... Terroristen als Verbündete der VAE und USA – Fotos aus dem Jemen – Hodeidah: Erste Schritte zum Umsetzen der Vereinbarungen, Waffenstillstand immer wieder gebrochen – und mehr
December 30, 2018: Yemen’s hunger crisis – AP on Yemen’s Dirty War – Yemeni refugees in Egypt – Sudanese mercenaries and child soldiers in Yemen – Terrorists as UAE, US allies – Photos from Yemen – Hodeidah: First steps to implement agreements, ceasefire is repeatedly violated – and more
Ein Frohes Neues Jahr 2019 für Sie alle und für den Jemen im Besonderen!
A Happy new Year 2019 to all off you and especially to Yemen!
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
cp1b1 Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah: Deutsch/ Most important: Hodeidah battle: German
cp1b2 Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah: Englisch / Most important: Hodeidah battle: English
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
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13d 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
more: https://twitter.com/EshraqAlmaqtari/status/107833393428133068
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
Neue Artikel / New articles
(* B H K)
Saudi Strikes, American Bombs, Yemeni Suffering
How Saudi Arabia’s war tactics have fueled Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
The dots on this map show some of the places where the Saudi Arabia-led coalition struck civilian targets in Yemen.
The Saudis and their chief ally, the United Arab Emirates, fight principally from the air. Armed with American-made warplanes and bombs, they have carried out thousands of airstrikes on Houthi targets but also on hospitals, weddings and funerals.
Their pilots typically fly high to avoid enemy fire, which reduces the accuracy of strikes. They regularly ignore a voluminous no-strike list.
The United States backed the coalition from the start with sales of weapons and bombs, midair refueling of warplanes over Yemen, and intelligence. A
Yemen has always been poor, with high rates of malnutrition and disease. But the three-year war has ground its economy into the dust.
Blockades, bombing, currency manipulation and a decision to stop paying public servants in Houthi territory crushed Yemen’s economy.
Yemen’s hunger crisis is nearing catastrophic proportions. At least 85,000 children have died. Food insecurity projections show that, without urgent action, a national famine is looming.
Starvation has become a weapon of war. In an effort to isolate Houthi militants, the Saudi-led coalition has bombed farms, fishing boats and factories, according to scholars.Civilians are hit hardest. Dots here show coalition strikes on fishing and agriculture targets – By DEREK WATKINS and DECLAN WALSH (with maps; very well made and worth looking!)
My comment: very well made, but the figures of war victims are much higher than stated here.
(* B H K)
Film: Fighting, starvation and disease yield grim crisis in Yemen
The United Nations calls Yemen the site of the worst humanitarian suffering in the world. Years of war have caused widespread starvation and disease; supply routes are blocked by fighting, and fuel and food prices have spiked. With the economy destroyed, many Yemenis cannot even afford transportation to the medical facilities they so desperately need. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fighting-starvation-and-disease-yield-grim-crisis-in-yemen = https://www.thirteen.org/programs/pbs-newshour/fighting-starvation-and-disease-yield-grim-crisis-in-yemen-1546039999/ = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLACTZzF1cU
(* B H)
Film: I’m aware that this is very tough to watch. Four year old Ikram was in the children’s ward in Sabaeen Hospital in Yemen’s Capital Sana’a, when I visited there earlier this month. Her little body is so emaciated I was surprised that she could stand; many of the worst cases we see in Yemen struggle to stand or walk.
https://www.facebook.com/jane.ferguson.3517/videos/vb.702705133/10161188742260134/?type=2&theater = https://www.facebook.com/jane.ferguson.3517/videos/10161188742260134/
and
(* B H)
Save The Children estimates that 85,000 children have already died of hunger and preventable
Save The Children estimates that 85,000 children have already died of hunger and preventable diseases. It’s hard to divide the two as most children who die are initially starving and then succumb to infectious diseases because they are so weak.
This little girl - called Amal - was in the children’s ward of Thura hospital in Hodeidah. She is five months old and her mother died two months ago from anemia. Her dad could not afford formula.
https://www.facebook.com/YemenNotAlone/videos/790114951336430/
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B H K P)
An unnatural disaster
Yemen’s hunger crisis is born of deliberate policies, pursued primarily by a Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States
After four years of conflict, more than 20 million Yemenis — roughly two-thirds of the population — don’t have enough to eat. In most cases, it’s not because food is completely unavailable but because it’s unaffordable, priced out of reach by import restrictions, soaring transport costs due to fuel scarcity, a collapsing currency and other man-made supply disruptions.
Economic measures, largely imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition backed by the United States, have helped produce what the United Nations considers the world’s most severe humanitarian catastrophe.
And over the past year, the hunger crisis has worsened dramatically, with a 60 percent increase in the number of districts now considered to face emergency conditions, according to an analysis released this month by a consortium of aid agencies. More than half now fall in this category.
Yet even as the world has begun to take note, many Yemenis remain out of reach of assistance. The hardest-hit areas are often the most remote, and the relentless violence coupled with threats posed by competing armed groups have made it daunting for aid agencies to deliver relief. The Yemeni government itself is so broken that it can barely help.
The crisis, at its root, reflects what critics say is the reckless way that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is conducting war in Yemen against Iran-aligned rebels. The specter of an emerging famine is among the reasons the U.S. Senate this month voted to end U.S. support for the coalition, which is also blamed for killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes.
“Today, many Yemenis say they are facing two wars,” said Abeer Etefa, a senior regional spokeswoman for the World Food Program. “The first war is the one that comes from the skies. Sometimes it impacts their lives, other times it doesn’t. The second war is the inflation war. That impacts their lives every day.”
Those who are relatively fortunate are noticed by aid workers, often by chance, and brought to overcrowded clinics. The less fortunate, who medical workers say form the majority, waste away as their parents helplessly watch. Many families are unable to afford medical care or even transportation to clinics.
Often, parents are forced to decide between saving their sick children and feeding their healthy ones.
A raft of economic policies has conspired to raise food prices by an average of 137 percent since the start of the conflict, according to the World Food Program, bringing Yemen to the brink of famine.
In an effort to strangle the rebels, known as Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government has imposed import restrictions, including on food, medicine and fuel. The resulting spike in fuel prices has led to higher transport costs, which in turn has also driven up food prices.
The coalition, in the meantime, tightly controls the movement of goods and people by air, sea and land into northern Yemen, where 80 percent of the population lives. Those controls have further disrupted supplies and boosted the prices of food, fuel and other goods even more.
The shooting from the war also has played a devastating part. One-third of the 18,000 airstrikes carried out by the coalition have targeted nonmilitary sites, including factories, farms, markets, power plants and food warehouses, according to the Yemen Data Project. Those attacks have shattered domestic food production and distribution and have erased livelihoods, leaving Yemenis with less to spend.
Perhaps most disastrous for a country that must depend overwhelmingly on imported food, the purchasing power of the Yemeni currency has cratered. The government and its Saudi patrons have mismanaged the central bank, for instance by liberally printing money, while foreign currency reserves have dried up as fighting choked off energy exports, gutting the rial.
To a lesser extent, the rebels are in fact also at fault for rising prices. They impose heavy checkpoint “fees” on businesses importing food and fuel, aid workers say – by Sudarsan Raghavan (with photos and films)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/yemen-famine-crisis/
Remark: I'd add to his excellent report that another key driver of the famine threat in Yemen is the ongoing non-payment of civil servant salaries in Houthi-run areas since 2016. A large majority of Yemeni families who depended on civil service salaries were impoverished overnight
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078739572727648256
(** B H K P)
Yemen's Dirty War
Four years into Yemen’s civil war, and the results are disastrous: Yemen is starving. As the world’s worst humanitarian crisis unfolds, a team of AP journalists explores the military and political forces that have kept an entire nation hostage to violence.
[AP reports, photo essays from 2018]
https://apnews.com/YemenDirtyWar
(** B H)
Yemenis in Egypt face another kind of hell
Although there are no official Egyptian figures, Baligh al-Mekhlafi, the information counselor at the Yemeni Embassy, told Al-Monitor that some 700,000 Yemenis reside in Egypt, a number with which two Yemeni organizations working in Cairo consulted by Al-Monitor agreed.
Other estimations by Fahd al-Ariki, the current chairman of the Yemeni Community Council in Egypt — a council of dignitaries linked to the Yemeni Embassy — reduce this number to some 300,000, on the basis that some Yemenis first land in Egypt but then leave for somewhere else. Before the war in Yemen, Mekhlafi said that the number was around 30,000.
Once in Egypt, reality turned to be far less idyllic than what they had imagined.
“Now I am working in a small clothing factory from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., six days a week. I only get some 1,200 Egyptian pounds [$67] per month,” she said. “And things are getting more and more expensive.”
Yemenis in Egypt do not have the right to work, so those who find a job usually end up in its large, underpaid informal sector. As a result, Hana and her daughter rent a flat in Cairo for 600 pounds ($33), which they share with other Yemenis to try to make ends meet.
The feeling that they are part of a neglected community due to what they perceive as a total lack of support, brings Hana to consider moving back to Yemen, no matter the risks. “We have been facing difficulties since the beginning,” she noted. “So sometimes I think of going back to Yemen and die there, instead of staying in Egypt. We are very tired.”
Far from being an isolated case, others have already started to take this step.
Besides the economic problems and the lack of appropriate services noted by Hana and Fatma, Jamal, the director of a Yemeni grassroots organization based in Cairo, told Al-Monitor that another major problem faced by Yemenis is keeping their legal status in Egypt.
“The residency fees are more than 1,000 Egyptian pounds [$56] per person every six months,” he said. “And a lot of people get to a point where they cannot afford it and cannot renew it, so they stay illegally, which puts them in an even more vulnerable situation.”
This issue could be easily solved if Yemenis registered at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but only a tiny number do so. As of November, 7,781 Yemenis had registered. The figure, however, is also increasing fast. In December 2017, 4,278 Yemenis had registered.
Jamal thinks otherwise. He claims that the poor services provided by UNHCR and the fact that Yemenis cannot be recognized as refugees because UNHCR stopped conducting refugee status determination interviews for Yemenis unless referred for resettlement are the main reasons behind the low number.
Ashraf, a Yemeni from Sanaa who arrived in Cairo in December 2017, is among them. “Many Yemenis advised me not to register because it is useless. There are no real benefits,” he told Al-Monitor. “UNHCR does not believe in our problems."
Yousra added, “All the problems that many Yemenis face affect them psychologically, emotionally and socially. And this prevents them from integrating easily with other communities, so they become unsocial and isolate themselves.”
Jamal noted, “Based on the bigger picture, we cannot deny that the Egyptian government still gives us some assistance. It is one of the only countries that still opens its arms [to Yemenis]."
“But Yemenis don’t receive any substantial help, so many run out of money and — after what happened to Yemen — suffer from depression or anxiety,” he continued. “In the end, they try to find a way out, sometimes illegally, sometimes by going back to Yemen.
(** B K P)
On the Front Line of the Saudi War in Yemen? Child Soldiers from Darfur
The civil war in Darfur robbed Hager Shomo Ahmed of almost any hope. Raiders had stolen his family’s cattle, and a dozen years of bloodshed had left his parents destitute.
Then, around the end of 2016, Saudi Arabia offered a lifeline: The kingdom would pay as much as $10,000 if Hager joined its forces fighting 1,200 miles away in Yemen.
Hager, 14 at the time, could not find Yemen on a map, and his mother was appalled. He had survived one horrific civil war — how could his parents toss him into another? But the family overruled her.
“Families know that the only way their lives will change is if their sons join the war and bring them back money,” Hager said in an interview last week in the capital, Khartoum, a few days after his 16th birthday.
At any time for nearly four years as many as 14,000 Sudanese militiamen have been fighting in Yemen in tandem with the local militia aligned with the Saudis, according to several Sudanese fighters who have returned and Sudanese lawmakers who are attempting to track it. Hundreds, at least, have died there.
Almost all the Sudanese fighters appear to come from the battle-scarred and impoverished region of Darfur, where some 300,000 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced during a dozen years of conflict over diminishing arable land and other scarce resources.
Some families are so eager for the money that they bribe militia officers to let their sons go fight. Many are ages 14 to 17. In interviews, five fighters who have returned from Yemen and another about to depart said that children made up at least 20 percent of their units. Two said children were more than 40 percent.
To keep a safe distance from the battle lines, their Saudi or Emirati overseers commanded the Sudanese fighters almost exclusively by remote control, directing them to attack or retreat through radio headsets and GPS systems provided to the Sudanese officers in charge of each unit, the fighters all said.
But in Sudan, which has played a far larger role, the Saudi money appears to flow directly to the fighters — or mercenaries, as critics call them. It benefits the economy only indirectly.
“People are desperate. They are fighting in Yemen because they know that in Sudan they don’t have a future,” said Hafiz Ismail Mohamed, a former banker, economic consultant and critic of the government. “We are exporting soldiers to fight like they are a commodity we are exchanging for foreign currency.”
The five fighters who had returned from Yemen and two brothers of fighters who died there all gave similar accounts. Sudanese jets departed Khartoum or Nyala, Darfur, carrying 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers at a time to Saudi Arabia.
They were delivered to camps inside the kingdom, where some said they saw as many as 8,000 Sudanese gathered.
The Saudis issued them uniforms and weapons, which the Sudanese fighters believed were American made. Then Saudi officers provided two to four weeks of training, mainly in assembling and cleaning their guns.
Finally, they were divided into units of 500 to 750 fighters, they said. Then they traveled over land to Yemen, to battles in the Midi Desert, the Khalid ibn Walid camp in Taiz, or around Aden and Hudaydah.
All said they fought only for money – By David D. Kirkpatrick
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/world/africa/saudi-sudan-yemen-child-fighters.html
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/12/29/584270/Saudi-Arabia-Yemen-Sudan-Darfur
(** B P T)
The U.S. put a Yemeni warlord on a terrorist list. One of its close allies is still arming him.
Last year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on a powerful Yemeni Islamist warlord, accusing him of being a "prominent military instructor" and fundraiser for al-Qaida who had also at one point "served with" the Islamic State and financed its forces.
But Abu al-Abbas is not on the run. He is not even in hiding.
By his own admission, Abbas continues to receive millions of dollars in weapons and financial support for his fighters from one of Washington's closest Middle East allies, the United Arab Emirates, undermining U.S. counterterrorism goals in Yemen.
"The coalition is still supporting me," Abbas, 47, said in a rare interview this month in a heavily guarded house in the southern city of Aden. "If I really was a terrorist, they would have taken me in for questioning."
To the extent that it is strengthening suspected extremists, the coalition is working against U.S. efforts to defuse global threats emanating from southern Yemen, where the Trump administration is waging a separate conflict against al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate and a nascent branch of the Islamic State. The al-Qaida affiliate has targeted the United States several times, and U.S. officials consider it the terrorist network's most dangerous arm.
Abbas' case underscores the awkward alliances and odd bedfellows that pervade all sides in Yemen's four-year war. Archenemies have turned allies. Secessionists fight alongside those favoring a unified Yemen. Socialists are in the same camp as Islamists, who themselves come in various ideological shades.
Increasingly, the divisions are touching off sub-conflicts intensified by tribal rivalries, political ambitions and the quest for influence. In such a tangled and fragmented landscape, the priorities driving the primary war against the rebels often clash with the priorities of the U.S. war against Islamic extremists.
