... Großbritannien und der Krieg im Jemen 1962–1970 – Votum gegen Trumps Jemen-Veto im US-Senat gescheitert – und mehr
May 4, 2019: The West’s bias on Yemen – Daniel Larison’s reply to Michael Knights – Threats for pregnant women in Yemen – Deaths of new-born babies in Yemen – Britain and the war in Yemen 1962–1970 – Senate fails to override Trump's Yemen veto – 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
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13d Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
Neue Artikel / New articles
(* B H K P)
Film: Jemen: Hunger als Kriegswaffe
Auf der Basis der vom Yemen Data Project (siehe Fußnote) gesammelten Informationen hat Disclose die 19.278 Angriffe analysiert, die zwischen dem 26. März 2015 und dem 28. Februar 2019 gemeldet wurden.
Das Ergebnis: 30 Prozent der Luftangriffe galten zivilen Zielen und gehorchten der klaren Absicht der Koalition, grundlegende, für die 28 Millionen Jemeniten lebenswichtige Infrastrukturen zu zerstören.
Die Recherchen von Disclose zeigen, dass hinter dieser Krise eine bewusste Hunger-Strategie steht. Saudi-Arabien und die Emirate machen im Jemen den Hunger zur Waffe, auch mit Flugzeugen, Raketenlenksystemen und Kriegsschiffen „made in France“.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/086089-024-A/jemen-hunger-als-kriegswaffe
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
US Senate: Siehe / Look at cp9
(** B P)
The West’s Bias On Yemen Hinders Peace Efforts
Not only are American and British weapons used on Yemeni civilian areas, Western military support and consent for the Saudi Arabia-led war on Yemen damages already fragile peace efforts between the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed and UN-recognized government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Both the U.S. and UK administrations’ almost unconditional support for the Saudi-led coalition sows further distrust among the Houthi rebels and worsens tensions between the warring parties.
Yet President Donald Trump veto of Congress’ invoking of the War Powers Act to end U.S. military support to Saudi Arabia signifies that the White House cares more about Saudi trade ties and a few thousand American jobs over millions of Yemeni lives.
The current U.S. administration, as these actions suggest, is not a serious, neutral peace partner for Yemen.
This bias causes further polarization in a conflict where peace efforts are already fragile. The Houthis, driven by anti-American feelings and distrust of the peace process, will be harder to negotiate with after Trump has signalled continued U.S. involvement in the war. Fighting has intensified, with further breaching of the Hodeida ceasefire and in other regions of Yemen.
Past and present American involvement in the region has partly radicalized the Houthis. The faction adopted a largely anti-American stance in 2003 following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. One of their motives for fighting then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a series of six wars from 2004 to 2010 was his ties to the United States and Saudi Arabia, an even more U.S.-friendly state.
This continued Western policy of granting impunity to the Saudi-led coalition, while blaming the Houthis and Iran for the conflict, will only prolong tensions and make peace more distant
If the United States and Britain at the very least were impartial, addressed Saudi and Emirati violations, or even scaled back their extensive military support to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, this could build trust between Yemen’s warring factions – by Jonathan Fenton-Harvey
https://lobelog.com/the-wests-bias-on-yemen-hinders-peace-efforts/
My comment: This is 100 % true!
(** B K P)
The Disgraceful Case for Increasing U.S. Support for the War on Yemen
Michael Knights, Ken Pollack, and Barbara Walter make an unpersuasive case that the U.S. should increase its support for the Saudi coalition war on Yemen.
The “fact” mentioned here is not a fact at all. It is an unfounded opinion offered in support of a truly reprehensible policy idea. Trying to get the Houthis to “disgorge most of their initial conquests” is what the Saudi coalition has been trying and failing to do for more than four years. Threatening to increase U.S. support to the coalition isn’t going to change this, and actually increasing U.S. military assistance to an indefensible war is an unacceptable option that would only serve to escalate and prolong the conflict.
It is absurd to think that adding fuel to the war on Yemen will bring the war to an end more quickly. The Saudi coalition intervened in a conflict that already existed, but in so doing they escalated and intensified it. Even if the war does not end immediately, it would be a less destructive conflict and it would pose less of a threat to the civilian population once the Saudis and Emiratis are no longer involved. Encouraging these governments to persist in their failed war will continue creating conditions for mass starvation and epidemics of preventable diseases.
The authors suggest that cutting off the Saudi coalition would lead to a total Houthi victory. That is doubtful, and they are relying on this scenario to try to scare their audience into going along with their awful recommendation. None of the warring parties has been able to win outright, and a withdrawal of the Saudi coalition from the war would allow for a political settlement among Yemenis that isn’t possible as long as the Saudis and Emiratis keep trying to impose their proxies on the country.
The authors’ assumption that cutting off the Saudi coalition won’t end the war is contradicted by years of evidence that a diplomatic settlement has been impossible so long as the U.S. has been giving them unconditional backing.
If the U.S. did what the authors wanted, we should expect a surge in violence and a faster deterioration in the humanitarian situation. The authors assert, “The hard truth is that the cease-fire in Hodeidah came about only because of military pressure from the Saudi-led coalition,” but this is absolutely false. The cease-fire happened in spite of the Saudi coalition’s determination to seize the port by force.
Indulging and encouraging the coalition’s worst behavior is what put Hodeidah in jeopardy and threatened the people in its hinterland with starvation in the first place. If the Saudi coalition were pressured to end their involvement in the war, the threat to Hodeidah’s port and the danger to the civilian population would be significantly reduced. The authors’ call to back the Saudi coalition in an attempt to seize Hodeidah is disgraceful, since it was U.S. support for the previous offensive that has significantly worsened conditions in the country. Attacking the port would interrupt the delivery of commercial goods and aid. Depending on how much damage was done to the port during the assault, it could render it inoperable for months. Even a brief interruption would push the millions of people on the verge of starvation over the edge into the worst famine in decades, and a damaged or closed port would be a death sentence for even more Yemenis. To their discredit, the authors don’t acknowledge any of this as the obvious consequence of the course of action they propose. They are explicitly calling for an assault that aid agencies have repeatedly said would drive Yemen’s civilian population into the abyss, and they have the gall to claim that this will improve conditions.
The Saudis and Emiratis depend on U.S. and U.K. military assistance and technical support to keep their war going. Cutting that support would go a long way to removing some of the worst belligerents from the conflict, and that would clearly be an improvement over the status quo. That does not guarantee an end to all fighting in Yemen, but it would create space for political compromise and it would deprive the Houthis of one of their main justifications for continuing to fight.
Like every other argument in favor of U.S. support for the war on Yemen, this proposal for increasing that support is based on shoddy assumptions, faulty reasoning, and a number of false claims. It is a lousy argument in support of a despicable policy, and the authors should be embarrassed to have written it.– by Daniel Larison
(** B H)
Save the Children: Conflict in Yemen: Devastating toll on pregnant women and new mums becomes clear as malnutrition admissions soar
The number of pregnant and breastfeeding women treated for acute malnutrition almost doubled between 2016 and 2018, new data from Yemen has shown.
Despite the rapid scale-up, it is estimated that in 2018 more than 150,000 went untreated due to brutal fighting, lack of access to critical areas and underfunding.
Malnutrition puts the lives of both mothers and babies at risk. These figures reveal a hidden and heartbreaking cost of more than four years of war, Save the Children is warning. Aid agencies on the ground have scaled up massively in the face of huge need of the pregnant women and new mothers, but to push back this tide of malnutrition the bombs and bullets must stop now, Save the Children added.
In 2016 nearly 220,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were admitted to health facilities in Yemen with acute malnutrition. As the response expanded, the figure surged to nearly 410,000 during 2018 - an increase of 87%.
Malnourished pregnant women run an increased risk of miscarriages and the anguish they cause, along with anemia and even dying during childbirth.
Their babies may be born prematurely and, if they survive, suffer from a low birth weight and stunted growth. Stunting can have a lasting effect on the child’s development, both physically and mentally. Babies born to malnourished mothers can be more susceptible to infections.
Dr Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children’s Field Manager in Hodeidah, said: “This is a creeping but catastrophic consequence of the brutal conflict. We regularly see hungry pregnant women surviving on just one meal of bread and tea a day. Many come to our clinics unable to walk, too exhausted from not getting enough to eat.
“Maternal malnutrition is a deadly threat to both mother and baby. And it can cause lifelong problems for babies who survive, hitting their development and education long after the fighting is over.”
Yusra*, 21, lives in Hajjah governorate together with her husband, who hasn’t been able to find regular work since the conflict escalated. They survive on just over $1.50 (US) a day. She said: “I miscarried three times. I have visited more than one hospital and the only answer I get is that my body is too weak to carry a child.”
“After I lost my last baby 11 months ago, I visited a health center near to my house. The doctor gave me some medicines and vitamins. Now I feel that I am getting better. I hope Yemen returns to how it was before or even better than before and our country becomes safe. And I wish I could have a child.”
Malnutrition is one factor that can lead a mother to miscarriage, along with others such as infections, extreme fear, environmental circumstances and a lack of vitamins.
Dr Hayat, who treated Yusra and other malnourished pregnant women: “The pregnancy progresses normally but due to malnutrition when she reaches a certain month, she miscarries. Suddenly they call me that she has pain and I go to her. She would have heavy bleeding and we take her in an ambulance to the city. There would be nothing that I could do for her.
“We get many cases of miscarriages in the centre that are due to malnutrition, we also have pre-term births.”
https://www.savethechildren.net/article/conflict-yemen-devastating-toll-pregnant-women-and-new-mums-becomes-clear-malnutrition = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/conflict-yemen-devastating-toll-pregnant-women-and-new-mums-becomes-clear-malnutrition
(** B H)
Yemen's war: 1,000 newborn babies have died in just two years
At just two MSF hospitals in cities on the front line, 1,018 newborns died between 2016 and 2018 and mothers are also dying .
Thousands of newborn babies are feared to be dying because of the effects of the war in Yemen.
At just two hospitals run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), in the front line city of Taiz and the battle weary city of Abs, more than 1,000 newborn children died in two years, despite their mothers reaching the medical facilities.
Many more are thought to be dying as their mothers try to reach other hospitals, or during home births where mothers are unable to get the help they need.
MSF say the effects of war that are leading to baby deaths include:
Roadblocks or checkpoints slowing down mothers in labour
Front lines of battle blocking their route to hospital
Fuel prices forced up by blockades making it harder for people to afford to get to hospital
Destroyed or damaged medical facilities mean people have to go further to reach help
Medical staff being in short supply due to wages not being paid.
Caroline Ducarme, MSF's head of mission in the capital Sanaa, told Sky News it was not just newborns who were dying, it was mothers in childbirth as well.
She said: "We do see a high number of mothers that as a result of complication or late arrivals are arriving with severe bleeding and it is too late for us to save their lives.
"There is the problem of the newborns but the mother is another thing too.
"We cannot put a figure on the number of pregnant women who are affected. We only see the ones who make it. We know there are a lot of women who don't make it
With so few surviving medical facilities in the worst affected areas, some have to travel many hours to get urgent medical help.
Ms Ducarme explained: "It's poverty but also, over the last few weeks, there have been fuel limitations and the prices of the fuel increased a lot and last week it reached a peak.
"A vessel has now been allowed in and so the situation is not so bad but in the last few weeks there was a shortage of fuel so people cannot afford to travel."
The 1,018 newborns who died in MSF's Taiz Houban and Abs hospitals because they were too sick, or the complications too advanced for them to survive, represent about 3% of the babies born.
The precise figures for the number of newborns which die across the whole country are difficult to gauge, as statistics are hard to collect – by Philipp Whiteside (with photos)
https://news.sky.com/story/yemens-war-1-000-newborn-babies-have-died-in-just-two-years-11708725
(** C)
Britain and the covert war in Yemen 1962-70
This is an extract from Mark Curtis’ superb book Unpeople: Britain’s Secret Human Rights Abuses. It tells the story of Britain’s secret war in Yemen in the 1960s to restore the monarchy and Saudi control, and to protect its interests, and military base, in the region. Some 200,000 people were killed in the war. Curtis’study provides essential background to today’s conflict in Yemen. It was, Harold Macmillan observed at the time, ‘repugnant to political equity and prudence alike that we should so often appear to be supporting out-of-date and despotic regimes and to be opposing the growth of modern and more democratic forms of government’. It still is.
In September 1962, the Imam of North Yemen was overthrown in a popular coup. Imam al-Badr had been in power for only a week having succeeded his father who had presided over a feudal kingdom where 80 per cent of the population lived as peasants and which was controlled through bribery, an arbitrary and coercive tax system and a policy of divide and rule. The coup was led by Colonel Abdullah al-Sallal and a pro-Nasser, Arab nationalist group within the Yemeni military, which proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic. The Royalist forces supporting the Imam took to the hills and began an insurgency, supported by Saudi Arabia and Jordan, against the new Republican regime, while Nasser’s Egypt deployed troops in North Yemen to shore up the new Republican government.
Britain soon resorted to covert action to undermine the new Republican regime, in alliance with the Saudis and Jordanis. The declassified files are interesting in showing that British officials were completely aware that they were – by any standards of moral behaviour, which were irrelevant to British planners in this case as in others – supporting the ‘wrong’ side.
Gandy actually recommended recognition of the new Yemeni regime, saying that it was interested in friendly relations with Britain and that this was ‘the best way to prevent an increase’ in Egyptian influence. But he was overruled both by his political masters in London and by officials in neighbouring Aden, Britain’s then colony. One of Gandy’s arguments was that if the Royalists were to restore themselves in power they would now have to make themselves popular, which would ‘in its turn embarrass us in Aden and the Protectorate’ – where Britain was supporting similarly feudal elements against strong popular, nationalist feeling. The Foreign Secretary, Alec Douglas-Home, also conceded that the Republicans’ ‘attraction for the average Yemeni will be greater’ than the Imams’, and this would ’cause us a great deal of trouble’.
Against the irrelevances of popular, more democratic elements were set the important virtues of British Interests, in fact imperial policy. The big issue was retaining the military base at Aden. This was the cornerstone of British military policy in the Gulf region, in which Britain was then the major power, directly controlling the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and with huge oil interests in Kuwait and elsewhere. The coastal city of Aden was surrounded by what Britain had forged into a ‘protectorate’ of the Federation of South Arabia, a set of feudal fiefdoms presided over by autocratic leaders similar to that just overthrown in Yemen, and kept sweet by British bribes.
It was feared that a progressive, republican, Arab nationalist Yemen would serve as an example to the feudal sheikhdoms throughout the Gulf and the wider Middle East as well as in Aden itself. Foreign Secretary Douglas-Home stated shortly after the Republican coup that Aden could not be secure from ‘a firmly established republican regime in Yemen’. A ministerial meeting similarly concluded that if Britain were forced out of Aden it would be ‘a devastating blow to our prestige and authority’ in the region. Even to recognise the new Yemeni regime might lead to ‘a collapse in the morale of the pro-British rulers of the protectorate’, putting ‘the whole British position in the area… in jeopardy’.
The threat, as outlined by Sir Kennedy Trevaskis, the High Commissioner in Aden, was that the Yemeni republicans ‘could expect to win massive support in both’ Aden and the federation where ‘pro-Republican feeling is strong’. The Republican regime was likely to encourage ‘some of our own friends among the rulers’ in the protectorate to ‘defect and come to terms with the Yemen government’. ‘Many would be attracted by’ the regime, Trevaskis noted.
These concerns were shared by the arch-mediaeval kingdom in the region, Saudi Arabia, which feared the spread of the overthrow of monarchies by Arab nationalist forces. It was recognised by British planners that after the Saudis had begun arming the Royalists in Yemen they ‘were not greatly concerned about the form of government to be established in the Yemen, provided that it was not under the control of’ Egypt – any other government would do – by Mark Curtis
http://markcurtis.info/2007/02/13/the-covert-war-in-yemen-1962-70/ = https://kenanmalik.com/2018/01/11/britain-and-the-covert-war-in-yemen-1962-70/
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(* B H)
We must stop turning a blind eye to the world's health crises
When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared lengthy humanitarian crises to be a top health threat, perhaps they had Yemen in mind. It wasn’t one individual bomb landing in Yemen that infected hundreds of thousands of people with cholera. Diseases don’t often provide a single snapshot of impact like that. Instead, it was a long series of bombings that wrecked the water treatment plants, the power grids that provided the plants with electricity, and the healthcare facilities that should have been available to control the cholera epidemic. Today, more than two years after the outbreak started, its end is nowhere in sight.
