... Die USA, die Emirate und der Krieg gegen Iran – Wachsende Spannungen im Mittleren Osten, die USA bereiten Krieg gegen Iran vor – und mehr
May 23, 2019: Radhya Al-Mutawakel on the Yemen War – European banks are financing arms producers – CNN: Systematic abuse of aid in Yemen – Yemen as international battleground – The US, the Emirates and war with Iran – Growing tensions in the Middle East, US preparing war against Iran – and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
cp19a USA bereitet Krieg gegen Iran vor / The US is preparing war against Iran
cp19b Weitere Spannungen im Mittleren Osten / More tensions in the Middle East
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
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Film: War in Yemen: 'The UK, US and France are not putting enough pressure on Saudi Arabia'
Radhya Al-Mutawakel is chairperson of the organisation Mwatana for Human Rights. She believes the UK, US and France are prolonging the war in Yemen - which they say they want to end - through their continued sale of arms to the Saudi-led coalition. More than two-thirds of the Yemeni population depend on aid to survive and millions are on the verge of starvation. Our guest says lasting peace will be achieved only when all parties involved in the conflict are held accountable for their actions.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190522-perspective-radhya-al-mutawakel-mwatana-war-yemen-us-uk-france-arms-saudi-coalition = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqvURtQahcY
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Wie Europas Banken Waffen finanzieren
Trotz Exportstopps bleibt die Finanzierung von Rüstungsgeschäften lukrativ. Laut einer Studie unterstützen die zehn größten europäischen Banken Rüstungsfirmen mit mehr als 24 Milliarden Euro.
Der Krieg im Jemen wird vor allem aus der Luft geführt. Europäische Unternehmen wie das Eurofighter-Konsortium, an dem auch Airbus beteiligt ist, lieferten seit Kriegsbeginn mindestens 72 Eurofighter an Saudi-Arabien. Hunderte Marschflugkörper, mehrere Tausend Luft-Boden-Raketen und Kampfflugzeuge exportierte die britische Rüstungsfirma BAE Systems - finanziert unter anderem von der Deutschen Bank.
Auch die Commerzbank ist an Rüstungsfirmen beteiligt, deren Waffen im Jemen-Krieg tödlich sind. Wie das US-Unternehmen Lockheed Martin, dessen Bombe MK 82 bei einem Angriff auf einen Bus im Jemen zum Einsatz kam. 40 Kinder und elf Erwachsene wurden dabei getötet. Das geht aus der Studie "Dirty Profits" hervor.
Die Menschenrechtsorganisation "Facing Finance", Herausgeber der Studie, hat elf Rüstungsunternehmen untersucht, die in den vergangenen vier Jahren die Region Nahost und Nordafrika beliefert haben. Demnach finanzierten zehn europäische Top-Banken diese Firmen mit 24 Milliarden Euro. Die Deutsche Bank beteiligte sich im Zeitraum November 2015 bis Januar 2019 an Projekten von sieben der elf untersuchten Unternehmen im Volumen von insgesamt 1,8 Milliarden Euro.
"Es ist erschreckend zu beobachten, wie europäische Top-Banken, offenbar unbeeindruckt von Zerstörung, Tod und Vertreibung, Rüstungsexporte finanzieren, die seit Jahren die Parteien des Jemen-Krieges mit Waffen beliefern", beklagt Thomas Küchenmeister von "Facing Finance".
Und was sagen die Bankkunden? Fast zwei Drittel der Deutschen wollen laut Umfragen einen Stopp aller Rüstungsexporte und ihr Geld nicht an Unternehmen mit Rüstungsgeschäften verleihen. Dabei landet das Geld der Sparer durchaus auch bei Rüstungsfirmen. Die größten deutschen Fondsanbieter haben bislang keine kategorischen Ausschlusskriterien für die Waffen- und Rüstungsindustrie.
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/banken-ruestungsgeschaefte-101.html
und
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Friede sei mit euch! Wie der Krieg im Jemen Europas Kassen klingeln lässt – auch die der Deutschen Bank
Der heute in Frankfurt/Main von der NGO Facing Finance vorgestellte Bericht DIRTY Profits 7 deckt die Finanzbeziehungen der 10 europäischen TOP-Banken zu Rüstungsexporteuren auf, die seit 2015 in die krisenbehaftete MENA-Region (Nahost und Nordafrika) und damit besonders für den Jemen-Krieg Waffen lieferten.