The funding of Abbas raises more questions about that conduct. Even as the UAE states that it's a key partner in the United States' counterterrorism fight here, Abbas – a follower of the ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism – is a linchpin of the Sunni Muslim coalition's strategy for defeating the Shiite rebels and, by extension, their ally Iran. The warlord is also vital to the UAE's long-term ambitions of exerting influence over southern Yemen.
A senior administration official told reporters in Cairo earlier this year that the United States knows there are coalition-backed militias in the south-central city of Taiz, where Abbas operates, that are "al-Qaida all but in name, and in some cases openly identifying themselves with al-Qaida."
Asked whether the United States is concerned about the coalition's support for Abbas and other Islamist militias, the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters freely, said the UAE "preferred to work with" some Islamic fundamentalists who serve as a "counterweight" to its enemies in the south. Under such circumstances, the official acknowledged, "it's very easy for al-Qaida to insinuate itself into the mix." – by Sudarsan Raghavan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-us-put-a-yemeni-warlord-on-a-terrorist-list-one-of-its-close-allies-is-still-arming-him/2018/12/28/f3c4fb5b-f366-4570-b27b-75a3ed0f0f52_story.html = https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/yemeni-warlord-put-on-us-terrorist-list-still-getting-armed-by-ally-1.562500
(** B)
Postcards from Yemen
AP PHOTOS: Yemenis' in-between moments amid civil war
A Yemeni farmer lounged on the ground by the side of the road, gazing at the beauty of the green mountain landscape, where the terraces were planted with corn, barbary figs and qat. Absorbed in contemplation, he didn't move or react to any noise, a world away from the war tearing apart his country.
In travels across Yemen, these "in-between" moments are found everywhere - Yemenis fitting their normal lives in between the destruction wreaked by four years of civil war.
That destruction has been terrible, with starving children, families driven across the country to seek safety, homes, schools and hospitals flattened, rampant militias inflicting bloodshed and torture. The country is split between a north held by Shiite rebels known as Houthis and a south held by forces loyal to the government and the Saudi-led coalition that supports it.
But on both sides of that divide, Yemenis deal with the chaos in very similar ways and press ahead with their lives. Amid the conflict, it is easy to forget that - and forget how stunningly beautiful the country is with its majestic mountain landscape. In the south, the mountains are harsh, barren and dry.
https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/12/28/postcards-from-yemen = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6537485/AP-PHOTOS-Yemenis-moments-amid-civil-war.html
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(* B H)
Cholera and malnutrition in Yemen threatens millions
Al Sabeen Hospital in Sana’a has admitted many cholera patients over the last 2 years, including infants as young as 2 months. Many of them also suffer from acute malnutrition. At the peak of the cholera outbreak more than 150 patients a day were being admitted to Al Sabeen hospital with severe watery diarrhoea. Some 20% of the total were diagnosed with cholera.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Ramez and eight-month-old Mohamed are brothers. Small and frail, they have been diagnosed with cholera and are moderately malnourished.
Their family moved from Hajjah to Sana’a after their father lost his job.
“In Hajjah we used to drink pure water from wells,” says the boys’ mother, “but after moving to Sana’a we had to drink from water trucks.”
Despite ongoing humanitarian food assistance the latest IPC analysis - covering December 2018 to January 2019 - revealed 15.9 million people (53% of the population) faced food shortages. Of these, 17% of the population - about 5 million people - are classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), and 36% - 10.8 million people - as IPC Phase 3 (Crisis).
Like millions of Yemenis, Ramez and Mohammed’s parents face a constant struggle to access healthcare, pay rent and feed their children.
“I have 3 more children. Their father is looking after them at home,” says the boys’ mother.
Sana’a’s 22 May Hospital treats many internally displaced families. It, too, sees large numbers of patients with symptoms of cholera and children suffering medical complications as a result of malnutrition.
“We see two new patients suffering from cholera and malnutrition a day, many of them from families who own close to nothing. The hospital cannot accommodate in-patients so cases suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications have to be referred to other hospitals,” says Suha Abdeen, a nurse on the hospital’s nutrition ward.
Jameel Moanis is 12-months-old and weighs just 3 kilograms. He was brought to 22 May Hospital a few days ago from Al Hudaydah and had to be referred to another hospital for more specialized treatment.
To help severely malnourished children suffering from medical complications WHO supports 269 health facilities in Yemen and has established 51 therapeutic feeding centres in 17 governorates. WHO has also established 72 diarrhoeal treatment centres and 25 oral rehydration centres for the treatment of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.
(* B H)
Film: The de-facto collapse of the health system in Yemen lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases such as cholera, diphtheria and measles. Learn more in this short video and share to support Yemenis' access to health care.
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1077546687265157120
cp1b1 Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah: Deutsch/ Most important: Hodeidah battle: German
(* A K P)
Regierungstreue Kräfte im Jemen bezweifeln Rückzug von Rebellen in Hodeida
Regierungstreue Kräfte im Jemen haben den von der UNO verkündeten Rückzug der Huthi-Rebellen aus dem Hafen von Hodeida in Zweifel gezogen. "Wem haben sie den Hafen übergeben, und wie?", sagte ein Vertreter der regierungstreuen Kräfte am Samstag der Nachrichtenagentur AFP. Ein UN-Vertreter hatte zuvor verkündet, die Rebellen hätten mit dem Abzug aus dem Hafen begonnen.
Die jemenitische Nachrichtenagentur Saba zitierte einen Vertreter der Regierungsseite mit den Worten, die Rebellen versuchten, die Bestimmungen der Anfang Dezember in Schweden ausgehandelten Waffenruhe zu unterwandern.
http://www.rtl.lu/international/die-welt/1286205.html
(*A K P)
Huthi-Rebellen ziehen aus Hodeida ab
Hodeida ist faktisch das Tor zum Jemen: Wer den Hafen kontrolliert, hat Zugriff auf Hilfslieferungen. Deshalb ist es ein großes Hoffungszeichen, das Rebellen mit dem Abzug begonnen haben. Nun sind die UN am Zug.
Die Huthi-Rebellen ziehen sich aus der jemenitischen Hafenstadt Hodeida zurück. Sie halten sich somit an die Vereinbarung mit der Regierung und den Vereinten Nationen, die Mitte des Monats bei Friedensgesprächen erzielt worden war.
Wie ein UN-Vertreter sagte, verließen die ersten Kämpfer um Mitternacht den strategisch wichtigen Hafen am Roten Meer.
Es wird erwartet, dass auch regierungstreue Kräfte aus jenen Teilen der Stadt abziehen, die sie bei einer Offensive im Juni zurückerobert hatten.
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/jemen-huthi-111.html
Film: https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-488355.html
(* A K P)
Huthi-Rebellen verlassen Hafen von Hudaida
Die Rebellen im Jemen haben mit dem Rückzug aus dem strategisch wichtigen Hafen von Hudaida begonnen. Erste Kämpfer der Huthi-Rebellen hätten sich gegen Mitternacht aus dem Hafen der Stadt am Roten Meer zurückgezogen, teilte ein UN-Sprecher mit. Auch die Rebellen berichteten von ihrem Rückzug: Die "erste Phase" des Abzugs aus Hudaida habe begonnen, sagte ein Huti-Sprecher einer Nachrichtenagentur der Rebellen. Der Rückzug sei Bestandteil der Vereinbarung, die bei Friedensgesprächen in Schweden vor wenigen Wochen erzielt worden war, hieß es.
Die Rebellen hielten wegen des Abzugs eine Zeremonie ab
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2018-12/jemen-huthi-rebellen-rueckzug-hafen-hudaida
(* A K P)
Huthi-Rebellen übergeben wichtigen Hafen
Die Kontrolle sei unter Aufsicht eines UN-Beobachterteams abgegeben worden, hieß es aus Sicherheitskreisen der Huthis in Hudaida. Die Küstenwache habe die Kontrolle übernommen. Der Küstenwache von Hudaida wird nachgesagt, dass ihre Führung mit den von Iran unterstützten Huthi-Rebellen verbunden ist.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/huthi-rebellen-uebergeben-wichtigen-hafen-im-jemen-15964213.html
und auch https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/jemen-krieg-rebellen-hafen-abzug-1.4269508
(* A K pH)
Saudi-Koalition hat Waffenruhe in al-Hudaida 69 mal verletzt
cp1b2 Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah: Englisch / Most important: Hodeidah battle: English
(A K pS)
Film: A woman got shot in the head by a barrage of bullets fired by Houthi militia snipers at a civilian house in Bait Alfaqih district in Hodeidah province.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesTV/status/1078040255205462021
(* A K P)
A local source: Arrival of 5 ships loaded with heavy and medium weapons, hundreds of military armored vehicles, more than 15 vehicles, and trucks to the al-Mukha port, which is under occupation control.
It is clear that the Saudi-led coalition and their mercenaries have no intention to cease-fire in Hodeidah in implementation of the Sweden agreement.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2071501626236190
(* A K P)
Yemen’s rebels say they left Hodeida port, claim disputed
Yemen's Shiite rebels on Saturday said they handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the coast guard and local administrators, but the government denied that, calling it a ploy by the Iran-aligned rebels to maintain control of the strategic facility.
But the pro-government Sabaa news agency quoted what it called an official source as saying the Houthis' assertion about giving up the port was an attempt to sidestep the Sweden agreement.
"We cannot accept these violations, which will lead to the failure of the agreement," the agency quoted the source as saying.
Military and local Hodeida officials loyal to the government said the Houthis had taken advantage of their control of the city to place loyalist administrators and fighters in both the port management and the coast guard.
"It's a stage play in which the Houthis handed over the port to their fighters after they put on coast guard uniforms," said the Hodeida governor, al-Hassan Taher.
https://www.apnews.com/65694e6163ba4f5d8a2378d5700ec9a6 = https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/national-business/article223711360.html
and also https://www.dw.com/en/yemen-government-disputes-rebel-withdrawal-from-hodeida-port/a-46894418
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26469
Remark: More details, below in comments.
(* A K P)
Yemen Army Begins Removing Hundreds of Houthi Mines in Hodeidah
Specialized teams in the Yemeni National Army began Friday removing mines and dismantling hundreds explosive devices in Hodeidah, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Saturday.
The explosives and mines were planted on the main and secondary stretching from Hodeidah to the capital Sanaa, as well as other areas of the country.
Remark: Pro-UAE militia.
(* A K P)
Houthis refuse to remove mines from the Southeast entrance of the city of Hodeida
Al-Masdar online source in Hodeidah City said on Saturday, that Houthi group refused the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the redeployment of the Harbour and city.
In an interview for «Al-Masdar», the source said, that Houthis rejected the demining of 16th Km area, Southeast entrance of the city for humanitarian vehicles to leave from the port to the southern districts.
He noted that caravan was supposed to leave from the 16th Km road , but Houthis refused to remove mines and military barriers.
The source said that the passage of the convoy was delayed until the moment, Houthis refused to allow the passage, which threatens to derail implementation of the agreement between the parties.
(* A K P)
Film: Saudi using Hudaydah truce to deploy more forces: Commentator
The Saudi-led coalition is taking advantage of the UN-brokered ceasefire to deploy more forces to Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah, says a political commentator.
“I believe this truce could collapse at any time because the Saudi-backed forces keep shelling Hudaydah city … We haven’t seen any statement from the United Nations envoy to Yemen, Major Patrick [Cammaert], about the violation of the Saudi-backed forces in the last weeks and I hope that he will actually focus on this because the major goal of the United Nations is for Ansarullah the Houthis and the popular committee to withdraw from Hudaydah and we see that the other side is not doing anything,” Hussain al-Bukhaiti told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.
“They are setting up trenches, setting up new defense lines around Hudaydah trying to bring more troops to Hudaydah. It seems to me that this truce will only give time to the Saudi-backed forces to deploy more troops around Hudaydah and I believe when they are ready they could conduct any attack on Hudaydah soon,” he added.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/12/29/584288/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Houthis-UN-ceasefire-Hudaydah
(* A K P)
Yemen's Houthis start redeployment in Hodeidah as part of U.N. deal
Yemen’s Houthi forces have started to redeploy inside the port city of Hodeidah as part of the U.N.-sponsored peace agreement signed in Sweden earlier this month, a U.N. source and a spokesman for the group said on Saturday.
A U.N. source said the Houthi forces, which control the city and its strategic port, had started to redeploy overnight.
Hodeidah’s Houthi governor, Mohammed Ayash Qaheem, told Reuters that the group’s fighters had withdrawn from the port as specified in the peace agreement, handing control to local units of Yemeni coast guards who were in charge of protecting ports before the war. These will be under U.N. supervision.
A Reuters camera operator saw the U.N. team led by Cammaert witnessing the fighters’ withdrawal.
Military officials from the government forces, which control some southern parts of the city of Hodeidah, said they needed time to establish if the Houthi forces had really withdrawn from the ports.
The government fears that the coast guards may remain loyal to the Houthi-controlled Sanaa government after the withdrawal.
It is still unclear how far the forces will withdraw and who will eventually control the three ports and the city, or if the two sides will share control with U.N. monitors positioned between the two fronts.
Cammaert’s team will not be uniformed or armed, the United Nations has said, but it will provide support for the management of and inspections at the ports, and strengthen the U.N. presence in the city.
It was unclear if the government forces, which control some southern parts of the city, had started to redeploy [this sentence was removed in a later version].
photos: https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1079044654207774720
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1079048825459875846
film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5k1RKyNcKM
and also https://www.france24.com/en/20181229-houthi-rebels-cede-control-yemen-primary-port-officials-say
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/yemen-s-houthi-rebels-hand-over-control-of-hudaida-port-22920
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/yemen-rebels-begin-withdrawal-hodeida-port-doc-1bv7r01 = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6537873/Yemen-rebels-begin-withdrawal-Hodeida-port-UN.html
and
(* A K P)
Film:
Houthis redeploy from Hudaida's port area
As Yemen's Houthis start their redeployment in Hudaida as part of the UN plan agreed this summer, TRT World speaks to Hisham Al Omeisy, political analyst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=C6GxdXA9oWc
and
(A K P)
Yemen's army forces [Houthi government] begin first phase of redeployment in Hodeidah: Spokesman
Yemen's army Spokesman General Yahya Sarieon Saturday that the army have began carrying out the first phase of a redeployment from the port of Hodeidah.
The spokesman said that the move came to carry out the UN brokered Sweden's agreement and the political leaders.
"We wait for the UN's team to oblige the Saudi-led coalition mercenaries to withdraw from the eastern parties of Hodeidah, the spokesman added.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520721.htm
and AP gets it wrong:
(A K P)
Yemen's Shiite rebels hand over control of Hodeida port
Yemen's Shiite rebels on Saturday handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of Hodeida to the country's navy and coast guard under U.N. supervision, security officials said, in a significant step in the implementation of a deal reached during peace talks in Sweden earlier this month.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemens-shiite-rebels-hand-over-control-hodeida-port-101044370.html = https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/yemen-houthi-ceasefire-exchange-1.4961426
My comment: Earlier it was the “government’s navy” (https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078982110923378688 ); which government’s? And, still to ask: Which country’s navy??