Complex humanitarian disasters often fade into the background. But they don’t end quickly, if at all. The damage they wreak on public health goes unseen, until a singular image drives media coverage and public scrutiny.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/we-must-stop-turning-a-blind-eye-to-health-crises/
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K pS)
Houthi militia shells civilians houses in Hodeida
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/03/houthi-militia-shells-civilians-houses-in-hodeida/
(A K pH)
Hodeidah Sons, Tribes Protest Denouncing Rape of Tahita Woman by Sudanese Mercenaries
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6713
(A K pH)
Hodeidah Fishermen Protest Denouncing Kidnapping Over 170 Fishermen
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6711
(A K pH)
Film: Factories and properties of citizens destroyed in Hodeidah 03-05-2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOoynLQzCRM
(A K pS)
Houthi snipers injure two women in Hodeidah
Two women were wounded on Friday due to live bullets fired by Houthi militia snipers in the western province of Hodeidah.
Local sources said to September Net that the woman Amira Omar Drain, 35, was shot injured by militia sniper in the district of al-Tuhita, south of Hodeidah.
40-year-old woman Salamah Saeed Suleiman was also shot by Houthi sniper in Hais district in Hodeidah.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4158
Films:
Salamah Saeed Suleiman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WngjjFFNcbw
Amira Omar Drain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiNtKFHGpVo
(A K pS)
Houthi militias burning villages and houses of citizens in the countryside of the city of Hodeidah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEbdaenxn0
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Friday, May 3rd, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6716
(A K pS)
Army spokesman : Houthis breaks UN-led deal in Hodeida 3719 times, kill 140 citizens
Spokesman of the national army forces Brig. Gen. Abdu Mujali announced that Houthi rebel militia has committed 3719 breaches against the Hodeida ceasefire since it started on December 18, 2018.
Speaking at press conference held Wednesday in Marib, the spokesman said those Houthi violations “killed 140 civilians and wounded 811 others, most of whom are women and children.”
“Houthi militia is forcing the population in Al-Duraihmi to flee their homes and occupied their houses and turned them into military barracks,” Brig. Mujali continued.
My remark: A-Duraihmis is beleaguered by the anti-Houthi militia since more than 200 days now.
(A K pS)
Houthi militia targets army’s positions in Hodeidah
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/02/houthi-militia-targets-armys-positions-in-hodeidah/
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Thursday, May 2nd, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6701
(* B H K)
Norwegian Refugee Council: On-the-record update on situation in Hajjah and Hodeidah, Yemen
Almost five months since the Hodeidah ceasefire and Stockholm agreement came into effect in December 2018, parties to the conflict continue to engage in active fighting across many parts of the country with heavy fighting taking place in Hajjah, parts of Hodeidah city and governorate, Taizz, Sa'ada and Al Dhale in Southern Yemen. In Al Dhale, one of the main routes between Aden and Sana'a which is essential for transporting humanitarian supplies has been cut off because off the fighting, and is also restricting people's movements and ability to flee to safety.
According to the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project (CIMP) Hodeidah governorate continues to see the highest civilian impact in the first three months of 2019, with 276 incidents or 41 per cent of the total civilian impact incidents in the country. Overall, Hodeidah governorate also saw the highest civilian casualty rate, with 283 civilian casualties reported, constituting 31 per cent of the country-wide civilian casualty toll.
https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/may/on-the-record-update-on-situation-in-hajjah-and-hodeidah-yemen/ = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/record-update-situation-hajjah-and-hodeidah-yemen-0
(* A K P)
Saudi aggressors kidnap 150 Yemeni fishermen off Hudaydah
The Saudi-led coalition, which has been waging a deadly war on Yemen, has abducted more than 150 fishermen in the waters off the embattled port city of Hudaydah.
The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV channel reported that the kidnapping of the fishermen on 15 boats by the "aggression forces" took place southwest of the Turfa Island on Wednesday.
According to the latest report by Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights, the Saudis have deprived over 50,000 Yemeni fishermen of their right to fish, killed dozens of them, targeted 93 fishing facilities and destroyed 4,586 boats.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/02/594882/Yemen-fishermen-Hudaydah
and also https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167214
(A K pH)
Film: Damage caused by shelling of the forces of aggression on the city of Hodeidah 01-05-2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IiG3rnY74E
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON MAY 2, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-may-2-2019-map-update/
(* B P)
43 Yemeni journalists were killed in #Yemen between 2015 and 2018 as the Media Freedom Observatory says it documented 2041 violations against the press in the country during this period (infographic, in Arabic)
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1124414363320967168
(* B H K P)
Yemen in Focus: The 'most destructive conflict' since Cold War
For years the devastating Yemen war has been described by the United Nations [UN] as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, but a new report now confirms it is also the most destructive conflict since the Cold War.
The UNDP report sheds light on the humanitarian and economic impact of the conflict, which has set the region's already poorest nation back at least 21 years.
"If the war ends in 2022, development gains will have been set back by 26 years – almost a generation. If it continues through 2030, that setback will increase to four decades," the report states.
Shocking statistics showed that Yemen ranked 153 on the Human Development Index, 138 in extreme poverty, 147 in life expectancy, 172 in educational attainment and was already on the World Bank's low-middle income category, according to the report.
"Human development has not just been interrupted. It has been reversed," asserted UNDP Yemen Resident Representative, Auke Lootsma.
"Even if there were to be peace tomorrow, it could take decades for Yemen to return to pre-conflict levels of development. This is a big loss for the people of Yemen."
The report showed Yemen's loss of economic output will increase to $181 billion in 2022 from $89 billion in 2019, depending on when the conflict ends.
That figure is expected to rocket to a whopping $657 billion in 2030 should the war continue till then, the report warned. The study also estimates that 71 percent of Yemen's population will be living in extreme poverty while 84 percent will be malnourished by 2030.
"The long-term impacts of conflict are vast and place it among the most destructive conflicts since the end of the Cold War," states the report.
Further deterioration of the situation "will add significantly to prolonged human suffering, retard human development in Yemen, and could further deteriorate regional stability," the report added – by Sana Uqba
[Overview article, other topics]
My remark: The UN document had already been presented. Here you can find it: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/03/document-of-the-week-united-nations-yemen-war-impact-study/
(* B P)
10 takeaways for journalists from a conversation with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic at Oxford University
Last month the University of Oregon hosted an event with Dr. Elisabeth Kendall to discuss media portrayals of the conflict in Yemen.
Hosted by colleagues in both International Studies and Middle East & North Africa Studies, the School of Journalism was also fortunate to have the opportunity to explore this topic.
In a wide ranging conversation, we discussed media portrayals, access to sources, accuracy and bias.
The best professional sources for reporting what’s happening on the ground are not always journalists
There’s a huge value in having language skills
Stories break in unexpected places
Examples highlighted by Dr. Kendall included Al Qaeda WhatsApp/Telegram groups and Al Qaeda’s print newspaper.
Always take screenshots of newsworthy things you see online — they may not be there for lon
Many important conversations are increasingly taking place in closed networks
If important discussions are taking place in closed online spaces, how do you access them?
Know your source
Local new sources are not necessarily accurate
Websites — as well as social media — are being weaponized to push specific points of view“Always ask the five extra questions”
Never settle for answers which fulfill your existing narrative.
(A K P)
Film: Message from Ambassador Habdulelah Hajar, Yemen
https://sebastiennadot.fr/message-dun-ami-de-la-paix-au-yemen-donc-mon-ami/
(* B K P)
A crucial vote on Yemen, aka ‘Saudi Arabia’s Gaza’
For years now, I have been referring to Yemen as “Saudi Arabia’s Gaza”—that is, a nearly totally besieged place inhabited by large numbers of deeply impoverished people who are the target of punishing, high-tech assaults by the military of a much wealthier neighbor. (Or, in Yemen’s case, two neighbors: both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, UAE.)
There are differences of course.
In Yemen, as in Gaza, the wealthy, aggressive neighbors have received a lot of political support as well as copious military supplies from our government here in the United States. But in the case of Yemen, U.S. government support for the neighbors goes even further: Washington also provides direct military help to the aggressing military campaigns.
Several aspects of the military support the U.S. gives to the Saudi-led coalition—and of the coalition’s war campaign itself—are notable
If the operation was “decisive” in any way, it was only because it very speedily ended the lives of thousands of Yemenis and wrecked numerous installations
It might go on very much longer than December 31. And of course, if Washington continues the military and political support it has long given to the nasty, aggressive campaign that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have waged against Yemen, then continued war and suffering are all that we can expect for Yemen’s people.
Will 67 Senators step up to the plate this week to prevent this happening? Let’s try to make that happen – by Helena Cobban
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/05/crucial-yemen-arabias/
(* B P)
What are we there for?
AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain by David Wearing. Polity, 275 pp, £15.99, September 2018, ISBN 978 1 5095 3203 2
It is a cliché that the United States and Britain are obsessed with Middle East oil, but the reason for the obsession is often misdiagnosed. Anglo-American interest in the enormous hydrocarbon reserves of the Persian Gulf does not derive from a need to fuel Western consumption. Britain used to import considerable quantities of Saudi oil, but currently gets most of what it needs from the North Sea and hasn’t imported much from the Gulf since the 1980s; Saudi oil currently represents around 3 per cent of UK imports. The US has never imported more than a token amount from the Gulf and for much of the postwar period has been a net oil exporter.
Anglo-American involvement in the Middle East has always been principally about the strategic advantage gained from controlling Persian Gulf hydrocarbons, not Western oil needs. In 1945, Gordon Merriam, the head of the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs division, made this clear: the Saudi oilfields, he said, were first and foremost ‘a stupendous source of strategic power’. The assistant secretary of state, Adolf Berle, sketched out what remains US strategy: the US and Britain would provide Saudi Arabia and other key Gulf monarchies with ‘sufficient military supplies to preserve internal security’ and ensure that they were permanently guarded by Western navies – by Tom Stevenson
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/tom-stevenson/what-are-we-there-for
(* B H K)
Audio: Episode 32: Adel Hashem - On the Ground in Yemen
We hear very little about the war that is taking place in Yemen, which is now in its fifth year. And we hear even less about this war in the words of Yemenis themselves, and far less still from those who are still in Yemen. This episode represents a small effort to address this disparity.
Adel Hashem is the director of Human Needs Development in Sana’a, an organization that is working on the ground to deliver food, medical, and education support to the Yemeni people.
https://www.latitudeadjustmentpod.com/podcast/2019/5/1/episode-32-adel-hashem-on-the-ground-in-yemen
(* B H K)
What life looks like on the ground in 15 fragile states
Yemen: The “world’s worst” humanitarian crisis
FSI ranking: 1 (score: 113.5/120)
Yemen – labelled “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” by the UN and now in its fifth year of conflict – is ranked as the world’s most fragile state. The 2019 FSI scores the Middle East’s poorest country with a full 10 points for security, factionalised elites, and external intervention. It is the fourth “most-worsened” state in the last decade of the index (behind Libya, Syria, and Mali) and has been on a rapid downward trajectory from a comparatively stable 24th in 2007.
Describing the economy and public services as at “breaking point”, Begum said the conflict had reversed most of the development gains made in recent years and greatly increased Yemen’s fragility. “This is what’s really worrying,” she said. “Let’s say the war ends tomorrow – it’s going to be a massive task because you have to rebuild all the infrastructure. Everything has been hit; nothing has been spared – the markets, the schools, the water infrastructure, the roads, the bridges – all these things have to be built up again.”
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
(B H)
Jemen: Kampf gegen Hunger und Durst
Jemenitische Christen leisten humanitäre Hilfe in ihrer Heimat – in den Bereichen Wasserversorgung, Choleraprävention, Ausbildung, Aufklärung über Landminen oder Hilfe für körperlich Benachteiligte.
Das berichteten der Nahost-Experte und HMK-Projektleiter Matthias Schwab sowie zwei jemenitische Christen bei Treffen des Stephanuskreises in der CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion am 11. März 2019 in Berlin. Ihnen zufolge ermöglichen es die Sozialen Medien den Christen, sich landesweit zu organisieren
(B H)
US Agency for International Development: Yemen - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7, Fiscal Year (FY) 2019
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-complex-emergency-fact-sheet-7-fiscal-year-fy-2019
Yemen ‑ Active USG Programs for Yemen Response (Last Updated 05/03/19)
https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-active-usg-programs-yemen-response-last-updated-050319
(* B H)
Photos: UNICEF Is Bringing Malnourished Children Back to Life in Yemen
Children in Yemen are growing up in impossible circumstances. After four years of civil war, homes are in ruins, schools have been destroyed and medical care is hard to come by. Spiralling inflation has pushed food prices sky-high: More than half the population wakes up hungry every day.
Sixteen-month-old Saba weighed less than 13 pounds when her mother rushed her to the UNICEF-supported Al-Zaidiah Therapeutic Feeding Center, run by the Taybah Foundation for Development, a local health organization, in the port city of Hudaydah. She had a high fever with severe diarrhea and was developing pneumonia.
https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/unicef-bringing-malnourished-children-back-life-yemen/35905
(A H)
Another Extremely Rare Conjoined Twins Died In Sana’a Far From Western Media Attention
https://english.alahednews.com.lb/47776/269
(* B H)
Health ministry in #Yemen's internationally recognised government has said the maternal mortality ratio increased to 500 per 100.000 live births in 2018, up from 148 in 2014.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1123707679287988225
My remark: The figures here tell 385 for 2015 and 440 for 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_mortality_ratio
(B H)
This is @DRC_dk and @WFP expired aid in #Hajjah. #Yemen. Photos by @AlragehiEissa
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1124083320533454849
and
(B H)
1600 packs of 50kg, expired food supplied by the #WFP as “humanitarian aids” to #Yemen, seized by AlRahida, #Taiz gov (mid south) customs. The lot is thus categorized as “not suitable for human use”. (photos)
https://twitter.com/mamashami/status/1124119184034734080
and
(B H)
While famine monster threatens #Yemen-i families, we see appalling cases of humanitarian aid in the wrong hands! Pic shows removal of lichens and insects from expired flour distributed to the poor in #Houthi controlled #Hajjah (photo)
https://twitter.com/munaluqman/status/1123825276981477381
(B H)
Tons of expired food being provided by #WFP to #Yemeni people in many places in the country was found days ago in one of warehouse belongs to one of @OCHAYemen's partners in #Hajjah #Whereisthemoney (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1123693355181989889
more photos: https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1124436467651158016
and film by Almasirah TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpaT6XUeL3A
Activists are saying WFP has distributed expired food aid to needy people in Yemen's Hajjah province. I think this isnt the first time WFP has done this here. The aid was provided by Denmark. Days ago, humanitarians said expired food provided by the UK was distributed to Yemenis.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1123658477682024448
and
(A H P)
Taiz Customs Seize 1600 Rotten Wheat Bags for the WFP
Al-Rahidah customs impounded 1,600 wheat bags on board two WFP's trucks in Taiz, on Thursday. First tests proved that the wheat is not suitable for human use because of spreading insects and larvae.
The branch's director of the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Taiz, Ahmed Al-Musawa, said that the competent authorities will destroy the quantities of the seized wheat. He pointed out that the Authority addressed the program that quantities of flour in a number of districts of Taiz governorate has been stopped distribution to citizens, noting that WFP understood this and sent other quantities instead of the damaged flour.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6700
My remark: By the Sanaa (Houthi) government.
