Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 498 - Yemen War Mosaic 498

Yemen Press Reader 498: 5. Januar 2019: Ärzte ohne Grenzen im Jemen – Not im Jemen, Übersichtskarte – Missbrauch von Lebensmittelhilfe im Jemen, WFP beschuldigt nur die Huthis ...

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Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

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... Saudische Besatzungspolitik in Ostjemen – US-Waffenhilfe für Saudis – Kinder und Krankheiten, Statistik 2018 – Hodeidah: Brüchiger Waffenstillstand, gegenseitige Beschuldigungen – Neues Buch zum Khashoggi-Mord – und mehr

January 5, 2019: Doctors Without Borders in Yemen – Yemen emergency dashboard – Abuse of food relief in Yemen, WFP blaming only the Houthi side – Saudi occupation policy in Eastern Yemen – US arms support for Saudi Arabia – Children and diseases, 2018 statistics – Hodeidah: Shaky ceasefire, mutual accusations – New book on Khashoggi murder – and more

Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

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

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle

cp2 Allgemein / General

cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

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

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

cp8a Jamal Khashoggi

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 Wirtschaft / Economy

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp15 Propaganda

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

Klassifizierung / Classification

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**

*

(Kein Stern / No star)

? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating

A = Aktuell / Current news

B = Hintergrund / Background

C = Chronik / Chronicle

D = Details

E = Wirtschaft / Economy

H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions

K = Krieg / War

P = Politik / Politics

pH = Pro-Houthi

pS = Pro-Saudi

T = Terrorismus / Terrorism

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

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

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

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

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

Neue Artikel / New articles

(* A H)

Film: Since May 2015 I have been tweeting and reporting about the very bad situation that IDPs in #Yemen living in. But I didn't expect that their situation is still the same even after 4 years of the displacement. Footage taken in Abs displaced camp of Hajjah by @monarelief days ago.

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1080938628854005760

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

(** B H)

A week in Yemen

As the conflict in Yemen enters its fourth year, MSF has put together a series of seven short videos that illustrate the devastating situation – through the eyes of our staff and patients.

Monday: Mother and child care

"Last month we had at least 10 cases of children arriving dead on arrival, 4 out of the 10 were clearly as a result of travelling for several days," says Rachel Fletcher, coordinator of MSF’s Mother and Child Hospital.

Pregnant women in Yemen are among the most vulnerable, traveling long and risky journeys while in labour to reach functional health facilities.

Tuesday: Disease outbreaks

The de facto collapse of the health system in Yemen has lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases such as cholera, diphtheria and measles.

Wednesday: War-wounded and trauma patients

Between March 2015 and October 2018, MSF treated more than 91,000 war wounded due to the violence in the country. This number includes not only soldiers and combatants, but also civilians caught at the frontline or in hospitals, markets and their own homes.

Thursday: Yemeni staff at risk

"I work with colleagues who have been shot in their homes, shot at the frontlines," says Caroline Bwango, MSF’s emergency doctor in Taiz Houban.

Friday: MSF in Yemen

One of the factors enabling MSF to keep running its activities in Yemen is the acceptance of the organisation within the community.

Saturday: Medical needs are too high

Ad Dhale governmental hospital was the only hospital providing free medical care to Yemeni's in the area. The needs are great, but after several security incidents, MSF took the difficult desicion to end its support to this health facility. The lack of operational hospitals and medical staff is putting thousands of people at further risk of death and illness

Sunday: “It’s too far”

It's not just hard, but also too far for many Yemenis to access free healthcare. Most Yemenis travel long hours to access healthcare as there are limited facilities within the communities.

MSF works in 12 hospitals and health centres across the country and provides support to more than 20 hospitals or health facilities across 11 governorates: Abyan, Aden, Amran, Hajjah, Hodeidah, Ibb, Lahj, Saada, Sana’a, Shabwah and Taiz (7 films)

https://www.msf.org/week-yemen

(** A H)

World Food Programme: Yemen: Emergency Dashboard, December 2018

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-emergency-dashboard-december-2018

(** A B H P)

Yemen: Houthi rebels' food aid theft only tip of iceberg, officials say

Questions over relief effort multiply as it emerges aid officials knew for months of armed groups diverting food

The theft of food aid in Yemen by Houthi rebels might be only the tip of the iceberg, officials believe, as questions multiply over international relief efforts in the famine-ravaged country.

It has emerged that aid officials have been aware for months that armed groups – most prominently Houthi rebels in the capital, Sana’a – have been diverting food aid into the key areas they control, including by manipulating data in malnutrition surveys used by the UN.

Officials concede that difficulties with access to many areas in Yemen under Houthi control, and aid agencies’ reliance on Houthi officials to collect much of the hunger data, have left them vulnerable to falsification.

The latest claims go a long way towards explaining the stark disparities in the UN’s official famine data for Yemen in comparison to assessments provided by other international aid groups, which have been warning of a much more serious crisis facing the country.

Following an investigation by the Associated Press, the admission by the World Food Programme this week that food aid was being stolen has led to the UN food agency admitting that in other areas hungry people “had been denied full rations”.

In a statement, the UN agency said: “The misappropriation of food relief came to light in a WFP review conducted during recent months. It was prompted by an increasing number of reports of humanitarian food for sale on the open market in the capital. What the checks unearthed was fraud being perpetrated by at least one local partner organisation tasked by WFP with handling and distributing its food assistance.”

Even as the theft of food aid was being reported, other agencies operating in Yemen were warning privately that they believed a more widespread diversion of aid might be taking place, raising serious questions over the effectiveness and vulnerability of the UN’s famine early-warning mechanism known as the Integrated Phase Classification system [IPC].

One senior aid official told the Guardian they believed that the IPC itself could have been manipulated to the benefit of Houthi-controlled areas and to the detriment of starving civilians in other parts of the country.

The official, who did not want to be named, said: “The reason I don’t believe the IPC figures is because they have been manipulated by political parties. And we have been a party to it. The [food security] surveys have been limited or only done by certain entities.

“If you look at the data, we have certain governorates [administrative divisions] that belong to a specific party to the conflict [that have the most need]. The data collection on acute malnutrition in Yemen is a disaster. Even if the UN agencies say it is under control, it is not.”

Commenting on the latest claims of the diversion of food aid, a spokesman for WFP said: “So far, our monitoring has identified seven food distribution centres which we believe have been engaging in the misappropriation of our food stocks. These centres, located in Sana’a, are overseen by one of our local partner organisations affiliated with the Houthi administration in the capital.

“For now, we cannot confirm the exact amount of relief food that is being diverted in Yemen.” – by Peter Beaumont

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/02/aid-officials-aware-for-months-of-widespread-food-aid-theft-in-yemen

and

(** B H P)

The ‘abuse of food relief in Yemen’ must end now

WFP’s demands were issued in a letter to the Houthi leadership as well as in a news release on New Year’s Eve.

“This is an issue that affects not just WFP but all aid agencies working in Yemen and indeed in war zones everywhere and no-one can say for certain how widespread this problem is”, said WFP spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel, noting that humanitarian food assistance was being diverted in Houthi-controlled areas, including the capital of Sana’a, and, to a lesser extent, in the Government-controlled areas as well.

According to news reports, factions and militias on both sides of the conflict have blocked food aid from reaching groups suspected of disloyalty, diverting it instead to front-line combat units or selling it for a profit on the black market.

The UN agency has learned that many desperately poor people have taken to selling part of their food rations for education, medicines and rent.

The Yemen Government gave WFP permission to biometrically register beneficiaries, by identifying and authenticating each individual based on person-specific data.

So far, WFP monitoring has identified seven centres in Sana’a city where an estimated 1,200 metric tons of food was diverted in August and September, equivalent to about one per cent of the food provided nationally each month.

“It is our monitoring systems that detected there was a problem”, Mr. Verhoosel explained. “We are committed to ensuring our food assistance reaches those who most need it.”

As the local partner organization involved in the abuse has at the same time helped provide food assistance to three million people, WFP underscored that the authorities must investigate and dismiss those responsible, regardless of whether the corruption was carried out by the Government or non-governmental organizations.

“To improve the support to beneficiaries, we have been looking into the introduction of cash-based transfers in some areas”, said Mr. Verhoosel. “However, given the risk of corruption, we have made it clear to the de facto authorities that we will not introduce cash-based transfers unless we are authorized to implement a biometric identification system that uses personal data, including iris scans and ten-finger prints”.

WFP is tackling the issue by tracking and monitoring suspected locations and closely inspecting distribution centres.

“The de facto authorities in Sana’a have a responsibility to take action against those involved in stealing from the beneficiaries and in trading of food aid,” he stressed. “They should allow an independent beneficiary selection process and a biometric-based registration system.”

Mr. Verhoosel said that the biometric identification system had been rolled out in Government-controlled areas and that authorities in Sana’a had yet to agree to implement the system.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1029852

and

(* A H P)

WFP welcomes Houthi probe into Yemen food theft

The United Nations food agency says it welcomes a statement from Yemen's Houthi rebel leadership saying they will investigate theft and other abuses related to food relief to the impoverished country.

Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the World Food Program, told reporters Friday in Geneva that misuse of food aid also happens in areas controlled by the government but that it is of "lower volume."

"This is an issue that affects not just WFP but all aid agencies working in Yemen and indeed in war zones everywhere," he said.

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20190104/news/301049959

and

(** A H P)

World Food Program, Bribed By Saudis, Threatens Yemenis With More Famine

The United Nation's World Food Program is supposed to relief populations in urgent need of food supplies. It is not supposed to be a partisan organization. But in the war on Yemen it has now taken one side of the conflict and is threatening the other side with starvation.

The slow famine in Yemen continues unabated. Not only the people in north Yemen, under control of the Houthi and besieged by the Saudi coalition, are starving.

Just yesterday AP and the Pulitzer Center published an investigative report on how food supplies delivered by aid agencies gets pilfered during its distribution in Yemen

But the UN ignored the AP report that both sides are looting food aid. Just hours after it was published the UN's World Food Program exclusively accused the Houthi side of diverting aid.

Just like the Saudis, the UN's WFP threatens to starve the people who live in Houthi controlled area:

"If you don't act within 10 days, WFP will have no choice but to suspend the assistance ... that goes to nearly three million people," the letter said.

The Houthi protest against such a partisan ultimatum

The threat from the WFP is outrageous. "We will let 3 million people die unless you do this or that" is not the way the UN should talk to the weaker side of a conflict. (Curiously the @WFP_Yemen twitter account has now been shut down.)

The Saudis and the UAE use their purse string to influence the WFP. Two month ago they pledge another $500 million.

“What Yemen needs most is peace because that would make the greatest amount of difference in every Yemeni life,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “In the meantime, this important donation will help us save children on the brink of death. I thank the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a contribution that will truly save lives.”

I find it inconceivable the that UN or its sub-organizations take large amounts of Saudi money to prevent a famine that the Saudis willingly cause in the first place. The UN should reject such bribery. To then threaten the starving side of the conflict to withhold aid over distribution problems is reckless.

WFP Director David Beasley, a former governor of South Carolina nominated for the WFP job by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, should be suspended from his job. His partisan behavior is exactly the reason why the Houthi can not and will not give the UN or any of its organizations full control over Hodeidah. It is the only port through which they can receive food supplies for the people living in their area. If UN organizations that are obviously influenced by Saudi money and issues partisan threats get control over the port, the siege on the Houthi areas would be complete.

Sooner or later they would have to concede their defeat. By then millions more would have died.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/01/saudi-bribed-un-world-food-program-threatens-yemenis-with-more-famine.html

(** B H P)

War on Yemen: It’s Now About Snatching Food Aid from the Starving

The outrageous Saudi-led war on Yemen is all about starving a nation and stealing its riches, where Western aid is eclipsed by the billions brought in through the bungling, deceitful sale of weapons to Saudis and their allies.

While the world celebrates the New Year, report after report reveal that amid famine and rampant disease, food aid pouring in from across the globe, meant to curb the world's worst humanitarian crisis, is in fact "being snatched from the starving" by armed forces allied with the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition.

The warmongers block food aid from going to the besieged areas, divert it to front-line combat units, or sell it for profit on the black market. The United Nations and observers on the ground attribute the near-famine conditions in much of the country to the Saudi blockade of ports.

The UN World Food Program says it has already documented food aid diversion "at a time when children are dying in Yemen because they haven't enough food to eat; that is an outrage." Save the Children also says some 85,000 children under age five have starved to death since the brutal war began.

This shouldn’t happen at a time when peace talks and a ceasefire agreement are still in place. The talks in Sweden have led to a reduction in fighting and this should ease the challenges of getting food aid into and out of Hodeida, the port city that is a gateway to the north. Donors should be able to get more food in. But here is the smell of blood still:

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13971012000872

Remark: From Iran.

And

(* B H P)

Film: Al Jazeera captures evidence of food aid stolen in Yemen war

The WFP has accused both Houthis and Saudi-UAE coalition backed forces of diverting aid in areas under their control.

Al Jazeera has seen evidence of food meant for starving Yemenis being sold at a marketplace in the capital Sanaa.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has accused both Houthis and the Saudi-UAE coalition backed forces of diverting aid in areas under their control.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/al-jazeera-captures-evidence-food-aid-stolen-yemen-war-190103161522796.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-BINB6vAzc

(** B P)

Saudi Attempts to Win Over Locals in Yemen Stir Anger

Residents in the east, which has avoided much of the destruction seen elsewhere in war-torn Yemen, denounce Riyadh’s development efforts as ‘occupation’

To win over locals in this relatively peaceful corner of a shattered country, Saudi Arabia has funded schools, expanded medical facilities and promised new boats for fishermen.

The kingdom’s military has also taken over sea and airports and brought in hundreds of Saudi soldiers to carry out the projects, stirring up opposition among residents of Yemen’s Al-Mahra province, whose capital is Ghaydah.

As international pressure builds on the Saudi-led coalition to halt Yemen’s devastating war, deep distrust among residents here is complicating Riyadh’s efforts to build loyalty among locals and keep hostile forces, particularly Iran-backed Houthi rebels, from exploiting Yemen’s chaos and threatening the kingdom.

Some people in Al-Mahra accuse Saudi Arabia of using development projects to entrench its military and secure strategic interests through the control of Yemen’s key infrastructure.

“We are under Saudi occupation. We don’t need the Saudis,” said a former deputy governor of Al-Mahra, Ali bin Salem Al-Huraizy, who has helped organize protests over the Saudi presence in the province.

Brig. Gen. Ali Shekri, commander of the Saudi task force in Al-Mahra, said the Saudi-development initiatives are intended to cultivate goodwill and meet local needs before a rival, such as an Iran-backed rebel group or Islamic extremists like al Qaeda, decides to do so.

While Al-Mahra province has avoided much of the destruction seen elsewhere in Yemen, the province is symptomatic of how locals bristle over the outsize role of regional powers.

Since April, hundreds of people have demonstrated regularly against the takeover by Saudi “invaders.” In November, Saudi-backed Yemeni soldiers killed at least two people when they opened fire on a demonstration.

The Saudi-backed governor of Al-Mahra province, Rajeh Saidbakrit, said those killed were terrorists who were shot while attacking a checkpoint. But Mr. Huraizy said those killed were ordinary protesters.

In Ghaydah, the Saudis use the airport, which they seized in late 2017, to fly soldiers in and out of the country. They also run their development program with help from the military, reinforcing the impression with locals that the Saudi assistance is part of the kingdom’s war effort.

A senior Yemeni government official who is close to the country’s Saudi-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, said the Yemeni government had no say or control over Saudi’s expansion in Al-Mahra. The official, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation from Saudi Arabia, where he is based, said Riyadh was taking advantage of the chaotic situation in the country.

To win over skeptics, Saudi Arabia pairs development and antismuggling efforts with outright gifts, such as much-needed fuel, schoolbooks, a water purification plant and new medical facilities. “If you build hospitals and schools, if you create jobs, they will say, ‘We are lucky to have you here’,” Saudi Gen. Shekri said.

