treffen.
Doch in den Tagen und Wochen nach den Treffen stellen die NGO-Abgesandten jeweils fest, dass sie nicht gehört und ihre Anliegen erst recht nicht berücksichtigt wurden. Bei den Treffen tritt ein Staat regelmässig in den Vordergrund: Saudi-Arabien.
Dieses Phänomen ist nicht neu – und hat doch in der Vergangenheit an Bedeutung gewonnen: zuerst unter der Präsidentschaft von François Hollande und jetzt unter der Schirmherrschaft von Emmanuel Macron. Die kürzliche Ernennung von Sylvain Fort zum Leiter des Kommunikationszentrums des Élysée-Palasts, könnte Frankreichs Neigung für die Saudis sogar noch verstärken. Fort war bis vor kurzem dafür verantwortlich, «das Image des Königreichs zu verbessern und die Kommunikation des Kronprinzen Mohammed ben Salmane in Frankreich sicherzustellen», schreibt «Le Monde». Damit war Fort ein Lobbyist der Saudis, nun nimmt er eine Schlüsselposition in der Präsidentschaft der Französischen Republik ein.
Heilige Dreifaltigkeit: Waffen, Öl, Iran
Die Beziehung zwischen Frankreich und dem wahhabitischen Königreich wird von den Interessen nach Waffen und Öl zusammengehalten. Eine Allianz gibt es auch in der Iran-Frage. Diese «heilige Dreifaltigkeit» bringt Frankreich dazu, die Augen vor einer der regressivsten und tödlichsten Autokratien der Welt zu verschliessen.
Das Geschäft kommt vor dem Gewissen
Bei der französischen Diplomatie geht es nicht um die Achtung der Menschenrechte, wie Macron oft behauptet. Vielmehr dreht sich vieles um die Interessen der Waffenindustrie. Im Wissen, dass es in Riad keinen Mangel an (US)-Höflingen gibt, die die lukrativen Waffendeals an Land ziehen wollen, unternimmt Frankreich alles, um seine Beziehungen zu den Saudis aufrecht zu erhalten.
Deshalb wird Saudi-Arabien von Frankreich nicht in die Pflicht genommen, wenn es im Jemen Zivilisten bombardiert.
Mitmischen im Nahen Osten
Zusätzlich zu Frankreichs doppelter Unterwerfung (Waffen und Öl) gegenüber Saudi-Arabien, hat sich die Französische Republik den komplizierten Allianzen im Nahen Osten angeschlossen: auf der Seite von Saudi-Arabien gegen den Iran. Seitdem findet sich Frankreich in der Allianz von Mohammed ben Salmane und Benjamin Netanyahu wieder.
https://www.infosperber.ch/Artikel/Politik/Waffen-und-Ol-Das-Schmierfett-der-Abhangigkeit
(* A B P)
Mercenaries Leading Assault on Yemen Port City Were Trained by IDF in Israel
Foreign mercenaries, trained covertly at secret IDF camps in the Negev desert, are now leading the new assault on the Yemen port city of Hodeida, an assault that observers warns threatens to dramatically worsen Yemen’s already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Notably, the revelation of the Israel-based UAE mercenary training camps is not the first indication of covert Israeli involvement in the Yemen conflict. Indeed, when the war first began in 2015, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE were known to use Israeli-made weapons.
In addition, paperwork seized by the Saudi Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a that same year revealed that the U.S. was seeking to build a military base near Yemen’s Bab al-Mandab strait in order to “ensure the security of Israel,” suggesting a strong motive for the U.S.’ and Israel’s support for the coalition.
More recently, rumors about new Israel-Saudi weapons deals, including alleged plans to sell Saudi Arabia the Iron Dome missile defense system, have received press attention, suggesting that the covert sale of Israeli weapons to the Saudi-led coalition continues to the present.
Al-Khaleej Online had previously reported that Israel had covertly sold weapons and ammunition to the Saudis, including internationally prohibited weapons that have since been used in the coalition’s brutal bombing campaign in Yemen that consistently targets civilian infrastructure. Just last month, 43% of the coalition’s targets were civilian structures, despite the fact that the U.S. now directly aids the coalition in choosing its strike targets as part of an alleged effort to reduce civilian casualties in the war.
While Israeli involvement in the war in Yemen has thus far been covert, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated last month that he would consider sending Israeli troops to Yemen to fight on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition if the Yemeni resistance gained control over the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, which serves as a chokepoint on Saudi oil exports and other important Red Sea commerce.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-training-yemen-mercenaries/249637/
Remark: Earlier reporting Yemen War Mosaic 460, cp1.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
Siehe / Look at cp 1, cp9, cp10, cp11, cp12
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
(* B E P)
Central bank split hinders government efforts to save the Riyal
The three-and-a-half-year war in Yemen has split the central bank between the government operating from the interim capital of Aden (the southern part of the country) and the Houthi rebel group that controls the capital, Sanaa, threatening the failure of local currency rescue efforts, which continue the rapidly growing decay of Dollar.
The Yemeni Riyal is witnessing a sharp and rapid decline in its value against the dollar, and local currency prices have fallen sharply against foreign currencies since the end of last August, and the price of the dollar has reached more than 630 Yemeni riyals since the middle of this month, compared to about 513 riyals in the mid-month Preceded by, the US dollar was early in 2015, equal to 215 riyals.
In order to curb the dollar and save the riyal, the legitimate government announced a package of economic measures to save the local currency
The Ministry of Planning, in a report released at the end of July, stressed that the split of the central bank disrupted commercial banks with the instructions of inconsistent and non-functional monetary authorities, resulting in the impossibility of using appropriate monetary policy instruments to mitigate the exchange rate crisis such as interest rate and reserve ratio Legal.