And
(A H P)
Houthis sell contaminated humanitarian assistances in markets
A Yemeni journalist Eisa al-Rajehi said that large quantities of contaminated flour are sold in the areas of Abbas and Aslam in Hajjah, pointing out that these areas are facing tragic humanitarian situations.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29578
My comment: By an anti-Houthi news site. „Sold by Houthis“? The Houthi government tries to eliminate contaminated flour.
(* B H)
"I could not bear my life. We had nothing," she said. "So I started to look for a solution for my family."
During her search, Bushra came across books on the private security business, and on the origins of successful women entrepreneurs. She did more research online, and asked people with experience for advice.
Bushra then learned about Springboard, a UNFPA-supported programme funded by the governments of the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland that aims to empower women by helping them create livelihoods for themselves in 30 countries, including Yemen.
She visited the office and pitched her idea for a women-run private security firm. Bushra was delighted when the organization agreed to provide her a grant to start her business and training to help run it. Springboard trainers help women identify their personal and professional goals, and support them to develop the skills they need to achieve those goals.
She spent the money on buying uniforms and other supplies like electronic metal detectors to equip five women with the best available gear for the job, and prepare them to become guards.
But she still had doubts.
“At first I hesitated. There was an internal frustrated voice telling that I me I would fail, that I should give up, that I would lose this money. That I would not succeed," Bushra said. "However, I pressed on. I challenged myself. I told myself that I had to become something. I had to prove to the whole world that that yes, I can.”
Women protecting women
With the grant she received, Bushra managed to launch the first ever women-run security business in Yemen. Her team now helps protect women at weddings, big exhibitions and bazaars in a country where this job was until then only performed by men.
Launching the firm was no easy feat for Bushra, who had to fight to convince her own family about her plan.
https://www.unfpa.org/news/meet-woman-protecting-women-yemen = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/meet-woman-protecting-women-yemen
Film: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=305869100314516
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(* B H)
Film: Help us help more: Yemen
Faiza Ali had six children and a happy marriage, before the conflict in Yemen escalated.
This Ramadan, she prays for the health and safety of her four surviving children. IOM provides life-saving assistance to millions of migrants, refugees and IDPs around the world.
This Ramadan season, you can help us help more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFheAFn5Cl4
(B H K pH)
Film: The suffering of displaced people in Rima province after they were displaced from their homes by mercenaries targeting their homes 03-05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRvfjrTncOw
(* B H)
African Migrants in Yemen between Abuse and Recruitment
Yemen has been involved in a devastating civil war for more than four years, causing one of the most serious humanitarian crises in history, yet Yemen continues to attract African migrants who are unaware of the dangers of traveling to a country such as Yemen.
About 20,000 migrants risk traveling to Yemen by sea every month, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Most of the migrants are Ethiopians and Somalis. They leave their countries for economic and security reasons.
The hope of getting a decent life in the Gulf states drives those desperate to risk their lives on a dangerous journey across the sea first, then across the conflict areas of the Yemeni mainland.
The risks to African migrants include drowning, kidnapping, extortion, and forced detention.
In January 2018, at least 30 African refugees drown off the coast of Yemen after being fired on by smugglers. Stories of this kind have been repeated regularly for years.
“Reports of abuse inside detention facilities are numerous with some new arrivals being subject to physical and sexual violence. Survivors have described to UNHCR being shot at, regular beatings, rapes of adults and children, humiliations including forced nudity, being forced to witness summary executions and denial of food,” UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in April 2018.
According to Human Rights Watch, Yemeni government officials have tortured, raped, and executed migrants and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa in a detention center in the southern port city of Aden in 2018. Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch, asked the Yemeni government to put a stop to these practices and hold those responsible to account.
https://intpolicydigest.org/2019/05/03/african-migrants-in-yemen-between-abuse-and-recruitment/amp/
(A H)
Hundreds of displaced families in Jaffina camp, on the border of #Marib city, appealed to the local authority to provide them with electricity after their camps became too hot as a result of the summer heat. (photo)
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1123903724391469056
(* A H)
Tausende Migranten im Jemen interniert
Im Jemen harren Tausende Flüchtlinge unter katastrophalen Bedingungen in Internierungslagern aus. Mehrere Menschen sind bereits an eigentlich heilbaren Krankheiten gestorben.
Sie träumten von einem besseren Leben, doch sie kamen nur bis Aden. Ein Fußballstadion in der südjemenitischen Hafenstadt ist für tausende Migranten aus Ost-Afrika die vorläufige Endstation.
Für manche bedeutet es auch den Tod: Seit den Massenverhaftungen vor gut zwei Wochen durch jemenitische Sicherheitskräfte sind in dem Stadion und zwei weiteren Lagern im Süden des Landes nach UN-Angaben mindestens 8 Menschen gestorben. Die Todesursache war Durchfall, der unter normalen Umständen gut behandelbar gewesen wäre.
Die Internationale Organisation für Migration schlägt Alarm angesichts der katastrophalen Bedingungen.
Die UNO hat provisorische Behandlungszentren eingerichtet. In den Lagern leben ihren Schätzungen zufolge rund 200 teilweise Schwerkranke. Zwei Menschen seien von Sicherheitskräften beschossen und verletzt worden.
Noch ist nicht klar, was mit den Internierten weiter geschehen soll. Die jemenitische Regierung beabsichtigt, sie in ihre Heimatländer abzuschieben. Dass die Flüchtlinge ausgerechnet den Jemen als Ziel ihrer Flucht gewählt haben, liegt oft an ihrem schlechten Informationsstand vor der Abreise.
Migranten gefangen in verfahrener Situation
Über weite Teile des Südens, wo die meisten Flüchtlingsboote ankommen, herrschen diverse Milizen, die oft von den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten unterstützt werden. Und die haben kein Interesse, dass die Flüchtlinge in die reichen Golfstaaten weiterziehen. Denn im Jemen hält die meisten nichts.
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/jemen-fluechtlinge-101.html
https://www.dnn.de/Nachrichten/Politik/Uno-schlaegt-Alarm-wegen-Fluechtlingslagern-im-Jemen
https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/102801/Migranten-leben-im-Jemen-in-menschenunwuerdigen-Camps
(* A H)
Film: Dozens of African migrants die of watery diarrhea in Lahij
Dozens of African migrants have died of severe diarrhea at Ibn Khaldoun Hospital in the south of Lahij, as a result of the alarming drug shortages and lack of beds at the hospital, which receives dozens of African refugees on a daily basis, which is more than what the hospital is equipped to accommodate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eza1aaimM9U
(* A H P)
International Organization for Migration: Migrants Die While Detained in Inhumane Conditions in Yemen
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is alarmed by reports of migrants dying of preventable illnesses, being shot and suffering other inhumane treatment in makeshift detention centres in Yemen, now in its fifth year of conflict.
IOM is monitoring the conditions of some 5,000 migrants from the Horn of Africa held across three sites –-two sports stadiums and a military camp--in Yemen’s Aden, Lahj and Abyan governorates.
IOM learned yesterday (01/05) that at least eight migrants died from complications related to acute watery diarrhea (AWD) at the Ibn Khaldoon Hospital in Lahj governorate. Those migrants—predominantly Ethiopian—had been held at a military camp in Lahj where more than 1,400 people are detained. Authorities at the camp report they have detected at least 200 AWD cases. IOM is establishing a diarrhea treatment centre at Ibn Khaldoon Hospital, which is currently struggling to treat 53 AWD cases, including eight severe cases.
This morning, 14 migrants with signs of AWD were brought to Aden’s 22nd of May stadium where IOM is providing critical life saving assistance. IOM’s health team, who has carried out over 1,000 health consultations at the site since 26 April, acted fast to ensure the patients were evacuated to a nearby hospital.
In Geneva, Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s Director of Operations and Emergencies said, “I am deeply saddened by the deaths of these eight migrants, who were among the thousands of migrants being held in deplorable conditions across Yemen. We have decried this policy to the authorities, urging them to take a humane approach to irregular migration.”
On Tuesday (30/04), guards fired on migrants detained at the Aden sports stadium, two of whom suffered gunshot wounds, leaving a teenage boy likely paralyzed for life.
https://www.iom.int/news/migrants-die-while-detained-inhumane-conditions-yemen = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/migrants-die-while-detained-inhumane-conditions-yemen
and shorter report https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6985077/8-migrants-dead-UN-fears-inhumane-treatment-Yemen-camps.html
(* A H P)
International Organization for Migration: IOM Yemen: Migrant situation in Aden | Flash report (29 April 2019)
Since Sunday, 21 April, authorities in Aden have been carrying out a campaign to arrest and detain migrants, predominantly Ethiopian nationals. Locals released the approximately 2,000 migrants originally held at Al Mansoura Football Stadium on Thursday, 25 April. The migrants were re-arrested that night and brought to the 22nd of May Stadium and Sports Complex in Aden city’s Sheik Usman area.
Similar to the first stadium where the migrants were held, the conditions of the 22nd of May sports complex are deplorable. The buildings have been badly damaged by Yemen’s ongoing conflict, with glass, brick and metal strewn throughout the complex. More than 2,400 men and boys and over 75 women are being held at the sports complex, with the numbers increasing, as this campaign by the authorities continues in Aden and Lahj governorates.
An additional 700-1000 people are detained at an operational military camp in Lahj governorate and it has been reported that more migrants are being held in other locations; IOM is working to confirm this information. The authorities plan to move all the migrants from the 22nd of May sports complex to the military camp. The proposed sites are a few empty, damaged buildings that are not designed to accomodate people. Clean water and safe sanitation are not currently available for the thousands that may be detained and access will be difficult for humanitarians due to security concerns, as it is an operational military base. The authorities have noted that this is a temporary arrangement until they construct a built-for-purpose migrant detention centre in Ras Al-Ara, Lahj governorate. They have also stated that the final step in this campaign is to return the migrants to their countries of origin.
https://www.iom.int/sitreps/yemen-migrant-situation-aden-29-april-2019 = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-migrant-situation-aden-flash-report-29-april-2019
(* B H)
Norwegian Refugee Council: On-the-record update on situation in Hajjah and Hodeidah, Yemen
While a fragile ceasefire in the port city Hodeidah is still in place, the fighting has intensified in other parts of the country, particularly in Hajjah, north of Hodeidah.
The recent fighting has forced nearly 100,000 people in the Bani Hassan area of Abs district to flee their homes in just two weeks. NRC's team on the ground in Hajjah report ongoing shelling and air strikes. Many villages in Bani Hassan now lie empty.
This new wave of large scale forced displacement follows a fierce bout of fighting that displaced up to 50,000 people from the Kushar District in February and March.
People are telling NRC that they are scared that the conflict will reach them once again. The active frontlines are now just a few kilometres from Abs District's main water source, which serves 200,000 people. Abs also hosts the main hospital in the area.
https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/may/on-the-record-update-on-situation-in-hajjah-and-hodeidah-yemen/= https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/record-update-situation-hajjah-and-hodeidah-yemen-0
(B H)
International Organization for Migration: IOM Yemen 2019 Operational Overview
With offices in Sana’a, Aden, Al Hudaydah and now Marib and satellite presences in all 22 governorates, IOM supports the most vulnerable groups throughout Yemen, including displaced people, conflict-affected communities and migrants. The Organization directly implements a multisector humanitarian response, namely health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), shelter, nonfood item (NFI) and cash-based assistance, camp coordination and camp management (CCCM), protection and displacement tracking (DTM). Growing to be one of its largest missions worldwide, IOM is currently scaling up its response in Yemen by increasing the capacity of its team and expanding its operations to reach more people in underserved and remote areas.
https://www.iom.int/sitreps/yemen-operational-overview-2019 = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-2019-operational-overview
(B H)
International Organization for Migration: IOM Yemen: Marib Mission - March 2019
The Marib governorate is only 70 km East of Sana’a, yet due to proximity of the front lines, it takes over 8 hours to reach by road from Sana’a, and 2 days through extensive air travel. Once lightly populated and with a reputation for insecurity, it is now in a period of transformation, with a rapid demographic and economic growth.
While Marib benefits from its relative stability and income from natural resources, the influx of population from other governorates and the movements within Marib since 2015 have also brought significant challenges for local authorities, who struggle to provide sufficient services to the growing population. According to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, of the approximate 750,000 IDPs residing in the governorate, 16% are living in camp-like settlements with little to no humanitarian assistance.
In March 2019, IOM conducted an assessment mission from Sana’a and Aden to Marib city to better understand the needs and plan for an immediate response.
https://www.iom.int/sitreps/yemen-marib-mission-march-2019 = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/iom-yemen-marib-mission-march-2019
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(A P)
A detainee from Yemen's Hajjah has died from torture inside a Houthi Sanaa prison, head of Hajjah rights orgs alliance, lawyer Hadi Wardan, said today. Zaid Al-Namshah was the 11th detainee from Hajjah to die from torture since battles btwn Kushar tribes & Houthis ended, he said.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1124369256584552448
(A P)
The Yemeni Media Union
Statement On The World Press Freedom Day Occasion, May 3, 2019
The Saudi-led coalition aggression war continues against Yemen, the blockade, crimes and abuses committed by the coalition against Yemeni media and media outlets are escalating. As long as it has been reassured that its crimes, no matter how terrible they may be, will not move the international accounting and accountability bodies as usual for similar war crimes.
On occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which comes four years after the so-called decisive Storm was declared, the Saudi-led coalition has committed dozens of crimes against journalists and media professionals in Yemen, in which 239 journalists and media workers have been killed, and 21 others have been injured.
The Yemeni media union, while reiterating its condemnation of these violations, calls on the professional fellows to celebrate the day to work together towards the accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes.
In order to prevent such violations from going unpunished, the Union demands the following:
The Yemeni media union, while reiterating its condemnation of these violations, calls on the professional fellows to celebrate the day to work together towards the accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes.
In order to prevent such violations from going unpunished, the Union demands the following:
https://www.facebook.com/lu.la.9887/posts/10156494080608277 = https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2255004101219274
My comment: What about press freedom in Northern Yemen?
and
(A P)
Yemeni Media Union Reviles US-Saudi Aggression Crimes against Media Personnel in Yemen
Yemeni Media Union said that about 243 media personnel were killed and 22 media personnel others were wounded by US-Saudi aggression air strikes. The aggression also targeted 30 radio and television stations, and about 21 media establishments were totally or partially destroyed.
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, Yemeni Media Union said in a statement, the aggression violations against media personnel have reached to covering up what is happening in Yemen.
It pointed out that the aggression prevented 143 international media personnel from entering Yemen over the past period by the closure of Sanaa International Airport, preventing the travel of dozens of media personnel from and to Yemen.
In addition, thousands of Yemeni media personnel are living in a difficult economic situation due to closing dozens of newspapers and media outlets and displacing most of them by the US-Saudi Aggression.
The Yemeni Media Union called for the inclusion of all the sites of governmental and private media institutions within the United Nations protected areas, the opening of Sanaa airport and the disbursement of salaries.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6714
(* A P)
Stop death penalty sentences against convicts in Yemen
Joint statement: Stop death penalty sentences against convicts in Yemen
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, SAM for Rights and Liberties and AFD International warned in a joint statement that the courts of the Houthi group in Yemen will continue to carry out death sentences against political opponents without regard to fair trial conditions.
The three organizations said in a statement that al-Houthi group had turned the judicial system in the areas under its control into a political tool to settle accounts with its political opponents. The group detained and tried hundreds of civilians on broad charges and violated all legal procedures to ensure the rights of the accused.
According to their sources, the three organizations said that the Houthi-controlled courts consistently and blatantly violated all justice procedures and denied detainees and their lawyers the right of defense guaranteed under domestic and international law.
The joint statement pointed out that most of the detainees in al-Houthi prisons were illegally taken and subjected to enforced disappearance for several months before being shown in illegal detention centers that are not under the supervision of the Public Prosecution. They are subjected to various kinds of psychological and physical torture during detention, and are forced to sign confessions they know nothing about their content.
https://www.samrl.org/stop-the-death-penalty-for-innocent-people-in-yemen/ = http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1905/S00018/stop-death-penalty-sentences-against-convicts-in-yemen.htm
(A P)
Three of 5 women kidnapped by Houthis released after ransom paid
Three of the five women who were kidnapped by Houthi militia were released after a ransom of YR 200000 was paid by the relatives, AMA said.