Das Ergebnis: Alle 11 untersuchten Rüstungsunternehmen, die in die MENA-Region exportiert haben, was die von Saudi-Arabien angeführte Kriegsallianz einschließt, wurden in einer Größenordnung von über 24 Mrd. Euro von den 10 europäischen TOP-Banken finanziert. Darunter befinden sich auch die Deutsche Bank und die Commerzbank. Das Gesamtvolumen der Aktien- und Anleiheinvestitionen der 10 Banken in die untersuchten Rüstungsunternehmen liegt bei ca. 9,9 Mrd. €. Zudem sind die größten deutschen Vermögensverwalter bzw. ihre Kund*innen (u.a. Allianz, DWS, Union Investment, und Deka Investments) mit über 5,5 Mrd. Euro in die Rüstungsunternehmen investiert.
Die NGOs Facing Finance, urgewald, Mwatana (Jemen) und BankTrack nehmen den Bericht zum Anlass, um vor und während der Hauptversammlung der Deutschen Bank am 23.5. in Frankfurt gegen die Finanzierung der Waffenlieferungen an die Jemen-Kriegskoalition zu protestieren.
Die Deutsche Bank vergab im Zeitraum November 2015 bis Januar 2019 Finanzierungen an 7 der 11 untersuchten Rüstungsunternehmen im Wert von insgesamt 1,8 Mrd. €. Sie ist zudem an allen 11 untersuchten Unternehmen im Wert von ca. 2,6 Mrd. € beteiligt (s. Abbildung 2). Die Bank ist damit einer der größten Investoren in Rüstungsunternehmen unter allen untersuchten Banken.
Das von den drei Unternehmen Airbus, Leonardo und BAE Systems geformte Konsortium MBDA exportierte unter anderem 450 Marschflugkörper, mehrere Tausend Luft-Boden-Raketen und Kampfflugzeuge nach SaudiArabien, die erwiesenermaßen auch im Jemen-Krieg zum Einsatz kommen. Die Deutsche Bank unterstützte im Untersuchungszeitraum die Geschäftsmodelle dieser drei Unternehmen mit Finanzierungen in Höhe von ca. 730 Millionen Euro, teilweise noch in 2018.
„Europäische TOP-Banken tragen mit ihrer finanziellen Unterstützung für Rüstungsexporteure, die seit Jahren für den Jemen-Krieg Waffen liefern, Mitverantwortung für die derzeit größte humanitäre Katastrophe auf diesem Planeten“, beklagt Thomas Küchenmeister, geschäftsführender Vorstand von Facing Finance und Herausgeber des DIRTY Profits-Berichtes.
Die Transaktionen der Deutschen Bank von November 2015 bis Januar 2019 zeigen, dass die Deutsche Bank an sieben der untersuchten Rüstungsunternehmen insgesamt 1,8 Mrd. € an Direktfinanzierungen vergeben hat und an allen 11 Unternehmen 2,6 Mrd. € beteiligt ist (s. Abbildung 2). Die Bank ist damit einer der größten Investoren in Rüstungsunternehmen unter allen untersuchten Banken.
Im Rahmen des Dirty Profits 7 wurde die Finanzierungen und Investitionen der Deutschen Bank in der Rüstungsindustrie untersucht. Das Ergebnis zeigt: auch die Deutsche Bank unterstützt Rüstungsunternehmen durch Finanzierungen und Investitionen. Obwohl die finanzielle Unterstützung der Verteidigungsindustrie rechtlich völlig erlaubt ist, gibt es doch zahlreiche Informationen über Mensc
Beispielhaft für problematische Lieferungen sind unter anderem die Unternehmen BAE System und Raytheon.
http://www.facing-finance.org/de/2019/05/press-release-as-salaam-alaikum-peace-be-with-you-how-the-war-in-yemen-is-filling-the-coffers-of-european-banks/ = http://www.facing-finance.org/files/2019/05/DP7_final-1.pdf = https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/studie-ruestung-101~_origin-42de1e95-f570-4657-a9f4-42480b991223.pdf
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Out of Control: Irresponsible weapons transfers and future weapon systems
Executive Summary
This study examines which European banks are the largest funders of the top nine global defence companies (and the two largest German defense companies).* It specifically looks at the extent to which these 11 companies are engaged in controversial arms trade** in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.*** The study also looks at which of the top ten defense companies are engaged in the production of controversial weapons. This includes – to a lesser extent – the production of key components of nuclear weapons, but focuses on the emergence of new controversial technologies- namely the emergence of socalled Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS).