Comments: The news is incorrect The truth is that the Houthis handed over the port to the Houthis
https://twitter.com/jo2016ad/status/1079005507388620800
Actually to Houthis armed men wearing “coast guard” uniform led by this guy named Abu Jihad (photo)
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1079058043311177729
I've seen the reports that some of navy and coastguard were Houthis in uniform. But fact is, all security are of one faction or another, so with such pool to draw from, end mix will inevitably have Houthis; question is, what is proportion and will they follow UN orders.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/1079076708601511936
They didn’t hand anything , they just change their fighter uniforms,
https://twitter.com/HamedGhaleb/status/1079074091842322432
Despite widespread international media reports, there is a significant degree of doubt whether this has actually happened in #Yemen. No official statements issued yet by the UN envoy @OSE_Yemen or UN ceasefire monitor General Cammaert to confirm or deny.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1079079611080863744
The control of the port itself was handed over to the navy & coast guard of the Sana'a based government. The Ansarullah media center has been documenting the transfer through picture & video.
https://twitter.com/agerhusmedia/status/1079183583825313799
(* A E P)
Yemen government to pay civil servants in rebel-held Hodeidah
The United Nations on Friday welcomed a decision by Yemen's government to pay the salaries of civil servants in the rebel-held city of Hodeidah starting this month.
For more than two years, the government has been unable to pay salaries and the riyal dropped sharply against the dollar, leaving Yemenis unable to afford food and water.
"President [Abdrabu Mansur] Hadi's decision is an important step towards improving the economic situation, and alleviating the humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people," the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths tweeted.
"The [special envoy] hopes there will be more steps in this direction."
Yemen's Saba state news agency reported on Thursday that Mr Hadi had instructed the government to "urgently work on paying the salaries of all civil servants in Hodeidah province starting from December".
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition breaches cease fire 158 times
The Saudi-led coalition has violated the truce agreement in Yemen 158 times over the last 24 hours, spokesman for Yemen's Armed Forces said.
http://www.irna.ir/en/News/83150834
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/12/29/584243/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-truce-violations-Hudaydah
(* A K)
Pro-gov't Yemeni forces begin defusing Houthi-laid landmines in Hodeidah
Anti-bomb disposal units of the pro-government forces Friday began to defuse hundreds of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and landmines laid by the Houthi rebels in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
"Soldiers of the engineering teams and bomb disposal units backed by the Saudi-led coalition began a wide-scale operation aimed at clearing hundreds of landmines in many areas that witnessed fighting in Hodeidah," a local military official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Different types of landmines and IEDs were found along the main roads linking Hodeidah with the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and successfully defused later by the bomb disposal teams, the official said.
He added that the main entrances of Hodeidah were also cleared from scores of Houthi-laid landmines in preparation for the return of displaced people to their homes.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/29/c_137705480.htm
(A K PH)
Saudi-led mercenaries resume shelling of areas in western coast
The mercenaries of US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition hit on Saturday several areas in Hodeidah province
The shelling targeted al-Shabab city on Tissain street of al-Hali district by machine guns
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520785.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi-led mercenaries shell news areas in Hodeidah
Mercenaries of US-backed saudi-led aggression coalition on Friday fired light and medium weapons on areas in Hodeidah province, a security official said.
The militias’ shelling targeted areas toward Khamseen street.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520789.htm
(A K pH)
Child killed, other injured in enemy's shelling in Hodeidah
A child was killed and his sister injured when mercenaries of the US-backed saudi-led aggression coalition on Friday fired a mortar shell on areas in Hodeidah province, a security official said.
The mortar shell was fired at Hais district.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520707.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi-led mercenaries target Hodeidah using machine guns
The militias hit areas toward Shaab city.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520705.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi-led mercenaries shell village in Hodeidah
The shelling targeted Mahl-Shaikh village in Kilo -16 area of Haly district
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520692.htm
(A K pH)
Coalition fires at least 100 shells on farm in Hodeidah
The shelling targeted the farm in west of Tuhaita district.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520679.htm
(* A P)
UN Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: No Gap in Hodeidah Team
The highest level of confrontation between Yemen’s warring parties, since a ceasefire deal came into effect in the port city of Hodeidah on December 18, took place on Friday, an informed source and a UN official said.
“This is not necessarily bad news. The two sides were keen to respect the ceasefire in the past phase, even if some confrontations took place,” the informed source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The UN source explained there was “no gap” in the UN presence in Hodeidah.
Under the leadership of retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, the Redeployment Coordination Committee is tasked to implement the first phase of the ceasefire deal that calls on Houthi insurgents to withdraw from the Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Issa ports after January 3, 2019.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1524221/un-official-asharq-al-awsat-no-gap-hodeidah-team
(* A P)
Yemen: Committee brings warring parties to the table in Hudaydah, builds on ceasefire
Yemen’s warring parties have begun the process this week of implementing a comprehensive ceasefire agreement across the key rebel-held port city of Hudaydah, raising hopes that groundbreaking consultations convened by the UN in Sweden can lead to a lasting peace through further talks next year.
The UN-brokered body made up of both Government and Houthi opposition representatives is known officially as the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), chaired by retired Dutch General, Patrick Cammaert, with the support of UN personnel.
The three-day meeting of the RCC followed on from the formal start of the ceasefire on 25 December.
On Wednesday, both Houthi rebels and Government coalition personnel, worked to clear minefields to create a safe passage across a frontline for Government representatives to attend the meeting on rebel-controlled territory, during which General Cammaert commended the parties for their demonstration of goodwill to implement the Stockholm agreement.
The first phase of putting the agreement into action is based on three priority areas: maintaining the ceasfire, confidence-building measures to deliver humanitarian assistance, and redeployment of fighters.
Both parties have acknowledged this as an historic moment, and each have reiterated their commitment to implementing the Stockholm ceasefire, said the UN on Thursday.
The UN’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said that the cooperation shown so far, sends a “massive signal” that positive change is possible, adding that if the peace plan can evolve and progress smoothly, “the people of Yemen will notice a new prospect for the future.”
The parties are set to present detailed plans for full redeployment to Mr. Cammaert in the next committee meeting, programed for 1 January in Hudaydah. In the meantime, each have agreed to begin opening humanitarian corridors as part of confidence-building measures, starting with the key coastal road between rebel-held capital Sana’a, and Hudaydah.
More routes are scheduled to be cleared, and a humanitarian convoy is scheduled to move from the port city along the Hudaydah-Sana’a road on Saturday.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/12/1029501
and, by a Saudi news site:
(A P)
Agreement reached on opening road connecting Yemen’s Sanaa with Hodeidah, Taiz
As consultations continued on Friday between representatives of the Yemeni parties involved in Sweden peace talks, al-Hadath news channel’s correspondent reported that an agreement was reached to open the eastern road (known as Kilo 16) which links Sanaa with the port city of Hodeidah and Taiz on Saturday.
On the other hand, the Houthi militias refused to open the northern crossing of Hodeidah or to withdraw from the port, as mentioned in the Sweden deal.
My comment: The northern road never had been closed, the eastern road had been blocked by the Saudi coalition.
(A K pS)
Yemen's Houthi militia continues to violate Hodeidah ceasefire: Arab coalition
The Arab coalition fighting in support of the legitimate Yemeni government on Friday said that the Houthi militia had violated the cease-fire agreement 16 times over the last 24 hours.
The colaition said that this brings the total number of breaches to 190 since the start of the cease-fire.
Earlier on Friday, the Houthi militia prevented the Yemeni government’s delegation from leaving the port city of Hodeidah, after concluding consultations with a UN team tasked with monitoring the cease-fire between the legitimate Yemeni government and the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1427191/middle-east
(A K pH)
Film: Saudi planes bomb Yemen’s Hudaydah amid UN ceasefire
Saudi Arabia continues to violate the UN brokered ceasefire in Yemen, bombing the port city of Hudydah more than a week after the warring parties agreed on a truce deal that took effect on December 18th. The fresh attacks by Saudi airplanes and sporadic clashes in the city have cast doubts on the sustainability of the truce. Mohammed al-Attab reports from Hudaydah.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/12/29/584228/Saudi-planes-bomb-Yemens-Hudaydah-amid-UN-ceasefire
(* A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression and Its Mercenaries Continue Their Violations of Ceasefire in Hodeidah
The forces of the US-Saudi aggression and its mercenaries continued, Friday, their violations of the ceasefire reached in Sweden on Hodeidah for the tenth day in a row.
Our correspondent in Hodeidah pointed out that the Saudi-mercenaries targeted, this morning, a farm west of Attohayta district with more than 100 shells and machine guns.
The Saudi mercenaries shelled, at midnight on Friday, with machine guns on the city of Hodeidah from the east of Al-Shabab city, the correspondent added, and continued targeting Al-Sheblaia village east of Attohayta district with medium weapons. The forces of aggression also fired 3 artillery shells and swept with machine guns on various areas east of the district.
The spokesman of the armed forces, Brig. Gene. Yahya Saree said Thursday evening that the Saudi mercenaries committed 64 violations during the past 24 hours in conjunction with the continued flight of the surveillance drones on the skies of Hodeidah, Al-Saleef, Kamaran and El-Arj.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4586&cat_id=1
(* A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression and its Mercenaries Continue to Violate Ceasefire
The Spokesman of the Armed Forces, General Brigadier Yahya Sare'e, said that the US-Saudi mercenaries continued to violate the cease-fire in Hodeidah. Brigadier Sare'e told Saba News Agency that "the mercenaries committed 64 violations during the past 24 hours in conjunction with the continued flight of the reconnaissance aircraft on Hodiedah."
He pointed out that the artillery of the mercenaries targeted residential areas and Army and Popular Committees' sites with 51 shells in Attohayta and Kilo-16. With various light and medium arms, they targeted sites of Yemeni Army in At-tohayta and Ad-durayhimi, as well as snipers on the buildings of Al-Sa'ab city shot at different targets. Brigadier Sare'e said that the Army and Popular Committees monitored night movements of the mercenaries in Ad-durayhimi and infiltration attempts in Sana'a Street preceded by rocketry and artillery bombings.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4578&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Saudi-led mercenaries shell various areas in Hodeidah
shelled on Thursday evening various areas in east of Tuhayta district
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520600.htm
(A K pH)
Saudi-led airstrike hits western coast
waged on Thursday an air strike on Hodeidah province, a security official said.
The air strike hit al-Jah line near Al-Qabiaa village in Bait Al-Fakih district, the official said.
Furthermore, coalition’s mercenaries continue targeting Al-Shabila villag, east of Tuhayta district using machine guns.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520601.htm
(A P)
President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi stated that the Stockholm Agreement requires the al Houthi movement to transfer the port to legitimate local authorities during a meeting with his parliament on December 27.[2]
https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1078332378160992257
My comment: Of course, he claims that “legitimate local authorities” are his loyalists, i.e. that the Houthis transfer the port to his side. But this would be a quite odd interpretation of the Sweden agreement.
(* B H K P)
Yemen crisis: How the battle at Hodeida port played out over 2018
The lifeline port of Hodeida has been at the centre of the bitter Yemeni war this year, crippled by both ground combat and airstrikes.
The Saudi-led coalition said Tehran-backed Houthi rebels have been using the port to ship in Iranian arms, something they deny.
Hodeida is a vital route for food, medicines and other essential goods — 70% of people in Yemen rely on the port to receive such supplies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Red Sea port city is particularly important as Yemen is dealing with famine and disease of biblical proportions, United Nations estimates show.
Here are the key events in the battle for Hodeida this year.
https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/27/yemen-crisis-how-the-battle-at-hodeida-port-played-out-over-2018 = https://uk.news.yahoo.com/yemen-crisis-battle-hodeida-port-182335680.html
(* A P)
UN team hold meeting in Yemen port city over cease-fire
Yemeni officials say a U.N. team has met with representatives of the country’s warring parties for the first time in a key port city.
The team, led by Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, arrived in Hodeida over the weekend to monitor a cease-fire that went into force in the Red Sea port city.
The officials say the meeting Wednesday involved discussions about the mechanism of the team’s work and the number of monitors that will be required in the near future.
https://www.apnews.com/abacdff10c7247c188fbf0b54abc29bd
(* A P)
Film: Yemen: UN ceasefire committee holds first official meeting in Hodeidah
A UN-led committee tasked with monitoring the ceasefire in Hodeidah and its surrounding areas held its first meeting in the Yemeni port city on Wednesday. Footage shows retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, who heads the joint committee, arriving with head of the Yemeni government delegation Major General Sakhir Aziz and other Yemeni government officials in UN-marked vehicles, where they were greeted by Houthi delegation representative Major General Ali al-Mushaki and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCYdCzAdZh0
and
(* A P)
Hodeidah ceasefire: UN monitors meet both sides in port city
A Yemeni government delegation is in the port city of Hodeidah to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire brokered with the Houthi rebels under the supervision of the United Nations.
The warring sides are meeting face-to-face yet again as the UN is hosting talks as part of the latest efforts to end the over four-year-old conflict.
(* A K)
Cease-fire breaches in Yemen's Hodeidah continue despite UN-led monitors' presence
The two-warring Yemeni sides continued Thursday cease-fire breaches in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah despite the presence of a monitoring team led by the United Nations, local sources told Xinhua.
Forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni government blamed the Houthi rebels of launching sporadic mortar shells attacks against a number of residential areas and military sites over the past 24 hours.
An army commander told Xinhua by phone saying that the Houthi rebels randomly shelled military sites of the government in Durayhmi and other nearby residential areas with mortar shells.
On the other side, the Houthi rebels accused the government forces of shelling AlShabab neighborhood and the 9th street with heavy gunfire.
Residents confirmed to Xinhua that the two-warring sides continued in exchanging heavy gunfire including artillery shelling throughout the day but sporadically.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/28/c_137703008.htm
(A K pS)
Houthi militia violates UN-brokered ceasefire in Hodeidah 29 times in last 24 hours
The Houthi militia have violated the UN-brokered ceasefire in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah 29 times in the last 24 hours, the Arab coalition said.
The coalition also said that the Iranian-backed Houthis continue to violate the truce in Hodeidah, and that they have been bombing areas populated by civilians resulting in injuries.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1426636/middle-east
(A K pH)
Child, Man Injured by Saudi-Mercenaries’ Fire in Hodeidah
Our correspondent in Hodeidah reported that a child and a man were shot by the forces of aggression in Al-Jabaliah area of Attohayta district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4571&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Saudi-Mercenaries Continue Their Violations of Truce in Hodeidah
Al-Masirah Net correspondent in Hodeidah reported several violations of the Saudi invaders and mercenaries after midnight on Thursday in Hodeidah province.
Our correspondent pointed out that the forces of invaders and mercenaries bombed the old court building in Ad-Durayhimi district with artillery shells, and also targeted a farm north of Al-Shabab city in Al-Hali district with automatic weapons.
He added that the mercenaries targeted Al-Ettihad Hotel with several shots of a 23-mm machine gun, besides firing medium weapons towards Al-Safinah tour in Kilo-16.
The mercenaries also shelled Al-Za’afaran village in Kilo-16 with artillery shells, and fired artillery and machine guns west of Attohayta district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4565&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
A Civilian and his Son Killed in Hodeidah by US-Saudi Aggression
A civilian and his son were killed by artillery shelling on Altafssah area, in Hayis district, Hodiedah by US-Saudi mercenaries. The US-Saudi mercenaries continued their aggression by artillery shelling on Al-Zaafaran in Kilo-16 Area.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4559&cat_id=1
(* A K P)
Houthi official: Hodeida Port is not included in Sweden deal
A Houthi official stated on Tuesday that the withdrawal of Hodieda Port is not included in the deal reached early of December in Sweden between the Yemeni government and the Iran-backed Houthi Movement.