In trying to woo the people of Al-Mahra, and take a dominant role in trade and security, Saudi Arabia is trying to squeeze out Oman, critics say, which has maintained cordial ties with the people of eastern Yemen – By Sune Engel Rasmussen and Saleh al-Batati

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-attempts-to-win-over-locals-in-yemen-stir-anger-11546527600?emailToken=694e71f2039f2a0faee5f7cf0695246eUlz1pG317KDZV6UXNrk1k9PjcWVvD9A5F4fiqL/BwAA/tpAqHDBwHesGwWezgbhadEgHIYf24JJCrWtA6e5LWPYXrmh8LeLO4S5Qmx8UepSLIV4sWp6g3KPAQrCsGV1M&reflink=article_whatsapp_share

linked from https://twitter.com/SalehAlBatati1/status/1080901193965150208

and also by Press TV Iran: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/04/584833/Saudi-Arabia-struggling

Remark: What is not mentioned here: The Saudi attempt to build a center for spreading Wahabism at Mahrah.

(** A B K P)

US Senate: No military support for Saudi war in Yemen. Pentagon: LOL

The resolution was largely symbolic (GOP leaders blocked the House from taking up any Yemen-related legislation for the rest of the year), and the US Air Force today (Jan. 3) issued a request seeking suppliers to provide airplane parts—horizontal stabilizers, fuel lines, circuit-card assemblies, air inlets—to keep Saudi F-15 jet fighters flying.

“This solicitation provides a direct counter to the claims the US makes at times, that if the US didn’t sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, Russia and China will,” Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch, told Quartz. “But these weapons systems are all from US manufacturers and they require US parts, and they can’t get those from Russia or China. It’s useful for people to understand that even if Congress were to ban sales [to Saudi] tomorrow, it wouldn’t significantly alter the defense industry’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia has the third-largest fleet of F-15s in the world, behind only the US and Israel.

“The Saudis have prosecuted the war in Yemen with little regard for the United States’ views while simultaneously demanding the Pentagon’s logistical support and the uninterrupted flow of munitions,” Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote recently.

It would be difficult to impose restrictions on Saudi Arabia use of US-supplied materiel writ large, said Scott Paul, Oxfam America senior humanitarian policy advisor.

“If your existing contract is for horizontal stabilizers for F-15s, how do you legislate that? Yes, it’s OK to provide horizontal stabilizers for F-15s if they’re not fighting in Yemen?” he told Quartz. “Members [of Congress] have been uneasy writing off entire defense contracts with the Saudis. They would rather find a more precise way to extract the US from its role in the conflict in Yemen.”

The public conversation around the US-Saudi defense relationship has made it out to be an all-or-nothing proposition. The F-15 procurement notice shows a bit of the “humdrum, everyday foundational piece that isn’t really entering the conversation,” Paul said. Military cooperation with Saudi Arabia will certainly continue in a broad sense, especially as the US has five strategic bases in the kingdom. However, he continued, “there are a lot of people who take exception to the fact that this alliance is uncontroversial.”

Some legislators are now “trying to reshape the defense relationship around shared interests as opposed to a blank check,” said Paul.

Nevertheless, said Andrea Prasow, “This administration doesn’t intend to change its relationship with Saudi Arabia.” – by Justin Rohrlich

https://qz.com/1514582/us-supports-saudi-war-in-yemen-even-after-senate-votes-no/

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

(* B H)

Cholera is accelerating again in #Yemen with about 10K suspected cases now per week-double the average for first 8 months of 2018

https://twitter.com/AdelHa11/status/1081252761860231169

(** B H)

2018 Was Disaster for Yemeni Children With Continuation of Aggression and Siege

The spokesman for the Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population said that 2018 was a terrifying nightmare for the children in Yemen where tens of thousands of them lost their lives for several reasons, including the direct bombing of the US-Saudi aerial aggression or indirect (siege and health effects on them).

The spokesman of the Ministry of Public Health and Population, Yousef Al-Hadhari, revealed some of the figures of children's tragedies in Yemen in 2018, as follows:

- Ministry of Health recorded 203297 children under the age of five years have malaria as a new injury added to the previous figures for previous years, the province of Hodeidah in the forefront of the most affected provinces of malaria and then the province of Hajja and Taiz.

- A child dies every 10 minutes due to malnutrition or other diseases (according to a UN report issued in September 2018).

- About 1203 children have been infected with Maltese fever, Dhamar, then the capital, comes on the list of the most affected.

- About 981 children were infected in 2018 with rabies. Dhamar and Ibb are at the top of the list with a significant shortage of drugs for the disease.

- Leishmania disease has infected 1133 children. Dhamar is at the top of the list and then Al-Jawf.

- Schistosomiasis has infected 2173 children, Hajjah and then Sa,adah are on the top of the injuries list.

- Pulmonary tuberculosis has infected 330 children in the past year. One third of the injuries in Aden Governorate.

- In 2018, smallpox disease speared more than it was previously, infecting about 12194 children. The capital and Sana'a governorate were the most affected areas of this disease.

- 12,995 children were infected with mumps (parotitis) in 2018. Taiz, Sa’adah and then the capital come on the injuries list.

- 3813 cases of dengue fever recorded on Hodeidah then Taiz and then Abyan within the highest rate of the epidemic.

- 1847 cases of meningitis, Taiz and then capital have the most cases of injuries.

- 657,802 cases of diarrhea and related diseases such as cholera, which infected 114,288 and led to the death of 145 children.

- 102 neonatal tetanus cases, 509 cases of hepatitis B and c, 6940 hepatitis A and e, 2147 pertussis cases, 15911 measles cases, 14691 typhoid infections, 45560 influenza, 958846 upper respiratory diseases, 437100 diseases related to the organ Lower respiratory tract.

- 511 child under five years of age was infected with diphtheria, of whom 55 died. Ibb and the capital came on the top of the list.

Two million and four hundred children, under the age of five, were infected with a disease or several infectious diseases during the year 2018, adding the same number as cumulative statistics of malnutrition for the same category, which is estimated in Yemen in general about 6 million children, equivalent to 60% of this category under the risk of infectious and communicable diseases and malnutrition caused by the US-Saudi aggression and siege on Yemen.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4674&cat_id=1 = http://www.newnewss.net/2018-was-disaster-for-yemeni-children-with-continuation-of-aggression-siege/

My comment: By the Sanaa (Houthi) ministry. – Where do they have these figures from? They pretend an accuracy which is impossible to achieve in Yemen.

(* B H)

In Yemen, world's worst cholera outbreak traced to eastern Africa

Scientists have found that a strain of cholera causing an epidemic in Yemen – the worst in recorded history – came from eastern Africa and was probably borne into Yemen by migrants.

Using genomic sequencing techniques, researchers at Britain’s Wellcome Sanger Institute and France’s Institut Pasteur also said they should now be better able to estimate the risk of future cholera outbreaks in regions like Yemen, giving health authorities more time to intervene.

“Knowing how cholera moves globally gives us the opportunity to better prepare for future outbreaks,” said Nick Thomson, a professor at Sanger and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who co-led the work.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-cholera/in-yemen-worlds-worst-cholera-outbreak-traced-to-eastern-africa-idUSKCN1OW1EA

and also https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46746394

and

(* B H)

Migration behind introduction of cholera to Yemen, study finds

“We know that a lack of sanitation and hygiene, population displacement and war are directly linked to large-scale outbreaks,” said Professor Nick Thomson, one of the report’s lead authors. “The difference is that we now know that it’s the movement of the bacterial agent causing cholera across and between countries that links these large-scale outbreaks together.”

“In the past we have considered that we are in essence victims to fortune for local pools of the bacterium causing cholera, but we now have a new window into the disease,” he added.

But the researchers, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Institut Pasteur, also found that the strain in Yemen is more susceptible to antibiotics than other types of cholera.

“Surprisingly, we discovered the cholera strain causing the Yemen outbreaks is less resistant to antibiotics than related strains,” said Dr Daryl Domman

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/02/migration-behind-introduction-cholera-yemen-study-finds/

and

(B H)

Genomic insights into the 2016–2017 cholera epidemic in Yemen

Yemen is currently experiencing, to our knowledge, the largest cholera epidemic in recent history. The first cases were declared in September 2016, and over 1.1 million cases and 2,300 deaths have since been reported1. Here we investigate the phylogenetic relationships, pathogenesis and determinants of antimicrobial resistance by sequencing the genomes of Vibrio cholerae isolates from the epidemic in Yemen and recent isolates from neighbouring regions.

Using genomic approaches, we link the epidemic in Yemen to global radiations of pandemic V. cholerae and show that this sublineage originated from South Asia and that it caused outbreaks in East Africa before appearing in Yemen. Furthermore, we show that the isolates from Yemen are susceptible to several antibiotics that are commonly used to treat cholera and to polymyxin B, resistance to which is used as a marker of the El Tor biotype.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0818-3

and also https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-01-mystery-yemen-cholera-epidemic.html

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190102140745.htm

https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/cholera-strain-behind-epidemic-yemen-sequenced#.XC2fl1xKiUk

and

(* B H)

Doctors I met at cholera treatment centre in Aden in 2017 claimed 1st reported cases came from a migrant detention facility with squalid living conditions and no sanitation. Consequently migrants were viewed as the cause, leading to racism & discrimination

https://twitter.com/ionacraig/status/1080541571475533825

Of course, the fact that Adenis have complained for YEARS about Aden city's sewer system which has been spilling raw sewage in Aden city and still does so to date cannot possibly be the cause of cholera.

https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/1080560350972522497

(* B H)

Herkunft der Cholera im Jemen geklärt

Die Cholera-Erreger, die seit September 2016 zwei Epidemien in dem vom Bürgerkrieg heimgesuchten Jemen ausgelöst haben, wurden über Ostafrika aus Südasien eingeschleppt. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt ein Genomvergleich in Nature (2019; doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0818-3).

Die Cholera war im Jemen zuerst im September 2016 ausgebrochen. Die erste Welle verlief mit 25.839 Verdachtsfällen noch relativ glimpflich. Seit dem 24. April 2017 sind in einer zweiten Welle mehr als eine Million Menschen erkrankt und mindestens 2.300 gestorben. Die Ausbreitung der Cholera wurde durch die fehlenden sanitären Anlagen und die Zerstörungen durch den Bürgerkrieg begünstigt.

Der Vergleich der Genom-Sequenzen zeigte, wie die Cholera-Bakterien den Jemen erreichten. Die ersten Ausbrüche mit den aktuellen Bakterien hatte es im Jahr 2012 in Südasien gegeben. Danach kam es 2013 und 2014 zu vereinzelten Ausbrüchen in Ostafrika. Die Bakterien sind dann über das Rote Meer in den Jemen gelangt.

Die Forscher stellten überraschenderweise fest, dass der aktuelle Cholera-Stamm weniger resistent gegen Antibiotika ist als andere Stämme.

https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/100160/Herkunft-der-Cholera-im-Jemen-geklaert

cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle

(* A P)

President Hadi stated that the Stockholm Agreement will lead to the return of legitimate government’s power over al Hudaydah port and city during a press conference on January 3. Hadi also accused the al Houthi movement of sabotaging humanitarian aid and praised the role of Saudi Arabia in the Yemen peace process.[2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-january-4-2019

My comment: And exactly this is not included in the Stockholm agreement. If the Hadi government really works to achieve this, this certainly would bring the Hodeidah peace process to an end.

(* A K P)

Only 5 days left for the withdraw from #Hodeidah according to #Sweden agreement. #Houthis withdrew from port on 29Dec. #Saudi #UAE backed forces still massing new troops and refusing to withdraw from E of the city. A massive new coalition attack expected in coming days and it will end entire agreement

https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/1081267548501479424

(A K pS)

Under the pretext of ceasefire agreement, the #Houthi militia is mobilizing their troops and fighters to the port city of #Hodeidah; in an indication that they are marching on foiling all peace efforts, as they continue their violations.

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1081324199073992706

(A P)

Mass Rally in Hodeidah Demanding Implementation of Sweden Agreement

A mass rally was held in Hodeidah on Friday afternoon, to demand the implementation of the agreement Sweden.

The participants chanted slogans condemning the daily violations of the forces of US-Saudi aggression and mercenaries of the agreement of Sweden and the targeting of residential neighborhoods with artillery shelling and machine guns. They call to compel the party of aggression to implement what was agreed in the consultations of Sweden.

The acting governor of the province of Hodeidah Mohammed Ayyash Qahim during his speech in the mass rally explained that the people of the province of Hodeidah will not accept the presence of the invaders and their siege of the governorate.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4700&cat_id=1

(* A K pH)

Armed Forces Spokesman: US-Saudi Mercenaries Violations Exceeded 214 During Past 24 Hours

The spokesman of the Armed Forces, Brigadier Yahya Sare'e, said that the US-Saudi mercenaries continued their violations of the ceasefire in Hodeidah during the past 24 hours with 214 violations.
Brigadier-General said in a statement, to the News Agency Saba, that the artillery of the mercenaries fired 172 shells at residential neighborhoods, civilians' farms and Yemeni Army's sites in Hays, Attohayta and other districts.

He pointed out that the mercenaries continued to fire by various medium and light weapons in Kilo-16, Ad-durayhimi, Hais and At-tohayta.
The Yemeni Army monitored a bulldozer making fortifications in Hais and movements of trucks carrying supplies of US-Saudi mercenaries.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4699&cat_id=1

(A K pS)

The #Iran-backed #Houthi militia fighters continue to fire mortar and artillery shelling at Al-Mandher village, south of the port city of #Hodeidah on Friday. A number of women and #children were killed in the militia's shelling, according to official sources (photo)

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1081326369919979522

(A K pH)

Jan. 4: In Hodiedah, US-Saudi mercenaries targeted a village in Kilo-16 by medium and heavy arms, burning civilians' houses northern east Addurayhimi. They also targeted At-tohayta and Al-Hali district by artillery shells and machine guns.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4703&cat_id=1

(A K pH)

Coalition-led mercenaries shell areas in western coast

The artillery and machine guns belonging to the mercenaries of US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition on late Thursday (Jan. 3) shelled various areas in western Yemen, a security official said.
According to the official, the bombardment targeted Tuhayta district and Mahal al-Sheik village.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521516.htm

(* A K pS)

Coalition Documents 20 Ceasefire Breaches by Houthis in 24 Hours

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition, backing the Yemeni government fighting a Houthi insurgency, documented in 24 hours 20 militia breaches of the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement on a ceasefire for the strategic coastal city of Hodeidah.
Violations of the truce were reported in Durhaimi, Tahita, Hayss, Fazzah, Jibliyya and Al Jah.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1532166/coalition-documents-20-ceasefire-breaches-houthis-24-hours

(* A K pH)

Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Warns of Taking Advantage of Sweden’s Agreement

The spokesman of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e, said that "although our forces carried out the agreement and began redeployment, the aggression and its mercenaries are trying to evade and circumvent the terms of the Sweden agreement." They have committed, in the past 48 hours, 81 violations of the ceasefire agreement in Hodeidah. He said in a statement to the Yemeni news agency Saba that the US-Saudi mercenaries targeted by 47 artillery shells and various medium and light weapons residential neighborhoods, farms and Yemeni Army' sites in several districts. He explained that the fighter jets and reconnaissance continued to fly intensely over Al-Jabaleah, Kilo16, Al-Hali, Al-Hawk, Al-Jah and Attohayta.

Yemeni Army monitored a bulldozer making fortifications in Hais and movements of trucks carrying supplies of US-Saudi mercenaries.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4686&cat_id=1

(A P)

The UN Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) in al Hudaydah met to discuss redeployment plans and strategies for monitoring their implementation on January 1. Chairman of the RCC, Major General Patrick Cammaert, stated that effective monitoring of all aspects of the Stockholm Agreement, including the al Hudaydah ceasefire and planned prisoner exchange, is crucial to the success of the agreement.[1]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-january-3-2019

(* A P)

Saudi-led coalition representatives turn against Swedish agreement

UN Monitoring Team Chairman Patrick Cammert has expressed his astonishment at the retreat of Saudi-led coalition representatives on the agreements reached on Wednesday.

A familiar source with the issue confirmed that the representatives of the national negotiating delegation and representatives of the coalition reached a joint executive mechanism to implement the agreement on Wednesday morning.