Professor of Banking sciences at the National Institute of Administrative Sciences (INPI) Tariq Abdul Rashid stressed that solving the problem would not be through unifying the work of the central bank but in subjecting the Bank of Sanaa to act under the monetary policy of the central bank.
Abdul Rashid told al-Masdar online that "This will guide the unification of the management of monetary policy. In particular, the central bank of Sana'a is not doing a positive job in monetary policy because it no longer controls the right tools for active participation, foremost of which are the foreign exchange reserve and the currency printing or the tools to influence the amount of money displayed in any direction. "
Abdul Rashid said that it was only hoped that the Bank of Sana'a would act positively (not to impair the performance of the central bank's monetary policy).
http://almasdaronline.com/article/central-bank-split-hinders-government-efforts-to-save-the-riyal
My comment: Yes, it is true that “Central bank split hinders government efforts to save the Riyal”. But this is the sole fault of the Hadi government which had set up a concurrent Central bank at Aden. Looking at this, it’s quite odd to claim “that solving the problem would not be through unifying the work of the central bank but in subjecting the Bank of Sanaa [the Central Bank at Sanaa, founded in 1971; here is avoided to name it a “Central bank”] to act under the monetary policy of the central bank [meaning the split, newly founded Aden Central bank from 2016]. That’s to propose that the tail should be wagging the dog.
And
(* B E P)
A fragile economy and a divided monetary power. What can the central bank achieve by raising the interest rate?!
As part of the economic measures to save the riyal that continues to decay in front of foreign currencies, the central bank of Yemen decided to raise the interest rates on certificates of deposit and government bonds while the bank is still divided between two branches and the headquarters of commercial banks are still in the capital Sana'a, under Houthis control.
What does the central bank want?
Commercial and banking sources explained to the "Almasdar online" that the central bank raised interest rates to withdraw cash from the market to boost the exchange rate of the riyal against the dollar, and encourage banks to invest in government bonds.
The government was in financial straits and tried to borrow from commercial banks by issuing government bonds at the end of July, but failed to persuade commercial banks to invest in government bonds and to encourage banks to deposit funds in the central bank, the sources said, deciding to raise the price Interest on deposits.
Among the objectives of raising interest rates is to curb the rise in commodity prices, but in the case of Yemen, according to banking experts, the current inflation (rising prices) is due, inter alia, to the repercussions of the war and the increase of taxes, customs duties and royalties on the goods imposed by the groups. Armed from all sides at checkpoints along the roads.
Raising the interest rate is feasible if price rises are the result of increased demand and consumption, and work is done to reduce consumption by raising the interest rate to encourage people to deposit their money instead of consumption that causes higher prices.
Raise interest between Aden and Sanaa
The central bank remains stalled and divided between the legitimate government operating from the temporary capital of Aden (the south of the country) and the Houthi rebel group that controls the capital, Sana'a, and this division affects the bank's ability to manage monetary policy tasks from Aden, and imposes obstacles to the implementation of the decision to lift Interest rates.
Yemeni economists believe that the central bank's split is one of the main causes of the country's economic crisis, and that the central bank in Aden is hampered by the use of monetary policy instruments, including raising the interest rate, and that the government's success in managing monetary policy It is contingent on the consolidation of the bank's work currently divided between the Sharia government in Aden (south of the country) and the al-Houthi group, which controls the capital, Sana'a.
According to the Yemeni Ministry of Planning, the absence of a unified and effective monetary authority has had serious repercussions on the banking system in all regions of the country, causing the citizen's confidence in the national currency and banking institutions to deteriorate, thus favoring the acquisition of foreign currencies and withdrawing them outside the banking system.
The ministry said in a report released in early July: "This split has disrupted commercial banks with the instructions of two inconsistent and non-functional monetary authorities, resulting in the impossibility of using appropriate monetary policy instruments to mitigate the exchange rate crisis such as interest rate and legal reserve ratio."
Cart before horse
In the decision to raise the interest rate, the government puts the cart before the horse, and it had to start by preparing its decision by transferring the main headquarters of commercial banks from Sana'a to Aden, because about 80 percent of economic, commercial and banking activity is concentrated in Sana'a and the rest of the Houthis.
Economist Bilal Ahmed said raising interest rates was an impromptu and unthoughtful decision, as the former was to work to restore the trust of the commercial banking sector before deciding.
Ahmed told "Al-Masdar online ": " The main headquarters of commercial banks should first be relocated to the interim capital of Aden
(A E P)
Chairman of the Economic Commission holds the governor of the central bank responsible for implementing procedures to stop the collapse of the Riyal firmly
Chairman of the Economic committee Hafez Me’aiad, blamed the Governor of the central bank, execution of the cash procedures to stop the collapse of the local process.
In a post on his Facebook page, Me’aiad said the committee, which was formed by President Hadi, is responsible for providing opinion, not for implementing the decisions taken.
"The governor of the central bank is legally responsible and we are ready to help him when needed," he added.
(A E P)
Yemeni central Bank approves financial allocations to cover import of essential items
The Central Bank of Yemen on Thursday approved financial allocations for the importation of basic foodstuffs, which amount to no more than 200,000 dollars, and the sale of foreign currency to citizens traveling for treatment, without specifying the selling price.
According to the state news agency Saba, those decisions are designed to achieve flexibility and speed to enable repayment of these goods, thereby reducing the rapid collapse of the local currency.