Abductees’ Mothers Association ( AMA) said five women were abducted from a bus by Houthi militia in Hodeida and taken in an inhuman way to a house turned by the militia into a prison.
In a statement, AMA said the five abducted women are identified as “Fatems Ahmed Sharebeh, 72, Jababra Hasan Awad, 30, Halima Qasim Hassan Hiba” 4, Rahma Qasim Hassan Hiba” 5, and Faten Talal Hassan Hiba” 5 years.”
“The Houthi militia still keeping two the woman Fatim, 72, and Halima, 32, inside the prison, which has not ventilation and is very hot,” AMA continued.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/01/three-of-5-women-kidnapped-by-houthis-released-after-ransom-paid/
(A P)
Release of 80 misled by coalition vowing to be soldiers to Homeland
The Ministry of the Interior Thursday released 80 prisoners who were misled by the Saudi-American aggression coalition to participate in the sedition Hajour in the province of Hajjah province.
He stressed that work is underway to complete the procedures for releasing the rest of the misled.
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news535081.htm
(* A P)
Standing Committee of GPC Assembly holds session, adheres to Abu Ras as GPC’s chairman
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news535079.htm
My remark: The section of the GPC party still loyal to the Sanaa government.
And the main facts in short:
(* A P)
The once ruling party of Yemen elected yesterday in Sanaa a new leadership. Disowning the old leadership of defectors including the Saudi puppet, so-called legitimate president of Yemen,Hadi.
The party emphasized unreservedly and unequivocally that it would continue fight US-backed Saudi-Emirati aggression until victory.
The party along with Ansarullah movement (Houthi) and many other small parties, had formed a coalition to build and defend Yemen. It's been ruling Yemen for more than 3 years now.
However, yesterday in Sanaa, the party elected the son of Saleh, Ahmed Ali as one of the three Vice Presidents of the party. Ahmed Ali is still based in UAE since he was appointed there as an ambassador before the war.
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1124224231099785216
And
(A P)
General Popular Congress party ,Saleh Faction assigned "Abu Ras " as party president and Saleh's son to the Vice President
The permanent Committee of the Popular Congress party al-Houthi wing of Sanaa, held a meeting which ended with the renewal of the election of Sadiq Amin Abu Ras as president of the party and ascended Brigadier Ahmed the son of former president Saleh to the position of Vice-president of the party.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167229
and
(A P)
The wing of the General People’s Congress (GPC) party aligned with President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government condemned the election of Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh as deputy chairman of the GPC on May 2.[1]
(* A K P)
Film: Is Iran Supplying Weapons to the Houthis in Yemen? We asked the Houthis' Foreign Minister
Yemen’s Houthi-backed Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf Abdalla returns to The Newsmakers to defend his self-proclaimed government against accusations of war crimes and human rights violations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B80AfhXih7M
and
(A P)
Coalition imposes collective punishment against Yemeni people: Foreign Minister
Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Hisham Sharaf, on Thursday, said that "Saudi-led coalition imposed a collective punishment against the Yemeni people in stopping ships, loaded with Oil derivatives and humanitarian aid, from entering to Hodeidah port.
Sharaf called on the United Nations to put pressure on the aggression and demand the paying of the state employees salaries and reopening of Sana'a International Airport. These actions if executed will alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6702&cat_id=1
(* A P)
Yemen National Salvation Government Reveals New Development Plan
The Yemen National Salvation government recently released a state vision outlining a just and equal democracy, recognizing female empowerment, sustainability, and anti-corruption as top priorities.
The government, led by the Ansarullah movement commonly referred to as the “Houthis,” plans to set an agenda that outlines a forward strategy for Yemen and quickly rebound from the effects of a war that has costed Yemen $89 billion and sent the country back an estimated 21 years worth of development.
Among the movements ambitious goals include reducing unemployment under 10%, reducing inflation to under 5%, and competing in the global economy, aiming to achieve a real economic growth rate of 5% and rank among the top 100 economies globally.
The strategic plan outlines 175 goals regarding reconstruction and rebuilding the nation. In the next 10 years, the plan will aim to also reduce the poverty rate to under 20%, reduce the illiteracy rate and focus on ranking its Arab universities among the highest in the Arab world.
The vision’s main pillars include unified, independent and democratic state, a cohesive and conscious society that enjoys a “free and dignified life” and knowledge-based “balanced and sustainable human development.”
The 68-page report, titled Assessing the Impact of War on Development in Yemen, reveals that more Yemenis will die of the side effects of war,
The original vision came under martyred ex-president Saleh al-Sammad with the slogan “One hand builds [Yemen] and the other protects.” In January, Yemen’s Minister of Public Works pushed to further and implement the plan. Since then, Mahdi al-Mashad replaced Sammad as the President of the Supreme Political Council. The plan already has taken steps towards implementation. An additional meeting was held Monday to approve the formation of a team to modernize the health sector, led and approved by the Ministry of Health in line with the National Salvation Government’s vision road map – by Julia Kassem
https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/05/yemen-national-salvation-government-reveals-new-development-plan/
(* A P)
Dozens of Yemeni girls and women face secret Houthi trials on false prostitution charges
Concerns are growing over the fate of 65 women in rebel courts without legal representation
Concerns are growing over the fate of 65 women and underage girls on trial in Houthi courts this week on false charges without legal representation.
The women have been in rebel detention for more than a year and are falsely accused of prostitution and aiding the Arab Coalition that is trying to restore the government of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.
“Houthi rebels have forced the women against their will to confess to taking part in prostitution rings after they rounded up, forcibly disappeared and tortured them, while blackmailing their families,” a Yemeni human rights activist said.
A Yemeni human rights activists said the Houthis tortured the women and girls, and forced them to confess to being part of a prostitution ring, then blackmailed their families.
Female associates of the rebels tricked the women into meeting them for food and medical supplies, then abducted them and took them to secret prisons in the capital Sanaa, the activist said.
“They were tortured to confess in front of cameras that they took part in prostitution networks belonging to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime."
The Houthis are requesting large sums of money from the women's families for their release, a Yemeni government official told The National.
Most of the women have been subjected to the most heinous forms of psychological and physical abuse.
(A P)
Houthis continue obstructing delivery of relief
The Iran-backed Houthis have refused all efforts to allow the flow of humanitarian assistance and relief to the Yemeni areas run by them, informed sources told Alsahwa Net.
Officials of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF are holding intensified meetings with Houthi leaders in Sana’a to persuade them to release seized food trucks seized in the governorate of Ibb.
The sources said that the Houthis want to impose taxes and customs fees on assistance and reserve 30% of them for the Houthis.
The Houthis have been seizing 189 a
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29552
My comment: „Houthis have refused all efforts” is propaganda, as it’s the case of these trucks at Ibb province; this is not “all”.
(B P)
Yemen: Prolonged detention and torture of 10 journalists illustrates risks faced by media workers
The arbitrary detention of 10 journalists for nearly four years by the Huthi de facto authorities is a grim indicator of the dire state of media freedom in Yemen, said Amnesty International, demanding their immediate release ahead of World Press Freedom Day.
The 10 journalists have been held since the summer of 2015 and are being prosecuted on trumped-up spying charges for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression. Over the course of their detention the men have been forcibly disappeared, held in intermittent incommunicado detention, been deprived of access to medical care and suffered torture and other ill-treatment. In one recent incident, on 19 April a prison warden entered their cell at night, stripped off their clothing and brutally beat them, according to trusted sources. They have been held in solitary confinement since that day.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167212
(A P)
Another Abductee Dies of Injuries due to Previous Brutal Torture
Human rights sources have confirmed the death of Nashwan Muqbel Saif, who was abducted by the Houthi militia for almost eight months. Nashwan died last Monday ___ just two days after the death of abductee Hames Rajeh ___ sustained injuries in Houthi-run prisons.
Association of Abductees’ Mothers (AAM) said Nashwan, a marginalized person, had been abducted in January 2018 in Alhawban, an area under the rebels’ control in Taiz.
According to AAM, Nashwan Saif endured ruthless torment in Houthi-run prisons. Even though the victim was released eight months later, he continued to suffer severe pain as his health and psychological conditions deteriorated until he died on Monday 29 last April.
“Nashwan Saif, was electrocuted and beaten in the kidneys with iron tools which led to liver cirrhosis and kidney failure,” AAM reiterated.
https://republicanyemen.net/archives/17078
and also https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167205
(A P)
Organization: The Houthis buried a kidnapped who died under torture without informing his family
A human rights group revealed that Houthi militias in Sanaa buried the body of a young detainee who died under torture without the knowledge of his family.
"The researcher Adel Zaou’ari died under torture in the Houthi militia's prisons on 22 August 2016, and his body was found thrown near the police hospital in Sana'a, and the Houthi militia refused to hand over his body to his family, for the past period, they have demanded a large ransom " said Sam 's rights and freedoms organization in a statement released on Friday..
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167244
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
Siehe / Look at cp4
(A P)
Yemen’s press : 5 years of Houthis’ suppression & abuses
As the World Press Freedom Day falls, the Houthi war against journalists and journalism in Yemen continues unabated.
The Houthi militia have in their jails dozens of journalists rounded up since they overthrew the government in September 2014 and triggered the current war months later.
Yemen’s Journalists Syndicate documented more than 814 violations of press freedom since 2015 against reporters, photojournalists, newspapers, online news sites, social networking activists and premises of media outlets.
National Organization of Yemeni Media professionals ( Sada) has called on the international community to mount pressure on Houthi militia to release abducted journalists in its prisons.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/03/yemens-press-5-years-of-houthis-suppression-abuses/
My comment: And what about press freedom in Southern Yemen?
(* B P)
Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar
sometimes spelled "Muhsin", (born 20 June 1945) is the Vice President of Yemen. He is a general in the Yemeni Army and was the commander of the northwestern military district and the 1st Armoured Division. He played a leading role in the creation of the General People's Congress.[3][4] Mohsen has a good relationship with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
He was appointed as a Deputy Supreme Commander of Yemeni Armed Forces on February 22, 2016. "Yemen's Hadi appoints top general in bid to rally tribes". After that President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi appointed him Vice President of Yemen on April 3, 2016.[5] This assignment created a large controversy between objectors and supporters, but most of them considered it a strong message from President Hadi and the Saudi-led Coalition for the intention of using the military to regain control of the Capital. This was possible because of the flexible and strong relationship Mohsen had with figures from the tribes surrounding the Capital, Sana'a, and some military commanders who will be loyal to the side of legitimacy because of this assignment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Mohsen_al-Ahmar
My comment: Not even mentioning Al Qaeda (AQAP) with a single word, hidening Mohsen’s long close ties.
(* A T)
Bombe tötet im Jemen sechs Zivilisten
Bei der Explosion einer Bombe sind im Zentrum des Bürgerkriegslandes Jemen mindestens sechs Zivilisten ums Leben gekommen, darunter ein Kind. Sicherheitskreise machten heute das Terrornetzwerk al-Kaida für den Anschlag nahe dem Ort al-Katn in der Prvinz Hadramaut verantwortlich. Sieben Menschen seien darüber hinaus verletzt worden, als die Bombe an einer Hauptstraße detoniert sei.
https://orf.at/stories/3120885/ = https://www.tt.com/ticker/15605842/bombe-toetet-im-jemen-sechs-zivilisten
(* A T)
12 civilians killed and wounded in IED explosion at the entrance of the Qattan city in Wadi Hadramawt
Six civilians were killed and six others injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded Friday morning at the eastern entrance of the city of al- Qattan, in Wadi Hadramawt eastern Yemen.
A security source told Al-Masdar online that unidentified people planted an explosive device in the area of "Al-‘aineen " on the eastern entrance of Al-Qatan city in Wadi Hadramawt and exploded while the presence of citizens at the scene killing 6 and injuring six others were transferred to a hospital in the city.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167246
and by Reuters: https://in.reuters.com/article/yemen-security/six-civilians-killed-in-yemen-in-suspected-al-qaeda-bombing-idINKCN1S91SE?rpc=401&
photos: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2255643091155375
(A P)
Inter-Southern Dialogue Begins on Saturday in Aden
Under the auspices of the President of the Southern Transitional Council, Aidroos Qassem Al-Zubaidi and under the supervision of the President of the National Assembly, Major General Ahmed Saeed Ben Brik, the second phase of the inter-southern dialogue begins on Saturday in Aden.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4151
and
(A P)
National Assembly Launches The Second Stage of Southern / Southern dialogue Under The Slogan of “Southern Dialogue for the South”
My comment: „National assembly”: Southern separatists are establishing a parallel state.
(A P)
Al-Zubaidi attends a special ceremony in Yafi (Photos)
President of the Southern Transitional Council, Supreme Commander of the Southern Resistance, Aidroos Qassem Al-Zubaidi attended a special ceremony held on Thursday in Yafi to mark the second anniversary of Aden's Historic Announcement and the eighth anniversary of the liberation of Jabal al-Awr area.
Al-Zubaidi pronounced a speech on the occasion in which he said "As we pledged last May, we are firmly bound to our pledge, we told the whole world that we have only one project: independence and the restoration of our full and undiminished state, we have no choice but to win."
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4142
(A P)
South Arabia obtains UNPO membership
South Arabia has obtained full membership of the Unrepresented Nations and People Organization (UNPO). Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, unrecognised States and occupied territories that have joined together to defend their political, social and cultural rights, to preserve their environments and to promote their right to self-determination.
Member of the Southern Transitional Council and head of the STC Foreign Relations Department in Europe, Ahmed Omar bin Farid tweeted that the STC office in Berlin exerted great effort for nearly a year to obtain the UNPO membership, adding that the UNPO works to ensure that the voices of its members are heard by the Security Council and all the international institutions and organizations.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4144
My remark: It‘ s Southern Yemen labeled as „South Arabia“ here.
(A P)
The Southern Transitional Council Attacks Yemeni Government for its Exclusionary Policies Against Southern Figures
In its statement, the council said the Yemeni government headed by PM Mueen Abd Al-Malek, is replacing southern cadres with “party cadres from outside the south” with the aim of “manipulating the demographic structure of the south and facilitate employment in Aden for those who are from outside the south at the expense of qualified southern cadres”. The statement also indicated that these acts aim to “disturb balance and reproduce a situation that was before liberating the south and Aden”.
(A T)
Al-Hadarem Battalion Arrests one of the Most Wanted Terrorists in Hadhramaut Valley
My comment: Southern separatists propagate their militia.
(A P)
Shatara: The South Today is not the Same as Before. Al-Houthis Should Stick to Their Limits and not to Open the Gates of Hill Over Themselves
Lotfy Shatara, member of the presidency of the Southern Transitional Council warned Al-Houthis saying: “Al-Houthis should know their limits. If they think of penetrating into Al-Dalia they will commit suicide. And if they think of penetrating into Yafia they will open the gates of hill on themselves. The south after 2015 is not the same as before”.
and
(A P)
Al-Beed to Arab Republic of Yemen: Stick to Your Borders, Control Your Militias and Don’t Increase the Number of Your Tombs in the South
Hany Ali Salem Al-Beed, the prominent Southern politician, sent what he calls “a message of peace from a powerful position” to citizens of the Arab Republic of Yemen calling them to control their militias and stick to their borders of 1990.
Al-Beed warned northern powers from opening new battel fields with the south as this may lead to unfortunate consequences that they will never tolerate.
and
(A P)
Al-Gaadi: Al-Houthis Should Realize that The South Will Be Their Eternal Tomb if They Think of Return
My comment: A southern separatists‘ propaganda campaign: We are strong.