The Chairman of the UN Monitoring Group, Patrick, expressed his satisfaction and blessing on this agreement, after which the representatives of the Riyadh delegation asked for some time to consulate their senior leadership on the agreed joint mechanism.

The source added: “After the Coalition representatives continued with their leadership during the break, they returned to the meeting hall by changing their positions and overturning on what had been agreed upon.”

The source pointed out that the change in the position of the representatives of Riyadh delegation and their retreat caused frustration and disappointment to the UN advancing team headed by Cammert.

According to the source, Patrick Cammert was surprised that the Saudi delegation had apparently changed its mind after one short break.

It has been reported that the Sana’a negotiation team at the Coordination Committee has proposed that a Red Sea Mill Road be opened through Al-Gharasi roundabout passing through the large roundabout to Durihami and to the coastline, as well as suggesting the opening of a corridor of Red Sea mills towards Sana’a.

The source said that the Sana’a team confirmed that there are very large quantities of wheat in the Red Sea Mills stores that may otherwise spoil before being distributed to the people who need it most, many of whom are starving. However, the Saudi delegation has completely refused to respond to the suggestion.

Patrick Cammert has stated that despite his disappointment at the retreat of the Saudi-led coalition representatives, he would continue his tireless efforts to implement the peace agreement in the coming days.

http://en.ypagency.net/76745/?fbclid=IwAR3-rvEiwzM79RlG_zjtZjX31OX4dDKNW1fAk7iNkd5zPtubkklcsURFQIc

(A P)

Hodeidah’s Head of Services Committee: UN Responsible for Sweden Agreement Failure

The head of the services committee in Hodeidah, Mohammed Suleiman Helisi, on Thursday, blamed the United Nations for not implementing the Sweden agreement and the Security Council resolution. He called on the United Nations to oblige the US-Saudi aggression party to implement the agreement of Sweden, and the international observer to report on the party which disabled.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4684&cat_id=1

Remark: From the Houthi side.

(* A K P)

Yemen’s Hodeida Region Rocked by New Saudi Attack as Fragile Truce is Shaken

The Houthis have called on the United Nations to pressure the Saudi-led coalition to abide by the recent UN-brokered peace agreement reached in Sweden but there thus far has been no UN comment on the new Saudi attack.

The fragile Yemeni truce reached in peace talks in Sweden in December is at risk after the Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign this past weekend to control al Jah al Aseel in Beit al Faqih, south of Yemen’s port city of Hodeida, risking another brutal cycle of violence.

The move comes after five UAE ships landed in Yemen’s southwestern city of Mocha over the weekend loaded with dozens of armored vehicles, heavy weapons, and various weapons carriers, according to a local source speaking to MintPress News on the condition of anonymity.

Medical staff in hospitals across Hodeida and Aden told MintPress that over twenty fighters from both sides have been killed in recent fighting in al Jah al Aseel in Beit al Faqih. According to these sources, most of the deceased fighters were foreign mercenaries fighting on behalf of the coalition.

The Houthis have called on the United Nations to pressure the Saudi-led coalition to abide by the recent UN-brokered peace agreement reached in Sweden but there has been no UN comment on the attack so far. The Houthis say they have, thus far, been able to thwart the advance of mercenary forces that are under the command of Saudi Arabia.

Houthi military spokesman Yahiya Sar’e said on Saturday, “Our forces have started to redeploy since last night from Hodeida port, as agreed in Sweden.” The redeployment is intended to be the first step in the implementation of the agreement, to be followed by both sides pulling their forces out of three ports: Hodeida, Salif, and Rass Issa.

It is still unclear who will control the three ports or whether the two sides will share control with UN monitors. While both sides have agreed to a UN role in the port, they differ on who should run the city.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/yemenshodeida-region-rocked-by-new-saudi-attack-as-fragile-truce-is-shaken/253456/?

(A K pS)

Houthis continue bombing civilians’ houses in Hais

Houthi militias have been continuing the bombardment of civilians’ houses in the district of Hais, the governorate of Hodeida.

Military sources told Alsahwa Net that the Houthis on Wednesday fired mortars on a house in Hais, destroying large parts of it.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26562

(A P)

Hodeidah’s Local Authority Holds UN, US-Saudi Mercenaries Responsible for Ceasefire Failure

Members of the Local Council in Hodeidah, on Wednesday, held a meeting to discuss the latest developments and examine the reasons for delaying the implementation of the Swedish agreement by the other side. Members of the Council regretted that the United Nations did not adhere to the long-standing mechanism for the implementation of the specific Sweden agreement in two phases, stressing that the first phase of 14 days and the second 21 were 13 days after the cease-ire went into effect.

They pointed out that the alliance of the aggression did not carry out any redeployment, according to the mechanism of agreement, in Hodeidah ports. They welcomed the redeployment by the Army and the Popular Committees, which was the first step in implementing the Swedish agreement.

They also called on the United Nations to pressure the other side to take a similar step according to the chronic mechanism of the agreement, demanding the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the international envoy to intervene urgently to exploit the remaining time of the agreement.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4666&cat_id=1

Remark: In the Houthi-held part of the city.

But read this:

(* A P)

The International Committee of ceasefire monitoring continue their meetings in Hodeidah

Meetings of the International Committee of ceasefire monitoring continues on Wednesday, led by the international head of commission commander Patrick Cammaert, to discuss ways of implementing the Stockholm Agreement.

And on Tuesday began the second round of meetings of the Committee, after the Committee members from the Government side have entered the city controlled by the Houthi militants.

According to «Al-Masdar online » reporter, the Government side and the Houthis provided their plans to stabilize the ceasefire and observers work procedures, then General Patrick to combine plans and come up with one plan binding on both parties.

He added that on Thursday there will be a workshop for all liaison officers are involved in linking the redeployment Coordination Committee with each party leaders who represent the units and subunits on the ground.

In context, the Acting Governor Mohamed Ayash Quhaim appointed forced local Council members to sign a document condemning General Patrick Cammaert as biased in favor of the Government.

The document also stresses that the Houthi militants have delivered the port of Hodeidah their coastguard, was under the local authority, and it should be accepted.

Our correspondent said that Quhaim called the local Council members to a meeting with the United Nations team, but the members who attended 13 out of 26, were surprised by the real cause of the meeting.

He added that Quhaim presented the document and request signature and prevent any member from getting out before signing up.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162757 = http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162756

(A K pH)

Saudi-led mercenaries shell areas in western coast

The mercenaries of US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition shelled on Wednesday several areas in Hodeidah province, a security official said.
The militias targeted al-Shabab city on Tissain street in al-Hali district using artillery and machine guns.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521337.htm

(* A K pS)

Two Houthi Landmines Kill 5 Children in Hodeida, Lahij

Two landmines laid by the Houthi militias at public roads killed five Yemeni children in Hodeidah and Lahij on Tuesday and Wednesday, local and medical sources reported.
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that three sisters under the age of ten died in one of the blasts. Their father works for the Houthi group in return for food aid and a maximum salary of YER30,000 (around SAR500), the sources added.
The incident occurred only one day after two children were killed in al-Durayhimi district, south of the port city of Hodeidah, after a bomb, planted by the pro-Iran group to obstruct the advance of government forces, went off.
Medical sources revealed that the two boys were brothers under the age of 10 and were on their way to get water for their family.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1530431/two-houthi-landmines-kill-5-children-hodeida-lahij

and

(A K pS)

Two #children were killed in landmine blasts that were planted by the #Iran-supported #Houthi militia in the neighbourhoods of the port city of #Hodeidah. The two kids named Jameel and Adel Ali Mohammed Zoraitah were killed while they were getting out of their house.

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1080389830893338624

(A K pH)

Jemen: Waffenpause in Al-Hudaida 191 Mal durch Saudisch-geführte Kriegsallianz verletzt

http://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i45364-jemen_waffenpause_in_al_hudaida_191_mal_durch_saudisch_gef%C3%BChrte_kriegsallianz_verletzt

(* A K pH)

Aggression Forces Continue to Violate Ceasefire in Hodeidah

The US-Saudi aggression and its mercenaries, at dawn on Wednesday, continued their violations of the ceasefire in the province of Hodeidah.

A military source told Al-Masirah Net that the Saudi invaders and mercenaries shelled with artillery shells Al-Koei area in Ad-Durayhimi district.

The source added that the forces of aggression bombed medium weapons towards the sites of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees east and north of Hays district, covering new developments.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4654&cat_id=1

(* A K pH)

In Hodeidah, the artillery of the aggression bombed, on Tuesday, the areas south of Attohayta district, those areas were also combed with medium weapons, in conjunction with a flight of surveillance drones of the aggression.

The Saudi-mercenaries targeted with medium weapons Ad-Durayhimh and destroyed facilities and buildings in the district. They also targeted Al-Shabab city in the 90th Street of Al-Haly district.

A number of areas on Hodeidah were under heavy artillery fire, while the forces of aggression bombarded more than 25 shells in various areas east of Hays.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4658&cat_id=1

(* A K pS)

Yemen's Houthi rebels are undermining Hodeidah ceasefire, Security Council warned

Houthi rebels violated the UN-brokered ceasefire in Hodeidah more than 200 times in less than two weeks since it went into effect and do not show signs of preparing to abide by the truce, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have told the Security Council.

The rebels killed 23 coalition forces and wounded 163 in 268 attacks between December 18 and December 30, according to a detailed list submitted by the permanent UN representatives of the theree countries to the Council president on December 31, along with a letter calling for international pressure on the Houthis to cease hostilities that threaten the peace process.

The rebel attacks in and around the port city ranged from sniper fire and artillery barrages to the launching of medium range ballistic missiles in attacks lasting up to an hour.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/yemen-s-houthi-rebels-are-undermining-hodeidah-ceasefire-security-council-warned-1.809214

(A K pS)

Yemen govt reports Hodeida rebel 'attacks' to UN

Yemen's government and its two main allies have written to the UN Security Council accusing rebels of failing to comply with a hard-won ceasefire agreement in the vital port city of Hodeida, an Arab diplomat said Wednesday.

UN representatives from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE wrote that Huthi rebels had launched attacks including sniper fire and medium-range ballistic missiles in Hodeida even after agreeing to a truce, the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The December 31 letter to outgoing UN Security Council head Kacou Houajda Leon Adom also said the Huthis had erected barricades and dug trenches in the flashpoint Red Sea city, according to the diplomat.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6548407/Yemen-govt-reports-Hodeida-rebel-attacks-UN.html

(* B K)

Film, Dec. 13, 2018: Rare glimpse into Yemen's bloody war

Footage captured by the Houthi rebel-backed Ansarallah Media Center and obtained by CNN, provides a rare glimpse into the bloody battle for Hodeidah, a strategic port city that is at the epicenter of Yemen's civil war. CNN's Nima Elbagir reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgJwHObh_X0&t=11s

cp2 Allgemein / General

(* A K P)

Interactive map of Yemen war

https://yemen.liveuamap.com/

(* B H P)

Long-term change for Yemen

In 2019, I hope to see the international community expand its focus beyond humanitarian aid and think about long-term, sustainable support for Yemen.

Despite billions of dollars made available for humanitarian needs, Yemenis continue to suffer, physically and financially. The situation has been exacerbated by the collapse of the national currency, lack of salaries for civil servants for two and a half years, and misappropriation of aid by some armed groups.

Kickstarting the economy is a key step. The dedicated young Yemenis behind the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS) of the Social Fund for Development prove progress is possible. By providing small grants to entrepreneurs, including farmers and fishermen, SMEPS has created over 65,000 jobs since 2017, nearly one third to women.

The international community should also focus on promoting governance, rule of law, and professionalising local forces responsible for security in areas where fighting has stopped. This will help create pockets of stability that will increase the demand for peace that Yemenis desperately need – by Nadwa al-Dawsari

https://www.irinnews.org/opinion/2019/01/04/humanitarian-change-aid-sector-grassroots-accountability#Nadwa

(B H K P)

Cease-fire in Yemen: Resolution at Last?

Resolving the conflict would involve not only resolving the discordant objectives between different Yemenis, but will rely upon the much more complicated prospect of finding peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Seeing as the two have been rivals for decades, hope for peace rests upon the conflict becoming more of a burden that a benefit for one of the powers, forcing them to withdraw. This may be the case with Saudi Arabia, which currently facing massive pressure from friends in the West to withdraw.

While it is still too early to consider this cease-fire as a certain sign of peace, it could be seen as a litmus test where the Saudis will draw the line in order to retain foreign aid and investment. With talks coming up in January about the next step in the peace process, the best hope for those facing famine is that the Senate stands strong behind its threat and that the Saudis are forced to limit their involvement in the civil war.

While a Saudi exit from the war would certainly not end it – it would in no way remedy the discordant objectives between the government forces and the Houthi rebels – it would likely play a large role in decreasing the starvation faced by millions of Yemenis. The loss of Saudi payrolls funding much of the war would likely result in lesser capability for violence.

https://mjps.ssmu.ca/2019/01/04/cease-fire-yemen/

My comment: Overview, mislead by explaining the Yemen War as a Saudi-Iranian proxy war, which it is not.

(* B H K P)

The War on Yemen is All about Starving a Nation and Stealing its Riches

The warmongers block food aid from going to the besieged areas, divert it to front-line combat units, or sell it for profit on the black market. The United Nations and observers on the ground attribute the near-famine conditions in much of the country to the Saudi blockade of ports.

The UN World Food Program says it has already documented food aid diversion “at a time when children are dying in Yemen because they haven’t enough food to eat; that is an outrage.” Save the Children also says some 85,000 children under age five have starved to death since the brutal war began.

Donors should be able to get more food in. But here is the smell of blood still:

– The futile bombing campaign continues apace.

International aid experts and United Nations officials say a more insidious form of warfare is also being waged in Yemen, an economic war that is exacting a far greater toll on civilians and now risks tipping the country into a famine of catastrophic proportions.

– The punitive economic measures are allegedly aimed at undercutting the Ansarullah fighters who control vast parts of Yemen. Tight blockades, stringent import restrictions and withholding the salaries of about a million civil servants have landed on the backs of civilians, laying the economy to waste and driving millions deeper into poverty.

– Infrastructure destroyed, jobs lost, a weakening currency and soaring prices are the clear results. But in recent weeks the economic collapse has gathered pace at alarming speed, causing top United Nations officials to revise their predictions of famine.

– The US government has been the key supporter of the Saudi-led coalition

Sadly, the UN is yet to hold the Saudis and their American partners to account. They bear primary responsibility for Yemen’s humanitarian disaster.

http://www.yemenextra.net/2019/01/03/the-war-on-yemen-is-all-about-starving-a-nation-and-stealing-its-riches/

(* B H K P)

Hunger und Hoffnung

Jahresrückblick 2018. Heute: Jemen. Humanitäre Katastrophe erzwingt Friedensverhandlungen. Beziehungen von USA und Saudi-Arabien auf Prüfstand

https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/346522.jemen-hunger-und-hoffnung.html

(* B K)

Jemen: 2018 wurden 42 saudische Militär- und Spionagedrohnen abgeschossen

Die jemenitische Luftabwehr hat laut eigenen Angaben im Jahr 2018, 42 saudi-arabische Militär- und Spionagedrohnen zerstört.

Einem Bericht des jemenitischen Fernsehsenders Al Masirah zufolge teilte Yahya Sari, der Sprecher der jemenitischen Streitkräfte, die der Ansarullah-Bewegung nahestehen, am Montag mit, dass in diesem Jahr 38 Luftoperationen sowie 7.148 Scharfschützen-Operationen an verschiedenen Fronten durchgeführt wurden. „Wir haben dieses Jahr mehr als 689 Angriffe auf gegnerische Positionen durchgeführt und 1.101 feindliche Angriffe vereitelt“, so Sari.

http://staseve.eu/?p=64464

(* B K pH)

Infographic: Annual Statistics of US-Saudi Aggression on Yemen in 2018

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4675&cat_id=1

(* B P)

Yemeni rights group: 12 Yemeni media practitioners killed in 2018

The Yemeni Media Freedom Observatory documented 144 violations against media freedom in Yemen during 2018, including 12 cases of killing.

According to the observatory, numerous forms of violations were perpetrated including murder, injury, kidnapping, assaults and targeting media organizations.