My comment: Hadi government’s new Central Bank at Aden. All this will not work as long as the war continues and as long as economy is down due to the war and all its destructions.
(* B E)
Government of Yemen: Yemen 2018 Socio-Economic Update, Issue 35 - July 2018
In this Edition:
First: Economic, Social and Humanitarian Role of the Private Sector.
Second: Main Difficulties and Risks Facing the Private Sector.
Third: Priority Interventions
The private sector played a major role in leading the economic activity prior to the war by contributing over 50% of GDP and providing employment for 69.4% of total employed population(1). It was also a major contributor to the public budget deficit through treasury bills and Islamic Sukuk. During the ongoing war, the private sector has become more important and provided an excellent example in supporting humanitarian relief efforts and responding to market demands for goods and services. While the public sector reached a state of collapse, the already weak private sector continued to perform its development role, including the provision of education, health, water and electricity, and importation of fuel and other commodities even at high prices, thereby emphasizing that it has greater flexibility and better ability to cope with war conditions.
The private sector has been struggling to survive despite the deep wounds and violent shocks it sustains day by day, most notably the negative repercussions of the public finance crisis, liquidity crisis, physical damages, economic losses in enterprises and restriction of internal and external transactions. To mitigate the challenges and risks facing the private sector, it is important to reach an economic settlement to distance the private sector from war and conflict in order to ensure the continuity of the economic activity and improve the livelihoods of people.
the private sector’s contribution to the real GDP increased from 62.3% in 2014 to 70% in 2016 (Figure 1). This reflects the private sector’s stronger immunity and better ability to cope with war conditions compared to the public sector, which reached a stage of almost total collapse, especially after the division of state economic institutions since late 2016. Therefore, the already feeble private sector became the main player in the Yemeni economy, along with the international and national organizations that endeavor to fill part of the vacuum left by the public sector in delivery of basic social services. This requires supporting the private sector and strengthening its role in turning the wheel of economic growth and generating work and income opportunities now and in the future.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-2018-socio-economic-update-issue-35-july-2018
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
Siehe / Look at cp6
(* B T)
Clashes Between Islamic State and AQAP Emblematic of Broader Competition
Despite their strong start, IS in Yemen has largely been on the decline since mid-to-late 2016 as the group failed to control the territory where it operated. The group was also hampered by its brutal tactics and inability to embed with local tribes. Unlike AQAP, IS in Yemen did not rebrand nor did it engage in social projects that would ingratiate IS members with locals. Little is known about the actual composition of the group but locals have indicated that many of its members are disenfranchised AQAP fighters and tribesman lured to the group by the promise of salaries. The group’s failure to control territory and sustain their own finances, however, has led to high rates of attrition.
The number of successful attacks the groups have claimed has decreased significantly
Conflict with AQAP
Conflict between IS and AQAP in Yemen was inevitable as their operations overlapped and both were vying for the same resources, which has largely been the case between the broader al-Qaeda and Islamic State core. IS Yemen’s recent decline as well as the uptick in clashes and propaganda competition between IS in Yemen and AQAP have similarly reflected the broader competition between core IS and al-Qaeda.
Despite an apparent agreement to avoid confrontation, competition with AQAP heated up in July 2018 as IS became mostly restricted to the Qayfa area of al-Bayda, where AQAP is particularly active.
Aside from the video of the alleged AQAP hostages, both groups’ official media wings were relatively quiet about the clashes until early August
Just five days after Zawahiri’s message, AQAP released an official statement condemning IS for switching the focus from fighting infidels to infighting between Muslims (Jihadology, August 28, 2018). The two groups have since traded public barbs against one another and have released statements at a higher frequency than in the past.
Outlook
Although IS Aden-Abyan released its first video in several months, it is unlikely that that subgroup will find significant success. Similarly, the larger group is unlikely to regain ground in other southern governorates due to ongoing operations by the UAE and its allied groups – By: Brian M. Perkins
(A T)
In 2017 ops by #alQaeda in #Yemen averaged 5/week. Now it's made only 5 formal claims over past 3 weeks. Latest yday: 2 #UAE-backed forces killed at checkpoint in 'Akad, Abyan 3 Houthis killed defusing bomb in al-Bayda' It didn't mention yday's security raids vs #AQAP in Shabwa
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1043471081082740737
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
Government: 14,000, 220 dead, 31 thousand wounded by Houthi bullets since they took control of Sanaa
Human Rights Minister Mohamed Askar said 14, 000 Yemenis have been killed and another 31,000 injured by al-Houthi bullets and mines since September 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa.
At the seminar organized by the Ministry on the sidelines of the 39th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Askar said that among the dead were 1,500 children and 865 women, and that the deaths caused by the Houthi mines amounted to 1,000 and 539, and the wounded a and 413.
My comment: This looks as if 100 % of the official victims’ figures are ascribed to the Houthis. A world without a Saudi coalition intervention and without Saudi coalition air raids. Unfortunately, not to be found on this planet.
(A P)
The Houthis fell in a "trap" by stolen image. Journalist embarrassed them during her presenting it to the United Nations
In a strange incident, Houthi, at the UN Human Rights Council, presented a picture of one of the children crying on the ruins of his house, on the grounds that he was a victim of an Arab coalition flighters.
However, journalist and human rights activist Hamedan al-Allei, at the Geneva--Council, revealed the lie of the Houthis by clarifying a lot of facts about the photograph.
Activists have circulated a video showing al- Allei ‘sintervention at a seminar of a human rights activist in the tragedy of a Yemeni child who was allegedly bombed by the Arab coalition.