(A)
Photos: Positive news from #Aden, independent youth they decided to be the hope and light for them city, this is what they made as aresult of them love and the passion to see Aden is the best.
https://twitter.com/hussamA123/status/1123968391306465280
(A P)
44 Yemeni defected MPs out of 301,were told by the Saudi Mr Bone Saw(MBS)to make a Parliament in the exile! They did! Now they are lining up to shake hands,hug&kiss MBS to give them the rewards! MBS has made this puppet “roving” parliament2legitimize his aggression on Yemen (photos)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1123852570815094785
cp7 Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
(A P)
Iran wants 'good' relations with Saudi Arabia, UAE
Iran said Wednesday it hopes to have good relations with archrival Saudi Arabia and its allies, and called for an end to their bitter dispute with Gulf neighbor Qatar.
"We have extremely good relations with Qatar, Kuwait, Oman," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, referring to the two Gulf Arab countries which remained neutral in the dispute.
"We hope to have the same type of relations with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates," Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Doha.
"We also hope that countries within the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) could resolve their differences peacefully.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3141444e34457a6333566d54/index.html
(A)
Saudi Arabia assists Iranian oil tanker in Red Sea, no injuries
Saudi Arabia’s coast guard assisted an Iranian oil tanker with engine trouble off the coast of Jeddah in the Red Sea after Riyadh received a request for help from Iran, the state news agency SPA said on Thursday.
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(* B P)
Film: Does Saudi Arabia Persecute its Shia Minority?
Is Saudi Arabia using the death penalty to crush dissent amongst Shia dissidents? The director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, Ali al Ahmed, says the Sunni led government has a long history of intimidation against the country’s Shia minority. But Saudi-affairs analyst Mohamed al Qubaiban disagrees.
Guests: Mohamed al Qubaiban, Saudi-affairs analyst; Ali al Ahmed, Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs; Hasan Hafidh, Teaching Fellow in Middle East Studies at King's College London
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfU_bscp1wk
and snipet, Ali AlAhmed. https://twitter.com/The_Newsmakers/status/1124281787465830400
(A P)
Saudi Arabia temporarily frees four women activists
Four more women's rights activists have been temporarily freed in Saudi Arabia, bringing the total to seven in two months.
UK-based Saudi rights organisation ALQST said Hatoon al-Fassi, Amal al-Harbi, Maysaa al-Manea, and Abeer Namankani were all released, with reports a fifth had also been let out.
They are among 11 women held for about a year on charges related to the country's cyber-crimes law.
Saudi officials are yet to comment.
The terms of their release and when they will return to jail are unclear.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48142640
(A P)
Libya's grand mufti calls for Hajj and Umrah boycott against Saudi Arabia to protest 'massacres'
Libya's controversial grand mufti has called on Muslims to boycott travelling to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages.
Sadiq al-Ghariani - Libya's grand mufti or highest-ranking Muslim jurist - stopped short, however, of telling Muslims to quit pilgrimage altogether.
While able Muslims are required to go on the Hajj pilgrimage once in their lifetimes, Ghariani claimed that anyone going on a second Hajj or on the optional Umrah pilgrimage, which can be taken at any point in the year, would be committing "an act of sin rather than a good deed".
The reason for Ghariani's fatwa was the money paid to Saudi Arabia in order to go on either pilgrimage would "help Saudi Arabian rulers to carry out crimes against our fellow Muslims", he said in a televised address on Ean Libya.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/4/28/libyas-grand-mufti-calls-for-saudi-hajj-boycott
(* A P)
Saudi Arabia put these 2 men to death. Now their families are calling on Canada to stop arming the regime
After a mass execution by the Saudi government, relatives claiming asylum in Canada are speaking out
In the wake of one of Saudi Arabia's largest mass executions in decades, the families of the two men are calling on Canada to stop the sale of arms to the regime, saying continuing to do so makes Canada complicit in the kingdom's human rights abuses.
"How many times have we talked about Canada stopping arming or selling vehicles to Saudi Arabia?" Al Asreeh's cousin Mohammed Al Ahmed, 31, said. "We are dealing with a regime country — they don't have any red line."
Of the 37 men executed Wednesday, 14 had been arrested in connection with protests in the predominantly Shia city of Al Awamiyah in 2011 and 2012.
Al Asreeh was among them.
Al Asreeh, 20 at the time of his arrest, spent much of his time working on his father's farm, his cousin Al Ahmed said. He also cared deeply about shining a light on the living conditions of minorities, though Al Ahmed insists he only ever engaged in peaceful protest.
"If you're going to talk about human rights or anything, they're going to kill you. You are a terrorist … everyone's going to think it's good, the government killed someone who's a terrorist. But he's not," Al Ahmed said, adding his cousin didn't have access to a lawyer when he was arrested.
"He was a normal person," Al Ahmed said. "He wanted to build his life, but the government didn't give him a chance."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/saudi-canada-executions-arms-1.5117422
(A P)
@GulfInstitute , the oldest research org on Gulf Affairs #US, is publishing translations of speechs by some protest activists murdered by #Saudi Klansmen last week
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1123953802502131718
With your support we will publish an #English book of the #34 freedom martyrs murdered by #Saudi Klan last week. We are looking for volunteer researchers & transelators.
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1123979269762318348
Join us tomorrow- Friday, May 3rd to honor the 34 martyrs murdered by #Saudi Klan. Bring red roses, photos & signs to the #Saudi klan embassy at 601 New Hampshire Ave, NW (photos)
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1124058829266858002
(* B P)
Why is Fifa playing ball with the Saudi World Cup plan?
The Saudis want to muscle in on the 2022 tournament — and they also have billions to put into football
Yet Saudi Arabia now hopes to co-host the world’s biggest party. Nearly a decade after Qatar was crowned host of the 2022 World Cup, the kingdom has belatedly decided to pursue international prestige through football. Helped by the global football authority Fifa, the Saudis want to muscle into the hosting of 2022 and stage some matches. At the very least, they intend to force Qatar to share its party with other Gulf states. The game-changer — the thing that makes the Saudis’ ambition credible — is that their friend, Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino, wants to expand the next World Cup from 32 teams to 48. Fifa’s feasibility study said this would require at least two more stadiums in one other country.
Fifa’s feasibility study (seen by the Associated Press) says: “Due to the geopolitical situation in the region and the recent blockade that Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have imposed on Qatar, the involvement of such countries in organising a co-hosted tournament with Qatar would require the lifting of such blockade.” These words open the route to a deal: the Saudis agree to drop the blockade (which hasn’t hurt Qatar much anyway), and in return, they (and possibly other neighbours) share the World Cup.
https://www.ft.com/content/9f85d444-6b9d-11e9-80c7-60ee53e6681d
(* A T P)
Saudi Arabia Has, ‘Literally’, Sri Lankan Blood on Its Hands!
In a leaked ‘urgent, confidential and top secret’ document, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confesses responsibility or at least ‘relation’ to the terrorist attacks that hit Sri Lanka two weeks ago as Christians celebrated Easter Sunday.
Obtained by al-Ahed, the paper, which carries the Hijri date of 11/8/1440, the day equivalent to April 16, 2019, some five days that preceded the massacre, was tailed by the Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz al-Assaf’s signature. It is a letter sent to Saudi Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Abdul Nasser al-Harethi.
The document reads the following:
Urgent – Top Secret
His Excellency Ambassador Abdul Nasser bin Hussein al-Harethi
You should carry out the following measures immediately:
First: You should delete all documents, computer data and latest correspondence with domestic and foreign members and groups, in addition to imposing a curfew for the embassy personnel unless it is necessary
Second: You should inform all those related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including counselors, security forces and intelligence during the three coming days, especially on the Christian Easter Day, to avoid presence in public and crowded places namely churches
Third: You should send written news about the Sri Lankan authorities and their viewpoints regularly to this ministry
Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz al-Assaf, Foreign Minister
It was on April 21st, 2019 -coinciding Easter Sunday- that three Christian churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital Colombo were targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings.
Later that day, there were smaller explosions at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. 253 people were martyred, including at least 42 foreign nationals and three police officers, and at least 500 others were injured.
https://english.alahednews.com.lb/47824/269
(* B P)
Middle East Security Still Critical To US, Says Pentagon Official
Though the National Defense Strategy has shifted U.S. focus to China and Russia as near-peer competitors, North Korea and Iran as “rogue state actors,” and has also placed emphasis on counterterrorism as a priority, the Middle East is still going to be getting U.S. attention, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East said this week.
Mick P. Mulroy discussed current threats in the Middle East, U.S. priorities and future plans for military involvement during a forum at the Center for a New American Security here.
Threats From Iran
Iran, he said, poses a threat in five distinct spheres. First, Mulroy said, is the threat of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Regional Partnerships
Building up partnerships such as the Middle East Strategic Alliance is critical, he said, adding that the NDS requires that kind of partnership building.
The MESA is a security partnership between Gulf Cooperation Council nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, with the addition of Jordan and Egypt. It was announced in May 2017.
Mulroy said the U.S. wants the MESA “to be a holistic agreement. We want an economic part, we want an energy part, we want a political part, we want a security part. I fully recognize there are challenges in many of those.”
My comment: The US is inflating more and more strife.
(A P)
Saudi “New” actions and Yemeni bad administration increase the suffering of passengers in the “Alwadee’ah” border outlet
Dozens of Yemeni travelers were surprised, this morning, by the rejection of their passports at Alwadee’ah border checkpoint with Saudi Arabia, east of Yemen.
"The authorities of the land port on the Saudi side refused the passports of dozens of passengers abruptly, on the pretext of the absence of the emblem of the Republic of Yemen " The Republican bird "on their photographs in those passports, forcing them to return, he said.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167213
and
(A P)
Government official: The problem of the trapped in Al-Wadee’ah” port has been solved and the entry is now proceeding normally
Yemeni Government Deputy Minister of Expatriate Affairs Dr. Mohammed Al-Adeel confirmed that the problem of citizens trapped in Wadee’ah land port (eastern Yemen) due to passports problems has been solved.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167228
(B P)
Malak al-Shehri speaks out after Saudi Arabia detains husband
It is not known why Ayman al-Drees was arrested last month. But the Bowling Green State University graduate is married to a prominent feminist.
Al-Drees, 31, was detained by Saudi authorities hours later, according to human rights advocates. The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment on the whereabouts of al-Drees or his case.
It is not known why al-Drees was arrested on April 4. The graduate of Ohio’s Bowling Green State University had not recently spoken out about human rights or political reform, but he had chosen to marry a feminist.
His wife first came to public attention in December 2016 when al-Shehri posted on Twitter a picture of herself in a Riyadh street without a headscarf and abaya, the mandatory all-encompassing covering for women. It was a clear act of defiance in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
(* B E P)
Massive Saudi wealth fund zeros in on China, plans to open new Asia office
The Saudi Public Investment Fund is one of the Middle East’s largest, with some $300 billion in assets under management and an aim to increase that to $2 trillion by 2030.
Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, who has served as the fund’s director since 2015, was recently in Beijing for a forum about China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
A PIF spokesman said the fund is planning to open a new office in Asia “to focus on China.”
The fund has deployed more than $50 billion into the U.S. in the last two years both directly and indirectly, Al-Rumayyan told CNBC.
Saudi Arabia’s massive sovereign wealth fund has its eye on China as it expands international investments, though its “No. 1 target” remains the U.S., its managing director told CNBC on Tuesday.
(B P)
Because people mourned those killed as MARTYRS, #Saudi regime stopped delivering bodies in 2016! A playbook to resist the popular uprising started in 2011: Arrest, torture, assassin, execute & HIDE THE CRIME! #Where_are_the_bodies_of_detainees 75+ bodies
https://twitter.com/AmeenNemer/status/1123753412145885184
(* B P)
Growing Concerns Over Saudi Arabia’s Rights Abuses
The recent mass execution of dozens of Saudi citizens has drawn wide criticism from rights groups and governments around the world, which have urged Saudi authorities to stop such public executions and put an end to the growing human rights abuses in the Muslim kingdom.
[Overview article]
https://www.voanews.com/a/growing-concerns-over-saudi-arabia-s-rights-abuses-/4898729.html
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
(A P)
Interesting... A prominent #Saudi pro-gov nationalist account (often praises al-Qahtani) posted a picture yesterday of Major General Ahmed al-Asiri wth his graduating nephew Omar. Asiri is supposed to be detained & on trial w others for Khashoggi murder.
I notice trend of trying to claim pic of Ahmed Asiri, accused in Khashoggi murder, is old: https://twitter.com/yousefalnaimi/status/1124422580490969088?s=21 …. But: 1) Omar’s sister posted pic. 2) She confirmed exact recent date in reply. 3) She posted vid of Omar congratulated by MBS, so cldnt be 4 yrs ago.
https://twitter.com/Ana3rabeya/status/1124301932837974018
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
(** B P)
Congress tried to end US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. Here's how it failed
As lawmakers bickered in Washington, Yemenis were mired in world's worst humanitarian crisis
Almost two years after a resolution was first introduced, efforts in the United States Congress to end American support for the war in Yemen came to an unsuccessful end this week.
Here's a look back at how US lawmakers tried - but failed - to end US logistical support for Saudi-led forces in Yemen.
27 September 2017: House introduces resolution
14 November 2017: Symbolic declaration passes
28 February 2018: Sanders advances Senate bill
26 September 2018: Khanna reintroduces his bill
2 October 2018: Saudis kill Jamal Khashoggi
14 November 2018: House Republicans block resolution
13 December 2018: Senate passes historic resolution
3 January 2019: New Congress sworn in
3 February 2019: House passes resolution
3 March 2019: Senate passes new resolution
4 April 2019: House approves legislation
16 April 2019: Trump vetoes legislation
2 May 2019: Senate upholds Trump's veto
After failing to override the presidential veto, Democrats in Congress are now looking for new ways to tie the Trump administration’s hands by defunding the Yemen war – by Ali Harb
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-congress-efforts-end-support-yemen-war-timeline
(* A P)
Film: Bernie Sanders: US support of war in Yemen yields 'horrific' consequences
Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to the BBC's Jane O'Brien about the war in Yemen and the actions congressional Democrats plan to take regarding the issue.
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Votum gegen Trumps Jemen-Veto im US-Senat gescheitert
Zweidrittelmehrheit kommt nicht zustande
In seinem Ringen mit dem Kongress um die Jemen-Politik hat US-Präsident Donald Trump einen Teilerfolg erzielt. Im Senat in Washington scheiterte am Donnerstag der Versuch, ein Veto Trumps gegen eine vor einigen Wochen verabschiedete Jemen-Resolution des Kongresses auszuhebeln.
Darin hatten Senat und Repräsentantenhaus den Präsidenten aufgefordert, seine Unterstützung für Saudiarabien im Jemen-Krieg zu beenden und die am Konflikt beteiligten US-Streitkräfte binnen 30 Tagen abzuziehen.
Der Senat stimmte nun zwar mit 53 gegen 45 Stimmen dafür, diese Resolution aufrecht zu erhalten und Trumps Veto für ungültig zu erklären. Um ein Veto des Präsidenten außer Kraft zu setzen, wird aber eine Zweidrittelmehrheit beider Kongresskammern gebraucht. Im Senat wären dies 67 Stimmen.
Den Demokraten gelang es nicht, genügend Senatoren von Trumps Republikanischer Partei auf ihre Seite zu holen.
https://www.welt.de/newsticker/news1/article192866549/Konflikte-Votum-gegen-Trumps-Jemen-Veto-im-US-Senat-gescheitert.html = https://www.bazonline.ch/ausland/amerika/jemen-veto-trump-erzielt-teilerfolg/story/26023296
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Getting Past the Veto on Ending Yemen War: How Congress’ Next Moves Can Succeed
The process leading to the passage of S.J. Res 7 and its inevitable veto revealed the need for Congress to start laying the groundwork for reform of the 1973 War Powers Resolution – a long-term endeavor that is long-overdue. This will require sustained attention to where, how, why, and at what cost the President is using U.S. armed forces abroad. It will also require focusing on what mechanisms Congress can use most effectively to ensure it finds out about and can limit (if it chooses) such activities.