In addition to the 12 cases of murder, 43 cases of kidnapping and attempted kidnapping, 11 injury cases, 6 attempted murders, 16 arrests, 10 assaults, 9 dismissals from work, 7 threats, 5 incursions and looting of journalist lodgings, 12 violations against media institutions, and 13 other violations were committed” the observatory added.

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-26563

(B P)

Khashoggi’s murder made the West ‘notice’ war in Yemen, but was it all for show?

However, those words of condemnation from the West might not all be completely sincere. According to British media, the UK continued to actively – yet secretly – talk arms trade with Saudi Arabia while the Khashoggi affair unfolded.

A high-level delegation from the Defence and Security Organisation – whose sole task is to promote arms exports – was actually in Riyadh on October 2 – the day when Khashoggi was slain. The unfolding scandal did not affect the ongoing talks

The appalling nature of the murder, which violated all principles of diplomacy and international law, has even moved some to finally “notice” the brutal war in Yemen, waged by the Saudi-led coalition for well over three years.

https://www.rt.com/news/447935-khashoggi-murder-yemen-war/

(A P)

UAE Foreign Affairs Minister: new year will witness a breakthrough in the Yemen crisis

On his «Twitter» page he said, «the Yemeni issues must have an internal Yemeni dialogue, but thanks to the intervention of the coalition led by Riyadh we became more optimistic.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162730

cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade

(A K P)

YPC: Coalition continues economic war on Yemen, holding 2 fuel vessels

The Yemeni Petroleum Company (YPC) on Thursday said Saudi-led coalition is continuing in its economic war against the Yemeni people and that it held two fuel ships despite obtaining licenses from the United Nations.

According to the statement, the coalition has held the ship "Queen Reem", which holds the permit No. (82650) from the United Nations on 12/12/2018, and the ship "Karp Deim", which also obtained the UN. Permit No. (31286) on 24/12/2018.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521478.htm

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4683&cat_id=1

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

Siehe / Look at cp1

(* B H)

UNICEF Is Helping Yemen's Children Heal From The Wounds Of War

"Support from UNICEF and other humanitarian partners is literally saving lives and giving children a glimmer of hope," says Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

On a recent visit to the UNICEF-supported Prostheses and Physiotherapy Center in Aden, Yemen, Cappelaere met children who are recovering from a war they didn't start, but for which they are paying the highest price.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance are a constant threat in Yemen, endangering children's safety at every turn. At the prosthesics center, a welcoming place with games and toys and friendly staff members, injured children are fitted with artificial limbs.

Through the victim assistance project, the children receive free accommodation and transportation for themselves and a guardian for the length of their stay, typically between 12 and 15 days. Children work with physical therapists who help them learn how to use their new prostheses. Progress can be slow, but the children are eager and determined. In 2018, 98 children received treatment at the center.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2019/01/04/helping-yemens-children-heal-from-the-wounds-of-war/#4185d99713f2

(* B H)

#Saada is the greenhouse centre of #Yemen boasting 42,000 plastic enclosed gardens. Many greenhouses were destroyed during the war. Pleased to receive these pics today from farmers showing @SMEPSYemen support in getting 1300 greenhouses operational again (photos)

https://twitter.com/Wesamqaid/status/1073293988625637376

(B H)

Film: You can stop this process with your donations

Look at these Yemeni children. These children die in the silence of the world's media. You can stop this process with your donations.

https://www.facebook.com/YemenNotAlone/videos/498702870536967/
You can donate here
https://www.tahafunder.com/YemenNotAlone/PowderedMilk03

look also at https://www.facebook.com/YemenNotAlone/videos/498702870536967/

(A H)

Pic taken in Aslam area of Hajjah during food aid distribution by @monarelief's team funded by @monareliefye's online fundraising campaign.

https://twitter.com/monareliefye/status/1080893822379454466

Here is where you can donate: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feed-hungry-children-in-hajjah-province-of-yemen#/

(* B H)

Photo essay: Yemeni children are receiving their passport for life

Do you have a name and surname? Do you know the date you were born? Are these data included in your identification? Then you are privileged compared to the children in Yemen. Nearly 83% of the children in the country do not have a birth certificate, which means they have no legal identity, no right to a name, nationality or family relations. This makes them invisible to the world.

Not having a registration affects particularly children from displaced or marginalised communities, who are already suffering from various other forms of discrimination. For Ali Nasr and other many children, this has recently changed, the young 5-year old boy from a marginalized community, the Muhamasheen, received his birth certificate on 3rd December 2018.

One of the key activities carried out by UNICEF’s Child Protection programme in the country, is to support birth registration. Every year, there are over 900,000 new-born babies across Yemen, but those registered still remain a few.

A birth certificate is a passport to citizenship and participation in society, and the foundation for the realization of many other human rights integral to a child’s development, protection and well-being.

Without birth registration, children’s access to basic social services such as education and health care may be at risk. That’s why UNICEF and its contributing donors are intervening to make sure that children in Yemen can have access to this fundamental right.

Through its Child Protection programme, UNICEF, with the support of the local authorities and its implementing partners, targets the most vulnerable children in conflict-affected areas of Yemen with interventions including victim assistance, family tracing and reunification, documentation of child rights violations and referrals to child protection services.

https://www.unicef.org/yemen/reallives_12811.html

(B H)

Film: Jemen Nothilfe 2019 musaid e.V.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8xCX2otd8Y

(B H)

Viele Mädchen werden im Jemen viel zu früh verheiratet. So wäre es fast auch Ranya* ergangen. Weil ihre Familie in Geldnot war, sollte die 12-Jährige mit einem 27-jährigen Mann verheiratet werden – obwohl sie nicht einverstanden war. Die Hochzeitsparty war für Ende Juni 2018 geplant. Eine Woche davor besuchte ein Team von Save the Children Ranyas* Familie. Sie sprachen mit Ranyas* Mutter über die Konsequenzen, die eine Heirat auf ihr Kind haben würde. Schließlich konnten sie die Familie davon überzeugen, die Heirat abzusagen. Außerdem erhielten sie finanzielle Hilfe, sodass Ranya* sogar zur Schule gehen konnte.

https://www.facebook.com/savethechildrenDE/photos/a.178751810888/10156237985005889/

(* B H)

Film: Ghaida dropped out of school for two years because of the war. Today she is back and she wishes that every child gets quality #education! This is the 16th of 20 stories covered by children & young people in #Yemen

https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/1080812630443474944

(* B H)

Film: Muhannad keeps pigeons & sells them to support his family. He dropped out of school as his family could not afford buying the school necessities. This is the 15th of 20 stories covered by children & young people in #Yemen

https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/1080805213164982273

(* B H)

10 Yemeni children sharing their wishes for this year. Watch the video!

https://twitter.com/UNICEF_Yemen/status/1080465530618867712

(* B H)

World Food Programme: Yemen Situation Update, December 2018

Air Transport
- In December, the Logistics Cluster facilitated the transport of 47 mt / 185.4 m3 on behalf of Medecins du Monde, MSF, Partnership for Supply Chain Management, OSESGY, UNFPA and UNICEF.

Sea Transport
- In December, Voyage 135 between Djibouti and Aden was cancelled as clearance was not received; neither passengers nor cargo were booked for that voyage. Voyage 136, the last of 2018, occurred with one passenger on board.
- Overall, 46 mt / 227.6 m3 was transported in December from Djibouti to Aden, on behalf of MSF and WHO.

Overland Transport
- In December, the Logistics Cluster facilitated the overland transport of 840 mt/ 4,598 m3 of relief items on behalf of ACF, ACTED, CARE, FAO, FHI360, IMC, IOM, Relief International, Save the Children, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP.

Storage
- Current storage capacity is: 5,740 m2; in Aden, 3,640 m2; in Hodeidah, 320 m2; in Bajil and 1,960 m2 in Sana’a.
- In December, the Logistics Cluster accepted into storage 1,172 mt / 7,615 m3 of relief items on behalf of ACF, FHI360, Save the Children, UNICEF, FAO, UNFPA and WFP.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-situation-update-december-2018

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

(* B H)

UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Yemen 2018 Overview

In 2018, UNHCR scaled-up its cash programming, to assist close to 800,000 Yemenis and 130,000 refugees by disbursing USD 48 million. By monitoring new displacement and working with service providers, community centres and community leaders, UNHCR and its partners identified and assessed the needs of over 160,000 vulnerable households. UNHCR cash assistance targeted people with specific protection needs and those lacking adequate shelter or the key materials to keep warm, particularly during winter. Cash will remain at the forefront of UNHCR’s assistance in Yemen in 2019.

UNHCR provided core relief items (CRI) – such as mattresses, blankets and other household items – to over 700,000 individuals, and provided emergency shelter kits (ESK) to 125,000 people. In-kind distributions provide essential support to IDPs, returnees and heavily burdened host communities, especially where the scale of displacement and intensity of fighting make such items unavailable or inaccessible in local markets.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unhcr-yemen-2018-overview

(* B H)

Film: Footage here showing the real situation of displaced families in Abs displaced camp in Hajjah. IDPs continue suffering with the absence of the role of INGOs in #Yemen

https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1080521138520932355

(* B H)

Yemen Received More Migrants in 2018 than Europe

The International Organization for Migration says that nearly 150,000 migrants arrived in war torn Yemen in 2018.

This is despite ongoing conflict, a cholera outbreak and near famine conditions in much of the country.

Perhaps what is most remarkable about this figure is that the number of migrants expected to arrive in Yemen before the end of 2018 far exceeds the number of irregular migrants who have arrived in Europe in 2018, which is 134,000. Deeper still, while the number of migrants to Europe sharply declined between 2017 and 2018, the number of migrants to Yemen increased by 50% compared to 2017.

According to the International Organization for Migration, the vast majority of migrants are from Ethiopia and they travel to Yemen via smuggling routes across the Red Sea, most from Djibouti. Their ultimate destination is not Yemen, but rather Saudi Arabia where they hope to find gainful employment.

https://www.undispatch.com/yemen-received-more-migrants-in-2018-than-europe/

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

Siehe / Look at cp1

(A P)

#Houthi leader issued a statement concerning WFP's report that exposed Houthis' theft and diversion of 60% of food aid allocated to vulnerable #Yemenis. #Houthis responded by threatening to take @WFP to #Yemen courts. @WFP Should NOT back down from holding #Houthis accountable

It is typical that #Houthis respond to the @WFP with threats. This puts @WFP and its local staff in a vulnerable position

https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1080865588434690048

My comment: With a strong anti-Houthi bias, as generally with this Saudi-backing/backed author.

(A P)

The National Authority of Humanitarian Affairs Surprised by Statement of World Food Program

The National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Recovery was surprised by the statement made by the Executive Director of the World Food Program, which accuses government agencies of selling relief materials or directing them to non-beneficiaries.

The agency said in a statement that the amount of food needed is much greater than the amount provided, indicating that an agreement has been signed between the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Food Program, which includes all procedures for the arrival of aid to beneficiaries.

The Authority noted that the agreement included reconsidering the lists of beneficiaries in all districts through community-elected committees supervised by the Food Program. The implementing partner of the program visits the districts to verify that the lists submitted by the community committees are poor, while the World Food Program is fielding and conducting a verification process again.

"However, it is regrettable that days after signing the agreement with the Food Program, the Executive Director of the program stated that the authorities in Sana'a reject any corrective measures, And this talk has no basis of health and contrary to reality, The Authority added.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4667&cat_id=1

(A P)

Yemen government condemn Houthi trials of persecuted Baha'i minority

Yemeni government and community have condemned Houthi show trial of a persecuted Yemeni religious minority, after a surprise hearing convicted 24 people who could now face the death penalty.

Over 100 Baha’is, including six prominent members held by the rebels have been put on trial under charges the minority says are false.

With the continued detention of the Baha'is, the Houthis accelerated criminal charges against them with a surprise hearing on New Year's Day.

The rebel group also held an unexpected appeal hearing on Tuesday to discuss the case of Hamed bin Haydara, a prominent Baha'i leader who has been sentenced to death.

"The abrupt hearing was held on Tuesday under pressure by the rebels in Sanaa to hinder the UN prisoner exchange deal. It was held without any prior notice for Mr Haydara and his lawyer,” Abdullah Al Olofi, a Baha'i spokesman in Sanaa told The National.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-government-condemn-houthi-trials-of-persecuted-baha-i-minority-1.808720

(A K P)

New Yemeni fighters keep graduating to join battlefronts against US-Saudi-UAE invaders. This batch graduated on January 1, 2019, after having done all required training, exercises, maneuvers,&drills, somewhere in the 4th military region (photos)

https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1080385929020354560

(A P)

Houthi leader in Dhamar accuses another of being behind the torture and murder of his son

Differences and disputes between the leaders of Houthis have expanded in Dhamar governorate and reached kidnapping and torturing and killing children.

Early last December the child (Zain al-Abdeen) son of Houthi's leader Qasim Al-Dulah in Damar found dead and strangulated in the courtyard House of one of his neighbors, the incident came about a week after one of Houthis leader Abbas al-Daylami son found shot dead in his home yard.

But in mid-December the Al-Dawlah published his account in Facebook pictures of medical X-rays from a coroner doctor showed that Ali 15-year-old was tortured and killed, beaten and smashed his skull a number of the body part.

Recently in the post on his social networking site Facebook Al-Dawlah accused Houthi leader Abu Talib Hussein Al Awami killed his son, he threatened him if he demanded an investigation of crime

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162821

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

Siehe / Look at cp1

(A P)

UAE prevent Yemeni officials to attende Asian cup in Abu Dhabi despite the Yemeni team participation

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162822

(B P)

A Yemeni official tells @BelqeesTV "UAE is preventing Hadi and other officials from returning to #Aden".

https://twitter.com/SalehAlBatati1/status/1080942349784625152

(A P)

#UAE-backed forces deploying reinforcements to northwestern Shabwah governorate, eastern #Yemen after tribal forces attempted to prevent Shabwani Elite Forces from arresting a suspected #AQAP militant, sparking clashes which killed 20.

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1081206415644114945

This is emblematic of a larger underlying issue & difficulty of the counterterrorism effort in #Yemen. Tribes, especially ones who are not recruited into CT forces like Shabwani Elite, get lumped in with AQAP when defending members of their community against perceived aggressors.

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1081277297305534464

(* A P)

UAE-backed force kills 9 in Yemen’s Shabwa

Nine people were killed in an attack by a force backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Yemen’s Shabwah province, a Yemeni government source said.

The UAE-backed force attacked members of the Al-Saada tribe in Shabwa’s Merkha directorate, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The force – Dubbed the “Shabwani Elite” – received air support from Saudi-led coalition aircrafts, the same source said.

At least seven armed tribesman and two civilians were killed in the fighting, while a number of other people – from both sides – were injured.

The Shabwani Elite is comprised of locals from Shabwa who have received training by military officers from Abu Dhabi.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190104-uae-backed-force-kills-9-in-yemens-shabwa/

and

(* A P)

clashes between tribal militants and UAE backed forces Southeast of Yemen

Local sources of Al-Masdar online said that that groups of of Shabwani elite ' forces "backed UAE attacked “Al-Sadah” tribes area in”Markhah-Sufla” district, northwestern province of Shabwa in search of someone who belongs to Al-Qaeda.

The sources said that the UAE forces air fighters participated in the confrontations and bombed areas of engagement.

The armed clashes which lasted for several hours killed seven tribal militants of "AL-Sadah" and about eight of the elite forces before tribal mediation to intervene to stop the fighting.

A relative told tribal militant killed in clashes told Al-Masdar online "that the elite troops raided one House in al-Hajr area under the pretext of searching for Al-Qaeda member and opened its fire during the raid led to clashes between the parties".

He said "people surprised by the raid and the involvement of the Jets which forced us to defend our families and our homes".