The Houthi-appointed deputy governor of Hodaida Abdul-Jabar al-Jarmouzi told Houthi-run media outlets that the Hodeida Port will not be surrendered.
According to the deal reached in Sweden, the Houthis will withdraw from the ports of Hodeida, Ra’as Eisa and al-Saleef before the end of 2018, and from Hodeida city before January 7, 2019.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26394
(A P)
Nooooo..... no UN official could be this daft. Right? UN ceasefire monitor General Cammaert has threatened UN military action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter on the Houthis if they do not withdraw from Hodeidah port city, claims #Yemen media (image)
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078038258649649154
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* B H K)
Film: Layan is 11 years old. She lives in #Yemen. This is her message to the world. Join her plea for peace & share this video!
https://twitter.com/WFP/status/1079017191582953475
(* B H K)
Film: I found my son today searching the web looking up for ways to help #Yemen.The war has reached my son despite my efforts to keep him away. Usually, I don't like to post any videos for him, but he asks me to share his feelings (to Trump) with his childish&innocent way.
https://twitter.com/Kawkab/status/1079092408820908033
(* B H K P)
Audio: Healing After Yemen War 'The Job Of Generations'
Mark Lowcock is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He tells Newshour about the long term challenges associated with rebuilding Yemeni society after the war.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172w25k9q9495c
(B H K P)
Salzburger Nachrichten: Alles zum Thema Jemen
(* B K P)
The Year That Washington Finally Cared About Yemen
Five Reads: The best Foreign Policy stories of 2018 on Yemen.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/28/the-year-that-washington-finally-cared-about-yemen/
(* B H P)
US-Saudi Economical War Devastating to Yemeni People as US "Smart" Bombing
It’s not just bombs, bullets and artillery shells that threaten Yemen’s children. Economic strangulation is being used by the US-Saudi-led coalition as a weapon of war, targeting jobs, infrastructure, food markets and the provision of basic services. Nobody is there to count the bodies of the victims. But for every child buried beneath the rubble of a building hit by a “smart bomb”, there are dozens of children threatened by the starvation that has accompanied the economic assault. The food system is collapsing, pushing the country to the brink of famine. Over 400,000 children are at imminent risk of starvation.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4568&cat_id=6
(* B H K P)
The Saudi-Made Famine in Yemen
The Washington Post has published a new report on Yemen’s famine and the Saudi coalition policies that are most responsible for creating it.
The Saudi coalition’s responsibility for causing mass starvation in Yemen is not seriously in dispute. I and many others have been documenting it for years, and this report provides further confirmation for what we have been saying. Yemen’s catastrophe is a man-made one, and we should not be shy about the saying that the Saudi coalition and the U.S. bear most of the responsibility for causing it. As Alex de Waal says in Mass Starvation, people sometimes starve, and in other cases they are made to starve by other people. Yemen is clearly an example of the latter, and the people there are being starved by the policies of governments supported by the U.S.
In Yemen, we are seeing a famine created by Saudi coalition policies that makes food prohibitively expensive for most of the population living in a ruined economy. As long as those policies are in place, the famine will worsen – by Daniel Larison
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-saudi-made-famine-in-yemen/
(* B K P)
Answering Key Questions about Yemen War
How Yemen war started and AnsarAllah gained power.
The Shiite-Sunni confrontation dates back to old times and 28 years ago when Ali Abdullah Saleh established Arabic Republic of Yemen and submitted northern lands to Saudi Arabia, Shias became angrier.
Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi under the influence of Islamic revolution in Iran, started fighting against arrogance and Ali Abdullah Saleh and martyred in this way and his successors in six wars until 2010 and finally in a revolution in 2012 forced Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign from power.
What are sides of confrontation in Yemen?
What will happen if al Hudaydah falls?
How do Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran support AnsarAllah? Are they present in Yemen?
Presence of Iranian or Hezbollah counselors has been declined by all parties (AnsarAllah, Hezbollah and Iran) but Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a recent speech claimed that if we have a martyr from our forces in Yemen, won’t conceal it.
The foreign support of AnsarAllah which usually is referred to Iran and Hezbollah, is only political than military.
Indeed some political mediators are between AnsarAllah and supporters but unlike Syria and Iraq that Quds Force present in battlefield, it seems very unlikely in the case of Yemen.
What is Dammaj story? What is the story of AnsarAllah fighting Wahhabism?
Dammaj is a Wahhabi village in southeast of Sa’adah which has a population of 15 thousand. In the last century, Muqbil ibn Hadi Al Wade’i had an organized plan to advertise Wahhabism in Yemen which started from Dammaj.
Muqbil ibn Hadi Al Wade’i, is a Wahhabi scholar who has many books and articles against Islamic revolution in Iran and was head of Dammaj Dar al Hadith(place for teaching,etc). In an article, he considers Imam Khomeini a pagan.
Muqbil ibn Hadi Al Wade’i died in May 2001 and Yahya Ali al Hajuri succeeded him.
Al Wade’i activities coincided AnsarAllah gaining strength and the belief war of Shia-Wahhabism and also Wahhabis activities against Shias by supporting Ali Abdullah Saleh government, helped sparking the war against AnsarAllah.
AnsarAllah engaged against Dammaj Wahhabis in two steps:
Among AnsarAllah officials, who are famous and powerful?
Has Ansar Allah surrounded Taiz from beginning of the war? Why this Ansar Allah’s upper hand is ignored or not mentioned?
From the beginning of the war so far, Taiz route from north is under control by AnsarAllah and inside Taiz, troops are two groups, majority are fan of Islah party related to Mansoor Hadi.
After Wahhabis’ defeat by AnsarAllah in Saadah and other places, Wahhabis gathered in Taiz under Abu al-Abbas Brigade (Leader of the Salafist). They cannot get along with Islah party and have deep differences, thus southern passage is also closed on Islah party. Therefore in Saudi Coalition media it is proclaimed that Taiz is under siege and they demand to open the northern passage for logistics in negotiations.
Will Ansar Allah retreat from al Hudaydah? What has been analysed for the future of Sweden Agreement?
Is operation and occupying Yemen capital i.e., Sanaa by Saudi Coalition a possibility?
http://www.english.iswnews.com/3798/answering-some-key-questions-about-yemen-war-part-one/
http://www.english.iswnews.com/3857/answering-key-questions-about-yemen-war-part-two/
http://www.english.iswnews.com/4287/answering-key-questions-about-yemen-war-part-three/
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
#Yemen Aid funded a 600 food basket distribution project in Al-Khokha, Hodeidah to refugees & poverty-stricken families. This is the 2nd phase of an emergency food insecurity campaign which entails a completed distribution of 1000 food baskets w/in district in December 2018 (photos)
https://twitter.com/YemenAid_US/status/1079109288679763968
(* B H)
Film by Doctors Without Borders: The lack of operational hospitals & medical staff is putting thousands of people at further risk of death & illness Share to show support to medical providers responding to the growing health needs under the war in Yemen
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1078997856445493248
(A H)
Yemenis die everyday, literally everyday, in vehicle accidents on the road that connects Marib with Al-Alwadi’ah border post. The road is in poor condition pierced by many holes. Fixing this very busy international road should be a priority (photos)
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1078942110290714624
(A H)
.@monarelief's team distributing now 600 food aid baskets to the most vulnerable families and IDPs in Aslam & Mustaba areas of #Hajjah based on a fund by donors & supporters from @Indiegogo @SzkolydlaPokoju and Muslims of Ireland (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1078960619813040130
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1079136245794725888
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1079138098750074880
Donate: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feed-hungry-children-in-hajjah-province-of-yemen#/
(* B H)
World Health Organization: Cholera and malnutrition in Yemen threatens millions
Al Sabeen Hospital in Sana’a has admitted many cholera patients over the last 2 years, including infants as young as 2 months. Many of them also suffer from acute malnutrition. At the peak of the cholera outbreak more than 150 patients a day were being admitted to Al Sabeen hospital with severe watery diarrhoea. Some 20% of the total were diagnosed with cholera.
Despite ongoing humanitarian food assistance the latest IPC analysis - covering December 2018 to January 2019 - revealed 15.9 million people (53% of the population) faced food shortages. Of these, 17% of the population - about 5 million people - are classified as IPC Phase 4 (Emergency), and 36% - 10.8 million people - as IPC Phase 3 (Crisis).
Sana’a’s 22 May Hospital treats many internally displaced families. It, too, sees large numbers of patients with symptoms of cholera and children suffering medical complications as a result of malnutrition.
“We see two new patients suffering from cholera and malnutrition a day, many of them from families who own close to nothing. The hospital cannot accommodate in-patients so cases suffering from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications have to be referred to other hospitals,” says Suha Abdeen, a nurse on the hospital’s nutrition ward.
Jameel Moanis is 12-months-old and weighs just 3 kilograms. He was brought to 22 May Hospital a few days ago from Al Hudaydah and had to be referred to another hospital for more specialized treatment.
To help severely malnourished children suffering from medical complications WHO supports 269 health facilities in Yemen and has established 51 therapeutic feeding centres in 17 governorates. WHO has also established 72 diarrhoeal treatment centres and 25 oral rehydration centres for the treatment of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/cholera-and-malnutrition-yemen-threatens-millions
(B H)
Film: Razan* aus dem Jemen kann wieder sehen / Save the Children
Die achtjährige Razan* aus dem Jemen wurden bei einem Luftangriff von einem Splitter am Auge verletzt. Durch die schnelle Hilfe unserer Ärzte konnte Razans* Augenlicht gerettet werden. „Ich bin glücklich, am Leben zu sein“, sagt sie.
https://www.savethechildren.de/unterstuetzen/nothilfe/jemen/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYYojRQNP4
(A H)
Nour El Oyoun Center conclusion a free medical camp in Sanaa
Nour El Oyoun center on Friday conclusion a free medical camp "Al Nour Medical Surgical Camp N/ 207" to remove white water and to implant lenses for poor and disordered cases.
This camp sponsored Al Nabras Health Association funded by the Foundation for Human Development.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520653.htm
(A H)
I'm right now at Aslam Health center hearing from Dr. Makkya Mahdi about the challenges that facing the center & she appeals to help all children not only in Aslam area but in whole #Hajjah.
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1078555819355111424
Based on your donation @monarelief's team delivering now some medicine and hygiene supplies to Aslam health center of Hajjah. #Yemen Please donate at here (photos)
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feed-hungry-children-in-hajjah-province-of-yemen#/
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1078555819355111424
(* B H)
Film: Doctor fights to save Yemeni children facing starvation
As the war shows no signs of abating and pushes millions to the brink of famine, a pediatrician tries to save Yemen's starving children so that at least they may survive — a heartbreaking endeavor.
https://www.dw.com/en/doctor-fights-to-save-yemeni-children-facing-starvation/av-42757798
(A H)
Meteorology warns of severe decline in temperature during next 24 hours
The center expected the frost to form on parts of the mountainous areas, warning citizens, especially the elderly and children, from severe decline in the minimum temperature
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520573.htm
(B H)
As crises multiply, what are aid groups' priorities for 2019?
Aid agencies are bracing for a challenging new year as they tackle protracted conflicts from Yemen to Central African Republic and get to grips with escalating crises such as the mass exodus of Venezuelans fleeing turmoil at home.
The United Nations has asked donors for $21.9 billion to address 21 humanitarian crises in 2019, including Yemen, its biggest aid operation. This appeal does not include Syria which is expected to bring the total to $25 billion.
We asked aid agencies to name their 3 priorities for 2019
(* B H)
Here's how you can send help to people trapped in the world's worst humanitarian crisis
Humanitarians who live and work in Yemen
MonaRelief
Fatik al-Rodaini has been called a hero by Yemenis. He collects funds, buys food from local vendors, and creates batches of food (the term of art is "baskets") for families who his group has identified as needy. These days there is no shortage of need.
Yemen Hope and Relief
Ahmad Algohbary rescues children suffering from severe malnutrition. Families request his help, and he uses donated funds to transport and house them for weeks while their children are treated at nutrition clinics in major Yemeni cities.
Organizations whose mission is to help Yemenis
Yemen Aid
This group, founded by a Yemeni American, provides assistance and resources to Yemeni people, regardless of their race, political affiliation, ancestry or religion, in order to positively change, and ultimately save, lives.
Yemen Our Home
The United Nations Development Project set up "Yemen Our Home" to help people outside Yemen, especially the Yemeni diaspora, support in-country projects.
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
This charity, based in Washington State, provides help and support to Yemeni families in desperate need. Through a network of local volunteers, YRRF reaches out to needy families not only in urban areas, but also remote villages and refugee camps.
Global NGOs that include service in Yemen – by Stephen Snyder
(* B H)
UN Development Programme: Emergency Employment Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Cash-for-Work SOPs
The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) has been prepared for the cash-for-work intervention under the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates AID. It is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and its implementing partners: CARE International, Sustainable Development Fund and For All Foundation.
The document references the Early Livelihood Cluster-Iraq SOP (cash-for-work), OXFAM Cash Transfer and Complaint Guideline and UNDP`s Occupational Hazard and Safety and Social and Environmental Standards guidelines, Stakeholders Response Mechanism and Grievance Redress Mechanism. It is tailored to the operational perspectives suiting the needs of the project in the Yemen context.
The document is intended to support and guide the work of implementing partners to ensure the achievement of the planned results and impact on emergency employment intervention (cash-for-work).
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/emergency-employment-standard-operating-procedures-sops
(* B H)
Film: "I work with colleagues who have been shot in their homes, shot at the frontlines" says Caroline Bwango, Learn more in this short video & share to show support to the medical & humanitarian staff at the frontlines in #Yemen.
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1078275804419817472
(* B H)
Film: MSF treated more than 91,000 war wounded due to the violence in the country. This number does not only include soldiers and combatants but also civilians caught at the frontline or in hospitals, markets and their own homes.
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1077921547736834048
(* B H)
UNICEF Yemen Humanitarian Situation Report (November 2018)
According to the latest IPC analysis about 5 million people are in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and about 10.6 million people are in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) constituting about half of the population in Yemen (additional info below).
11.3 million # of children in need of humanitarian assistance (estimated)
22.2 million # of people in need (OCHA, 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan)
1 million # of children internally displaced (IDPs)
4.1 million # of children in need of educational assistance
400,000 # of children under 5 suffering Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)
16 million # of people in need of WASH assistance
16.37 million # of people in need of basic health care
Across Yemen, UNICEF has accelerated the creation of specialized programmes to prevent and treat severe acute malnutrition in children in existing health facilities and using Mobile Teams to access hard-to-reach areas. This includes training staff and supplying facilities with essential equipment, specialized foods for such severely malnourished children and medicines. In addition, UNICEF has provided essential supplies including for example ready to use therapeutic foods, antibiotics and therapeutic milk.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unicef-yemen-humanitarian-situation-report-november-2018
(* B H)
Film: You Are Not Alone: Remas ... A Girl Who Survives a Sniper Bullet
Children from Taiz are victims of sniper shots causing death or permanent disabilities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLX7P5927k8
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen: Al Hudaydah Displacement/Response Update (13 - 26 December)
Reports indicates that hundreds of new families continue to displaced into Al Khawkhah and Al Mukha districts as well as to other location in Aden hub due to the sporadic clashes happened last week in Al Hudaydah, figures yet to be confirmed. Some of the families took refuge in the IDP hosting sites.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-al-hudaydah-displacementresponse-update-13-26-december
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A P)
Abductee dies due to torture in Ibb
An Abductee died on Friday due to physical and mental torture inside a Houthi prison in the governorate of Ibb.