Al- Allei disclosed in his intervention the name of the victim, the owner of the photograph and the location of the incident, and the child victim of the Houthis.
UNICEF was awarded a prize to the Yemeni photographer Nabil al-Azwari, who took the photograph of the child, and later used it on her pages and accounts.
In a special statement to the Arab post, Yemeni journalist Nabil al- Azwari, who works as a photojournalist, said he took the photograph in January 2015 of the child Hamoud Rajeh al-Zubairi, who Houthis blew up his home in a Shera’a area in the district of Arhab, east of the capital Sana'a, before the military operations led by Saudi Arabia at the top of the Arab coalition.
(A P)
Amb. Haley: Iran’s “Fingerprints” on Every Conflict in the Middle East
“For almost 40 years, the Iranian regime has existed outside the community of law-abiding nations,” United State Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said at the opening of this week’s UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East. “It is difficult to name a conflict in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints on it.”
Iran, Haley charged, “has trampled on the sovereignty of its neighbors,” including Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. In particular, the ambassador pointed out that Iran has lately taken to preventing Iraq from asserting sovereignty over its own territory.
Iran’s attempts to assert itself in Iraq involve violations of UN Security Council resolutions.
http://www.thetower.org/6673-amb-haley-irans-fingerprints-on-every-conflict-in-the-middle-east/
My comment: This really is a propaganda joke. ““For almost 40 years, the Iranian regime has existed outside the community of law-abiding nations,”, correctly read: ““For almost 40 years, the Iranian regime has existed outside the community of US vassal nations,” – “It is difficult to name a conflict in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints on it.”, correctly read: “It is difficult to name a conflict in the Middle East that does not have US’ fingerprints on it.” – “Iran has trampled on the sovereignty of its neighbors,” correctly read: “ The US has trampled on the sovereignty of its neighbors as well as of its non-neighbours”. – “Iran has lately taken to preventing Iraq from asserting sovereignty over its own territory”, remember that the US had led two disastrous wars against Iraq, had blockaded the country for a decade causing 500,000 dead children, has smashed the country to become a failed chaos state.
(A P)
Yemen: Bin Dagher Vows Continuous Govt Support to Citizens With Oil Derivatives
Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr vowed on Saturday that his government would continue to cover citizens’ needs of oil products by delivering $10 million per month to the oil company, keeping it from resorting to the market to provide the dollar.
“We reiterate our offer to the Houthis: place all resources at the Central Bank and its branches and we are ready to pay the salaries of all public servants,” he said.
The PM said Houthi rebels collected revenues worth 846 billion Yemeni Riyals last year and pumped it into the market to buy US dollars.
In a seminar held by the national Economic Committee under the slogan "Together We (should) Stabilize the Riyal" in the Egyptian capital, bin Daghr cited a number of Houthi financial abuses that led to the depreciation of the Riyal against the US dollar.
The Saba news agency quoted him as saying that the Sanaa-based coupists "collected the revenues from taxes, customs, and other levies that Houthis made religiously (compulsory) such as the Khomos (fifth of individuals' income)."
"Not taking these funds directly to the central bank and commercial banks …is another cause of the collapse of the national currency," he said referring to Houthi practices.
My comment: This is strange propaganda. The Houthis had formed an own government; this government collects taxes and revenues as all governments on this planet do; the central Bank of Yemen was founded in 1971 and is located at Sanaa and is under Houthi control; the Hadi government had founded a concurrent Central bank at Aden in 2016; for what reason ever the Houthi government and the original Sanaa central bank should pay any funds to the Hadi government’s central bank??
(A P)
Saudi Arabia: We have provided more than $11 billion to support Yemen in 3 years
Saudi Arabia has provided more than 11 billion dollars to support the economy and refugees in Yemen over the past three years, Riyadh announced Friday night.
The director general of King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action (government) Abdullah al- Rabi’ah made the remark at a conference held in Saudi Arabia today to review the volume of humanitarian assistance provided by the Arab coalition countries to Yemen.
Al-Rabi’ah said Riyadh alone has provided more than $11 billion to support Yemen's economy, humanitarian aspects and Yemeni refugees, both in Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Somalia, and internally displaced persons within the country in the past three years.
(A P)
KSrelief Center Takes Part, in Int'l Gathering on Challenges facing Humanitarian Action, in Yemen
A delegation from King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) headed by the Center's spokesman, Dr. Samer Al-Jatili, has taken part, in a conference on "Challenges of Political Solution, Humanitarian Action, Reconstruction and Stability" organized by the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the United Nations, with the participation of representatives of the 19 states, sponsoring the political process, in Yemen, and representatives of international and regional organizations concerned with humanitarian affairs.
Al-Jatili said that one of the most important challenges facing the humanitarian work, in Yemen, is the incidents of seizing and looting by the Houthi armed militias on ships, relief convoys and humanitarian aid trucks, in addition, to attacks on international organizations and workers, as happened, in Sana'a, Taiz, Hajja, Hodeida, to name a few, for example.
He also pointed out to the dire humanitarian situation, in Yemen, before 2014, according to UN reports.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1817391
and
(A P)
Emirates Human Rights Association hosts seminar on Yemen
The recent United Nations, UN, report on human rights in Yemen has ignored the reality of human rights situation there under the Houthi coup and missed the terrorist acts committed by the rebels in Sana'a, mediapersons told a seminar held by the Emirates Human Rights Association in Dubai.
Titled: ''Yemen: Events and Facts'', the seminar was attended by Mohammed Salem Al Kaabi, Chairman of the Emirates Human Rights Association, mediaperson Ahmed Al Yamahi, and Yemeni writer Ali Al Zikri.