Sources say that one of the vehicles belonging to the elite forces burned in clashes, before a tribal mediation can intervene to stop the fighting, the withdrawal of the attacking forces.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162812

and also http://adengad.net/news/358451/

Remark: Why th use of force against AQAP n tribal areas fire back? Bcz a security approach is usually based on false assumptions on th relationship between tribes & AQAP. Also bcz it’s reactive not part of efforts to establish sustainable security. I discuss this in details n this report

https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1081281879003877376 referring to https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1078583462037209088

(A)

My friend Thamara Kaheld Awn was kidnapped on 29-12 when she back to Mualla. No clue about where is she or what happened to her and her family looking for her everywhere in #Aden

https://twitter.com/faizahsulimani/status/1081116742938705921

How it comes that adult young lady and activist suddenly in a crowded city can be missed in hours. We urge the security authorities to find her soon

https://twitter.com/Hooria_Mashhour/status/1081150951342379011

Lawlessness in Aden gets worse by the day. Power struggle between the UAE & Hadi's government since 2016 has crippled the city & created security problems. Both need to take their responsibility seriously to establish security & governance in the city.

https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1081126749021396997

(A T)

Two soldiers wounded in clashes with militants attacked a gas export pipeline Southeast Yemen

Two soldiers were injured in clashes between the forces protecting the gas pipeline, and a group of vandals in Jardan - Shabwah, Thursday.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162780

(* A B P T)

New report documenting the death of 37 civilians and military since cessation of security campaign in Taiz

A new human rights report on the number of human rights violations affected civilians and soldiers since the cessation of Taiz security campaign in April of the last year 2018.

The report documented by the Association of families of victims of the murders and the abductions in Taiz and presented during a press conference held Thursday in the governorate building documented the killing of thirty-seven civilians and four military and fifty others since the cessation of Taiz security campaign on 24 April 2018.

Activists hold former Governor of Taiz Amin Mahmoud responsible for the campaign cessation which targeted neighborhoods East of the city of Taiz to track wanted security charged with crimes liquidation and murder against civilians and military personnel.

The Newly released report recorded 43 cases of abduction and enforced disappearance, adding to damage of 26 private and public property in the city since the cessation.

At the conclusion of the Association called "Abu Al-Abbas " battalions to make a stance of all the abuses and crimes committed in the areas of their control, the Association also called the families of the victims of the murders and the abductees the new Taiz governor and the head of the Security Committee to resume the campaign and directing the judicial and security agencies do their duty in tracing offenders and quickly arrest and bring them to trial and demanded the National Commission of inquiry into allegations of human rights violations, to open a prompt and transparent investigation into the incident and visit all the prisons of "Abu Al-Abbas" battalions to reveal the hidden civilians and military personnel.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162779

(A T)

Deputy director of Al-Dale prisons authorities survived an assassination attempt

The deputy director of prisons authorities in Al-Dale survived an assassination attempt which injured two of his bodyguards and two civilians.

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162777

(A T)

Two security forces soldiers were killed in Al-Mahrah

Two soldiers and members of the special security forces were killed by a gunman in Al-Ghaidhah the capital of Al-Mahrah on Wednesday.

The attacker was arrested by local police and imprisoned in Al-Ghidhah central priso

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162753

(A P)

Al-Khabji and Al-Naqueeb Deliver an Important Message to Members of the Yemeni Parliament

parliament about the council’s attitude towards the current Yemeni crisis and views of solving the southern cause in addition to the future of relations between the two nations and two peoples.
The introduction said: “This is a friendly message to you hoping that you are responsible enough to take any decisions and attitudes that are consistent with the expectations of the two peoples of the north and south to save them from this exhaustive war they are suffering for more than four decades now”.
The message also expressed “warm thanks for the brothers of the Arab Coalition for their moral, financial and logistic support for our people in the face of the sectarian project supported by the Mullah state of Iran.

The message asserted that “The southern people and all our powers support all efforts of his excellency President Abd Rabu Mansour Hady as a symbol and leader of the legitimacy in the face of the sectarian coup to restore the abducted state and its organizations in addition to treating the complex files as inherited legacy of incorrect path and de facto policies including the file of the southern cause that everyone knows what was said about and what was done to falsify and contain this cause. In this respect, we express our comfort for Rain Bow Consultations, held in Stockholm – Sweden, between the two delegations of the legitimacy and coups although these consultations didn’t touch the core of basic political files that represent the main cause of the current poor situation”.
The message also indicated that “We don’t need to prove to you that the policy of arrogance is the path that led us to these serious consequences that touched us all personally.

https://en.smanews.org/al-khabji-and-al-naqueeb-deliver-an-important-message-to-members-of-the-yemeni-parliament

My comment: By Southern separatists. Really somewhat strange.

(A P)

Yemeni hip-hop dancers barred from dancing despite departure of al Qaeda

Five Yemeni hip-hop dancers thought their problems had ended when the Islamist militants who had banned them from performing were defeated in the port city of Mukalla nearly three years ago by forces backed by the United Arab Emirates.

But last month Yemeni security forces briefly detained the five members of the WaxOn band, broke their equipment and only released the dancers after they had signed a document saying they would stop dancing hip-hop in public.

“The police said it was a religious sin,” band member Salman Basuad said.

Another band member, Mohammed Al Ameeri, said: “The officers were very violent.. They treated us as if we were terrorists.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-hiphop-dancing/yemeni-hip-hop-dancers-barred-from-dancing-despite-departure-of-al-qaeda-idUSKCN1OW18L

My comment: Welcome to the World of Wahabism.

(A P)

During December alone & in parallel with the UN Sweden talks, Mothers of Abductees Association @abducteesmother protested 7 times to demand release, due process, or reveal fate of their sons who who have been forcibly disappeared by security forces in Aden

https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1080359759046496256

(? B K P)

Film: Documentary about Abyan, South Yemen. In 2011, during Saleh's fake war on terror, the Yemeni Army mainly targeted schools, hospitals, & residents, killing 100s & displacing 1000s. Followed by the 2015 Houthi war which killed 1000s & destroyed everything (English subs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsAkmmTR3Jc

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

Siehe / Look at cp1, cp1b

(A P)

UN envoy heads to Yemen, Saudi Arabia as Hodeida truce holds

The UN envoy for Yemen will hold a new round of talks with Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government in the coming days as the United Nations said Thursday that a ceasefire in the key port city of Hodeida was holding.

Martin Griffiths will travel to the rebel-held capital of Sanaa on Saturday for talks with Huthi leaders and with the head of a truce monitoring committee, Dutch general Patrick Cammaert, said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

He will then head to Riyadh to meet with Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and other officials.

The United Nations is hoping to bring the sides together later this month, possibly in Kuwait, to follow up on the progress made in talks in Stockholm in December, diplomats said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6555183/UN-envoy-heads-Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Hodeida-truce-holds.html

(* A P)

Al-Houthi: Who Has Ability to Take Decision Will Not be Afraid of Retreating from Agreement

The head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammad Ali Al-Houthi, said that the aggression countries have sent negotiating committees and did not send committees to implement what has been agreed.

“The Saudi-led aggression states have sent negotiating committees rather than implementing the agreement,” Al-Houthi wrote Wednesday on his Twitter account.

“Tell them, that who has the ability to take a decisive decision cannot be afraid of retreating of implementing the agreement,” he added.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4671&cat_id=1

My comment: ?????????????? Who decides, definitely might decide wrong.

Comment: Sociopath #2 in the #Houthi militia, Mohammed al-Houthi, appears unhappy with the UN & #Yemen government delegation, stating that the UN wants to implement the agreement instead of negotiating it. It's all gibberish. I know. Bottom line? He wants to renege & blame others for it.

https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1080577927824191488

(A K P)

Yemeni official: Failure of Swedish Agreement favors US, Zionist regime

Member of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen says failure of the Swedish peace agreement is primarily in favor of the United States and the Zionist regime.

In an interview with the Sputnik news agency, Tawfik Al Humairi said continued bombing of Al- Hudaydah by the coalition of invaders marks a fiasco for the United States, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their mercenaries, noting they are struggling to bring about defeat of any progress in implementing the Swedish agreement and establishing peace in Yemen.

http://www.irna.ir/en/News/83156693

(B P)

UN Security Council: Status of implementation of Security Council resolution 2451 (2018) (S/2018/1173)

The agreement on the city of Hudaydah and ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ra ’s Isa includes an immediate ceasefire covering Hudaydah governorate and the mutual redeployment of forces from the city and the three ports to agreed locations outside the city and the ports within 21 days of the ceasefire entering into force; a commitment not to bring any military reinforcements into the city, the three ports and the governorate; and a commitment to remove any military manifestations from the city.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/status-implementation-security-council-resolution-2451-2018-s20181173-enar

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

(A P)

Saudi King Salman and self-exiled members of the ruling family

Saudi King Salman is said to be intent on issuing a pardon to all members of the ruling Al Saud family who have chosen self-exile abroad to express their opposition or dissatisfaction with son Crown Prince Mohammad.

http://www.tacticalreport.com/view_news/Saudi-King-Salman-and-self-exiled-members-of-the-ruling-family/6006

(* B P)

Confirms New Details of Torture of Saudi Women Activists as British MPs Seek Access to Prisons to Investigate

ALQST can confirm that women activists Samar Badawi, Shadan al-Onezi, Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan and Loujain al-Hathloul have suffered brutal torture:

At least one of them was photographed naked and then had the photograph placed on the table during her interrogation. At least one was subjected to physical sexual harassment by the female prison guards, and was beaten and groped in sensitive places. At least one was stripped completely naked in front of several of the interrogators and touched in sensitive places while handcuffed, and repeatedly taunted with phrases like “who’s there to protect you?” and “where are the NGOs?” and “where are the human rights defenders to help you?” or in one case “where is your Lord to protect you?”

The women were beaten on their feet (the punishment of falaka, or bastinado) and subjected to electric shocks. Two were ordered to kiss each other on the lips, and when they refused they were harshly whipped. Three of them bear visible marks of severe torture and have black eyes, and can be seen to be suffering from tremors and to have lost weight.

At least two saw Saud al-Qahtani in the torture chambers. Al-Qahtani, a close advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and heavily implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, told at least one detainee while she was being tortured: “I’ll do whatever I like to you, and then I’ll dissolve you and flush you down the toilet!

https://alqst.org/eng/confirms-new-details-of-torture-of-saudi-women-activists-as-british-mps-seek-access-to-prisons-to-investigate/

(B P)

Thread: A couple years ago, when I was writing for American Dad!, I needed an Arabic speaker for a small part. Our casting director recommended a Saudi comedian, who happened to be in LA for a couple months shooting a tv show. His name is Fahad Albutairi.

https://twitter.com/krudell/status/1080591286959132672

referring to:

Loujain al-Hathloul

is a Saudi women's rights activist, a social media figure, and a political prisoner.

She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. She has been arrested and released several times for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and was arrested in May 2018, with several prominent women's rights activists, on the charge of attempting to destabilise the kingdom. She was ranked 3rd in the list of Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015.

Her husband, Saudi stand-up comedian Fahad Albutairi, is also under arrest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loujain_al-Hathloul

and

(A P)

Twitter Suspends Account of Loujain Hathloul's Father After Tweeting About Her Torture and Sexual Abuse

Twitter suspended the account of Saudi father of activist Loujain Hathloul after he tweeted about the sexual harassment and torture his daughter faced in prison.

Hathloul Al Hathloul (@HathloulH) tweeted this weekend confirming his daughter was sexually harassed in prison, tortured and threatened with rape inside the Saudi government prison where she is kept.

However, his tweet disappeared shortly after with his account suspended by Twitter.

Some reports even suggest he was detained by the Saudi authorities (with tweets, images)

https://www.albawaba.com/loop/twitter-suspends-account-loujain-hathlouls-father-after-tweeting-about-her-torturing-and-sexual

(A P)

Saudi court condemns Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan for defaming Arab News

The Eighth Circuit Court of Riyadh Criminal Court has condemned and fined Saudi writer Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan for denigrating and defaming the Riyadh-based newspaper Arab News via his Twitter account.
He was also found guilty of violating the electronic crimes regulations in force in the Kingdom. The court, composed of three judges, rendered a first instance judgment in which it condemned Al-Zuhayyan for the crimes attributed to him — namely offending and slandering Arab News newspaper. The court also fined him.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1428961/media

Remark: Columnist was found guilty under the same anti-cybercrime law the Saudi government cited when asking Netflix to remove @hasanminhaj’s show episode

https://twitter.com/ahmed/status/1080830443539161090

(A P)

Bin Salman re-arrests Prince Khaled Bin Talal days after his father’s death

Saudi authorities have arrested Prince Khaled Bin Talal Bin Abdelaziz, member of the Board of Trustees, for the second time, a few days after the death of his father Prince Talal, one of the historical advocates of reform in Saudi Arabia.

Media sources pointed out that the arrest warrants were issued by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman against his cousin.

The prince was arrested on Wednesday morning, no charges were brought against him.

Prince Khaled was previously arrested in January and released on 3 November. He has defended the rights of detainees held in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel last year to a fair trial.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181228-bin-salman-re-arrests-prince-khaled-bin-talal-days-after-his-fathers-death/

(* B P)

The demotion of its foreign minister will not help Saudi Arabia’s international relations

the demotion of the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel Al-Jubeir. According to Al Jazeera, “A royal decree was issued on Wednesday to demote outgoing chief diplomat Adel Al-Jubeir to the position of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and named Ibrahim Al-Assaf as his replacement.”

This is an extremely crucial turn of events, as it will have an impact on Saudi Arabia’s ability to communicate its foreign relations policies to the world. Al-Jubeir was perhaps one of the most powerful foreign ministers ever employed by Riyadh. He served not only as foreign minister but also as a de facto “chief spin doctor” using his emotionless, soft voice to defend his country’s decisions whenever required.

In the end, Al-Jubeir appears to have been betrayed by the very regime that he tried so hard to defend. His demotion is seen by most commentators as the need for a scapegoat for the Khashoggi murder and the negative publicity that followed. However, the downgrading from minister to minister of state in the same department might prove to be disastrous for Saudi Arabia. As well as the Khashoggi issue, Al-Jubeir has been a leading talking head in the media to explain Saudi foreign policy on Yemen and the blockade of Qatar.

A change of foreign ministers often indicates an imminent change of foreign policy; is this going to happen in this case? Adel Al-Jubeir has been the face of Saudi Arabia’s much-criticised foreign policy during the most tumultuous political period in the Kingdom’s history. The hope is that his demotion is meant to usher in a new foreign policy trajectory rather than simply protect Bin Salman.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181231-the-demotion-of-its-foreign-minister-will-not-help-saudi-arabias-international-relations/

(* B P)

Der Aufstieg des Prinzen: Palastrevolution in drei Akten

Durch seine Palastrevolution in drei Akten wurde Mohammed bin Salman zur seit Jahrzehnten mächtigsten Person in Saudi-Arabien. Seine Außenpolitik ist bestimmt von einer pathologischen Iran-Obsession, die – genau wie der post-9/11 Dilettantismus des Westens in der Region – den Iran jedes Mal stärker macht, anstatt ihn zu schwächen.

Auch verfolgt das Königreich traditionell eine eher zurückhaltende Außenpolitik. Allzu offene Aggression fernab der Landesgrenzen wurde zumeist durch subtile Einflussnahme und exzessive Scheckbuch-Diplomatie ersetzt.

All dies änderte sich grundlegend mit dem beispiellosen Aufstieg des Mohammed bin Salman, genannt MbS, beginnend vor gerade einmal vier Jahren. Sein Vater König Salman zeigt sich nur selten, setzt kaum Akzente – die Macht im Staate liegt beim 33-jährigen Prinzen. Nahezu sämtliches Handeln des MbS bewegt sich dabei in regelrechter Obsession zwischen zwei grundlegenden Motiven: im Innern die maximale Konzentration von Macht in seinen Händen, nach außen die hochgefährliche Konfrontation mit seiner vermeintlichen Nemesis Iran.

Palastrevolution in drei Akten

Nach verschiedenen kommunalen und Beratertätigkeiten begann MbS‘ politischer Aufstieg mit dem Tod von König Abdullah im Januar 2015. Der neue König Salman – sein Bruder kaum unter der Erde – initiierte weitreichende Umstrukturierungen in den Zentren der Macht, schwächte damit den rivalisierenden Abdullah-Flügel des Hauses Saud und forcierte die Machtkonsolidierung seines eigenen Familienclans.

Im Sommer 2017 trug sich der zweite Akt der Palastrevolution zu, als der damalige Kronprinz MbN in einem von MbS orchestrierten Coup vom zweithöchsten Amt im saudischen Staat gestürzt wurde.