Due to torture, ten other abductees died inside Houth prisons in Ibb. Meanwhile, more than 130 other abductees died under torture in other Yemeni governorates, according to the Abductees’ Mothers Association.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26468
(B K P)
50 students from one school in #Sanaa, the "science and faith" School, in Bani Hushish, have been killed as child soldiers (photos)
https://twitter.com/yemen_updates/status/1078996836894035969
(* B P)
Film: Houthi rebels block many roads to Yemen's besieged Taiz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXCYc1PBw8c
(A P)
Al-Houthi Warns of Non-Fulfillment of Agreement with UN Envoy
The Head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee Mohammad Ali al-Houthi warned of non-fulfillment of the popular demands to hand over salaries to all state employees in all governorates, according to agreement with the UN envoy.
Houthi said any deviation from the agreement on providing salaries of state employees would increase the humanitarian crisis.
He described the direction of Hadi to hand over salaries of employees of Hodeidah only without including all the state employees, as agreed with the UN envoy, as "insufficient".
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4595&cat_id=1
Remark: Look at cp6.
(* A P)
A tribal clashes in Dhamar kills and injures more than 20 civilians
20 people were killed and wounded including women and children in violent clashes between tribal militants in Al-Hada governorate east of Dhamar according to Al-Masdar local sources who added that a deadly clashes erupted between militants of Mikhlaf "Thawban" and "Nusrah" tribes for nearly 30 years and left seven people dead, including two children and more than 13 wounded from both sides.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162583
(A P)
Aden Mina club's player Mohammed Abdul Rahman wins open Bodybuilding' Tournament
The player of the club of Mina Aden Mohammed Abdul Rahman won the title of the first open-body revitalization tournament organized by the General Federation of the game in Al-Ahly club in Sanaa for two days.
At the ceremony, which was attended by Undersecretary of the capital Sanaa Mohammed al-Sarimi, Undersecretary of the Sports Sector Abbas Mdoumi stressed the importance of holding the tournament in the capital Sana'a incubator for all provinces of the Republic and participate in sports activities in various sports (photo)
https://www.sabanews.net/en/news520631.htm
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078668345963171840
(A P)
Houthi militants have threatened to cut the tongue of Yemeni journalist Nabil Al-Safani who is based in Sanaa.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1078559464201117696
(A P)
PM: Gov't is committed to recommendations of Parliament, Shura Council
Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, on Thursday confirmed that the salvation government is committed to recommendations of the Parliament and the Shura Council and works on enhancing the constitutional relations with the two legislative institutions.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520577.htm
(A P)
On ruins of their destroyed houses, Houthis call MPs to return
Houthis have arranged demonstrations in the governorate of Dhamar, demanding some members of Parliament, who escaped Yemen after the Houthi coup, to return home.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26395
(A P)
Training program on human rights principles kicks off in Dhamar
The program, which is implemented by the Human Rights Office in the province for four days with self-financing, with participation of 24 participants representing the province’s districts and a number of agencies.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520482.htm
My comment: What about releasing all detainees in the province?
(A P)
Meeting organized in Taiz to discuss Sweden consultations results
He pointed to the obstacles that accompanied the consultation because of the intransigence of Riyadh-backed delegation, who evaded answering most of the core and essential points.
The governor of Taiz stressed the importance of the consultations round in Sweden and the agreements that emerged from.
Al-Bahr said "what is happening in the areas under the control of the aggression and mercenaries is a shocking tragedy."
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520468.htm
Remark: Houthi side only.
(B K P)
Descended from royalty, the Houthi rebels keep a hold on war-ravaged Yemen
https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-yemen-who-are-the-houthis-20181229-story.html
My comment: A quite anti-Houthi article, you get more propaganda and less information.
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
(A P)
Adel Alhasani, the latest prisoner to be was released from #Emirate prisons in Yemen, revealed the brutal torture they have been exposed to and the gross violations of abductees’ rights.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1079145011617382400
(A P)
The Southern Transitional Council and Free South Arab League Hold a Consultative Meeting
After prolonged discussions the meeting asserted the similar vision and the importance of unifying the southern political discourse to create coherence, expand participation and bridge any gaps.
(A P)
Commander of the Security Belt in Al-Mahfed: Terrorist Acts will never Terrify Us and We Will Eliminate Terrorism despite Lack of Capabilities
My comment: Southern separatists propagate their militia as fighters against terrorism.
(A P)
Official Document Proves Involvement of Reform Party in Mass Graves of Taiz
An official document proved the involvement the Reform party in digging mass graves in Taiz found a few days ago. The document indicated that a soldier detained by Brigade 17 infantry, loyal to the Reform party, was to be released but his dead body was found later with other bodies in mass graves of Taiz.
https://en.smanews.org/official-document-proves-involvement-of-reform-party-in-mass-graves-of-taiz
My comment: Southern separatists smearing their internal foes gain (Islah / Reform party).
(A T)
Emirati-backed al Hizam Security Forces conducted a clearing operation in search of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants in al Mahfad district, northwestern Abyan governorate, southern Yemen on December 27. Deputy Commander of al Hizam Security Forces in Abyan Abdul Rahman al Shanini led the operation.[5]
(A P)
Political parties in Al-Mahrah demands the leave of Saudi forces
A number of political parties and forces in Al-Mahrah have announced solidarity with the demands of protestors opposed to the Saudi military presence in the province.
Party branches of "General People's Congress, the Baath party, and organization of Nasserite, Rashad party" called in in separate statements, Saudi forces stationed in Al-Mahrah since early this year to leave.
The parties said in statements posted on Friday, "we were subjected to exclusion and marginalization by the local authority".
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162594
(* A P)
Yemen political discuss convening parliament in Aden
Yemeni political forces are discussing the possibility of convening the Yemeni Parliament in the interim capital Aden.
The source pointed out that following the meeting with the president, the Yemeni parliamentary blocs will meet to prepare for holding a council session in Yemen if the arrangements are completed.
According to the source, figures indicate reaching a quorum to hold the first meeting outside parliament’s original headquarters in the capital Sanaa which is controlled by Houthis.
As many as 138 deputies are required to reach a quorum and hold a session.
According to the source, the session is important because a new council speaker will be elected, replacing the current speaker, Yahya Al-Ra’I, who preside over the council’s sessions in Sanaa with the presence of pro-Houthi deputies and their allied party.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181228-yemen-political-discuss-convening-parliament-in-aden/
(A P)
President direct disburse salaries of Adminstrative apparatus in Hodeidah
President Hadi has directed on Thursday, to disburse Government salaries of the State administration in Hodeidah, beginning of December to alleviate their suffering.
This comes during the meeting for the president Hadi wit House of representative members in the presence of his Deputy and the Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik and deputy chairman of the parliament Mohammed Al-Shaddadi, Hadi said that the Government worked in Sweden consultations to make the human side the title of this consultation.
On the House of representatives, Hadi said «today we're in desperate need of the House as an institution in the face of the coup. And the restoration of State and defeat coup and preserve the Republic and normalize life and build new Federal Yemen».
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162581
My comment: As you can see on the photo, this meeting took place at Riyadh (upper right: Saudi coat of arms), and as it was stated before: http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162550
and
(A P)
The Yemeni President met with the Parliament for the first time since 2014 The meeting came after long disputes within parliament on who will be the House leader Sultan Al-Barkani & Al-Shaddadi from the GPC are most likely to take the post (photo)
https://twitter.com/BShtwtr/status/1078689136125665280
Meeting with #Yemen’s Parliament and joined by VP @AliMohsnalAhmar and PM @DrMaeenSaeed , H.E. @HadiPresident decrees Govt to pay salaries and pensions to residents of #Hodeida previously denied to them by the #Houthis. (photos)
https://twitter.com/YemenEmbassy_DC/status/1078330028864274432
My comment: The payment had been blocked by the Hadi government and its Central bank policy. – Now the Hadi government finally seems to have succeeded in drawing enough members of parliament to form an own parliament. Anyway it certainly will fail the quorum required by the constitution (as the parliament remaining at Sanaa will fail as well).
Comment: And no government which claims legitimacy can make decisions to pay or not pay civil servants based on where they work & live, or who controls them. The civil service serves the state and its citizens, and owes no fealty to the current government in power.
This is how a government that rules a republic must function, or the republic will cease to exist. The state is not your village to rule as you please.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078753021394407430
and
(A P)
The UN Special envoy welcomes President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi's decision to instruct the payment of salaries for all civil servants in the #Hudayda governorate, starting this month.
https://twitter.com/OSE_Yemen/status/1078588713880506368
(A P)
Militants assassinated the deputy director of security for al Qatn district in central Hadramawt, eastern Yemen on December 23. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. AQAP has historically maintained a stronghold in central Hadramawt and has assassinated security officials in al Qatn on several occasions.[4]
(A P)
Security belt forces detains the journalist “Moaaz Al-Maqtari”
Security belt forces Emirates backed arrested Wednesday, the journalist “Moaaz Al-Maqtari” on his way coming from Marib city towards the interim capital city of Aden.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162552
My comment: Separatist militia, accused of kidnapping, detainment, torture and human rights violations.
(A P)
Two young men found dead in Mocha,days after abduction
Two bodies were found Thursday in the coastal directorate of Mocha, five days after being kidnapped by gunmen.
Family adds that the youths were abducted five days ago while participating in protests denouncing raping children by gunmen.
Family and other sources said that there is still a number of youngs forcibly hidden by the gunmen.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162590
(A P)
The Association of Mothers and Mothers of Intimidated Detainees and Detainees in Aden Condemns the Continued Kidnapping of Their Civilian Children by Armed Groups Supported by the UAE
And demands the release of the detainees of the prison of Beer Ahmed after a hunger strike in protest against the continued detention
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=986891314831889&id=505200403000985 (photos9
https://twitter.com/abducteesmother/status/1078251689604456448
(A T)
Lamlas: We seek an Ideal Homeland on All Levels
In his speech to the training workshop held by the department of human rights and freedoms, Ahmed Hamed Lamlas, secretary general of the southern transitional council, said that e all seek an ideal homeland on al levels where police officers are role models for citizens in their discipline and commitment. The workshop was attended by several police officer
https://en.smanews.org/lamlas-we-seek-an-ideal-homeland-on-all-levels
My comment: The separatists playing “government”, the functionary swaggering about “police officers are role models for citizens“ while their militia are committing severe human rights violations.
(A P)
-Bu Hur: We Cleared 15 Directorates of Terrorism and Ended Costal Smuggling
Colonel Mohamed Al-Bu Hur, commander of Shabwa Elites Troops, asserted that his troops, with direct backup of the Arab Coalition cleared 15 directorates off Al-Qaeda terrorists and ended all armed forms in the governorate. In his statement to “Al-Sharq Al-Awsat” newspaper, he asserted that terrorist of Al-Qaeda can never return to their activities in Shabwa, especially with continuous hunt of their elements by Shabwa Elites with full backup of the Arab Coalition.
https://en.smanews.org/al-bu-hur-we-cleared-15-directorates-of-terrorism-and-ended-costal-smuggling
My comment: Separatist news site praising separatist militia as anti-terrorism fighters, while these militia are committing severe human rights violations.
(A P)
Chairman of Local Leadership of Hadhramaut Meets the Feminist Sector
Dr. Mohamed Jaffar Ben Al-Sheikh Abu Bakr, chairman of the local leadership of the southern transitional council in Hadhramaut, met the feminist sector including the whole spectrum who believe in freedom and independence.
https://en.smanews.org/chairman-of-local-leadership-of-hadhramaut-meets-the-feminist-sector
My comment: Separatists playing leadership. “the whole spectrum who believe in freedom and independence”, while womens’ dresses in the photo are demonstrating their oppression.
(A P)
Co mmenting on Smuggling Operations of Weapons into Aden, Shatara: Criminal of Muslim Brotherhood… don’t test our Patience
“recently, several cars belonging to Muslim Brotherhood carrying weapons were confiscated before being smuggled into Aden. Those killers should understand that Aden was liberated while evil camps of Sanaa’s regimen were still inside it with all types of weapons and dirtiest commanders ever. To them I say … don’t test the southern people’s patience. Not anymore”.
My comment: Separatist propaganda against their political foes at Islah Party.
(* A T)
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants detonated at least one improvised explosive device (IED) at the entrance of the police headquarters in Ash Shihr city, southern Hadramawt governorate, eastern Yemen on December 21. AQAP claimed on December 23 that Emirati-backed Hadhrami Elite Forces fired on locals gathering around the scene and one soldier threw a grenade at the crowed before fleeing on a motorcycle. AQAP accused Hadhrami Elite Forces of shedding innocent Muslim blood and vowed to take revenge. Local security officials stated that AQAP militants detonated two IEDs and did not comment on AQAP’s claim that troops fired on civilians.[2]
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(* A P)
The Yemeni government accuses Houthis denying 2946 abductees and no clarifications about Qahtan and Rajab
Yemen's Government accused the Houthi f denying the existence of about three thousand prisoners and abductees detained in their camps, and that the Group did not provide any statements concerning the leader in reform “Islah” party Mohamed Qahtan and major general Feisal Rajab.
A government source, Friday evening, reaffirmed the Government's commitment to implementing the Convention on the exchange of prisoners and detainees, warning the militia of repudiation of the agreement and stop thwarting attempts to start providing false and untrue statements.
The source demanded the UN Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffith, to pressure Houthi militia to commit to the implementation of the agreement signed by the Stockholm peace consultations in Sweden.
The source said Houthi's militia denied 2946 prison detainees out of 8576 names listed by the Government delegation at the consultations of Sweden.
The source confirmed that detainees the militia are trying to hide for unknown reasons are already in detention and prisons and that some who had previously appeared on the television channels of the Houthis.
The Houthi militia never made any statements about the arrest and abduction of Baha'is and refusing to release them, and making criminal charges for other detainees.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162602
(* B P)
Yemen war: What will the new year hold?
As 2018 drew to a close, the image of a Yemeni government minister and a senior Houthi official shaking hands on a deal, which included a surprising ceasefire in the strategic port city of Hudaydah, shot like an electric current around the world.
The process, led by the UN's third Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths, marked the most significant breakthrough in five years of talks.
''Have you seen the video of the handshake?'' exclaimed a Yemeni friend, who added a bright happy emoji to her post sent on the WhatsApp messaging service.
Congratulatory statements cascaded from a multitude of aid agencies who'd been sounding the alarm for months about the world's worst humanitarian crisis becoming, unimaginably, even worse.
But behind this Swedish moment, which provoked a rare hashtag of #Hope on social media, lies deep distrust. It still keeps warring sides and their backers a long way from peace.
But, as Peter Salisbury of the International Crisis Group points out, the agreements reached in Stockholm "reflect a strong humanitarian impulse rather than strategic calculations." There was no consensus in Stockholm on the parameters of a road map towards peace.