Al Kaabi said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' report carried a series of allegations and fabrications about the Arab Coalition in Yemen, ignored the crimes committed by the Houthis and the destructive role played by Qatar and its backers in Yemen to destabilise the country's security and stability.
http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302709469
My comment: Still, the greatest perpetrators are holding a “seminar” (= propaganda event) on Yemen and are repeating their propaganda claims against the UN report.
(A P)
Saudi Arabia's aid agency KSRelief signs program to treat wounded Yemenis
King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) has signed an executive program for the treatment of wounded Yemenis in several Yemeni governorates, in cooperation with Ben Zaila Hospital in the city of Seiyun.
Deputy Director of the Department of Medical and Environmental Assistance Dr. Abdullah Al-Wadai said this program is extended to the previous contracts signed with five hospitals in Yemen.
He explained that this program will provide medical care for 200 wounded and injured Yemenis according to medical standards.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1376381/saudi-arabia
My comment: by bombing masters, this is a propaganda joke.
(A P)
Bin Mubarak: Houthis benefit from the revenues of the port of Hodeidah and its residents suffer famine
Yemen's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Ahmed bin Mubarak said: "The suffering of thousands of families in Hodeidah and all areas controlled by the coup d'état lies mainly in the absence of their breadwinner in the custody of Houthi prisons, or in the interruption of their income to confiscate the Houthis for 70% of state resources, according to reports. of internationalism, or in the absence of any humanitarian assistance because of the obstruction, misrepresentation and theft of such assistance by the Houthi militias and the testimony of the UN organizations themselves. "
"The province of Hodeidah has now become the challenge for humanitarian assistance, because only the Houthi militias are benefiting from the revenues of their port while their residents are suffering from the situation," said the ambassador in the (Statement of the Republic of Yemen), who today addressed the Security Council at the open session on the case (Yemen). Famine since the beginning of the coup d'état, but this should not last long and must end the human suffering in Hodeidah and not allow threats to the security and safety of navigation in the Red Sea. "
(A P)
Yemen’s humanitarian situations reached ‘unprecedented’ suffering
Kuwait has stressed that the humanitarian situation in Yemen and in Hodeidah in particular has unfortunately reached unprecedented stages of daily suffering of the Yemeni people. The Houthi group has exploited the roads used to deliver humanitarian aid through setting up military checkpoints in a clear and deliberate obstruction of aid Humanitarian assistance to children, women and the elderly who suffer from hunger and threat of epidemics. This came during Kuwait’s speech at the Security Council meeting on the situation in Yemen, which was delivered by the Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi.
Otaibi said that in order to secure the safe access of humanitarian aid to needy people, the Yemeni government forces, supported by the Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy, have carried out specific operations through the temporary closure of the main road between Sana’a and Al-Hodeidah. He added that the forces had contacted the humanitarian evacuation and humanitarian committee in Riyadh with the international humanitarian actors to inform them of alternative ways of dispatching humanitarian aid from Al-Hodeidah to Sana’a and to confirm that the road will be reopened.
Otaibi said it was stressed that the alternative route will be opened as soon as possible after securing it through the clearing of mines and checkpoints
http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/yemens-humanitarian-situations-reached-unprecedented-suffering/
https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2747444&Language=en
My comment: This is really putting upside down. Now Kuwait as a Saudi coalition ally stages new propaganda related on Hodeidah. – There are military checkpoints everywhere in Yemen, established by all parties of the war in the territory they control, hindering free traffic throughout the country.
(A P)
The last breath of Al-Saud in Yemen
The killing of the Yemeni people is not only not condemned by the United States and its European allies (especially Britain and France), but we are witnessing the continuation of this trend.
Undoubtedly, one of the main losers of the Yemeni war was the United Nations. At present, the crimes of Saudi and Emirati authorities in Yemen are rising day by day. Despite the brutal killing of tens of thousands of Yemeni people by Riyadh, the United Nations still refuses to condemn the Saudis.
Saudi Arabia has even lost the power to regulate its relations with its allies in Yemen. The controversy that has formed between Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen can be analyzed in the same vein. These conflicts are the result of the erosion of the Yemeni war and the joint defeat of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/137963/The-last-breath-of-Al-Saud-in-Yemen
Remark: From Iran.
(A P)
Yamani Accuses Iran of Sticking to ‘Expansionist Agenda’
Yemeni Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled al-Yamani has accused Iran of sticking to its policy of expansion in the region and to its support of Houthi militias in Yemen.
Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani and Yamani took part in the opening of the Conference on Yemen entitled “Challenges of Political Solution, Humanitarian Action, Restoring Stability and Reconstruction.”
The conference, which was held in New York on the eve of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, was attended by dozens of US, European, Arab and other officials and diplomats, in addition to delegations representing the Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen, especially from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Yemen’s FM stressed the importance of cooperation among states to put pressure on Houthis and force them to comply with the aspirations of the Yemeni people, face Iran's terrorist agenda in the region and reach lasting and sustainable peace in Yemen.
He explained that, among others, these objectives could be achieved by committing to the three UN references.
My comment: Propaganda as usual. For this, you do not need such a conference.
(A P)
SANAA Chamber of Commerce complains extortion: Houthi customs creates fuel crisis and raises prices
The Houthi rebel group continues to blackmail merchants in the capital Sana'a and the rest of its regions, holding dozens of commercial shipments of goods, fuel and cooking gas at its customs outlets at the entrances to cities, and imposing illegal customs duties on merchants ' goods.