Am 4. November 2017 setzte MbS eine Vielzahl saudischer Entscheidungsträger im Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riad fest, darunter Dutzende Prinzen, Minister, CEOs und sämtliche Medienmoguln des Landes – 500 Personen an der Zahl, die bis dato als unantastbar galten.

Der Umstand, dass im Anschluss an die präzedenzlose Aktion im Ritz-Carlton nicht die kleinsten Schritte zur nachhaltigen Korruptionsbekämpfung unternommen wurden, lassen darauf schließen, dass es von vornherein nur sekundär um Korruption oder das Füllen der Staatskasse – in die immerhin über 100 Milliarden US-Dollar gespült wurden – ging, sondern allen voran um das Ausschalten von MbS‘ Widersachern und das Unmissverständlichmachen der zentralen Botschaft: „Legt euch nicht mit MbS an!“

Während die Übernahme der ersten sechs Domänen im Großen und Ganzen ein voller Erfolg war, reihte sich MbS‘ Performance in der letztgenannten in den außenpolitischen Dilettantismus des Westens in der Region ein, dessen pathologischer „War on Terror“-Interventionismus stets nur ein wiederkehrendes Resultat lieferte: das Erstarken des Iran.

Der Scherbenhaufen saudischer Außenpolitik

Dass MbS in seiner Iran-Fixierung jede Hemmung verloren hat, demonstriert ein Skandal im November 2017, als der saudische Kronprinz mit Libanons Saad Hariri de facto den Ministerpräsidenten eines souveränen Landes entführte – von Jakob Reimann

http://justicenow.de/2019-01-03/der-aufstieg-des-prinzen/ = https://www.freitag.de/autoren/jakob-reimann-justicenow/der-aufstieg-des-prinzen

(A E P)

Saudi PIF entertainment company plans to build leisure complex in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia announced plans on Wednesday to build an entertainment complex in the capital Riyadh, the latest in a series of state-backed efforts to encourage public leisure activities after decades of tight social restrictions.

The 100,000 square meter complex will be developed by the Saudi Entertainment Ventures Company (SEVEN), a wholly owned subsidiary of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.

The project will feature sports activities, live performances, restaurants and cinemas, it said. It did not specify the value of the investment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-entertainment/saudi-pif-entertainment-company-plans-to-build-leisure-complex-in-riyadh-idUSKCN1OW11X

(A P)

Hasan Minhaj äußert sich zum Verbot seiner Show auf Netflix

Eine Folge seiner Satire-Show wurde nach Kritik von Saudi-Arabien aus dem Programm genommen.

https://www.jetzt.de/politik/hasan-minhaj-aeussert-sich-zu-netflix-verbot

(A P)

Netflix censorship risks helping Saudi crackdown: Amnesty

Netflix's decision to pull an episode of a show critical of Saudi authorities risks facilitating a crackdown on freedom of expression in the kingdom, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

"Saudi Arabia's censorship of Netflix... is further proof of a relentless crackdown on freedom of expression in the kingdom," said Samah Hadid, Amnesty's Middle East campaigns director.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/1/2/netflix-censorship-risks-helping-saudi-crackdown-amnesty

(* A P)

Netflix criticized for pulling Patriot Act episode in Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi killing, Yemen

Netflix is facing criticism for pulling an episode from viewing in Saudi Arabia of American comedian Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act that criticizes the kingdom's crown prince.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia's censorship of Netflix is "further proof of a relentless crackdown on freedom of expression."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division​, told CBC News she was disappointed that Netflix obeyed the Saudi government's "absurd order."

"The government's making claims that the episode violated their cybercrimes law," Whitson said. "But that should give you an indication of how absurd their cybercrimes law is because anything that's deemed insulting to the king or the crown prince is against the law.

"By agreeing to censor content in this absurd, random and extremely subjective way, Netflix has breached its own commitment to artistic freedom," she said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/netflix-pulls-episode-saudi-arabia-1.4963106

and also https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/01/outrage-after-netflix-pulls-comedy-show-criticising-saudi-arabia

referring to https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netflix-saudiarabia/netflix-pulls-comedy-show-episode-in-saudi-arabia-idUSKCN1OW08U

and

(A P)

Hasan Minhaj calls for donations for Yemen after Netflix yanks episode in Saudi Arabia

American comedian Hasan Minhaj spoke out Wednesday after Netflix pulled an episode of his "Patriot Act" series in Saudi Arabia that criticized the kingdom's crown prince. Officials in the kingdom reportedly complained about the episode.

"Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube," Minhaj tweeted.

He then called for donations to help people in war-torn Yemen.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hasan-minhaj-calls-for-yemen-donations-after-netflix-yanks-patriot-act-episode-in-saudi-arabia/

and also https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/02/after-netflix-pulls-episode-saudi-request-comic-hasan-minhaj-urges-donations

cp8a Jamal Khashoggi

(* A P)

Saudi prosecutor seeks death penalties in Khashoggi case

Saudi Arabian prosecutors is seeking the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects detained over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the state news agency SPA said on Thursday, as a Saudi court held a first hearing on the case.

Saudi Arabia said it also sent new letters to the Turkish public prosecutor asking for “any evidence connected to this case”, which has rattled the Saudi royal court and damaged the reputation of 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The initial hearing for the 11 individuals indicted by the Public Prosecution in the case of the murder of citizen Jamal Khashoggi was held today ... in the Criminal Court of Riyadh,” a statement from the Saudi prosecutor carried by SPA said.

The prosecutor’s office said it was seeking the death penalty for five individuals among the 11 indicted. Ten other suspects were still under investigation.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-khashoggi-court/saudi-prosecutor-seeks-death-penalties-in-khashoggi-case-idUSKCN1OX0OR

Comments: Let's get some perspective on the #Khashoggi trial - no one named - so, no one facing trial - simple. Until names put forward it's just fog - smoke & mirrors & don't be surprised if the people put forward turn out to be previously unheard of #Shia

https://twitter.com/Saudi_Bodyguard/status/1080838749007872001

It is in the interest of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia to release the names of all the defendants in the #Khashoggi murder case, reveal the charges filed against them with full transparency, and allow international observers to attend the trials.

https://twitter.com/KhalilEJahshan/status/1081047504307789824

The 1st trial of #KhashoggiMurder of 11 suspects, attended only by the national commission for human rights, which is directly connected to the royal court, no independent observers or information on the charges, contrary to activists’ case, in which the state publish charges

https://twitter.com/Hala_Aldosari/status/1080861335511068672

and

(A P)

U.N. rights office says Saudi trial in Khashoggi case 'not sufficient'

The United Nations human rights office said on Friday it could not assess the fairness of a trial taking place in Saudi Arabia related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but that in any case it was “not sufficient”.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, asked about reports that a Saudi prosecutor had sought the death sentence for five suspects linked to the Oct. 2 killing, reiterated the office’s call for an independent investigation “with international involvement”.

The U.N. rights office always opposed the death penalty, she added.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-khashoggi-un/u-n-rights-office-says-saudi-trial-in-khashoggi-case-not-sufficient-idUSKCN1OY0V7

(** B P)

Khashoggi murder: Book reveals 'new details' about killing

Written by Turkish journalists, the book purports to shed light on events that led to Khashoggi's murder and aftermath.

Almost three months after the killing of Saudi writerJamal Khashoggi in his country's consulate in Istanbul, a new book reveals further details about the murder, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported.

Titled "Diplomatic Atrocity: The Dark Secrets of the Khashoggi Murder", the book, written by two Daily Sabah journalists, purports to shed light on the events that led to the writer's murder and what transpired in the aftermath.

Among the reported revelations in the book is the discovery of a new recording containing information about the moments before the murder and the moments that followed, supporting Turkey's accusation that the crime was premeditated and carried out in cold blood.

The book also discloses new names of two people who participated in the 15-man so-called Saudi hit squad that killed Khashoggi and dismembered his body.

Saeed Mu'ayyad al-Qarni and Muflis Shaya al-Musleh had posed as security guards at the consulate but are in fact agents of Saudi intelligence who carry diplomatic passports, the book states.

A third person, Ahmed Abdullah al-Muzaini, was identified in the book as the head of the Istanbul unit of the Saudi intelligence service.

Al-Qarni and al-Musleh did not participate in the act of murder, the book said, but were part of the team that arrived a day earlier and carried out explorations in different parts of Istanbul for the purpose of getting rid of the body.

Although Saudi Arabia reported that all members of the hit squad were arrested after they returned to the country, the book cites an unnamed source as saying that Salah al-Tubaigy, the forensic doctor accused of dismembering Khashoggi's body, escaped any action.

Instead, the book says, Saudi authorities asked him to disappear from the limelight, and Tubaigy is now living in a villa in Jeddah with his family.

The book also says that the head of the hit squad, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, told Khashoggi when he entered the consulate that he would not be harmed if he cooperated with them.

He asked Khashoggi to send a message to his son Salah's phone in Riyadh, informing him that he was safe in Istanbul and not to worry if he could not be contacted for a while. Khashoggi refused to do so, and in the recording, cited in the book, can be heard saying: "Will you kill me? Will you suffocate me?"

According to the book, Khashoggi maintained his composure when he realised that he would not get out of the consulate alive, after he heard Mutreb ordering five members of the hit squad to attack him by suffocating him with a nylon bag. The recordings indicate that Khashoggi's last sentence was: "Do not cover my mouth. I have asthma, you will suffocate me."

Khashoggi resisted his killers for five minutes, according to the book.

Afterwards, Khashoggi's body was cut up by Tubaigy using a forensic saw. The book purports that the members of the hit squad, who remained present at the scene, were disturbed and nauseated by the dismemberment.

Tubaigy, however, is heard saying in a recording from before the murder "I've never worked on a warm body so far but I can easily handle him [Khashoggi]", according to the book.

"Normally, when I'm cutting cadavers, I would put my headphones on and listen to music. I'd also drink my coffee at the same time," Tubaigy continued.

The book also states that there is no evidence of how the Saudis got rid of Khashoggi's body, including allegations that the body was disposed of by dissolving it in acid.

Furthermore, the book dispels a widely reported claim that after the murder, Mutreb called a superior and told him to "tell your boss ... the deed is done", with reports suggesting the "boss" was MBS.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/khashoggi-murder-book-reveals-details-killing-181230172533470.html = https://www.news24.com/World/News/revealed-the-dark-secrets-of-khashoggis-killing-20181230

and film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxPEQk3nt-k

and more details in this longer article:

(** B P)

Khashoggi murder one step closer to resolution with striking new findings

The incident takes place at the office of the kingdom's Istanbul Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi, and contrary to media claims he did not say anything like "don't do this in my room".. Another claim that was all over the media but is actually false is Mutreb's call to someone from the consulate saying "tell the boss the deed is done." According to the book, there is no evidence on that matter.

The claim of a local collaborator first mentioned by the Saudis is another one debunked in the book, which states that it was an attempt of the kingdom to "manipulate" the case. Riyadh had previously mentioned the existence of a local collaborator in the case. Yet, when Turkey asked Riyadh to identify them, that same claim by a local collaborator was denied by Saudi Prosecutor Saud Al-Mojeb during his visit to Istanbul on Oct.30.

Meanwhile, the book also enlightens readers on questions about the recordings, since there were many claims in the media regarding the issue, implying that they were unlawfully achieved and Turkey was deliberately listening to the building. In reality, the recordings were automatically saved, meaning that Turkey did not deliberately listen to the consulate and save the records.

There are also the recordings of the phone traffic between Istanbul and Riyadh, starting from Sept.28, the day that Khashoggi first entered the consulate to demand papers regarding his marriage. The records show that the murder started to be planned on that day.

The process of dismembering Khashoggi's body after his killing lasts for half an hour, according to the recordings and the operation was done with an autopsy saw. During the process, the book states that the personnel present in the scene feel bad and nauseated, while Tubaigy shouts at them asking "Why are you standing like that?" According to the book, there is also no evidence on how the Saudis got rid of Khashoggi's body, including any findings on dissolving the body through acid.

Following the incident, the consulate was cleared from the residuals of the crime in three stages. Firstly, the murderers themselves roughly cleaned the consulate. Then, the consulate personnel did some thorough cleaning in the afternoon the same day. Lastly, the 'real' and most detailed cleaning takes place after nine days passed from the murder with the arrival of two experts on the issue: a chemist, Halid Yahya el-Zehrani and a toxicologist, Ahmet Abdülaziz el-Cenubi. These two people, known in intelligence terms as "wipers," came with an 11-member Saudi group that visited Turkey following the incident with the claim of helping to uncover the murder. This last cleaning lasted for a week, until Turkish intelligence teams examined the consulate on Oct.17.

The book also seeks answers for the reasons why Khashoggi was murdered. Khashoggi is known as a dissident figure that was highly critical of MBS, the kingdom's crown prince. However, according to Ömer Abdulaziz, a close friend of Khashoggi and an activist based in Canada who gave an exclusive interview to the writers of the book, the journalist was more than a critique of the Saudi government. He was actually working on a joint project named the "army of the bees" with Abdulaziz.

Today, with the revelation of these new details on the matter, the international community has almost all the information about the Khashoggi case. However, one question remains unanswered: Where is Khashoggi's body? – by Seyma Nazli Gürbüz

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2018/12/29/khashoggi-murder-one-step-closer-to-resolution-with-striking-new-findings

and the Saudis take this book as a proof of innocence for the Crown prince (while, apart from this one detail, the evidence not at all lets him from the hook), but this look s like wishful thinking:

(* B P)

TURKISH REVELATION: No proof of ‘tell the boss, deed is done’ in Khashoggi case

“Tell the boss the deed is done.”

These words – reported by The New York Times and then the rest of the world, linked the entire Khashoggi affair to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

International entities froze ties (before resuming contacts), sweeping statements were made, and the US Congress at least briefly considered punitive measures against Saudi Arabia.

A new book has now revealed, there is no evidence on that matter, which was dealt with as a smoking gun in the case. The newly released book – Diplomatic Atrocity: The Dark Secrets of the Khashoggi Murder is written by Ferhat Ünlü, Abdurrahman Şimşek and Nazif Karaman, from Turkey’s Sabah newspaper.

‘Less mysterious’

As per the details revealed in the book, one of the darkest cases in recent history, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, is becoming “less mysterious thanks to new findings” that reveal the identities of two more members of the hit squad and more voice recordings.

Some of the most striking new details are the revelation of new audio recordings that give information about both before and after the murder.

The book analyzes the 7.5-minute-long voice recording of the last moments of Khashoggi that Ankara claimed it shared with several countries and intelligence agencies. However, there is no official confirmation on that and even states like France and leader like US president have denied.

It denies the claim that was all over the media but is actually false. According to the book, there is no evidence of the claim related to “Mutreb’s call to someone from the consulate saying “tell the boss the deed is done.”

The book says “ Another claim that was all over the media but is actually false is Mutreb's call to someone from the consulate saying "tell the boss the deed is done." According to the book, there is no evidence on that matter. The New York Times reported in November that Mutreb called a superior and told him to "tell your boss," with media reports suggesting it was MBS, to confirm that the "mission was carried out" and "the deed is done."”

Other major claims

The Dark Secrets of the Khashoggi Murder sets the record straight on several other claims that haven’t been substantiated.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2018/12/30/TURKISH-REVELATION-No-evidence-of-tell-the-boss-deed-is-done-in-Khashoggi-case.html

Remark: As told by Saudi Al-Arabiya.

(* B P)

Newly released VIDEO is said to show Saudi hit team carrying Khashoggi’s body parts in suitcases

As the death of Jamal Khashoggi continues to cause international outrage, new footage has emerged purporting to show the journalist’s killers carrying body parts in suitcases into the house of the Saudi consul general in Istanbul.

The video, which was initially leaked to Turkish news channel A Haber, was made public on Sunday evening. It shows several people – presumed to be the team that killed the Washington Post columnist – carrying suitcases and bags. They are seen entering the Saudi consul-general’s residence in Istanbul, several hundred meters from the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was killed.

The video, dated October 2, the day that Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, entered the consulate and never came back out.