A major litmus test will be the critical ceasefire in the port city of Hudaydah, the vital lifeline for humanitarian aid which helps feed nearly two-thirds of Yemen's population.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46524251
(A P)
To the brother Yasser Al-Reini, Minister of State for Dialogue and National Affairs in the Government of Hadi. I extend my hand to you as a minister in the Salvation government to work on his national interests among the people of Yemen is not weakness but for Yemen. In Yemen and not outside (photos)
https://twitter.com/abohemd7000/status/1077709324238102529
Remark: Appeal from Houthi minister at Sanaa to Hadi gov. minister at Aden.
(* A P)
Houthis accused the Government of undermining the prisoner exchange agreement
The Houthi group blamed through its “National captives affair Committee, the Yemeni Government to scuttle the prisoner exchange agreement signed between the parties in Sweden consultations, and said that the Government was not committed seriously in this file.
it pointed out that captives lists provided by the Government side are evidence of lack of seriousness, where there are many imbalances, which threatens to scuttle the agreement between the parties.
He said, «some of the imbalances in other end names of 47 persons held on criminal and moral cases, 111 names of Al-Qaeda members, and 1460 false name or incomplete data, 2171 duplicated names and 1144 names of whom being released».
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162560
(B K P)
Steps toward governance in Yemen
Two useful steps were taken on the long road toward relative peaceful governance in Yemen. The first need of the country is an end the Saudi-led aggression and the civil war conditions. Without an end to the armed violence and insecurity in many parts of the country, it is impossible for the people of Yemen to decide on the structure of the State and the institutions of the society. Thus two useful steps to end the armed conflict have been taken by negotiations held in Sweden and a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Today, the choice between an end to the armed conflict with negotiations for a renewal of a Yemeni State on the basis of the con-federal system proposed and continued fighting in the hope that one faction become a “winner-take-all” is relatively clear. The Association of World Citizens (AWC) is resolutely for an end to the armed conflict with serious negotiations on the structure of a future State.
http://www.transconflict.com/2018/12/steps-toward-governance-in-yemen/
(B P)
2018 new phase of attempts to revive peace in Yemen "one year outcomes"
2018… witnessed attempts to revive the peace process ended with the first meeting of government officials and Houthi inside Yemen since the war started.
High hopes placed in Yemen early in the year 2018, to stop the war and humanitarian crisis, with the military facts, carry significant variables at all levels, especially with the end of the previous year with significant changes militarywise.
Here we provide a timeline prepared by the «Al-Masdar online» records peace efforts in Yemen through the year 2018.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162561
(* B P)
In Yemen UN Says Cammaert Disappointed Highway Not Open After UN Covered Up Saudi Use of Sudan Child Soldiers
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on March 27 lavished praised on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman now accused with respect to Jamal Khashoggi, accepting a $930 million check from the Saudis and UAE, with not a word of the Saudi led bombing campaign that has killed civilians and caused cholera in Yemen.
It turns out the UN has become so corrupt under Guterres that one of lead Spokesman Stephane Dujarric's Associate Spokespeople Ms Keishamaza Rukikaire who actually seems to care or at least re-tweet about Sudan has been ordered not to answer banned Inner City Press' written questions about Sudan, etc, see here.
http://www.innercitypress.com/yemen78hodeida123018.html
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(A K P)
Royal #Saudi Navy western fleet prepares for the joint exercise #RedWave1, which will include Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti and Yemen, in addition to observers from Somalia (photos)
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/1078965275956035584
(*A P)
Shia are infidels - according to Senior Ulema Council of Saudi Arabia Fatwa issued by Saleh al-Luhaidan, a “dominant” member of the Senior Ulema Council in KSA. He and Saleh al-Fawzan announced that any who doubt Shia are infidels are themselves infidels.
https://twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/1078377289560264706
(* A P)
Radha Stirling Statement on Saudi Arabia Cabinet Shuffle
Many have commented that this change is little more than a damage-control PR maneuver by Mohammad bin Salman to distance himself from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; but that may be a superficial analysis of the move.
There are other factors at play here as well. Jubeir has been keen to support a strong US presence in the Middle East and to highlight the regional threat of Iran.
However, US President Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw from Syria, and has signaled that the US will decrease its level of intervention in the region on all fronts; even indicating that he believes Israel is not facing any threats it can’t handle.
This is a policy change which will require a different style of foreign policy from Saudi Arabia; possibly less aggressive, less outspoken, and less confrontational. Jubeir’s replacement will be Ibrahim Al Assaf who served as Finance Minister for twenty years, he is from the old guard, and has a deep knowledge of Saudi Arabia’s relationships and economic interests. I would expect his approach to be more low key and pragmatic, reflecting the changes in the strategic landscape in the wake of a diminished American presence.
(* A P)
'We're not in crisis': New Saudi foreign minister takes the reins
Saudi Arabia's new foreign minister struck a note of defiance Friday in the face of international outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder, rejecting the kingdom was in crisis and his predecessor had been demoted.
Ibrahim al-Assaf, a former veteran finance minister who was briefly detained last year in what Riyadh said was an anti-corruption sweep, replaced Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister in a major government shake-up on Thursday ordered by King Salman.
The surprise reshuffle was seen partly as an attempt to elevate the kingdom's marginalised old guard, adding a veneer of checks and balances in the policy decisions of 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who faces intense global scrutiny over the October 2 murder of journalist Khashoggi.
But speaking to AFP in his first interview since his appointment, Assaf insisted the restructuring was motivated not by the Khashoggi affair, but the need to make the government machinery more efficient.
"The issue of Jamal Khashoggi... really saddened us, all of us," Assaf told AFP at his residence in Riyadh, adorned with mahogany furniture, a wall-mounted elephant tusk and other hunting trophies.
"But all in all, we are not going through a crisis, we are going through a transformation," he added, referring to social and economic reforms spearheaded by the crown prince.
In Thursday's reshuffle, Jubeir was appointed minister of state for foreign affairs, fuelling speculation that he had been demoted after he failed to quell global criticism over Khashoggi.
"This is far from the truth," Assaf said, adding that Jubeir had performed with distinction.
Jubeir's new role, he insisted, was tantamount to a division of labour and not a demotion, in a bid to accelerate the task of remaking a ministry known to be overly bureaucratic.
"Adel represented Saudi Arabia and will continue to represent Saudi Arabia... around the world," Assaf said.
"We complement each other."
His reappointment to a cabinet role indicates the government is seeking to slowly "rehabilitate" the experienced old guard, widely seen to be sidelined by the young prince, observers say.
"King Salman is seeking to bolster his son by appointing seasoned technocrats like Assaf who are not from MBS's inner circle, indirectly reinstating an internal system of checks and balances that was swept away in his drive to consolidate power," said Becca Wasser.
"Adding experienced government hands from an older generation, will serve to check some of MBS's impulses," the policy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation told AFP.
Comment: The problem in Saudi Arabia is that no one can speak the truth
In other words, no problem can ever be fixed in Saudi Arabia, because there are officially no problems.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1078742122382143489
(* A P)
Saudi king taps veteran finance chief as foreign minister to improve image
Saudi Arabia’s king put a veteran former finance minister in charge of foreign affairs on Thursday, aiming to improve the kingdom’s image after the crisis caused by the killing of a journalist and greater scrutiny of the Yemen war.
In a cabinet reshuffle, Ibrahim al-Assaf, who served as finance minister for 20 years and has represented Saudi Arabia at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, was named to take over as foreign minister from Adel al-Jubeir.
Experts in Saudi politics said the move reflected a perception that Jubeir, a veteran diplomat, was tainted by having served as Riyadh’s chief global defender during the Khashoggi affair.
“(Assaf) will basically follow orders, but is seen as key to rebuilding the kingdom’s tarnished image given his own positive international image,” said Neil Quilliam, a senior research fellow at Britain’s Chatham House think tank. “So this rings in the new for the new year, but no real change.”
and full list of reshuffles: https://twitter.com/Cinzia_Bianco/status/1078297784518873093
(* A P)
Saudi King reshuffles Cabinet
Ebrahim Al Assaf replaces Adel Jubeir as foreign minister
King Salman on Thursday reshuffled the cabinet, naming new foreign and media ministers, removing emirs and shifting several high figures.
King Salman remained the head of the cabinet and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman kept his positions as deputy premier and defence minister. The Council of Political and Security Affairs also remained under the leadership of the crown prince.
King Salman appointed Ebrahim Al Assaf as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Adel Al Jubeir who held the portfolio since 2015 as State Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of the Cabinet.
Turki Al Shabana was named Minister of Media (Information).
Other royal orders appointed Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar as Minister of National Guard and removed Prince Mohammad Bin Nawaf Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud as Ambassador to the UK, Prince Faisal Bin Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud as Prince of Aseer, and Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz as President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage.
Who is Al Assaf?
Saudi Foreign Minister Ebrahim Al Assaf, 69, was a former finance minister and a former state minister.
He was detained in November 2017 during a corruption crackdown by an ad-hoc commission, but was cleared during the investigation and reinstated in his official duties.
The new Saudi cabinet chaired by King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud:
- Mohammad Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud: Crown Prince, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence
- Prince Mansoor Bin Mutaab Bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of State
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-king-reshuffles-cabinet-1.1545916041181
Remark: As Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, HE Adel al Jubeir will continue to represent KSA as well as the Foreign Ministry internationally while HE Ibrahim al Assaf will focus on developing/restructuring and managing the Foreign Ministry.
https://twitter.com/7yhy/status/1078279521885921280
(* B E P)
A prince fails to charm: Saudi Arabia’s economic reforms are not attracting investors
This suggests “Vision 2030”, the kingdom’s ambitious plan to diversify its economy, is working. It aims to create jobs, attract investment and develop industries, such as tourism (see article). For decades oil-rich Gulf states have made similar promises, only to backtrack when the price of oil rises. Muhammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, has kept his country on course better than his predecessors. But the progress is illusory. Dig past the headline numbers and, so far, the results of Prince Muhammad’s reforms are disappointing.
Take the stockmarket. It looks healthy in part because the government is secretly propping it up by placing huge buy orders to counter sell-offs following recent political crises, according to the Wall Street Journal. The gdp figures are also misleading. The economy remains yoked to oil. Higher prices for the black stuff, notwithstanding a sharp fall in recent months, are boosting all sectors. But for an economy with rapid population growth coming out of recession, the performance is hardly stellar. Three years ago gdp growth stood at 4%.
Prince Muhammad wants foreign investors to think that Saudi Arabia is a safe bet. But his capricious policies, from the locking-up of wealthy Saudis in 2017 to pointless diplomatic feuds with Canada and Germany, are scaring them off. Foreign direct investment fell to $1.4bn (0.2% of gdp) in 2017, from $7.5bn the year before.
Comment: To attract foreign investors, you need - among other things - to convince them that you offer a stable and predictable business environment, not one where business people can be jailed and shaken down by a capricious leader.
https://twitter.com/thomasjuneau/status/1076887971952017409
(* B P)
Whither Wahhabism (from July 10, 2018)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago.
Prince Mohammed has fueled expectations by fostering Islamic scholars who advocate a revision of Wahhabism as well as by lifting a ban on women’s driving and creating space for entertainment, including music, theatre, film, and, for conservatives, controversial sports events like wrestling.
To cement his power, Prince Mohammed has in the past year marginalized establishment religious scholars, detained critics and neutralized members of the elite by arresting relatives, prominent businessmen, and officials and stripping them of much of their assets.
In doing so, Prince Mohammed has subjugated the kingdom’s ultra-conservative religious leaders through a combination of intimidation, coercion and exploitation of religious dogma
https://lobelog.com/whither-wahhabism/
cp9 USA
(A K P)
Following Report on Saudi Use of Child Soldiers in Yemen, Anti-War Voices Offer This Reminder: American Tax Dollars 'Help Pay for It'
"America is now aiding and abetting the use of child soldiers."
That was how Ari Rabin-Havt, deputy policy director for U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), responded to a New York Times report on Friday detailing Saudi Arabia's use of Sudanese child soldiers as young as 14 years old to wage its vicious assault on Yemen, which has resulted in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Children paid to kill children. This is how our 'ally,' Saudi Arabia, wages its disgusting war in Yemen," wrote Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund. "And we help pay for it."
(A H P)
2-Year-Old Yemeni Boy Dies Following Public Outcry Over Mother’s Visit
Two-year-old Abdullah Hassan died Friday at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland following public outcry when his Yemeni mother could not get a visa to see him, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Friday.
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/12/28/yemen-boy-dies-childrens-hospital-oakland/
and also https://www.wfla.com/national/2-year-old-yemeni-boy-whose-mom-sued-us-to-see-him-has-died/1678903015
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/29/us/yemeni-mother-son-life-support-dies/index.htm
(A K)
US Special Operation Command C146A Wolfhound from Djibouti heading towards #Yemen (map)
https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1078595619596443648
Highly suspicious flight from Djibouti Global Africa Cargo MD-11F Z-GAA heading North over #Yemen (map)
https://twitter.com/GDarkconrad/status/1078586936770609152
(* B K P)
The World According to the “Adults in the Room”: A Year of Forever War in Review
Maybe it’s time to think of them as the tools of a military-industrial-congressional complex that continues to serve up endless war.
As Donald Trump wraps up his second year in the Oval Office, despite sudden moves in Syria and Afghanistan, the United States remains entrenched in a set of military interventions across significant parts of the world. Worse yet, what those adults guided the president toward was yet more bombing, the establishment of yet more bases, and the funding of yet more oversized Pentagon budgets. And here was the truly odd thing: every time The Donald tweeted negatively about any of those wars or uttered an offhand remark in opposition to the warfare state or the Pentagon budget, that triumvirate of generals and good old Rex went to work steering him back onto the well-worn track of Bush-Obama-style forever wars.
In October and December, Mattis claimed that the United States was providing in-air refueling to the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, “so the pilots didn’t feel they had to make a hasty decision about the drop or not to drop, that sort of thing.” This was an attempt to rewrite history in real time, since protecting civilians was not the purpose of the refueling under former President Barack Obama or under Trump [bold mine-DL]. As the Central Commander James Votel explained to the Senate in March, refueling was necessary because it “gives us placement, it gives us access and it gives us influence … with Saudi Arabia,” adding, “They want this type of support, and they want to improve their capabilities.” It was not, as Mattis claimed, to prevent civilian casualties but to literally fuel an air campaign that ensured them by its systematic, indiscriminate nature.
So, as 2018 comes to a close, thanks to the worldview of those grown-ups and the pliability of Trump’s own ideology (except when it comes to climate change), Washington’s empire of bases, its never-ending war on terror, and its blank-check spending on the military-industrial complex were more firmly entrenched than ever. It will fall to the president — if indeed he proves to be serious when it comes to a course change — to begin the long work of (modestly) undoing a planet of war.
Maybe it’s time to start thinking of those adults as the tools (and often enough the future employees) of a military-industrial-congressional complex that feeds Americans ample servings of endless war, year after year, decade after decade. In truth, in this century presidents change but the failing policies haven’t.
Call it the deep state, the swamp, or whatever you like, but bottom line: during Trump’s first two years in office, there wasn’t, until now, any serious rethinking of American foreign and military policy, not in terms of peaceableness anyway. Trump’s original adults in the room set the table for endless war – by Danny Sjursen
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176511/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_ringing_in_a_new_year_of_war/#more = https://www.thenation.com/article/the-adults-in-the-room-are-the-problem/
and
(* B K P)
Mattis’ Yemen Legacy
Micah Zenko takes a closer look at Mattis’ tenure as Secretary of Defense and finds lots to criticize
Mattis said a number of false and misleading things about the U.S. role in the war on Yemen over the last two years. That isn’t surprising, since he was one of the leading advocates for increasing the U.S. role in the war as soon as he took office. His spin about refueling Saudi coalition planes was probably one of the most ridiculous things he said about that role. As anyone could see from the results of the bombing campaign, coalition pilots were and still are regularly attacking civilian targets. Refueling practically guaranteed that there would be more civilian casualties, not fewer.