But in the short term, the experience with S.J. Res 7 also provides a roadmap for how Congress can fulfil its vital role in authorizing or limiting military engagement that does not rise to the level of “hostilities” as that term is interpreted by the Executive Branch.
What Congress Can Do Next on Yemen
Trump’s veto message revealed that he is committed to maintaining U.S. military involvement in the disastrous war in Yemen in the face of bipartisan opposition. It also showed he remains determined to defend the Saudi government in the wake of its continued stone-walling about the chilling murder of journalist and Virginia resident Jamal Khashoggi. But the awareness-raising function served by debating and passing S.J. Res 7 through Congress creates momentum in both Houses to craft provisions that could end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war and move the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia in a new direction.
There are a number of provisions – some already in existing bills – that could swiftly become part of a must-pass vehicle, like the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) or an appropriations bill, that a bipartisan majority of Congress can get behind – by Tess Bridgeman
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Senate fails to override Trump's Yemen veto
The Senate on Thursday failed to override President Trump’s veto of legislation ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Senators voted 53-45 on the attempt to override Trump’s veto, falling short of the 67 votes needed to be successful.
The resolution, which initially passed the Senate in March, requires Trump to withdraw any troops in or affecting Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda.
Trump vetoed the measure in April — marking the second veto of his administration and his second veto in roughly a month.
Any veto override attempt was expected to fall short after the resolution passed the Senate initially with 54 votes. Because the Senate voted first on the measure, its failure to nix Trump’s veto effectively kills any override attempts on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged his colleagues to vote to uphold Trump’s veto, arguing the War Powers Act wasn’t the right tool for lawmakers who have concerns about the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
“The War Powers Act is a blunt tool and not the right vehicle to diplomatically express concern about the behavior of close partners of the U.S,” McConnell said.
He added that the resolution would “make it actually more difficult to prevent the loss of innocent lives.”
GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Steve Daines (Mont.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Todd Young (Ind.) voted to override Trump's veto.
Democrats acknowledged their efforts to override Trump’s veto would fall short. To be successful they would have needed to pick up 13 GOP senators to secure the 20 Republicans needed to buck Trump.
But supporters of the resolution argue that any vote, even if it fails, helps keep attention on the war in Yemen and pressure on the administration to try to improve the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/441841-senate-fails-to-override-trumps-yemen-veto
and more reports, some with more details and statements:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/2/trump-tops-bernie-sanders-fight-war-powers-yemen/
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/02/senate-trump-yemen-1298350
https://apnews.com/ea653a19d7d243a5b22b78a95940f722 http://time.com/5582265/senate-vote-trump-yemen-veto/ = http://time.com/5582265/senate-vote-trump-yemen-veto/
http://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/senate-vote-upholds-trump-veto-yemen-resolution
and
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Senate fails to override Trump's veto of resolution demanding end to US involvement in Yemen
Yet bipartisan efforts to take other steps - such as a bill to end all nondefensive weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia and to sanction the perpetrators of Khashoggi's killing and those who provide support to the Houthi rebels - have failed to secure the backing of Senate Republican leaders.
The way forward will depend mostly on Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, who has indicated a willingness to do something addressing the Yemen war but has not specified what that might be.
"We are attempting to craft legislation that can garner support in the committee, address concerns on both sides of the aisle, and actually become law," Risch said on the Senate floor just before the override vote Thursday.
Pressure also is coming from the Trump administration, which is wary of rocking U.S.-Saudi relations with a definitive congressional step on Yemen.
As lawmakers were preparing to vote, senior defense officials reiterated the Pentagon's opposition to moves constraining U.S. assistance to Saudi Arabia's Yemen operation. Military officials have long said that their support provides the United States leverage it can use to nudge Riyadh and its allies toward a more professional conduct of the war.
They also highlight the limited nature of American assistance, which until last fall included aerial refueling of Saudi and Emirati jets but now consists primarily of intelligence sharing.
Such arguments have fanned frustrations among the measure's supporters, who call it an excuse to shield U.S. operations from legitimate public scrutiny.
"If you're so confident that we should be involved in this war, let's debate it, let's vote on it, let's let the American people have some say," Sanders said before the vote Thursday.
Lawmakers who support the resolution also argued that U.S. arms sales and advising to the Saudi-led coalition have worsened the already dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen – By KAROUN DEMIRJIAN AND MISSY RYAN
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-fails-to-override-trumps-veto-of-resolution-demanding-end-to-us-involvement-in-yemen/2019/05/02/4bd0a524-6cf9-11e9-8f44-e8d8bb1df986_story.html/ = https://www.stripes.com/news/us/senate-doesn-t-override-trump-s-veto-of-resolution-demanding-end-to-us-involvement-in-yemen-1.579463
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Democrats move to defund Yemen war after veto defeat
“I’m not going to let the defense appropriations bill go without a vote on funding for the military campaign,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., an original cosponsor of the Yemen resolution who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who authored the War Powers bill in the lower chamber, has also vowed to pursue the same approach in the Democratic-held House.
“What we’re hoping is that Congress overrides the veto through other legislative means,” said Kate Kizer, the policy director for Win Without War, a coalition of activist groups that pushed Congress to pass the war powers legislation. “We’re hoping that they’ll also try to ban weapons sales to the coalition for at least a two-year basis, probably through the appropriations process.”
Win Without War is also calling for a ban on intelligence sharing and targeting assistance.
A congressional aide told Al-Monitor that the House Foreign Affairs Committee is also “working on legislation that will address the situation in Yemen.”
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/05/democrats-move-defund-yemen-war-veto-defeat.html
and
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Trump’s backing of Saudi war in Yemen is ‘business decision’
President Donald Trump’s veto of a resolution aimed at ending US support for Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen means that, in Washington, business interests outweigh humanitarian concerns, political analyst Colin Cavell told RT.
The US president has “no compunction” about the thousands of civilians who were killed in the brutal war since 2015, said Cavell, adding that Trump’s cooperation with Saudi Arabia is solely a “business decision.”
“He [Trump] sees it strictly as a transactional relationship to keep US capitalism going, to fuel US industry. He has no human rights concerns.”
Trump himself has practically admitted as much. Last October, the US president said that canceling an ongoing US’ $110 billion arms deal with the Kingdom would be “foolish,” even as allied nations scrapped their weapons deals with Riyadh in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
https://www.rt.com/news/458329-trump-business-decision-saudis-yemen/
Film: Bombs will continue to fall: Senators fail to end US support for Saudi-led war in Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7wOQ8wdik
and
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These 46 Republican Senators voted to allow @realDonaldTrump to continue waging the US' unconstitutional war in #Yemen. By doing so, they're breaking the laws they've sworn to uphold, & bear as much responsibility as Saudi & UAE for the 250,000 Yemenis facing death by starvation (list)
https://twitter.com/shireen818/status/1124050350418403329
and
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Film, Speech of Bernie Sanders before vote: Watch live now: A bipartisan majority in the House and the Senate voted to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. We can save thousands upon thousands of people if we override Donald Trump's veto.
https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1123995300471947265
and
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MURPHY STATEMENT ON FAILED SENATE VOTE TO OVERRIDE PRESIDENT TRUMP’S VETO OF YEMEN WAR POWERS RESOLUTION
“President Trump had a chance to listen to the overwhelming number of Americans calling for the United States to get out of the Saudi-led civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen and hold the Saudi government accountable. We did not have the votes to override his veto, but that won’t stop me from continuing to work with my colleagues, like I have for the last four years, to bring an end to our involvement in this humanitarian disaster,”
and film: https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1124026810214301698
(A P)
Sanders Statement on Yemen Override Vote
"The bad news today: we were unable today to override Trump’s veto regarding U.S. intervention in this horrific war in Yemen. The good news: for the first time in 45 years, Congress used the War Powers Act to reassert its constitutional responsibility over the use of armed forces.
Let me be clear: this is the beginning of a bipartisan process to take back our responsibility over these most important matters. My likeminded colleagues and I, in a bipartisan fashion, will utilize all of the legislative tools at our disposal—including further use of the War Powers Act."
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-statement-on-yemen-override-vote
and
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Feinstein: Overturn Veto, End U.S. Involvement in Yemen War
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today issued the following remarks in support of overturning President Trump’s veto of the Sanders-Murphy resolution that would end American involvement in the Yemen War. Senator Feinstein’s full remarks follow:
(A P)
New U.S. ambassador to Saudi arrives in Riyadh after two-year gap
The new U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, retired general John Abizaid, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday, an embassy statement said, filling a position vacant since President Donald Trump took office more than two years ago.
(A P)
In evidence of #Saudi control over @Twitter, the company suspended or limited all accounts associated with our director @alialahmed @AliAlAhmed_en all in one day including this account @Alnemerinst with Zero tweets. This should be investigated by @TheJusticeDept
https://twitter.com/GulfInstitute/status/994938611975049217
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Supporting a Deadly Quagmire in Yemen
As U.S.-supported Saudi air strikes continue to kill Yemeni civilians, a bill to end that support remains stuck in the Senate.
In April, President Trump vetoed a different bill passed by both chambers aimed at ending U.S. support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, something Trump declared Congressional overreach.
The Trump administration remains highly reluctant to pressure Riyadh, even after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and their war crimes in Yemen.
The transactional approach to foreign policy that has come to define the Trump administration is evident in Washington’s relationship with Riyadh. For the U.S., the relationship with Saudi Arabia is based primarily upon three issues: arms sales, countering Iran, and maintaining oil supplies and low prices while trying to eliminate Iranian oil exports. Of primary concern to the administration is that Riyadh continues to spend billions of dollars on U.S. arms and weapons. There is little concern about how those weapons are used.
This reality, juxtaposed to the rhetoric of human rights traditionally associated with American presidents, highlights a hypocrisy not lost on allies and adversaries alike. Authoritarian regimes pay close attention to how Washington operates in the Middle East and interpret this as a ‘green light’ to pursue heavy-handed and draconian approaches to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in their own countries.
http://www.soufangroup.com/intelbrief-supporting-a-deadly-quagmire-in-yemen/
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Bernie Sanders: My staff went to the offices of my Senate colleagues to share a new UN report showing that 233,000 people will die as a result of the Saudi-led war in Yemen by 2019. If we override Trump's veto of our resolution and end U.S. support for this war, we can save thousands of lives.
https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1123696418961723392
and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFEGSad2Xv4
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Biden calls for end to U.S. support for Saudi war in Yemen
Former vice president Joe Biden is taking his first major foreign policy stance since officially announcing his candidacy for president by calling for the United States to end its assistance to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen. This aligns him with Senate Democrats and against President Trump.
But on the issue of U.S. involvement in Yemen, Biden is aligned with the entire Senate Democratic caucus — and even some Republicans — who want the president to halt U.S. support for the Saudi-led war there
“Vice President Biden believes it is past time to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen and cancel the blank check the Trump administration has given Saudi Arabia for its conduct of that war,” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told me. “He urges Congress to override President Trump’s veto.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/01/biden-calls-end-us-support-saudi-war-yemen/
(A P)
Yemenis Smuggled over Texas Border Wearing Hard-Hats and Reflective Vests
A national security case update from the Lone Star State
One of these cases is currently making its way through the federal district court in Del Rio, Texas.
The eight-count alien-smuggling indictment and complaint filed in United States of America v. Moayad Heider Mohammad Aldairi, a Jordanian with dual citizenship in Mexico and a home base in Monterrey, allege that he illegally transported at least seven Yemenis over the southern border in 2017 — near the same Piedras Negras (Mexico)-Eagle Pass (Texas) border-crossing that members of the last Central American migrant caravan were hoping to reach before Mexico detained them. The government alleges the Yemenis paid the defendant thousands of dollars each, paid "in Mexico, Jordan, and elsewhere" to get them into Texas through Latin America and that, once he got them into the Eagle Pass area, he gave some of his clients construction hard hats and reflective vests so they would "blend in better" after emerging from the Rio Grande on the American side.
American authorities arrested Aldairi abroad last year and extradited him to New York and then to the Western District of Texas, where he remains in custody pending the outcome of his case.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Yemenis-Smuggled-over-Texas-Border-Wearing-HardHats-and-Reflective-Vests
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GOP LAWMAKER GAVE PRO-WAR SPEECH ON YEMEN — BY READING SAUDI LOBBYIST’S TALKING POINTS VERBATIM
REP. ED ROYCE, a senior Republican who, at the time, chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, gave a speech on the House floor in November 2017 imploring his fellow lawmakers to maintain support for the Saudi Arabian-led war in Yemen. Royce warned that foreign adversaries — namely, Iran — could gain a foothold in Yemen through the Houthi rebels.
The inflammatory line had been scripted by a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia — like much of Royce’s impassioned speech.
Royce had received talking points earlier that day from a lobbyist retained by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to federal disclosure forms, in order to undermine congressional opposition to the Yemen war.
The talking points provided to Royce are among the many hidden ways in which Saudi money has quietly influenced the debate.
“The fact that Rep. Royce is repeating word for word talking points from wealthy law firm Hogan Lovells, not his own unique thought and hearing what his constituents have to say, speaks to the very stifling our democracy suffers from,” said Heather Purcell, a spokesperson for Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who introduced the bill Royce was speaking against.
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/02/yemen-war-powers-resolution-saudi-lobbyists/
and also https://www.rt.com/usa/458266-saudi-yemen-talking-points/
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Does It Matter That Donald Trump Endorses Arab Despots?
Amy Hawthorne: Arab autocrats need more than Donald Trump’s endorsement to remain in power. Like authoritarians elsewhere, they rely mostly on domestic tools.
Americans who see Trump’s blunt and unapologetic backing of autocratic allies, such as Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, as a shocking departure haven’t been paying enough attention to the U.S. role in the Arab world. Beneath Trump’s jarring style, his administration’s policies toward Arab autocratic allies are in line with those of every White House since the Cold War.
Amr Hamzawy: The endorsement of Arab despots by U.S. administrations (in Saudi Arabia and Egypt) or the lack thereof (as in Syria) did not change the mostly tragic course of events. Executions of regime opponents in Saudi Arabia happened during both the Obama and Trump administrations, amid Barack Obama’s disapproval and Donald Trump’s acquiescence.
Michele Dunne: President Donald Trump’s shielding of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from blame for the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi does not clean the prince in the eyes of anyone, but for now it has paved the way for major international business figures to resume dealings with him.
https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/79027
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The Times Wins Robert Kennedy Award for Yemen Coverage
https://www.nytco.com/press/the-times-wins-robert-kennedy-award-for-yemen-coverage/
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
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TRANSPORT FOR LONDON SUSPENDS ADVERTS FROM SAUDI ARABIA, PAKISTAN AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DUE TO POOR HUMAN RIGHTS
TfL have already banned ads from Brunei as well as Iran, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
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Journalismus: Wenn die Angst im Nacken sitzt
Zum internationalen Tag der Pressefreiheit am 3. Mai haben wir mit zwei Journalistinnen gesprochen, die ihre Länder verlassen haben, weil sie dort nicht frei berichten konnten.
Tarfa Al Fadhli wuchs im Südjemen auf. Sie studierte Journalismus und internationale Beziehungen.
Ende 2014 flüchtete sie gemeinsam mit ihrem Sohn nach Österreich, kurz darauf kam sie nach Deutschland, wo sie politisches Asyl bekam.
Al Fadhli: Freie Berichterstattung ist im Jemen nicht möglich. Irgendwann kommen die Drohungen - und vielleicht auch mehr. Jemand mit Verbindungen zu Al Kaida hat mir zum Beispiel übers Internet gedroht und gesagt, ich solle aufhören zu arbeiten. Ich hatte Angst um mein Leben. Ende 2014 habe ich ein Touristenvisum nach Österreich bekommen. Ich hatte Glück.
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Der Bundesregierung drohen nach einem "Spiegel"-Bericht wegen der Restriktionen bei Rüstungsexporten nach Saudi-Arabien juristische Auseinandersetzungen. Der Luft- und Raumfahrtkonzern Airbus Group Börsen-Chart zeigenwolle mit einer Untätigkeitsklage erzwingen, dass Berlin die Ausfuhr von Hubschraubern und einem Grenzsicherungssystem nach Saudi-Arabien genehmigt, berichtet das Magazin in seiner neuen Ausgabe.