Journalists from the daily Sabah newspaper, who on Sunday released a book on their own investigation into the murder of the renowned journalist, say that all evidence points to “the well of the Saudi consul’s residence” in Istanbul. “Turkish officials believe that the body is in the well, but it could also be in some other place in the residence,” one of the book’s writers, Nazif Kahraman, said.

https://www.rt.com/news/447842-khashoggi-video-body-book/

and the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCh3NvkG7LA&t=17s

(* B P)

Jamal Khashoggi’s final months as an exile in the long shadow of Saudi Arabia

Khashoggi’s life and work, particularly in his final year, were inevitably more complicated than can be captured in that idealized frame. The complete truth about his fate remains elusive in large measure because of a determined Saudi effort to obscure events — an effort that included relaying false information to executives at The Post in the days after Khashoggi’s death.

This account of his final 18 months, which reveals new details about Khashoggi’s interactions with Saudi officials, his activities over the last year of his life as an exile and his killing, is based on interviews with dozens of associates, friends and officials from countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States as well as Turkey, where Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Underestimating the Saudis

Khashoggi was an advocate for reform in his country, but he neither saw himself as a dissident nor believed in bringing radical change to a nation that has operated for the past eight decades as an absolute monarchy.

He relished his newfound freedoms in the United States and the attention his writing got from a Western audience, but he often resisted appeals from associates to be more forceful in his criticism of the kingdom. He was by many accounts depressed by the separation from his country and the strain that his departure and work placed on his family.

Even in exile, Khashoggi remained loyal to Saudi Arabia and reluctant to sever ties to the royal court.

But in the conspiracy-driven climate of Middle East politics, Khashoggi came under mounting suspicion because of his writing as well as associations he cultivated over many years with perceived enemies of Riyadh.

Among Khashoggi’s friends in the United States were individuals with real or imagined affiliations with the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, and an Islamic advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, regarded warily for its support of the public uprisings of the Arab Spring. Khashoggi cultivated ties with senior officials in the Turkish government, also viewed with deep distrust by the rulers in Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps most problematic for Khashoggi were his connections to an organization funded by Saudi Arabia’s regional nemesis, Qatar. Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the columns he submitted to The Washington Post, proposing topics, drafting material and prodding him to take a harder line against the Saudi government. Khashoggi also appears to have relied on a researcher and translator affiliated with the organization, which promotes Arabic-language education in the United States.

A former U.S. diplomat who had known Khashoggi since 2002, Salem said that any assistance she provided Khashoggi was from a friend who sought to help him succeed in the United States. She noted that Khashoggi’s English abilities were limited and said that the foundation did not pay Khashoggi nor seek to influence him on behalf of Qatar.

To friends and family members, Khashoggi’s connections were indicative of his intellectual curiosity and disregard for rigid national, religious and ideological boundaries. He traveled constantly, attended dozens of conferences each year and developed long-standing friendships with people whose opinions were at odds with his own – by Souad Mekhenned and Greg Miller

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jamal-khashoggis-final-months-an-exile-in-the-long-shadow-of-saudi-arabia/2018/12/21/d6fc68c2-0476-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html

and this “Qatar connection” is used by US right-wing and Saudi propaganda for a smear campaign against Khashoggi and the Washington Post:

Washington Post reveals how Qatar Foundation shaped their pieces by Khashoggi

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/12/23/Washington-Post-reveals-how-Qatar-Foundation-shaped-their-pieces-by-Khashoggi.html

Jamal Khashoggi and The Washington Post’s op-eds

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2018/12/24/Jamal-Khashoggi-and-the-Washington-Post-s-op-eds.html

Khashoggi columns: Washington Post Mideast editor calls it ‘journalistic no-no’

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/12/24/Who-wrote-Khashoggi-s-last-Washington-Post-article-.html

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2018/12/28/US-security-body-Khashoggi-Qatari-Turkish-agent-Washington-Post-must-respond.html

is relying on a rather dubious source:

https://www.foxnews.com/person/h/jim-hanson

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/think-tank-led-by-man-who-warned-high-schoolers-clock-was-half-a-bomb-claims-its-advising-white-house-on-qatar-crisis_us_5980e768e4b02b36343e9920

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp1

(A P)

Chris Henzel confirmed as new US Ambassador for #Yemen. You wouldn't know it unless you went to the Senate page. No reporting in major newspapers!

https://twitter.com/ElanaGulf/status/1080869412260012032

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1081285086941728768

(* B K P)

$100 Billion in Weapons to the Saudis Buys a World Full of Hurt

The meaning of 'friendship' in Riyadh's case has been distorted beyond all reality.

When queried, the typical supporter of this horror tells us we have to support the Saudis because they are “our friends.” But how can we call those who willfully perpetrate such unthinkable misery “our friends”? For many years, our political, military, and press leadership have intoned the “our friends” mantra. Why? Exactly who benefits from this so-called friendship?

Ben Freeman at the Center for International Policy’s Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative has identified many of the American firms that receive vast sums of money from the Saudis. This money is laundered through these firms and into the campaign coffers of our political leaders.

It is difficult to imagine how a country that has spent billions of dollars both around the world and in America supporting a virulently anti-American jihadist ideology can be considered a friend. Adherents of this ideology, Saudis, comprised the leadership, the funders, the operatives, and 15 of the 19 hijackers who attacked us on September 11, 2001, killing 3,000 Americans. Yet Riyadh has not stopped funding madrassas overseas that teach extremism (despite a recent pledge to do just that), enabling these schools to breed and train new terrorists for the last five decades. America’s leadership has turned a blind eye in order to continue to protect their money flow.

Our national leaders also tell us that selling weapons to the Kingdom gives us the benefit of jobs in our country. This is somewhat deceptive. To paraphrase TAC columnist Doug Bandow: we do have people working to make the weapons, but we do not fully benefit from the export of arms because we do not benefit from them here. Instead, the products are sent overseas, often at our expense.

The Saudis are good friends to those who benefit from their lobbying largesse and military contracts. But they’re not so good for the rest of us who have to pay the human, social, and financial costs, and suffer under a corrupted political process – by George D. O’Neill

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/100-billion-in-weapons-to-the-saudis-buys-a-world-full-of-hurt/

(* B K P T)

This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism

The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations

This map is the most comprehensive depiction in civilian circles of U.S. military and government antiterrorist actions overseas in the past two years. To develop it, my colleagues and I at Brown University’s Costs of War Project at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, along with Smithsonian magazine, combed through U.S. and foreign government sources, published and unpublished reports, military websites and geographical databases; we contacted foreign embassies in the U.S. and the military’s United States Africa Command; and we conducted interviews with journalists, academics and others. We found that, contrary to what most Americans believe, the war on terror is not winding down—it has spread to more than 40 percent of the world’s countries. The war isn’t being waged by the military alone, which has spent $1.9 trillion fighting terrorism since 2001. The State Department has spent $127 billion in the last 17 years to train police, military and border patrol agents in many countries and to develop antiterrorism education programs, among other activities.

Because we have been conservative in our selections, U.S. efforts to combat terrorism abroad are likely more extensive than this map shows. Even so, the vast reach evident here may prompt Americans to ask whether the war on terror has met its goals, and whether they are worth the human and financial costs (map)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/map-shows-places-world-where-us-military-operates-180970997/

(A P)

Pompeo to head to Middle East for talks on Yemen, Syria, Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to eight Middle East capitals next week for talks on security expected to focus on Yemen, Syria and Iran, the State Department announced Friday.

A key stop will be in Riyadh, whose relations with the US have been strained by the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul last year, which US intelligence believes was directed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite his denials.

Pompeo will seek an update on the investigation into Khashoggi's death, as well as hold discussions on other regional subjects, the State Department said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6558033/Pompeo-head-Middle-East-talks-Yemen-Syria-Iran.html

and also https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-khashoggi-usa/pompeo-to-seek-khashoggi-case-update-on-middle-east-trip-statement-idUSKCN1OY19T

(* B K P)

Yemen, Where No One Hears You Scream

The war in Yemen, started under Obama and accelerated under Trump, can legitimately be called a war on children. The famine sweeping the country largely as a result of the crushing embargo against the nation may be the worst on the planet in more than a century, according to the United Nations. More than 1.8 million children are the brink of starvation, with at least 130 dying each day.

Despite the rising death toll, Yemen remains a place few Americans have heard of or could place on map. Yet it is where Barack Obama ordered the assassination by drone of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, and two weeks later called up another hit that killed his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, also an American citizen. Neither were afforded any kind of due process by the peace prize president.

Yemen is also where Donald Trump committed his first war crime, authorizing a commando raid eight days after his inauguration on a village that killed 15 civilians, including, al-Awlaki’s 8-year-old daughter, Nora. Why is the US killing children in Yemen? Who authorized it? What is the goal? When will it end? No one is saying. Few in congress or the press even bother to ask.

It’s not a secret war, the way Afghanistan was under Jimmy Carter. It’s something worse: a war no one cares enough about to mention, assess or debate. Yemen is the place where no one hears you scream, even as you shout in horror at the sight of the dismembered bodies of the 10-year-olds who were once your students.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/04/yemen-where-no-one-hears-you-scream/

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

(* B K P)

2018 was another shameful year for the UK’s foreign policy

The UK continued to support a bombing campaign which has starved children to death

As Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni-based human rights organisation, has said “the de facto immunity that the international community has given Saudi Arabia through its silence prevents real justice for violations by all sides.”

The chances of complicit governments, like that of the UK, changing policy of their own accord are minimal. Next September will see the DSEI arms fair taking place in East London, and, despite the horrific abuses that have been carried out, there is no doubt that the Saudi military will be on top of the guest list. While there they will be greeted by civil servants and introduced to representatives of all of the world’s biggest arms companies.

2018 has been yet another disgraceful year for UK foreign policy. Change won’t just require the ending of arms sales to the Saudi regime, it will need an end to the long-term policy and mindset that has allowed them in the first place – by Andrew Smith, CAAC

https://leftfootforward.org/2018/12/2018-was-another-shameful-year-for-the-uks-foreign-policy/

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

(A)

Vernissage: Jemen – der Krieg, die Opfer und die Täter

Montag 7.1.2019, 17:30

Eine Welt Haus, Schwanthalerstraße 80, 80336 München

Im Eine Welt Haus findet an diesem Montag die Vernissage zur Ausstellung: Jemen – der Krieg, die Opfer und die Täter statt. Der seit 2015 tobende Krieg im Jemen hat nach Angaben der UNO zur „weltweit schlimmsten humanitären Katastrophe“ geführt

https://www.munichmag.de/events/vernissage-jemen-der-krieg-die-opfer-und-die-taeter/

(A P)

Trotz Jemen-Konflikt: Bundesregierung genehmigt Kriegsschiff-Export nach Ägypten

Im Koalitionsvertrag verpflichteten sich Union und SPD, keine Waffen mehr an Staaten zu liefern, die am Jemen-Konflikt beteiligt sind. Nun gab es offenbar eine Ausnahme.

Die Bundesregierung hat nach „Spiegel“-Informationen erneut grünes Licht für einen großen Rüstungsexport in den Nahen Osten gegeben. Laut einer Liste mit aktuellen Genehmigungen des Bundessicherheitsrats habe das geheim tagende Gremium kurz vor dem Jahreswechsel den Export einer Fregatte vom Typ Meko 200 an Ägypten genehmigt, berichtete das Magazin am Mittwoch.

https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.trotz-jemen-konflikt-bericht-bundesregierung-genehmigt-kriegsschiff-export-nach-aegypten.f97bd9bc-6096-4c19-9ae1-bb9a9be6bf61.html

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

(B P)

An extraordinary tale of courage from a woman in jail in the UAE

It is a shocking two minutes and fifty-five seconds of audio that was smuggled out of Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba prison. In the audio, a young female prisoner – Maryam Al Baloushi – recounts a grim story of abuse, threats and coercion at the hands of Emirati security officers and prison authorities. The audio was recently secured by the Geneva-based International Centre for Justice and Human Rights, which has vouched for its veracity.

Twenty-one-year-old student Maryam Al Baloushi was arrested in 2015. Like many others seized by the state security system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), she says that she was held in an unknown place and forced to sign a false confession, before finally being brought to trial in 2017.

Maryam was convicted of providing funding to a terrorist organisation and sentenced to five years in prison. She says that all she did was send money – in good faith – to a suffering Syrian family.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181117-an-extraordinary-tale-of-courage-from-a-woman-in-jail-in-the-uae/

(A P)

Rights defenders jailed in Bahrain and UAE should be released unconditionally, UN urges

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has called for the immediate release of a prominent human rights defender in Bahrain and UAE

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1029832

cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis

(A P)

Arab mentality: The UAE has banned Qatar's media delegation from entering the UAE to cover the 2019 Asian Cup on the eve of the tournament, Qatar Sports Press Committee said in a press release. I think the UAE has warmly welcomed the Iranian media delegation to the tournament.

https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1081412531191730176

(A P)

Qatar expects Al-Jubeir’s removal to help settle the GCC crisis

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expects the GCC crisis to witness some positive developments following the removal of Adel Al-Jubeir from his position as Saudi Foreign Minister and the appointment of Ibrahim Al-Assaf in his place.

http://www.tacticalreport.com/view_news/Qatar-expects-Al-Jubeir%E2%80%99s-removal-to-help-settle-the-GCC-crisis/6008

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

Siehe / Look at cp1

(* A K P)

Saudi SANG, plans to buy assault vehicles

Recently-appointed Minister of National Guard Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar Bin Abdulaziz is said to have plans to buy no less than 1000 multi-role military vehicles in favor of the SANG Infantry brigades.

Tactical Report has prepared a 290-word report to shed more light on the subject.

http://www.tacticalreport.com/view_news/Saudi-SANG-plans-to-buy-assault-vehicles/6012

Riyad souhaite renouveler une partie de son parc de véhicules blindés détruits dans les combats au Yémen. L'industriel français Arquus escompte depuis plusieurs mois "remporter la mise", avec un contrat évalué à plusieurs centaines de millions d'euros

https://twitter.com/obsarm/status/1081145414945046528

(A K P)

#Raytheon was awarded an $81.3M CPFF modif. to exercise an option under previously-awarded contract N00024-17-C-5405 for design agent eng. & TS services for Phalanx CIWS, SeaRAM, and Land-based Phalanx Weapon System. This contract involves FMS to #SaudiArabia & 6 other countries (photos)

https://twitter.com/MbKS15/status/1081094544844877825

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

(B K P)

Saudi Arabia Denies Alleged Use of Child Soldiers in Yemen

The Saudi Arabian government has strongly objected to the allegations made in the article titled "On the Front Line of the Saudi War in Yemen? Child Soldiers from Darfur" that was published by the New York Times on December 28. The Embassy states that the story is false and seriously flawed by lack of evidence and several unsubstantiated claims.

Saudi Arabia does not deploy children as fighters. Furthermore, the Kingdom examined the records of all military personnel that have been deployed through Saudi Arabia as part of military operations in Yemen and has determined that there are no underage personnel.

The examination also determined that American-made weapons were never been distributed to personnel participating from Sudan as part of the Coalition's operations, as alleged by The New York Times article.

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/saudi-arabia-denies-alleged-use-of-child-soldiers-in-yemen-2019-01-02

and

(B K P)

Saudi Arabia Denies Issuing American Weapons to Sudanese

Saudi Arabia denied Wednesday that it had issued American-made weapons to Sudanese soldiers in Yemen, disputing statements made by five of the soldiers and reported last week in The New York Times.

In an article about Sudanese soldiers fighting for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, five Sudanese fighters who had returned from the conflict said that at training camps in Saudi Arabia they had been issued “modern” weapons that were unfamiliar to them and that they believed to be American-made.

In a statement on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia said an examination determined that American-made weapons had “never been distributed to personnel participating from Sudan as part of the coalition’s operations.”

The kingdom has not disclosed what weapons it distributed to the Sudanese fighters or where those weapons originated.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-yemen-weapons-soldiers.html

My comment: Do they want to make us believe they are fighting with fists and sticks?