Mattis’ arguments in defense of the Saudi coalition and U.S. backing for them were always remarkably weak, and they were inevitably based on an unfounded belief that the Saudis and Emiratis were doing “everything humanly possible” to avoid loss of innocent life. He went so far as to insist that he didn’t see any “callous disregard” for innocent life on the coalition’s part – by Daniel Larison
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/mattis-yemen-legacy/
(* B K P)
Five Lessons from the Iraq War for What the U.S. Should Do in Yemen
There is a difference between ending America’s involvement and moral complicity in a war versus actually ending a war.
Terrorism remains an enduring threat and requires vigilance.
U.S. support for political talks between competing factions remains essential, even after combat support and operations are done
U.S. regional security measures and diplomacy should work to reduce strategic tensions across the region.
The United States should use its diplomacy, military footprint, and security support to lower regional tensions between Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
U.S. development and economic statecraft tools are essential for addressing the immediate humanitarian disaster and the long-term economic challenges in Yemen.
There is little popular support in America to invest in nation building in Yemen. The countries most likely to put up the money for Yemen’s future are also the combatants in the current conflict. Even those adamant about putting an end to the military engagement of Yemen’s neighbors should see the rationale that these countries have the financial resources and direct national security interests to want economic stability in Yemen.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/five-lessons-iraq-war-what-us-should-do-yemen-39977
My comment: Sounds somewhat strange to me; US interference, new style, is propagated here.
(* B K P)
Commentary: Getting the US out of Middle East purgatory
The United States remain embroiled in the consequences of a war they have little control over, two observers point out.
Painful though it may be, the United States needs to begin the work of pulling back from its overwhelming involvements in the Middle East.
At a time when US interests in the Middle East are declining at pace with the American public’s appetite for commitments in the region, the United States must embrace a Middle East policy defined by greater clarity and discipline.
The Saudi-backed war in Yemen illustrates this problem clearly.
As US leaders continue to shift needed resources to address power competitions with Russia and China, they need to have a more clear-eyed view of their Middle Eastern partners’ interests, flaws, capabilities, and limitations.
We know what doing more in the Middle East looks like — and it’s ugly. Doing less might look ugly, too — but given the increasing opportunity costs for Washington of prioritising the Middle East, it is time to give it a try.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/getting-the-us-out-of-middle-east-purgatory-11042222
(B P)
Ceasefire in Yemen on Verge of Collapse
Washington calls the shots on war or peace in Yemen (and all other active US war theaters) – not other NATO countries, Israel, the Saudis, or warring sides in Sweden earlier this month.
As long as dominant bipartisan US hardliners reject conflict resolution, achieving it will remain unattainable – the way it’s been in all post-9/11 conflict theaters, what won’t change under a new US war secretary.
The Trump regime rejects peace. So do the Saudis and UAE. Endless war in Yemen rages with no prospect for ending it any time soon – by Stephen Lendman
https://www.davidicke.com/article/512182/ceasefire-yemen-verge-collapse
(* B P)
Bring the Troops Home, But Also Stop the Bombing
As our nation debates the merits of President Donald Trump’s call for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, absent from the debate is the more pernicious aspect of US military involvement overseas: its air wars. Trump’s announcement and General James Mattis’ resignation should unleash a national discussion about US involvement in overseas conflicts, but no evaluation can be meaningful without a clear understanding of the violence that US air wars have unleashed on the rest of the world for the past 17 years.
By our calculations, in this “war on terror,” the US and its allies have dropped a staggering 291,880 bombs and missiles on other countries – and that is just a minimum number of confirmed strikes.
A good New Year’s resolution for the United States would be to put an end to the wars we have been engaged in for the past 17 years, and to make sure we do not allow the same military madness that got us into this mess to sucker us into new wars on North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, or other countries. Yes, let’s bring the troops home, but let’s also stop the bombing. Sustained advocacy toward the Trump administration and the new Congress by peace-loving Americans will be critical if we are to fulfill this resolution – by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
https://original.antiwar.com/mbenjamin/2018/12/25/bring-the-troops-home-but-also-stop-the-bombing/
(B P)
Muslim Ban: Meet the Yemeni Americans Suing Trump in an Attempt to Reunite with Loved Ones
A group of Yemeni Americans have filed a new federal lawsuit over President Trump’s Muslim ban. The suit alleges the State Department has revoked previously approved visas, preventing many Yemenis from reuniting with their families living in the United States. We speak to two of the plaintiffs and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the lawsuit.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/26/muslim_ban_meet_the_yemeni_americans
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
(A P)
Yemen: Peace Negotiations
Foreign and Commonwealth Office written question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the viability of the UN-brokered ceasefire in Hudaydah in Yemen and the Stockholm Agreement.
Alistair Burt. We welcome the outcome of the talks convened by the UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths in Stockholm, which represents a significant step forward in the pursuit of peace and stability in Yemen. However, we are acutely aware of the fragility of these agreements at this stage.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2018-12-18.203279.h&p=10770
(A P)
Film: Christian Aid Created A Mural For #Yemen In Clerkenwell Which has a simple message to the #UK Government. Stop selling arms, for Yemen’s sake.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/videos/1970877813000034/
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
(A P)
Maas: Dürfen uns im UN-Sicherheitsrat nicht wegducken
Bundesaußenminister Heiko Maas hat ein stärkeres Engagement Deutschlands bei der Bewältigung von Krisen und Konflikten angekündigt: «Ich glaube, dass unsere Verantwortung wächst. Die Erwartungen an uns sind so groß wie wohl noch nie».
Kurz vor dem Einzug Deutschlands in den UN-Sicherheitsrat nannte Maas in einem dpa-Interview konkret eine stärkere Beteiligung an den diplomatischen Bemühungen um die Lösung der Krisen im Nahen Osten, zu denen Syrien und Jemen gehören.
Deutschland ist ab dem 1. Januar zwei Jahre Mitglied des Sicherheitsrats der Vereinten Nationen
(* B K P)
Rüstungsindustrie droht Bundesregierung mit Schadensersatz
Die deutschen Rüstungsexporte sind in diesem Jahr drastisch zurückgegangen.
Der Grünen-Außenpolitiker Nouripour kritisierte, dass die Bundesregierung weiterhin in großem Umfang Ausfuhren an autoritäre Staaten und in Spannungsgebiete genehmigt habe. "Trotz der Ankündigungen im Koalitionsvertrag ist die Bilanz der Exportgenehmigungen für dieses Jahr verheerend", sagte er.
Wegen des Rüstungsexportstopps für Saudi-Arabien droht die Industrie der Bundesregierung derweil mit Schadenersatzforderungen. Der Hauptgeschäftsführer des Bundesverbands der Deutschen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsindustrie, Hans Christoph Atzpodien, forderte die große Koalition aus Union und SPD auf, "rein politische Themen" nicht auf dem Rücken der Unternehmen auszutragen. "Natürlich sind in diesem Zusammenhang auch Schadenersatzforderungen denkbar", sagte er
(* B K P)
Deutschland genehmigt weiter Waffenlieferungen auf Arabische Halbinsel
Deutschland setzt seine Waffenlieferungen auf die Arabische Halbinsel fort und unterstützt damit das Kriegsbündnis im Jemen weiterhin. Ausfuhrgenehmigungen für Rüstungsexporte wurden für die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, Bahrain und Kuweit erteilt.
Deutschland liefert weiter Waffen auf die Arabische Halbinsel. Das geht aus einer Antwort der Bundesregierung auf eine Anfrage der Linken-Bundestagsfraktion hervor
Demnach wurden im letzten Quartal 2018 unter anderem Einzelausfuhrgenehmigungen für Rüstungsexporte in die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, Bahrain und Kuwait in Höhe von 57,64 Millionen Euro erteilt.
Für Saudi-Arabien selbst wurden im letzten Quartal keine Genehmigungen erteilt.
Kritiker fordern, die bereits erteilten Genehmigungen an die Staaten der Kriegskoalition zu widerrufen. Ausfuhrgenehmigungen bezeichnen nicht die tatsächlichen Exporte von Rüstungsgütern, sondern beziehen sich auf Waffengeschäfte in der Zukunft. Sie gelten aber als Gradmesser für den grundsätzlichen Kurs in der Rüstungspolitik.
(* A K P)
Deutsche Waffen im Jemen-Krieg
Dass die Bundesregierung entgegen aller Beteuerungen weiter Waffen an Länder liefert, die im Jemen an der Seeblockade und weiteren Kriegsverbrechen beteiligt sind, sieht die stellvertretende Fraktionsvorsitzende Sevim Dagdelen als eine moralische Bankrotterklärung. Die skrupellose Rüstungsexportpolitik der Merkel-Regierung sei so mitverantwortlich für die humanitäre Katastrophe im Jemen. Die Linke fordert, alle erteilten Genehmigungen an die im Jemenkrieg beteiligten Staaten sofort zu widerrufen.
https://www.linksfraktion.de/themen/nachrichten/detail/deutsche-waffen-im-jemen-krieg/
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(A P)
The Russian ambassador to Yemen, Vladimir Dedushkin, met with representatives from the Transitional Political Council for the South (STC) to discuss the importance of the southern issue throughout the Yemeni peace process on December 27. Dedushkin stated that the STC should participate in the process and the STC representatives stated that any agreement made without their involvement would fail.[3]
(B P)
Pak Senate Chairman visit to Saudi-led coalition HQ raises eyebrows: Report
A report published in Pakistan daily says Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani’s recent visit to headquarters of the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen has raised many eyebrows.
Daily ‘The Nation’ said on December 20, the Senate Secretariat through an official statement said that Sanjrani visited the Headquarters of the “military alliance established under command of Saudi Arabia for restoration of legitimate government in Yemen” — a move that has not only surprised many but also has caused distress among many members of the Senate, both from the position and the treasury benches.
http://www.irna.ir/en/News/83150339
(A K pH)
Italy PM backs halting arms sales to Saudis
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday his government was in favor of halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia and it intended to take a formal position on the matter.
“We are not in favor of the sale of these weapons and so now it is only a question of formalizing this position and acting accordingly,” Conte told reporters at the prime minister’s traditional end-year news conference.
(A P)
Mary Robinson labelled a 'willing pawn' over visit with UAE princess
Former UN human rights chief posed with royal but critics say princess is held against her will
Mary Robinson, the former UN high commissioner for human rights, has come under fire for claiming that an Emirati princess campaigners say is being held against her will is “in the loving care of her family”.
Robinson faced intensive criticism on Thursday from rights campaigners, with one alleging she had been “used as a willing pawn in the PR battle between the UAE ruling family and the rest of the world”.
There was also a sceptical reaction from Human Rights Watch (HRW), which was name-checked during a BBC interview on Thursday with Robinson, who said she had been asked by Princess Hayat, one of the Sheikh’s wives and someone she had known for a long time, to come to Dubai to help with a “family dilemma”.
Remark: Earlier reporting: Yemen War Mosaic 495 and
and film: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bshk6s/escape-from-dubai-the-mystery-of-the-missing-princess = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAVI0DY-z8I
and earlier films:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN7OEFyNUkQ and snipet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFpM3SW1W3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPuhzT47XWs and part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uyNaDfC7IU
Comment by Sarah Lea Whitson, HRW: Highly unethical for Mary Robinson to have made pronouncements about Sheikha Latifa in conditions of confinement, relying on #UAE kidnappers’ assertions of her condition (and why they kidnapped her), and without independent examination by experts
https://twitter.com/sarahleah1/status/1078581954977689600
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
(* B P)
How Qatar is paying US institutions $1.3 billion to gain ‘dubious influence’
Qatar is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into top academic institutions in the UK and US, since the beginning of 2012 to June this year, according to a Financial Times analysis of the US education department’s Foreign Gifts and Contracts Report.
Qatar’s part represents around 15 percent of all foreign gifts and contracts over that period. Qatar pays alone $1.3 billion from the $2.2 billion provided by all Gulf countries.
According to media reports, data from US Department of Education shows that Qatar has given about $1 billion to elite American universities since 2011 for ulterior motives. The noted US-based news portal ‘Daily Caller News Foundation’ fears that the funding could have implications for the ‘academic independence’ of prestigious US universities.
A Daily Caller report said that some elite universities hide information on funding from the “ultra-conservative nation of Qatar”.
It states that Doha is seeking to gain political influence in Washington by funding academic institutions like Georgetown University, “which is situated in the seat of power, near the State Department, and its experts are frequently cited by groups shaping policy”.
The article confirmed that the university has “received nearly $333 million from Qatar since 2011 — far more than any other US school has received from any foreign nation”.
In 2017, Qatar hired Ashcroft Law Firm, cofounded by former US Attorney General John Ashcroft, and then a second law firm — McDermott, Will & Emory — three weeks later. In late August, Qatar hired a third D.C. law firm, Stonington Strategies, then a fourth, Nelson Mullins.
It also hired Avenue Strategies Global, former Trump campaign manager Corey Leandowski’s lobbying firm, according to Politico. Art Estopinan, recently hired as a partner at Avenue Strategies Global and one of the lobbyists for Qatar, was formerly Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-Fla.).
Qatar has also turned to advertising firms, including the Washington, D.C.-based Audience Partners Worldwide. Also, Qatar’s communications office hired PR and lobbying firm BlueFront Strategies to create what would be the country’s most ambitious media campaign denouncing its Gulf neighbors.
My comment: By a Saudi news site; Saudi Arabia accusing Qatar of paying for influence in the US is really odd.
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
(* B K P)
Have Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia peaked?
The outrage over weapons deals to serial human rights abusers may finally be making an impact,
It's probably true that in the long-term a Western arms embargo on Riyadh will likely result in it seeking arms elsewhere. But in the short-term, the Saudi military is heavily dependent on American and British support to operate the majority of weapons currently in its arsenal.
Without this support, they would doubtlessly find it far more difficult to wage war in Yemen, or maintain a fleet of sophisticated American jet fighters, bombers and tanks, all of which require significant maintenance and supply of spare parts to operate, especially during military action.
Consequently, if a serious arms embargo were imposed on Saudi Arabia, it would likely take years, and billions of additional dollars, for Riyadh to supplement its military equipment through other sources.
To wage its air campaign on Yemen the Saudis rely overwhelmingly on American- and British-made weapon systems and munitions. Since the 1980s Riyadh has not only relied on Western-made weapon systems but also heavily on technical help and know-how.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2018/12/21/have-western-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-peaked
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
Siehe / Look at cp1
cp13c Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
Siehe / Look at cp15
cp13d Wirtschaft / Economy
(A E P)
Governor of Central bank: the IMF experts praised our policies
The Yemeni Central Bank Governor Mohamed Zammam, said Thursday that the final outcome of the visit of International Monetary Fund experts to Yemen confirmed that the Central Bank work on distinct economic policies supported by donors.
According to Government news agency «Saba», that policy contribute to ease the humanitarian crisis in the short term.
Fund expert group for its fiscal policies mission on Yemen ended its first visit, since June 2014, in December and approving of regular periodic review every three months.