Die Helikopter, mit denen die Pilgerströme in Mekka überwacht werden sollen, hat Riad demnach beim Airbus-Werk in Donauwörth bestellt. Das Überwachungssystem ist dem Bericht zufolge Teil eines Grenzsicherungspakets. Das Auftragsvolumen für den Ausbau an der Grenze zum Jemen liege im Milliardenbereich.
https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/artikel/airbus-will-bundesregierung-wegen-exportstopp-nach-saudi-arabien-verklagen-a-1265719.html = https://www.teleboerse.de/aktien/Airbus-droht-Bundesregierung-mit-Klage-article21003423.html = https://www.merkur.de/wirtschaft/streit-um-ruestungsexporte-airbus-will-bundesregierung-wegen-exportstopp-nach-saudi-arabien-verklagen-zr-12247949.html
(A H K)
Anne-Sophie Mutter über Jemen: „Größte humanitäre Katastrophe auf diesem Planeten“
Die Geigerin Anne-Sophie Mutter spielt zwei Benefizkonzerte, um das Leid der Kinder im Jemen zu lindern. Im Interview spricht sie über die Situation in dem Bürgerkriegsland – und darüber, warum sie sich humanitär engagiert.
Mutter: Ich nehme an, dass es richtig ist, was Sie sagen, Herr Kassel, ich kann es nicht überprüfen, ich weiß es nicht. Mir ist als Konsument der Medien nur sehr bewusst, dass wir unglaubliche Informationsfluten haben, die uns täglich überrollen, und vielleicht stumpft der Leser auch ab. Wie dem auch sei, mir ist es wichtig, gegen diese Informationsflut, die über uns hereinbricht, vielleicht mal das Wasser zu teilen und kurz innezuhalten und darauf hinzuweisen, dass wir etwas tun können und tun müssen, um das Grauen im Jemen zu lindern.
und als Audio: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/warum-sich-anne-sophie-mutter-f%C3%BCr-den-jemen-engagiert/id78605061?i=1000437120458
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Rebellinnen gegen den Krieg
Anita Augspurg-Preis der Internationalen Frauenliga für Frieden und Freiheit, Verleihung an die Preisträgerin: Rasha Jarhum, Jemen (ACHTUNG: einen Spendenaufruf für die Preissumme von 5.718 Euro schicken wir gern zu!)
https://www.bremerfriedensforum.de/1140/aktuelles/Rebellinnen-gegen-den-Krieg/
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
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Yemen Nobel Peace Prize laureate calls on Sudan to protect the revolution
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World Press Freedom Day: Stand in solidarity with silenced journalists
Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace | imprisoned in Bahrain
https://pen-international.org/news/world-press-freedom-day-2019-solidarity-with-silenced-journalists
https://twitter.com/pen_int/status/1124251082287456257
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Bahrain: It has been 811 days since Ali al-Hajee last saw his family and young child. We are concerned that the situation of prisoners in Jau Prison has become increasingly dire, with access to family visits - without humiliating restrictions - a serious problem. #Bahrain
https://twitter.com/BirdBahrain_/status/1123577378142396418
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Malaysia: Mahathir: What Happens in Syria, Libya, Yemen Due to Interference of External Forces
“Nations like Syria, Libya and Yemen today provide images of a human tragedy while the rest of the world watch helplessly. Their sufferings did not originate from internal strife but rather interference and interventions from external powers which obviously were doing it out of self-interest, disguised under the veil of democracy and human rights,” he said.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6686
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
Siehe / Look at cp11
(* A K P)
Film: Le armi italiane in Yemen
In Yemen è in corso una guerra sanguinosa dal 2015. L'inchiesta esclusiva di Alessandra Buccini sulle bombe che partono dall'azienda RWM in Sardegna per l'Arabia Saudita, per essere poi usate anche nel conflitto in Yemen. Alessandra Buccini
http://www.la7.it/piazzapulita/video/le-armi-italiane-in-yemen-02-05-2019-270466
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
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Yémen: des mercenaires africains arrivent
Les Émirats arabes unis ont recruté des dizaines de milliers de jeunes Africains en vue de combler le vide qui pourrait se créer au Yémen après un éventuel retrait des soldats soudanais de la coalition d’agression.
Les autorités émiraties ont récemment facilité le processus de déploiement de jeunes Africains dans la ville d’Aden, une action qui est considérée par les observateurs politiques comme un véritable défi d’Abou Dhabi contre la mainmise de Riyad au Yémen
En effet, les Émiratis, en recrutant des milliers de jeunes Africains, ont l’intention de combler le vide que causerait un retrait des forces soudanaises du Yémen.
http://parstoday.com/fr/news/middle_east-i78074-y%C3%A9men_des_mercenaires_africains_arrivent = https://reseauinternational.net/yemen-des-mercenaires-africains-arrivent/
cp13c Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
(* B D)
The Digital Bab al-Yemen (Freie Universität Berlin)
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/ARGY7C9Q
Yemeni Manuscripts
The Digital Bab al-Yemen (Freie Universität Berlin)
Their History and their Study
More than 50,000 manuscripts make up Yemen’s written heritage. Very few of them have been studied. The overwhelming majority still await (re)discovery, offering the possibility of rare and surprising insight into Islamic intellectual history. This exhibition tells the history of these manuscripts, from the scribes who created them to the modern-day scholars who study them. Learn more about the importance of Yemeni manuscripts and their variety, discover where they are preserved today, and trace the history of one representative manuscript, written in 1214, as it travels from Sanaa to Berlin and, via digitization, to virtually everywhere.
Today, experts sound the alarm because many manuscript collections are threatened either by poor storage conditions or by opponents of a multi-faceted history of ideas in Islamic scholarship. At the same time, researchers increasingly focus on analysing Yemeni manuscripts as unique original sources. These documents point back to times when manuscripts played a central role in knowledge transmission from teacher to student, not only in Yemen but all over the Islamic world.
But first it is time to learn how our manuscript – let’s call it ‘Glaser 51’ – was copied by a Yemeni scribe...
Ḥusayn’s manuscript and the Sanaa palimpsest mentioned earlier are just two examples of potential contributions to scholarship Yemeni manuscripts may yield— two manuscripts out of tens of thousands, which are valuable sources to scholars of Zaydi studies and the history of rationalist thought in Islam. They are equally interesting sources today for Islamic scholars engaged in current discussions.
The Digital Bab al-Yemen
This exhibition is part of ‘The Digital Bab al-Yemen’, a project currently hosted at Freie Universität Berlin. In 2013/14 it was funded by the European Research Council (project “Human Web”). The project’s main goal is to provide a universal online digital library assembling all manuscripts of Yemeni provenance from around the world.
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/ARGY7C9Q
The Glaser Collections
Bringing Together the Islamic Heritage of Yemen
Introduction
In the late 19th century, modern Middle East studies became the recipient of some especially rich collections of Yemeni manuscripts, thanks to a scientist who, in fact, didn’t really care about their contents. Eduard Glaser (1855-1908), an Austrian Arabist and archaeologist, was more concerned with the revenue from their sale, which he needed to continue his studies in the southern Arabian Peninsula. Glaser was one of the 19th century’s leading researchers on Southern Arabia and is regarded as one of the pioneers of Sabaean studies. He used his thorough knowledge of the Arabic language, Arab customs, and especially Islam to undertake four long scientific journeys through Yemen between 1882 and 1894.
Although Eduard Glaser's collections of manuscripts are an invaluable treasure, his main interest was in copying inscriptions. The collection of manuscripts was less important to him – but selling them was, in modern terms, a win-win situation: The libraries were able to increase their stock, and he could support himself during his travels and in between.
Still, most of the hundreds of Yemeni manuscripts Eduard Glaser brought to Europe were never subject to in-depth analysis.
The Digital Bab al-Yemen project at FU Berlin makes it possible for the first time to combine, show, and study a huge number of digitized manuscripts in a single online library. “The Glaser Collections” contain 140 texts from Berlin, Vienna, and Munich. For the first time in history, virtually anyone anywhere in the world will be able to study the uniquely rich but endangered heritage of Yemeni culture – an intellectual treasure that awaits (re)discovery.
The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - PK (Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) hosts 264 Glaser manuscripts.
Until summer 2014, 86 Glaser manuscript volumes have been digitised. All 86 volumes are published in close cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - PK.
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/gQs9TMxJ
cp13d Wirtschaft / Economy
(* A E P)
An extortion attempts with an environmental catastrophe. Houthis demands sharing oil revenues to empty Ras Issa Reservoir
The al-Houthi group called on the United Nations to arrange a mechanism to sell Yemeni crude oil, and to supply its revenues to the bank of Sanaa and Aden to use its revenues to finance the importation of fuel, and to pay the salaries of public sector employees under its control.
The Houthi leader said the arrangement of a mechanism to sell oil in the Saper reservoir would contribute to "protecting the marine environment from an unprecedented catastrophe, maintaining and stabilizing the Yemeni currency and preventing Iranian oil from reaching their claims."
The Saudi-led Arab Coalition warned, on Monday, of the dangers of an oil spill in the Red Sea. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki accused the al-Houthi group of disrupting the unloading of the floating oil reservoir in Ras Isa port on the Red Sea.
Al-Houthi group blamed the Coalition for any damage to the marine environment or navigation that could cause disaster to the world, as a result of the interruption of a pipeline in the floating reservoir, which has approximately 1 million barrels of crude oil.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167210
My remark: Earlier reporting: Yemen War Mosaic 533, cp13c.
(A E P)
Development Champions Forum Concludes Fifth Meeting
Yemen’s Development Champions Forum concluded its fifth meeting on April 29 in Amman, Jordan. Over three days, the Development Champions discussed critical economic issues in Yemen, focusing on the situation of the private sector, removing obstacles to the return of Yemeni capital post-conflict, and priorities to restructure state finances.
https://devchampions.org/events/DCF_concludes_5_meeting
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T)
Yemeni-US agreement to strengthen terrorist detection and obstruction of their activities
According to a communiqué issued by the US embassy in Yemen, representatives from the US State Department's counterterrorism bureau met with government officials from Yemen to discuss the application of technologies designed to expose people associated with terrorist activities and hinder their movements.
According to the communication, the system uses the latest technology, which will enable the Yemeni authorities to scrutinize the identities of passengers according to databases with reliable Biometric CVs.
The communiqué noted that this was an important step in Yemen's efforts to comply with Security Council resolution 2396, which obliges all members of the United Nations to stop the travel of terrorists by using tools such as control lists and passenger names records.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167245
(A T)
#AlQaeda & #IslamicState continue to clash in #Yemen's al-Bayda' - and in the media. Today, ISY claimed its 3rd attack in a week against #AQAP: a rocket in al-Humaydah. Yesterday, #AQAP released a statement accusing ISY of #FakeNews & denying ISY ops had successfully targeted it
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1123698250291326976
cp15 Propaganda
(A K P)
Killed 100 people. Fishermen appeal for rescue from an Iranian ship planting death at the west coast
Yemeni fishermen said that the Iranian ship "Saviz ", anchored in the Red Sea, had killed more than 100 Yemeni fishermen, disrupted the activity of 30,000 other fishermen and deprived hundreds of thousands of families of their only source of income.
According to the official Saba news agency, the fishermen confirmed in a statement issued by a protest that the continued presence of the Iranian ship "Saviz " threatens the lives and livelihoods of fishermen, as it is a source of mines that the pro-Iranian militia members of the Houthi group are planting along the west coast of Yemen as well as the proliferation of naval mines and booby-trapped boats, which have led to the deaths of dozens of fishermen, the disruption of thousands of them and the deprivation of hundreds of thousands of fishing occupations, whose only source of income is the worsening of the humanitarian situation in the coastal governorates.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167253
and also http://en.adenpress.news/news/4152
My comment: This sounds like propaganda, therefor it’s placed here.
(A P)
Yemen ambassador: Trump did the right thing vetoing war powers resolution
That’s why what happens in Yemen does not stay in Yemen, why the Iran-backed Houthis who seek to take over Yemen from the legitimate government of its president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, are not just a limited threat. The Houthi flag tells us everything we need to know: It reads, “Death to the U.S., death to Israel, and a curse on the Jews.”
This vile rhetoric has been systematically taught to a significant swath of Yemeni children in the educational curricula instituted and imposed by the Houthis in schools under their control in a campaign to brainwash a generation of young Yemenis to serve a long-term Iranian agenda in my country.
The fight against global terrorism is a shared responsibility, and our united partnership to confront it must never give an inch, not anywhere, not even in a distant place, not even where hope struggles to breathe, not even in Yemen.
My comment: The motto of the Hadi government: Make war, not peace; you “must never give an inch”.
(B P)
Houthis’ looting of relief aid widespread famine
Houthi militia causes a very difficult living conditions in areas under its control or under its war.
Thousands of People are facing unimaginable humanitarian tragedy and the worst living situation in the world, according to international organizations.
The Houthi militia tightens its siege over those provinces. They seize state institutions and loot public money. This have exacerbated human and health status. It also forecasts an impending humanitarian disaster.
The legitimate government has been very keen along with UN agencies to find solutions or alternative ways to deliver aid relief to the Houthi-held areas.
However, Houthi rebels looted the aid assistances, seized relief convoys provided by Arab coalition states and others through UN organizations in order to relieve the people’s suffering
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/03/houthis-looting-of-relief-aid-widespread-famine/
(* B K)
Arab coalition rejects Yemen allegations
JIAT spokesman Mansour Al-Mansour said the team concluded that the procedures followed by the coalition were proper and safe
He added that they took into consideration the rules of engagement and international humanitarian law
Al-Mansour referenced cases raised by Human Rights Watch.
In 2016 coalition forces were alleged to have attacked two warehouses in an industrial area in the port city of Hodeidah. Bombs were dropped on warehouses and production workshops. The first attack hit a warehouse for foodstuffs, said Al-Mansour, while the second hit a warehouse for vehicle spare parts. There were no civilian casualties, he added.
In 2017 coalition forces were alleged to have attacked a military police camp in Sana’a, which was seized and controlled by the Houthi militia with prisoners trained to fight against the legitimate government. Al-Mansour said the JIAT investigated the incident and reviewed all documents. It found that, based on the availability of verifiable intelligence information, Houthi militia had seized and controlled the police camp and were preparing for combat against the government.
Al-Mansour turned his attention to the report of the National Commission to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Yemen. He said it was stated that, in December 2017, coalition forces bombed houses in the village of Al-Qataba, Al-Khawkhah Directorate in Hodeidah, killing 21 people.
The JIAT verified the incident and reviewed all documents. It found that, in the course of armed clashes with the Houthi militia, coalition land forces requested close air support (CAS) because they were under direct fire. The militia were in two buildings, making these a legitimate military target of high value.
The CAS struck three military targets, the two buildings where the armed groups had fortified and the shooting site, using guided bombs.
The JIAT studied the claim. It was found that the nearest target area was 11.7 kilometers away from the coordinates of the claim and the time of the strike differed by four hours from what was stated in the claim.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1491616/middle-east
and also http://en.adenpress.news/news/4145, stating the first rais as having happened in July 2016.
My comment: The perpetrator “investigating” and absolving himself, once again. These self-investigations are a sham. – I was not able to find anything on these raids “investigated” here in my recordings. Google also did not help. The search “"human rights watch" hodeidah air raid July 2016”, for July 1, 2016 to August 31, 2016, did not match any useful result. – If you want to see serious investigations, despite the handicap of not being at the spot and investigating a longer time after the incident, look at Bellingcat’s investigations of air strikes in Yemen: https://yemen.bellingcat.com/.
(* B P)
A Real Plan to End the War in Yemen
To Stop the Fighting, Keep Supporting Saudi Arabia
The Saudi-led intervention may have exacerbated the situation in Yemen, but it did not start the war. Getting the Saudis to pull out will no more end the bloodshed in Yemen than getting the United States to abstain from the civil war in Syria halted the violence there. Nor will a Saudi withdrawal lead to a negotiated settlement. Instead, the fighting will go on, and innocent Yemenis will continue to die until one side—most likely the Houthis—have won.