An official in the Sanaa Chamber of Commerce told the AL-Masdar online that the Houthis have been holding dozens of commercial trucks for days in the newly created customs, including trucks loaded with food commodities and locomotives loaded with oil derivatives and cooking gas, and explained that the Houthi authorities have requested sums Great under different nomenclature including «Customs duties» versus release of shipments.
The capture of oil and gas derivatives has caused a living crisis in the Yemeni capital
My comment: Houthi customs games might be counterproductive. – But, this is a really stupid propaganda: As if there would not be a war, Saudi coalition aerial war and destruction, Saudi coalition blockade since 3 ½ years…
(A P)
As the Houthis celebrate as a revolution. Yemeni activists commemorate " catastrophe of 21 September"
The Houthi rebel group announced Saturday an official holiday in the areas under its control on the anniversary of its armed invasion of the capital Sana'a.
Since 2015, the Houthi militias have approved an official holiday on the occasion of what they call a revolution and force citizens in their areas to celebrate it, but their area of control is constantly being eroded for the benefit of government forces supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
Bloggers, media and activists on Thursday evening launched a campaign on social media sites to revive what they call the "catastrophe of September 21", the day when the Houthi militias were able to support forces loyal to former President Ali Abdallah Saleh from the invasion and control of the capital Sana'a in 2014 After the Minister of Defense in the authority of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi announced the commitment of the army to stand at one distance from the "conflicting parties".
(A P)
#KSA Ambassador to Yemen said, "On this day, 4 years ago, the #Houthis staged a coup against Gov, turned against the #NDC and against everything Yemenis have agreed upon. They have also destroyed the social structure and all state institutions and committed horrifying crimes. "
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1043234999976308737
My comment: Who thinks this man could be a realistic source on Yemen, also could have asked Joseph Goebbels to explain him the Holocaust in 1942/45.
(A P)
Four years of continuous destruction of the country's economy
Since the Houthis overthrew power on September 21, they have done great damage to all areas of people's lives.
The economic sphere was the most affected by the disastrous September 21 coup. The Houthis launched a large-scale looting of the state and its civil and military institutions.
The Houthis then squandered the cash reserve that was before their coup more than 4 billion dollars and looted one billion dollars of the insurance institution.
The Houthis also suspended the social security benefits approved for hundreds of thousands of citizens and looted them since the first year of the coup, in addition to the suspension of salaries of civil servants and military personnel for more than two years, while imposing the so-called "war effort" They got billions of riyals.
Since the Houthi coup on Sept. 21, oil derivatives prices have tripled since the September 21 coup and the black market has rebounded in an unprecedented manner. The national currency has collapsed until the exchange rate reached 620 riyals against the dollar.
https://republicanyemen.net/archives/11084
My comment: This is a really stupid propaganda: As if there would not be a war, Saudi coalition aerial war and destruction, Saudi coalition blockade since 3 ½ years…
(A P)
Yemeni HR Coalition for Monitoring Violations, Urges UN to Desist Relying on Houthi, as Source of Information
Yemeni Coalition for Human Rights (HR) Monitoring Violations, strongly, expressed serious concern over violations against human rights workers, working with UN organizations or independent workers from other local and international organizations.
Yemeni rights activist Yasser al-Hassani said in a speech to the Human Rights Council here today, that human rights workers, in Yemen are at great risk of intimidation, arrest and other violations that are an obstacle to the performance of their duties, at the hands of Iran-backed terrorist outfits such as Al-Houthi militias and al-Qaeda network.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1816942
My comment: Saudi coalition mouthpieces smearing all evidence which is not given by Saudi coalition propaganda.
(A P)
UAE provides more than $4bn in assistance to Yemen
Assistance to war-affected civilians covered full spectrum from food aid to health care and governance
The UAE's humanitarian assistance to Yemen crossed US$4 billion (Dh14.79bn) mark this month, of which $1.24bn was given this year alone, according to figures released by the Government on Friday.
The aid was provided to meet the basic needs of more than 16.7 million Yemenis affected by the civil war since April 2015, including 10.1 million children and 3.4 million women, the state news agency Wam reported.
About $465 million of the aid allocated so far this year went towards the United Nations Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, Wam said.
The figures show that the Government ramped up its aid allocation for the province of Hodeidah since June
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/uae-provides-more-than-4bn-in-assistance-to-yemen-1.772660
(A P)
YEMEN'S SPRAWLING CRISIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER DIRTY LITTLE WAR
The U.S. must ensure this country does not become another haven for Iran-backed terrorists.
This conflict is not just another dirty little war. Yemen has a broader strategic significance recognized by both the Saudis and the Iranians — and by the U.S. Yemen sits at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an 18-mile-wide waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean through which pass 4.7 million barrels of oil a day, along with goods heading toward Europe and the U.S. from the Persian Gulf and Asia. The Houthis have already lobbed missiles at a U.S. warship in the strait.