He noted that the report of the visiting experts published on the Bank's Web site accessible to all.
Governor of the Central Bank confirmed fully operational through correspondence and accounts available from the US Federal Bank accounts to all Arabic and other banks.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162582
Remark: Hadi gov. Central bank at Aden.
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A T)
Ermittlungsverfahren gegen bekannten französischen Islamisten in Paris eröffnet
Wegen "Mitgliedschaft in einer kriminellen terroristischen Vereinigung" hat die französische Justiz ein formelles Ermittlungsverfahren gegen den bekannten Islamisten Peter Cherif eröffnet. Der aus dem ostafrikanischen Dschibuti nach Frankreich ausgelieferte Cherif müsse sich wegen seiner Aktivitäten im Jemen verantworten, hieß es am Donnerstag aus Justizkreisen in Paris. Dort soll der 36-jährige Franzose zur Führung von Al-Kaida auf der Arabischen Halbinsel (Aqap) gehört haben.
http://unternehmen-heute.de/news.php?newsid=544385
(A T)
#AlQaeda is lashing out more in the bust up between #AQAP & #IslamicState in #Yemen (ISY). Over past week in al-Bayda' -AQAP fired 2 rockets at ISY building & targeted 2 ISY vehicles -ISY targeted AQAP with 3 explosive devices Plus AQ media released 8 slides exposing ISY crimes (image)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1078987344986980352
(A T)
The Islamic State in Yemen claimed its militants detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants in Wadi ‘Ana, northwestern al Bayda governorate, central Yemen on December 26. The Islamic State and AQAP claimed several attacks targeting each other in al Bayda between December 19 and 26.[3]
(A T)
AQAP and the Islamic State in Yemen both claimed attacks targeting each other in al Bayda governorate, central Yemen. AQAP militants detonated an IED targeting an Islamic State truck and ambushed a second truck in al Najd area, northwestern al Bayda on December 19. The Islamic State claimed one of its militants killed an AQAP member with a sniper in northwestern al Bayda on December 19. AQAP militants also shelled an Islamic State building in the Dhi Kalb area of al Bayda after repulsing an Islamic State attack on an AQAP position on December 22. The Islamic State claimed to detonate an IED targeting an AQAP vehicle in the Dhi Kalb area on December 24.[3]
https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1077935344480329729
https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1077937993787363330
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1077970668283662337
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
ANALYSIS: What needs to be done over Iran’s crisis in 2019?
Despite its year of brutality and planned attacks, the protests that sprung up almost a year agocontinue across the country, the economic situation continues to deteriorate and opposition groups, namely the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), continue to gain ground.
So what should the international community’s 2019 resolution on Iran be?
In this regard, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held an international conference in 50 cities around the world including Tirana, Paris, London, Berlin, Oslo, on Saturday 15 December, which were connected via video links. At the conference, the Iranian communities around the world expressed their support for the NCRI and called on the international community to halt Iranian regime’s “export of terrorism” across Europe and human rights violations inside the country.
No one knows what will happen in the next year, but one thing is for certain, Iran’s society is on a brink of revolution and tolerance of the regime’s export of terrorism will put Western citizens at danger.
To solve the crisis, in 2019, the international community must resolve to support the Iranian people. Backing Iranians legitimate demands will get the regime and its repressive forces stuck in a perilous situation. Only people of Iran can hold the regime to account and end this long cancer.
My comment: By a Saudi news site. This report is quite grotesque: Saudis cheering on public protests; Saudis accusing others of “export of terrorism”; Saudis cheering a terrorist organization (MEK. NCRI).
(A P)
Years end but crises continue
Let’s take a look at Yemen. At first glance, it seems that the settlement regarding Hodeidah is a positive development considering that it may mark the beginning of the end of war. However, I think the Houthis will not move further on this path, not because they are strong or because they are foolish but because moving toward it is the worst option for Iran right now. The US siege is suffocating, hence the latter wants to upset others by using the cards it still holds, which include Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. Therefore, the Houthis will have to revert to fighting no matter how much it may cost them.
Iraq, Lebanon in Iran’s orbit
(A H P)
Yemen: In desperate need of relief
Relief in Yemen is highly problematic. The amounts of money allocated, whether from the international community or regional organizations, is huge, reaching $2.1 billion last year.
If you compare these amounts of money to the situation of Yemenis, you will find a large gap. Based on the views of random sectors from five governorates, relief does not reach many Yemenis, or is taken by Houthis, which do not hand over any part to non-followers. When we looked at the details of the crisis, we found that 80 percent of the aid reaches Houthis from international organizations, through the port of Hodeidah at a time when the governorate suffers from a major famine.
The final situation is a number of governorates suffering from acute hunger. In Hodeidah there is a famine, malnutrition in Lahj, and families sleeping for nights on gravel, in camps, streets, houses and hospitals.
The large gap between the reported relief numbers and the situation on the ground raises several questions: Where do the relief funds go? What are the channels and mechanisms through which it reaches Yemenis?
Relief convoys and their workers are subjected to attacks by the Houthis.
This article is part of a series of articles on Yemen by Eman Hannah. Hannah has taken a 30-day trip to monitor Houthi crimes, the suffering of the people and the role of the coalition forces in restoring the Arab country from the hands of Iran's allies, documents revealing Houthi plan to spread the Shiite ideology, the mandate of the Faqih, and change the curriculum.
http://www.egypttoday.com/Article/2/62726/Yemen-In-desperate-need-of-relief
My comment: Anti-Houthi propaganda under the disguise of a report on the humanitarian situation.
(B P)
Part of a BBC interview with former #Yemen parliamentarian who was a champion for change before & during the Arab Spring. This was on Stockholm consultations. @saadtalib: 1) Houthis signed agreements that they never kept 2) Sectarian & supremacist nature of Houthis is overlooked
and 3) Much of Humanitarian crisis is caused by the Houthis' invasion of cities, & 4) Southern lands were invaded by #Houthis but no assurances given to the South.
In brief, there is a fundamental lack of trust in #Houthis, this is a lesson that #Yemenis learned the hard way.
https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1078675292468772864
(A P)
Houthis use national monuments as fighting bases, smuggle artifacts
No one in Yemen has been spared the destruction of the Huthis, not even the monuments and artefacts. They attack everything, from human beings and humanity to monuments and civilization.
That’s how they have behaved in Yemen.
According to the Yemeni Center for Social Peace, the International Organization for Human Rights and the monitoring coalition for human rights violations, they destroyed 120 archaeological sites between 2015 and 2018.
In fact, 2015 registered the highest violation of a number of 69 archaeological sites in various provinces in Yemen such as the dam of Marib and, the famous al-Hajar in Hamdan in Sanaa, and the famous "Geff Asaad Kamel" in Ab.
My comment: This really is a strange propaganda article. The destructions at Aden largely could be ascribed to the Houthis, as the Houthi assault against Aden in 2015 caused severe fighting in and around the city. But, in this time, the Saudi coalition committed air raids at Aden as well. – In other cases, all destructions of historical sites which had been committed in this war simply had been ascribed to the Houthis – even the destructions in Saada city, including the Imam al-Hadi Yahya ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim Mosque, and the destructions in the historical center of Sanaa. The Marib dam mentioned here had been bombed by a Saudi coalition air raid. The famous al-Hajar in Hamdan in Sanaa fortunately had not been destroyed or damaged in this war. Abs in Hajjah province had been a permanent target of Saudi coalition air raids.
The Houthis are foe to Jews, the idea of a Houthi-Jewish cooperation for smuggling antiques is an odd conspiracy theory. The famous Thora roll had been smuggled out of Yemen against the strict will of the Houthis.
(A P)
THE WASHINGTON POST CAN'T STOPPUBLISHING IRANIAN PROPAGANDA ABOUT YEMEN
While the Left was spinning conspiracy theories about conservatives and Russian trolls on social media, its own social feeds were filled with Iranian and Qatari propaganda showing a Pallywood production of "starving children" in Yemen caused by the Saudi campaign against Iran's Houthi Jihadis.
The Iranian-Qatari propaganda has been so successful that even a number of Republicans voted for a Qatari Senate resolution targeting the Saudis and backing Qatar, and by extension, Iran.
But the media has been the greatest vector for propaganda on behalf of the Iranian terror campaign in Yemen.
Take the latest Washington Post report on the "famine" in Yemen. Much like the "famine" in Gaza, this is a cynical bid by an Islamic terror group to manufacture a human rights crisis to stop a more powerful adversary from defeating it.
(A P)
KSrelief distributes 1,260 cartons of dates in Marib Governorate, Yemen
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1857668
(A P)
Houthis: The terrorist organization that is fooling the world
Houthis are the terrorist organization that is fooling the world. They are combining between the maximalist pursuit of theocratic reign through religion-fueled violence and the fake appearance as an ordinary rebel group that is seeking only limited gains within a democratic country.
After four years of Houthi diehard fighting and avoidance of peace by countless ways, the international community seems not to understand the ulterior motive of these diehard religious fighters.
Many US, European and even some Arab media outlets and Sana'a-based UN offices and human rights watchdogs are even playing the role of propaganda arms for this organization.
They downplay the seriousness of Houthi maximalism to ordinary rebellion and picture the suffering the Houthis brought upon the Yemenis through the prism of the Arab Coalition's "bombing campaign."
The UN assumes their good faith and wants the Yemeni people to wait open-endedly until Houthis grants the Yemeni people peace.
A key element of the Houthi organization's religious beliefs is Taqiya (dissimulation) and the motto of their fighter mobilization campaigns is the Quranic verse "Tough on the Disbelievers". They call their fighting "Jihad."
Meanwhile, the UN keeps pressing the Yemeni government to sit for peace talks and concede something special and unprecedented to arouse the Houthi interest in peace. Which Houthis never have and will never have.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26422
(A P)
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations: Israeli airstrikes in Syria, Saudi continuation of the war in Yemen, Turkey preparing to attack Syrian Kurds, Assad in power and Isis anything but defeated, Iran expanding its regional reach, Russia the most influential external power: welcome to the post-American Middle East.
https://twitter.com/RichardHaass/status/1077925503833534464
My comment: The comments are worth reading!!
(A H P)
Saudi Arabia’s KSRelief continues its noble mission in Yemen, Syria
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) is actively taking part in relief activities in war-torn Yemen and Syrian.
The center is carrying out several projects to alleviate the suffering of Yemenis and Syrians without any discrimination. The relief projects include distribution of food, clothing and shelter among the displaced population.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1426251/saudi-arabia
(A P)
Did the Saudis win or lose in Yemen?
This was something unprecedented. No country in the world will allow a militia to take over power. This militia was undisciplined, did not respect the law and did not recognize the conventions of war.
In addition, the militia was controlled by regional powers with huge military capabilities to inflict serious damage. This was exactly what happened when they launched more than 100 ballistic missiles targeting Saudi cities.
At the beginning of the war, the battle was limited to the Saudi border regions. Bombshells were dropped on heavily populated Saudi cities and villages.
It was later revealed that this well-planned attack against the Kingdom was orchestrated many years ago. The parties conspiring against Saudi Arabia were just waiting for a conflict or an internal war to send thousands of mercenaries to storm the border and occupy Saudi cities.
How did they plan to invade Saudi cities and who were the parties involved in the conspiracy?
To a large extent, Saudi Arabia, the legitimate government in Yemen and the coalition forces won this war against to the chagrin of regional and international powers. This victory did not come with the raising of the white flag, but by achieving all the strategic goals of the military intervention in Yemen in the first place. This is the criterion for victory in any battle in our modern times.
Saudi Arabia declared victory in the Yemen conflict after achieving all the strategic goals that were laid out before the military intervention in the country. Saudi Arabia crushed the Iranian meddling though the powers in Tehran thought it would be easy for them to find a foothold close to Saudi Arabia's southern border.
My comment: LOL.
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
Dec. 29: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520808.htm Saada p.
Dec. 28: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520699.htm Sanaa p.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520701.htm and http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520683.htm Saada p.
Dec. 27: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520593.htm Saada p.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520601.htm Hodeidah p.
Dec. 26: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520453.htm Nehm, Sanaa p.
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(B K pS)
Film: One million mines still waiting for Yemenis.. Watch this
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1078709997113147392
(A K pH)
Film: One of the victims of the crime of fame (shurat) market in Taiz, 28-12-2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG57zFW9aSo
(A K pS)
Amassed Houthis launch military offensive to break into Taiz
Houthis launched a huge military offensive against Taiz on Friday evening, days after amassing troops and tanks around the southwestern Yemen city they have been besieging for years.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26467
(A K pS)
Houthis shell on prayer square injures 6 civilians in Taiz
Six people, including children, were injured when a shell fired by Houthis, this afternoon, upon Friday toward prayers square in Al-Hurriah square area in Taiz City.
Witnesses told Al-Masdar online that shell fell on the square during the gathering of citizens to pray and six people were wounded by shrapnel, this place used by citizens to pray since in 2011.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162584
and
(A K pS)
Houthis bombed Freedom Square in Taiz today where people were performing Friday prayers leaving 8 civilians including children injured, 2 of whom r in critical condition (photos)
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1078692499294748673
https://twitter.com/AlziyadiNuha/status/1078612602706632704
(A K pS)
Coalition fighter planes targeted two drones carrying explosives in Sana'a
Sources of Al-Masdar online said that remotely piloted aircraft loaded with explosives belonging to Houthis militias were flying in Skies of Hamedan Directorate before the Arab Coalition fighter.
The source pointed out that the drones were destroyed and crashed in smoke and flame upon a house in Hamedan Directorate which was slightly damaged.
Houthi militias have been using small drones with explosives targeting the Government army forces sites.
http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162591
(A K pH)
Short Range Missile, Zelzal-1, Hits Najran
Air Force of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees on Friday fired a short range missile, Zelzal-1, at the gatherings of Saudi-mercenaries in Sudais site in Njran, a military source told Al-Masirah Net.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4591&cat_id=1
(A K pS)
Royal #Saudi ADF intercepts a ballistic missile launched by the #Houthi militia over Najran, SA
https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/1078616841491267584
(A K pH)
Citizen Dies of Saudi Border Guards’ Gunfire in Sa’adah
A citizen was shot dead by Saudi border guards on Thursday in the border province of Sa’adah.
Our correspondent reported that the Saudi border guards opened fire towards Munabbih border district, ledding to the death of a citizen.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4566&cat_id=1
(A K pH)
Army's air defenses down saudi-led unmanned aircraft in Nehm
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520454.htm
(A K pH)
More Saudi coalition artillery shelling recorded on:
Dec. 27: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news520599.htm Saada p.
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* C)
Photo: High school education in Sana’a, #Yemen 1970s
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1078542760049807360
My comment: Just look at this photo, how the girls are dressed, and you can see boys and girls in one class together: You might imagine how horrible the influence of Saudi Wahabism must have been.
(C)
Flashback 1998: Australians abducted in Yemen terror attack
In December 1998, Islamic militants kidnapped 16 members of a tour group in Yemen. A rescue raid by Yemeni security forces culminated in the death of four hostages, including Australian Andrew Thirsk. Thirsk's bravery, and that of fellow Australian Catherine Spence, is remembered in this piece.
Vorige / Previous
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-495-yemen-war-mosaic-495
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-495 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-495:
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:
Was ist Ihre Meinung?
Kommentare einblendenDiskutieren Sie mit.