And (transferred here from cp15 Propaganda)

Thread by Director of Communications, Saudi Embassy to USA: Unfortunately @nytimes did not print some of our comments on their recent report by @ddknyt on KSA hiring Sudanese children to fight in Yemen, which is an outrageous insult to the brave Saudi soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice defending their nation.

https://twitter.com/saudkabli/status/1080530708626657280

cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy

(A E P)

Yemen Central Bank Governor to Asharq Al-Awsat: Saudi Grant Has Had Positive Impact

Yemen’s Central Bank has managed to activate all of its tools since receiving the Saudi grant in March last year.
Central Bank Governor Mohammed Zammam told Asharq Al-Awsat that the grant has been invested in foreign trade, especially basic goods.
The grant has left a “clear” positive impact on Yemen, he remarked.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1531856/yemen-central-bank-governor-asharq-al-awsat-saudi-grant-has-had-positive-impact

(* A B E P)

Yemen’s private sector teaming up to support humanitarian and recovery efforts

Against this troubling backdrop, on November 29, private sector representatives from all across Yemen and the greater MENA region held a workshop to discuss the private sector’s role in supporting humanitarian and recovery efforts in the country. Despite the circumstances, this meeting proved a success, representing the first time in three years that the Yemeni private sector organized an event bringing together federations, chambers, sector associations, business diaspora organizations, as well as national business support institutions in the service of Yemen’s future.
While many representatives were physically present at the meeting in Sana’a, other representatives connected via video conference from the Yemeni cities of Hodeida, Aden, and Mukalla, as well as internationally from Amman, Dubai, and Istanbul. The meeting was organized by the Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service agency (SMEPS), with funding from the World Bank Bringing Back Business (BBB) Project.
Seeking to play a role in improving the dire situation of the country, the gathering laid the groundwork for practical and thought leadership on the role of the private sector in future Yemen recovery and reconstruction efforts. More specifically, the workshop resulted in participants identifying two key pillars aimed towards increasing the participation of the sector in future humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in partnership with the government and donor agencies:

http://blogs.worldbank.org/arabvoices/yemen-s-private-sector-teaming-support-humanitarian-and-recovery-efforts

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

(* A T)

US- Luftangriff gegen mutmaßlichen Al-Kaida-Terroristen

Das US-Militär hat einen Luftangriff gegen einen mutmaßlichen Al-Kaida-Terroristen im Jemen ausgeführt, den die USA für den Drahtzieher eines Anschlags auf US-Soldaten vor mehr als 18 Jahren halten. Es werde noch geklärt, ob Jamal al-Badawi bei dem Angriff getötet worden sei, sagte ein Sprecher des Zentralkommandos in Tampa. Die USA beschuldigen Al-Badawi, den Anschlag auf den US-Zerstörer "USS Cole" im Oktober 2000 in der Hafenstadt Aden geplant zu haben. Damals hatten sich zwei Selbstmordattentäter in die Luft gesprengt und 17 US-Soldaten mit in den Tod gerissen.

https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/ausland/luftangriff-des-us-militaers-gegen-moeglichen-al-kaida-terroristen-133922429 = https://www.verlagshaus-jaumann.de/inhalt.jemen-us-luftangriff-gegen-mutmasslichen-al-kaida-terroristen.43150a89-597d-4730-8dca-f763010e16ba.html

(* A T)

US Strike Targets USS Cole Bombing Mastermind in Yemen

A U.S. airstrike in Yemen has targeted one of the alleged masterminds of the USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 sailors in 2000.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday that a precision airstrike in Yemen's Marib governorate on Tuesday targeted Jamal al-Badawi, one of six al-Qaida operatives convicted of the bombing and a fugitive on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.

"U.S. forces are still assessing the results of the strike following a deliberate process to confirm his death," Urban said.

A defense official told VOA that the U.S. was waiting for the results of a DNA test before formally declaring al-Badawi deceased.

In October 2000, 17 American sailors from the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, died in a suicide bomb attack at Aden harbor. Dozens more sailors were wounded. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility.

Al-Badawi was arrested by Yemeni authorities in 2000, escaped from a prison in 2003, was recaptured by Yemeni authorities in 2004 and escaped again in 2006.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-strike-targets-uss-cole-bombing-mastermind-in-yemen/4729447.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/04/politics/uss-cole-al-badawi-killed/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-usa-conference/u-s-anti-islamic-state-meeting-turns-to-damage-control-after-syria-decision-idUSKCN1OY216

https://twitter.com/MaherFarrukh/status/1081203361746219009 referring to https://khabaragency1.net/news105839.html

(B T)

The whole"ISIS" n #Yemen need to be carefully investigated. Who is it? Who funds it?Who benefits from its existence or propaganda? Yemeni northern elite including Saleh but others too used terrorists, real & staged ones, to eliminate opponents. That shouldn't be ruled out here.

https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1080428752063082496

cp15 Propaganda

(A H P)

Yemeni PM, Reem Al Hashemy review humanitarian efforts in Yemen

Al Hashemy said that her current visit to Aden, which is the third in six months, reaffirms the UAE's determination to continue to support the Yemeni people and to double all possible efforts to ease their suffering.

The Minister noted that the UAE projects that have been executed in Yemen over the past period cover all sectors, including health and education as well as other platforms, highlighting the fact that they have helped gradually restore normalcy across liberated territories.

https://www.sharjah24.ae/en/uae/384839-new-componentyemeni-pm-reem-al-hashemy-review-humanitarian-efforts-in-yemen

(A H P)

KSrelief Delivers Medical, Food Aid to Yemen

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief ) distributed Wednesday 29 tons and 600 kg of food baskets to displaced and affected people in Tur AlBahah District of Lahij Governorate, benefiting 2,400 people, within a project to distribute 102,170 food baskets to 9 governorates in Yemen.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1530811/ksrelief-delivers-medical-food-aid-yemen

(A P)

Saudi Ambassador to USA Calls for Launching Global Initiative to Combat Child Soldiers Recruitment

Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to the United States of America said that the Kingdom has made great and ongoing efforts to combat the recruitment of child soldiers in Yemen.
He reiterated the call for launching a global initiative to combat the recruitment of children in any battles, starting with Yemen where Al-Houthis have been accused of violating rights of children by recruiting them militarily.
"Al-Houthi militia's recruitment of child soldiers in Yemen is a terrible crime that cannot be tolerated anymore. Al-Houthi militias kidnap children from homes and schools to engage them in fierce battles, violating international laws, norms and the most basic rules of mercy and humanity." Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz said in twitter on his official Twitter account.

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1860010

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1532051/saudi-ambassador-us-calls-action-combat-child-recruitment-yemen

and thread https://twitter.com/kbsalsaud/status/1080884904932577286

Comment: Saudi Arabia which has been bombing and starving Yemeni children for four years is running mouth about rights of Yemeni children. Well, this guy does not need to be reminded that he is Saudi ambassador to the USA. It is not your business. So, shut the fuck up!

https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1080961665921941504

My comment: LOL. Look at cp13b also.

(A P)

Video surfaces of WaPo op-ed contributor chanting ‘Death to America’

Less than two months after he was given prominent op-ed space in the Washington Post, a video has surfaced of Houthi rebel leader Mohammad Ali al-Houthi launching a shoulder-fired missile and then reciting the Houthi slogan, which calls for “Death to America.”

Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based Middle East think tank, confirmed to Conservative Review that it is indeed al-Houthi in the video. Shihabi tells CR that it is “documentary evidence of the type of leader” that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is up against, whom “many critics have ignored.”

Other videos have surfaced showing Mr. al-Houthi traveling in a vehicle with very young male soldiers (the Houthi rebels draft child soldiers) while stationed at a mounted machine gun.

On November 9, the radical extremist leader was given valuable space in the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, edited by Karen Attiah, a passionate advocate for the controversial slain Saudi activist Jamal Khashoggi, who in his last days worked as a de facto asset to the Qatari and Turkish regimes.

After Jamal Khashoggi’s death, Attiah worked to turn the Global Opinions section into a space to pursue his pro-Islamist, anti-Saudi monarchy agenda.

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/video-surfaces-of-wapo-op-ed-contributor-chanting-death-to-america/

https://ilovemyfreedom.org/wapo-op-ed-contributor-caught-on-video-shouting-death-to-america/

(A P)

Support for Yemen SMEs upscaled under BRAVE program

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) recently witnessed the signing ceremony of the implementation agreements for the scale-up of the BRAVE program in Yemen. The Business Resilience Assistance for Value-adding Enterprises (BRAVE) project aims to enhance the resilience of SMEs in Yemen in vital sectors against the impact of the ongoing conflict.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1429511/corporate-news

(A P)

Yemen food aid for millions under threat because of Houthi looting

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-food-aid-for-millions-under-threat-because-of-houthi-looting-1.808807

My comment: „because of…“ is giving a propaganda bias to the story (look at Yemen war Mosaic 497, cp1).

(A P)

Houthis must be helpful: Minister

In statement to the Yemeni News Agency, Iryani said, “The WFP’s account indicates that Houthi militia is deliberately exacerbating humanitarian crisis, causing people in its controlled regions to suffer starvation in order to capitalise on their torment to gain politically and militarily.”
The Yemeni minister added, “Houthi militia has intentionally aimed to deprive millions of Yemenis their salaries, livelihood income sources and humanitarian aid to further increase their suffering so that they have no other choice but to go fighting alongside the coup militia.”

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/dfcf16b5-615f-4cb0-8257-6a49016b1ee0.aspx

(A P)

AP INVESTIGATION SHOWS IT'S THE IRANIAN TERRORISTS, NOT THE SAUDI BLOCKADE, STARVING YEMEN

Some months the U.N. has sent enough food to feed twice that many people. Yet the latest figures from the U.N. and other relief organizations show that 65 percent of residents are facing severe food shortages.

For over a year now, the media has been filled with Iranian and Qatari propaganda claiming that the Saudi blockade of Iran's Houthi Jihadis had created a "human rights catastrophe" and famine in Yemen. This propaganda was bolstered by photos of starving children.

The Senate, including some Republicans, even voted in favor of a Qatari Senate resolution falsely blaming the Saudis for the famine. Just as in Gaza though, it's Iran's terrorists that are to blame.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272418/ap-investigation-shows-its-iranian-terrorists-not-daniel-greenfield

(A P)

Yemen’s Relief Committee: Militias Loot About 700 Aid Convoys

Yemen’s Executive High Relief Committee said in a statement on Tuesday that Houthi militias, between May 2015 and December 2018, have banned access to 88 ships with humanitarian aid and other products to the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef in Hodeidah governorate.
It explained that 34 of these ships were held for six months, so the bulk of the load went bad.
It also noted that seven vessels were directly attacked by the insurgents during the same period while sailing in the Red Sea off the Yemeni coast.
Four of the vessels were from Saudi Arabia, two were from UAE and one was from Turkey.
In its statement, the committee said that during the same period, the militias had looted and detained 697 relief trucks on the roads linking the governorates of Hodeidah, Sanaa, Ibb, Taiz, Hajja and Dhamar and the entrances to the governorates that fall under their control.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1529166/yemen%E2%80%99s-relief-committee-militias-loot-about-700-aid-convoys

and also http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162724

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

(* A K pH)

Saudi coalition air raids day by day

Jan. 1: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1546439567./1212588992224797/

(* A K pH)

7 civilans killed in UAE-Apache bombarding on Shabwa, heroes tribes attack enemy

Seven citizens on Friday were killed in shelling of Apache helicopters belonging to the occupation UAE state on the houses of citizens in Sada area of Markha district in Shabwa province, a security official told Saba.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521540.htm

(A K pH)

Civilian killed in Saudi-led airstrikes on Amran

A civilian was killed and two were injured in airstrikes launched on Tuesday by the US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition launched airstrikes on Amran province, a security official told Saba.
The airstrikes hit Aqla bridge in Qaflt-Ghader district.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521226.htm

(A K pH)

More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:

Jan. 3: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4672&cat_id=1 and http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521504.htm Saada p.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521456.htm Marib p.

Jan. 2: http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521377.htm Saada p.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521325.htm Sanaa p.

(* B K)

[referring to a Dec. 12, 2017 Saudi coalition air raid at Sanaa]

#SAM documented the death of 9 children in the prison’s airstrike, and the subsequent shooting, by #Houthis at the fleeing PoW.

https://twitter.com/SAM4rights/status/1080836305892700160

and

The Joint Crime; Military Police Prison in Sana’a

The Arab Coalition might be Aware of the Existence of Civilian Detainees;
SAM Organization Publishes a Report on the Airstrikes on Detainees at the Military Police Prison in Sana’a

SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, published today 19th December, a report included investigation on the airstrike of the military police prison in Sana’a. the report “the Joint Crime”, coincides with the first anniversary of the air bombing of the prison.
The report included figures of the casualties documented by SAM team, and testimonies of the survivors and their relatives of detainees and victims.

SAM said “the Arab Coalition, might have been aware that the targeted prison accommodated civil detainees, evident by the statement made by released detainees, including by journalist Yousef Aglan, who confirmed that Houthis militia, has informed the transferred prisoners from the central prison to the military police prison, that the ICRC has been notified with their transfer. “the ICRC delegate visited us after two weeks of our transfer and expressed our concern that AC might target the place, but they confirmed that they’ve reported to the AC with the fact that the site accommodates PoW and detainees and it will be safe”, Aglan continued.

https://www.samrl.org/a-report-on-the-bombing-of-detainees-in-the-military-police-prison-in-sanaa/

referring to this air raid:

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news481596.htm

https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/1587313531321671 = https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1755639524732034

photos: https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1754799168149403

films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYeer8H_QiY

https://twitter.com/Hona_Almasirah/status/941032570288070656

https://www.facebook.com/Hona.Almasirah/videos/1739197439444646/

https://www.facebook.com/Hona.Almasirah/videos/1739230976107959

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

Siehe / Look at cp1b

(A K pH)

9 Short Range Missiles, Zelzal-1, Hit Gatherings of Saudi-Mercenaries in Jizan and Najran

Artillery and Rocketry Forces of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees on Friday fired 8 short range missile, Zelzal-1, at the gatherings of Saudi-mercenaries in Jizan, a military source told Al-Masirah Net.

In Najran, the Artillery and Rocketry Forces of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees on Friday also targeted the gatherings of Saudi-mercenaries, by a short range missile, Zelzal-1.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4697&cat_id=1

(A K pH)

Baqim district, Saada p.: Saudi rocketry and artillery forces shelled citizens’ homes and properties

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521504.htm

(A K pH)

Film: the martyrdom of an elderly woman and a girl by a Saudi missile strike on the Directorate of Baqm border in Saada province 03-01-2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSQZOp2IESU

(A K pS)

A 6-year old child got shot in the head by Houthi militia positioned in Alka’abain mountains in Lahj governorate.

https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1080595860889710593

(A K pS)

After 3 weeks of Sweden talks..Renewed fighting in the outskirts of Taiz

eastern and Northern Taiz City, after about 3 weeks of Declaration of understandings about the situation in the city in Sweden consultations.

A military source said the source of «Al-Masdar online », fighting renewed between Government forces and Houthi \militants late Tuesday night, the fighting erupted after an attack by Houthis on Government forces positions

http://almasdaronline.com/articles/162746

(A K pH)

Army downs saudi-led spy plane in Jizan

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521353.htm

(A K pH)

Children killed, injured in coalition’s shelling in Taiz

Two children and a civilian were killed and others civilians, including two women and a child, were injured in coalition’s shelling in Taiz province, a security official said.
The bombarding hit Hawmara area of Mawia district.

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news521236.htm

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4658&cat_id=1

(A K pH)

Jan. 2, Saada p: Saudi missiles and artillery shills hit homes and property of citizens in Baqim, Munabih and Razih border districts.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=4665&cat_id=1

Vorige / Previous

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-497-yemen-war-mosaic-497

Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-497 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-497:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm

Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:

(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)

http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm

http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/

http://www.yemenwar.info/

und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:

http://yemendataproject.org/data/

Dieser Beitrag gibt die Meinung des Autors wieder, nicht notwendigerweise die der Redaktion des Freitag.
Geschrieben von

Dietrich Klose

Vielfältig interessiert am aktuellen Geschehen, zur Zeit besonders: Ukraine, Russland, Jemen, Rolle der USA, Neoliberalismus, Ausbeutung der 3. Welt

Dietrich Klose

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