True peace in Yemen will remain elusive unless both sides accept that they have nothing to gain from more fighting. We are not there yet. To get there will require not cutting off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia but threatening to double down on it unless the Houthis honor their commitments to the UN and are ready to disgorge most of their initial conquests. If Washington is serious about ending the war, it must come to terms with this uncomfortable fact.
So what can the United States do to stop the fighting? The history of civil war, in Yemen and elsewhere, suggests a counterintuitive approach: increase U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition, enable it to capture Hodeidah, and then use the resulting leverage to force both sides to end the fighting and sign a power-sharing agreement. – By Michael Knights, Kenneth M. Pollack, and Barbara F. Walter
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/yemen/2019-05-02/real-plan-end-war-yemen
My remark: For a long comment by Daniel Larison, look at cp1.
Comment by Judith Brown: A view of the possibilities for peace in Yemen from a Pro-Saudi perspective. It is true that the war would continue in Yemen if the GCC countries pulled out of the war. There are areas under the control of warlords who have a vested interest in continuing the warfare as a war economy is benefitting them. It's difficult to know how to end this bloodshed, but Yemeni civilians are paying a too high price from the effects of the Saudi led bombardment and embargo. All warring sides need to have a strictly enforced weapons embargo to stop any ongoing civil war within the country. It's ridiculous to think that supplying weapons has any role in promoting peace.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10157548913468641
Comment: One of the most shocking pro-war articles you will ever come across. War at any cost. Horrifying
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2253447021374982
(B P)
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia Can’t Get a Divorce
Despite Yemen, Khashoggi and U.S. energy independence, the relationship is critical for both sides.
Leaving aside the reality that there is one pool of energy worldwide, and that a major disruption of oil because of threats or instability in Saudi Arabia would result in the price skyrocketing for Americans and everyone else, there is another countervailing factor in the interests-values continuum with the kingdom that needs to be considered. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a fundamental transformation of its society and of the sources of the regime’s legitimacy. True, the monarchy retains all political power, but nationalism and modernization are replacing Wahhabism, a rigid, intolerant interpretation of Islam that fueled al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the recent Sri Lanka church bombings. It is the doctrine that the U.S. and its allies have been fighting around the globe.
The driver of change is Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The social changes emerging in Saudi Arabia are visible to any visitor – by Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and served in senior national security positions for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-05-01/the-u-s-and-saudi-arabia-can-t-get-a-divorce
My comment: Look who wrote an article, and you know more. – Since more than 50 years, backers of Saudi Arabia cölaim there would be „reforms“ and „change“. LOL.
(B P)
Tera Dahl: Congress should think twice before pulling US support from Yemen
The Senate will vote Thursday to override President Trump’s veto of a resolution pulling American support from Yemen. Congress has used America's relationship with Saudi Arabia as a reason for the resolution, but the Yemen issue is much broader. The outcome of the Yemen war has national security and economic implications for the United States, Europe and the world because of the strategic importance of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
If the U.S. pulls support for the Gulf powers in the Yemen conflict, the Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels could gain control of one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
As the relationship between the U.S. and Iran grows increasingly tense, Iran’s control over global waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz, becomes more important. Iran is using, and will use, any and all leverage it has over the United States, so it is vital not to hand over any additional advantages.
The danger posed by Iranian expansion and overall malign actions in the region is the greater problem. They want to gain access to the Red Sea and control vital economic waterways – by Tera Dahl. Dahl served as deputy chief of staff for the National Security Council in the Trump administration and is a senior fellow at the Security Studies Group.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tera-dahl-congress-senate-yemen-saudi-arabia-iran
My comment: A document of US imperialism logic and of anti-Iranian paranoia. Just look at the twisted wording: „US support“ to Yemen is Dahls labeleing for backing the Saudi coalition bombing Yemen.
(A P)
Houthi militia intensifies civilian suffering for political purposes
The Houthis have intensified civilian suffering in a number of Yemen's regions, Saudi state-news agency SPA reported on Thursday.
According to a recent report issued by the Higher Relief Committee, the Houthis continue to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in a desperate attempt to sway the international community by blocking food supplies to the capital Sanaa and neighboring provinces.
The report, published by the official Yemeni news agency, said that with the approach of the holy month of Ramadan, the Houthis had stepped up their attacks on supply lines of these provinces in an effort to disrupt the arrival of food and intensify the humanitarian tragedy.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4143
(A P)
’22 mln Yemenis food insecure, 3.5 mln displaced because of Houthi coup’
Yemen’s Minister of Industry and Trade said 22 million out of 29 million Yemenis are food insecure and 3.5 million Yemenis were displaced out of their homes because of the Houthi coup on September 21, 2014.
(A P)
Saudi Crown Prince Stresses Kingdom’s Support to Yemen
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, received in Riyadh on Tuesday a delegation of Yemeni lawmakers.
For his part, Prince Mohammed pledged victory to the Yemeni people against the Iran-backed Houthi militias, adding that the Kingdom will always stand by them.
My comment: „Support”: LOL.
(A P)
Yemen Gov’t calls for containing African refugees crisis
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have intensified the recruitment of African refugees and use them in fighting and smuggling invalid materials to Saudi Arabia.
Yemen Local Minister Abdul-Raqeeb Fatah has called the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assume responsibility towards the African refugees flowing to Yemen, find solutions to reduce their flow to Yemen.
Fatah also demanded to prepare housing camps and take needed actions to avoid the refugees of being be recruited by the Houthis.
The Houthis have brought thousands of Africans to Hodeida with the aim of reinforcing their battlefields,
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29553
My comment: “Dozens”, not “thousands”, according to Saudi news site Asharq Al-Awsat. – Look at cp13b above (in French).
(B P)
Trump's Iran Strategy Lacks a Regional Outlook
Disengaging and minimizing the U.S. role in the Middle East will only contribute to conditions that increased the Iranian geopolitical expansion in the first place.
Although financial pressure is essential to thwart Iran’s ability to support terrorism, it is not, by itself, a comprehensive strategy to roll back Iran from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon.
Today, Iran’s malign activities go beyond covert financial support to some underground terrorist groups. Iran is already entrenched in Iraq and Syria, fighting a proxy war in Yemen, and arming and training Shiite militias in Lebanon and other parts of the region.
With Iranian support, the Houthis have become the first militia in the region to possess ballistic missile capabilities threatening the whole region
Today, the Iranian destabilizing intervention in the region has reached an unprecedented level.
So far, U.S. policies toward Iraq, Syria, and Yemen are undermining its strategy toward Iran. Disengaging and minimizing the U.S. role in the region at this stage will only contribute to conditions that increased the Iranian geopolitical expansion in the first place – by Dr. Saad Alsubaie, international security fellow at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations
(B P)
Ramadan Loses its Holy Luster as Houthis Pile on Misery in Sana’a
The residents of Sana’a continue to suffer under the rule of the Iran-backed Houthi militias, with little respite even as the holy fasting month of Ramadan approaches. Normally meant to be a month of spirituality and joy, this year’s month will be met with misery and dread as the Houthis continue their starvation tactics against the people.
Asmaa, a teacher and mother of three, smiles ruefully when replying to whether she was looking forward to Ramadan: “The children and I have been forced to fast for a year now since we have sought refuge in Sanaa from Taiz.”
She speaks to Asharq Al-Awsat about the lack of food and water in Sanaa
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/04/29/ramadan-loses-its-holy-luster-as-houthis-pile-on-misery-in-sanaa/
My comment: The Houthis are blamed for what mostly are the effects of the Saudi blockade.
(A P)
Yemeni Activists decry Houthi Militias Over recruiting Women
Yemeni human rights activists decried Houthi militias over their wide-reaching campaign for recruiting women and girls in territories under their control.
In a fashion which is foreign to Yemen’s Arab heritage, drafted women and minor girls are being trained in armed combat and tasked with specialized missions.
The Iran-backed insurgency group has recently celebrated graduating a new all-female brigade, which joined the religiously branded ‘Zaynabiyat’ force.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/04/25/yemeni-activists-decry-houthi-militias-over-recruiting-women/
My comment: This is propaganda. Why? Redad this: https://medium.com/@samwrax/south-yemen-women-at-the-frontlines-of-war-and-independence-c34dd13e47ec
(A P)
More Saudi coalition „We are benefactors” propaganda
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/03/ksrelief-distributes-food-aids-in-aden/
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4150
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4148
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1491146/saudi-arabia
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids and shelling day by day
(A K pH)
Film: View The house and property of the citizen "Naji Saleh al-Sharji" in the area of the house of the shrapnel in Qtaoba # in Dhala after being targeted by the flight of aggression on Tuesday, 30-04-2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlNTTniD6og
(A K pS)
Saudi-led coalition attacks air base adjoining Sanaa's airport
The Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen raided an air base adjoining Sanaa’s airport, Saudi news agency SPA said on late on Wednesday.
The raids targeted drone maintenance sites, a communications system and locations of drone experts and operators, SPA quoted coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki as saying.
“The terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia have transformed Sanaa airport into a military barracks and a place to launch drones to carry out terrorist attacks that threaten regional and international security”, al-Maliki said.
Al Maliki added that the targets were legitimate and that the operation is consistent with international humanitarian law.
Earlier, Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV said 13 air strikes targeted al-Dulaimi Air Base in Sanaa.
A resident of the capital told Reuters violent explosions rocked the north of the city where Sanaa airport and the military base are located.
My comment: They had targeted this site so often, evidently there would be no more Houthi military capacity at all. Evidently, the Saudi again tells propaganda stories.
Comment: Time and time again, Over and over again, The US-Saudi war criminals hit the Sanaa airport and aerial base next to it, with 14 airstrikes last night. Every time they say they destroyed the Yemen-made drones and communication system and also the experts who make them. 4 years!
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1123806074291806213
(A K pS)
the Arab Coalition also launched air strikes on a Houthi training camp, inflicting heavy damage on the pro-Iran rebels in Hajjah governorate.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4139
(A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
My 3: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6716 Hajjah p.
May 2: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6701 Hajjah p., Asir
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A K pS)
Army downs Houthi drone in Abs district, Hajjah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4155
(A K pH)
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages of Razeh and Munabbih dstricts.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=6716
(* A K)
Battles are raging in Dhale province in southern Yemen as Houthis are pushing towards regions that were retaken from them in mid-2015. Local sources are talking about dozens of casualties from both sides, Houthis & pro-and-anti-Govt southern forces & popular resistance fighters.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1124486544130289664
and
(A K pS)
Houthi group continues targeting the civilians’ houses and properties by Katyusha rockets in Maris villages in Dale governorate (photo)
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1124434693124968455
(A K pS)
Army tightens noose around Houthi militia stronghold in Sa’ada
National army forces continued tightening the noose around the Houthi militia in large areas of Sa’ada province the stronghold of militia.
Amid big losses in the ranks of the coup militia, the army troops were able to regain control several strategic hills and mountains near the center district of Kitaf.
https://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/01/army-tightens-noose-around-houthi-militia-stronghold-in-saada/
(A K pH)
Army kills dozens of mercenaries, destroys 6 military vehicles in Najran
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news535078.htm
My remark: On Saudi territory.
(A K pH)
Army foils Saudi-led infiltration in Jizan
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news535073.htm
My remark: On Saudi territory.
(? B K)
Mideast Insurgents Enter the Age of Drone Warfare
Houthi rebels in Yemen ramp up pilotless attacks; U.N. suspects input from Iran
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched armed drone attacks with far more precision and reach than the U.S. and its Gulf allies have publicly acknowledged, people familiar with the matter said, showing how readily available technology is creating new dangers for America and its allies in the Middle East.
A Houthi drone hit a Saudi Aramco oil refinery outside the capital Riyadh in July, a company executive and a Gulf official said. That month, a Houthi drone evaded Emirati air defenses and exploded at Abu Dhabi’s international airport [subscribers only]
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mideast-insurgents-enter-the-age-of-drone-warfare-11556814441
and
(* B K)
Yemen’s Houthis using armed drones with far more precision: WSJ
Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has considerably upgraded the precision of its armed drones, the Wall Street Journal said in a new report, describing the group as the world’s “most proficient” in using unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Houthis “have launched armed drone attacks with far more precision and reach than the US and its [Persian] Gulf allies have publicly acknowledged,” it quoted people familiar with the matter as saying in its report.
According to the Journal, the Houthis have become one of the most adept groups in the world at using drones in war.
Its technology has evolved from small, propeller-powered surveillance drones to a larger plane-shaped model that can travel more than 900 miles at a speed of 150 mph, covering much of the Persian Gulf, including the Saudi and Emirati capitals, it said.
“We’ve been told at the Wall Street Journal that Houthis began with fairly rudimentary propeller-driven drones that can do damage, but first they are primarily used for surveillance and reconnaissance, not for attack,” WSJ reporter Warren P. Strobel said.
“As time went on, the Houthis became more proficient, and were able to actually conduct attacks, armed attacks, using drones,” he added.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/03/594972/Yemen-houthi-ansarullah-combat-drone-attack
and
(* B K)
Film: Armed Drones Are a Growing Threat From Rebels in Yemen
Yemen’s Houthi rebels are using armed drones with startling success. WSJ reporters describe their increasing sophistication and recent confirmed attacks.
= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmqIgCIS6xg
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(A D)
Film: Culture Office in Taiz opens a visual arts gallery in memory of the artist Hashem Ali
The Culture Office in Taiz, south of Yemen, inaugurated an art gallery at the Fine Arts Hall at Al Taawon Park, in memory of the late Yemeni visual artist Hashem Ali, where the profits of the gallery will be sent to his family members, who have been enduring difficult living conditions following his death in 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAVpQSiAfLY
photo: https://twitter.com/mohammedalqadhi/status/1124383625015975936
(* A D)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Desert Locust Bulletin 487 (April 2019)
While the Desert Locust situation improved along both sides of the Red Sea during April, it intensified in spring breeding areas of Saudi Arabia and Iran.
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/desert-locust-bulletin-487-april-2019
(* B P)
59% of Arab youth view the US as an 'enemy' since Trump was elected - survey
Two-thirds of Arab youth viewed Iran as the region's biggest enemy
The number of Arab young people who view the United States as an enemy has risen since President Donald Trump was elected in 2017, according to the results of the latest ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey.
The results of the annual survey, which has been running since 2008, were released on Tuesday. It includes 3,300 face-to-face interviews with Arab youth aged 18 to 24 years. Interviews were carried out between January 6 and 29 in 15 Arab states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Yemen.
The results found that the percentage of young Arabs who view the US as an adversary has nearly doubled since 2016. In 2016, towards the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, 32 percent said they viewed the US as an enemy. This rose to 49 percent in 2017 when Donald Trump was elected to the Oval Office and this year it stood at 59 percent.
When asked which other countries they viewed as an enemy, 67 percent of survey respondents said Iran, 36 percent said Russia and just 7 percent said the UAE.
(* D)
Film: Jemen - Land zwischen Paradies und Bürgerkrieg
In dem vom Bürgerkrieg erschütterten Land Jemen ist die Insel Socotra ein Ort des Friedens und bietet unvergleichliche Naturschönheiten. Das vor der Küste Somalias gelegene Archipel war schon im Altertum eine Handelsniederlassung entlang des Seewegs nach Indien. Der Apostel Thomas gründete im 1. Jahrhundert hier die erste christliche Kirche. Heute ist Socotra zu 100% moslemisch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylWUP7Ci_sI
(* D)
Photos: Socotra Island
The most alien-looking place on Earth.
The island of Socotra is part of an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is so isolated that a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. Notable are the dragon’s blood trees that look like flying saucers perched on trunks.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/socotra-island
Vorige / Previous
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-533-yemen-war-mosaic-533
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-533/ Yemen War Mosaic 1-533:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
und alle Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
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