With Iran supporting the Houthis, a fear expressed by scholar Michael Knights (who has visited Yemen battlefields) is that over time, Iran could mold the Houthis into what he calls a “southern Hezbollah” — that is, a Gulf-based group with tactics and goals mirroring the influential Iran-allied one in Lebanon that is behind much terrorism in the region. This means that if there is ever a cease-fire and peace deal in the war, the U.S. will need to give high priority to ensuring Iran does not have unrestricted logistical and other access to Yemen. That would give Iran the wherewithal to keep the Houthis stocked with weapons and funds — maintaining their clandestine supply line to Hezbollah through Syria is a major motivation for Iran’s heavy engagement in that conflict, and Tehran almost certainly has comparable motives for its engagement in Yemen – by John McLaughlin
https://www.ozy.com/opinion/yemens-sprawling-crisis-is-not-just-another-dirty-little-war/89464
My comment: If you wonder where this US Elite interests focused propaganda comes from, look at the author: https://www.ozy.com/ozy-tribe/john-mclaughlin/2751 and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._McLaughlin and https://web.archive.org/web/20151119233603/http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/homeland-security/ahsg/members/mclaughlin
(A P)
Director General of "ISESCO": ISESCO supports Path of Stability and Peace in Yemen
Director-General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri affirmed ISESCO's position in support of the path of stability and peace in Yemen through the restoration of the institutions of legality and the end of the coup.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1816817
My comment: Another Saudi international mouthpiece organization.
(A P)
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the bearer of peace, harmony & moderation. Facts speak of its historical achievements, it plays a leading role in making the world a more "secure & stable" place. (History chronicles facts & reveals the importance of places & the true value of men) (photos)
https://twitter.com/fekerksa_en/status/1041573657880014848
My comment: LOL.
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
Sept. 19: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/a.551858951631141/1143172169166480/?type=3&theater
(A K pH)
Saada p.: The US-Saudi aggression launched three raids on civilians' houses and a raid on a mosque in Baqim district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2934&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Saudi warplanes resume striking Hodeidah
Saudi aggression warplanes resumed bombing the Hodeidah city, an official told Saba on Sunday .
The planes struck parking in al-Hally district two times.
The aerial bombing damaged citizens' houses, public and private properties
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509083.htm
(A K pH)
Two citizens killed in Saudi aggression air strikes on Hodiedah
Two killed were killed and two wounded on Saturday in Saud-led aggression air strikes on Hodeidah province, an official told Saba.
The strikes hit Hali area, killing two citizens and injuring two other.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509052.htm
and
Aggression’s Daily Update for Saturday, September 22nd, 2018
In Hodiedah, two civilians were killed and two others were injured by taregeting Commercial Refrigerators on Kilo-16 in Al--Hale district.
In Hodeidah, 11 civilians were injured, including five children, by two airstrikes of the US-Saudi aggression on a car rental company, in addition to destroying the company.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2934&cat_id=1
and
(A K pH)
Film: the crime of targeting the refrigerator in the area Kilo 16 in Hodeidah 22-09-2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODN8QTwZaRc
(A K pH)
Two Saudi aggression air strikes hit Hodeidah
The airstrikes hit Kilo16 area
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509029.htm
(A K pH)
According to the source, the aircraft of aggression launched three raids on different areas in the district of the Department of the Department of Mzaz, resulting in the injury of a man seriously injured, and the destruction and damage to a number of homes and farms citizens.
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1904764266486225
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news508995.htm (mentioning only material damage)
(A K pS)
Coalition of Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen Raid Kill elements of Houthi militia in Sana'a and Al-Biadah
A number of elements of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia were killed by an air strike targeting them in the Directorate of Al-Malgam, east of the central province of Al-Baida.
A field source said that the air force of the Arab Coalition to support the legitimacy in Yemen targeted at 1:00 on Friday morning a vehicle belonging to the militia in the area Albayad Directorate Al-Malgam.
He added in a statement to the website of September Net of the Yemeni armed forces that the raid resulted in the destruction of the vehicle and the killing of all who were on board the militia.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1816706
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
(A K pS)
Government forces advance 12 km in Haradh and reach the outskirts of al-Mazraq
Al-Masdar Online correspondent said that the special forces, led by Brigadier Mohammed al-Hajouri, had been advancing for the past week, up to 12 kilometers from the north-west of Hajjah province to the military point on the entrance of the area and the market of al-mzraq camp on the border with Sa'dah Governorate.
(A K pS)
Houthis explode mosque and Quran center in Hajjah
The Houthi gunmen blew up a mosque and a holy Quran memorization center in the district of Abbs in the northwestern province of Hajjah.
The site of the government forces spokesman, September net, quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the Houthis blew up a memorization center for the Qur'an and a three-storey mosque in Shaab Al doosh of the village of Bani Hassan in the Directorate of Abbs.
Last week, the Houthis blew up three houses of citizens in the same area, local sources reported.
http://almasdaronline.com/article/houthis-explode-mosque-and-quran-center-in-hajjah
(A B K pS)
A child was injured by the explosion of a landmine planted by Houthi militia in Al-Ma'asar village, in Al-Dalea governorate. The incident caused serious injuries including the amputation of her leg.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1042941562316107777
Dozens of citizens were killed and injured, including children, as a result of missiles fired by Houthi militia and landmines planted by them in four governorates (Hajjah, Hodeida, Baydha, Al-Dahlea
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1043238018797187073
(A K pH)
Woman wounded in Saudi rocket attack on Saada An old woman was injured on Saturday when Saudi aggression army launched a barrage of rockets towards province of Saada, an official told Saba.
The shelling hit residential area of Razih, Shada and Monaba districts, injuring the woman and causing heavy damage to houses and farms of the citizen
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news509063.htm
(A K pH)
Rocketry Force Fires Ballistic Missile, Bader1, Targeting Jizan Airport
Rocketry Force of the Army and Popular Committees fired on Saturday a ballistic missile, Bader 1, on Jizan Airport, hitting its target accurately.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2931&cat_id=1
(A K pS)
Saudi Arabia intercepts ballistic missile launched by Yemen's Houthi militia towards Jazan
Saudi Arabia said its air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen by Houthi militia toward the southern province of Jazan on Saturday evening.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1376261/saudi-arabia
(A K pH)
Saudi Soldiers Killed, Including Army Officers, in Aseer
Yemeni Army and Popular Committees targeted Saudi soldiers' gathering in Majazah in Aseer by Katyusha missiles, killing and wounding a number of them, including high ranked officers.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2923&cat_id=1
and
(A K)
Al Houthi forces killed three Saudi soldiers on the Saudi-Yemeni border, according to Saudi news reports. King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud sent his condolences to the soldier’s families on September 21.[5]
(* A K pH)
Horrific images of a new massacre committed by the Saudi enemy in Saada
According to a security source that the Saudi enemy, launched rocket and artillery bombardment on the homes and farms of citizens in the Maran district of the Directorate of Haidan, which led to the death of three women and injuring four from one family.
According to the source, the aircraft of aggression launched three raids on different areas in the district of the Department of the Department of Mzaz, resulting in the injury of a man seriously injured, and the destruction and damage to a number of homes and farms citizens (photos)
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1904764266486225
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1043243785696804864
or by an air raid?
3 Women Killed and another Injured by US-Saudi Aggression in Saada
According to Al-Masirah Net correspondent, 3 women were killed and one was injured from the same family by US-Saudi airstrikes that targeted Hidan district, in Saada.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=2916&cat_id=1
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* B P)
The 'significant expansion' of Israeli spyware use in the Gulf and beyond
Toronto-based research organisation details use of spyware to target civil society in Saudi, UAE and Bahrain
A recent report showed that spyware produced by an Israeli-based cyber-warfare vendor, which only deals with governments, has witnessed “significant expansions” of usage in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Citizen Lab, a research and development organisation at the University of Toronto, said on Tuesday that it tracked the use of Pegasus, a mobile phone spyware suite produced by Tel Aviv-based NSO Group between August 2016 and August 2018.
“Our findings paint a bleak picture of the human rights risks of NSO’s global proliferation. At least six countries with significant Pegasus operations have previously been linked to abusive use of spyware to target civil society,” said the report, naming the three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, as well as Morocco.
NSO Group, which says it sells its products to "legitimate government agencies for the sole purpose of investigating and preventing crime and terror", came into the spotlight in recent years after reports emerged of governments using its Pegasus tool to spy on private individuals in Saudi, UAE and Mexico.
Amnesty International said in August that a staffer received a message via WhatsApp from a number they didn’t recognize about a protest supposedly taking place at the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC.
“When Amnesty’s tech team analysed the message, we found that clicking the link would have installed highly potent spyware - the Saudi protest was just carefully chosen bait,” said the international human rights watchdog, adding that a closer look into the domain name tied it to a “secretive company: NSO Group”.
(* B D)
Ten Days Before the Wedding: The rebirth of Yemeni cinema
Yemen's first locally produced film in years is proving to be a hit with audiences and critics alike.
Yemen's film industry is experiencing a revival with Ten Days Before the Wedding, a locally produced film proving to be a hit with audiences and critics alike.
The film, which tells the story of a young couple whose marriage plans were nearly derailed by the Yemen war, premiered in the southern city of Aden earlier this month.
With a 9.8 rating on IMDB, the film follows the romantic relationship between Rasha and Mamoun and how their wedding was put on hold when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates entered Yemen's war in March 2015 after Houthi rebels, traditionally based in the northwest of the country, overran much of the country.
The film branches out to cover broader issues in the country, including poverty, assassinations and the effects of the war.
"We wanted a movie to show what's going on inside the homes of this city and the country as a whole and how families have been affected by the state of the economy, how the hopes of young people have collapsed," Amr Gamal, the film's director, told Al Jazeera.
"We tried to portray the mental state of the Yemeni people."
The film has struck a chord with Yemenis in Aden, who have packed a makeshift cinema for each of the film's screenings since last month's Eid al-Adha festival.
"I heard this is a beautiful movie so I came with the family to watch it," said Mohammed Adnan.
"Having a movie made in Aden is more than just entertainment. There is a sense of pride here about the production."
Cast and shot entirely in the coastal city, the film had a reported production budget of around $30,000.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/ten-days-wedding-rebirth-yemeni-cinema-180922103345985.html
(* C)
HOW A WAR IN EGYPT SANK YEMEN'S ONCE-BUSTLING PORT
The Six-Day War itself also had long-lasting economic implications. “In ports all over the world yesterday, radios crackled with orders from shipping companies for vessels to alter their courses,” The New York Times wrote on June 7, 1967. Following the Israeli attack, United Arab Republic President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Suez Canal for just the second time in 98 years. The article notes that a ship traveling from the Persian Gulf to Europe would now need to travel around the southern tip of Africa, adding 16 days and 4,800 miles to the journey — and cutting Aden out of the process entirely.
If the canal had closed only for a short while, it would have been inconvenient for Aden’s port. But it remained blocked until 1975. By this time, competitors in the region with more access to investment — from Djibouti to Dubai — had taken Aden’s position as the preferred long-distance port. In the 1990s, Aden tried to claw back its prominence with a proposal to become a hub of super-container ships, as Aden was far better placed geographically than places like Dubai to receive ships going between Asia and Europe. But there just wasn’t enough investment to create the infrastructure needed, Behony explains. “It has never really had a sufficient level of investment and support,” he says.
Today, Aden is in exceptionally dire straits.
https://www.ozy.com/flashback/how-a-war-in-egypt-sank-yemens-once-bustling-port/89431
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-460-yemen-war-mosaic-460
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-460 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-460:
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/
und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
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