The study shows that arms are being exported by global defense companies to controversial countries in the MENA region- to countries in armed conflict, unfree countries, and to (highly) repressive regimes. While accurate values of these arms flows are not available, this study looks at the scale of the flows between 2015 and 2018 to countries defined as controversial.
The study also shows that all of the defense companies are developing increasingly autonomous weapon systems (AWS), showing that these weapons are emerging as key technologies of future warfare and are part of a current global high-tech arms race.
All of the top 9 (and the two German) global defense companies have exported to controversial countries in the MENA region, the largest (by volume) of these exporters are Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In addition, Airbus, Leonardo and BAE in part through the joint venture MBDA have exported large numbers of arms to controversial countries – most notably to Saudi Arabia and Egypt (both also part of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen). The largest volume of exports overall has been to Saudi Arabia and the UAE – countries not only considered controversial for arms exports due to being defined as unfree countries, but also due to their role in the war in Yemen.
Of the 25 countries in the MENA region, 16 are considered to be controversial for arms exports – 14 of these were in armed conflict, 9 were unfree regimes, and all except one had high or very high levels of corruption.
Where banks invest in companies exporting to controversial countries (i.e. those companies that have supplied arms to countries in armed conflict, repressive regimes, fragile states, and non-state actors; to countries where corruption is rife and; where products and services supplied/sold affect the sustainable development of poor countries) this exposes banks to significant risk of being linked to human rights abuses and violations. It is essential that banks ensure that they investigate the practices of arms producing and exporting defense companies and that their policies prevent financing and investing in companies that could be linked to these types of controversy. In addition, banks must ensure that they restrict finance to companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons and components.
The ten banks were selected based on the amounts of finance and investment provided to the 11 companies. Those European banks with the largest finance provided were selected.
The banks shown in this report have each provided finance to at least three of the companies shown here, some banks have provided loan, bond and equity issuances to as many as 8 of the arms companies. The total finance provided to all these companies amounts to roughly €24.2 billion.
Lloyds Bank and UniCredit were the largest overall providers of finance to the companies, totalling €4.1 billion each. The Italian bank, UniCredit, provided loans and bond issuances to Northrop Grumman (which is involved in nuclear weapons) between 2016 and 2018, totalling €2.8 billion euro. Lloyds provided numerous loan and bond issuances to General Dynamics (which has exported to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and is involved in the production of nuclear weapons) totalling €2.4 billion. Credit Agricole came in third with financings of €3.4 billion which included €1.2 billion to Lockheed Martin.
Credit Agricole was the largest investor in the companies with investments (shareholdings and bond holdings) of €3.2 billion. Deutsche Bank ranks second in investments with holdings in all of the companies, totalling €2.6 billion. Total investments in all companies by the banks is €9.9 billion. Lloyds and UniCredit had the lowest holdings in the arms companies.
http://www.facing-finance.org/files/2019/05/ff_dp7_ONLINE_v02.pdf
If this link does not work, try via this one: https://twitter.com/FacingFinance/status/1131160170237612032
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CNN exposes systematic abuse of aid in Yemen
But, according to UN reports and CNN reporting on the ground, some of that food is being stolen by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, on a scale far greater than has been reported before.
Last year the United Nations found 1% of aid was going missing, acknowledging that the abuse could be more widespread. Now, a CNN undercover investigation has found dozens of areas in the war-torn country where -- on paper -- aid has been delivered. But in reality, many families are not being helped.
The UN suspects that supplies are being diverted away from famished children toward fighters or supporters of the Iran-backed forces that control much of the country, though the Houthis and their officials deny this. One Houthi aid coordination director called the allegations "crazy."
They are victims of a spat between the UN's World Food Programme and a Houthi-appointed aid agency that had the contracts to distribute WFP food but failed to account for who was getting what. The WFP switched to a different local NGO in Bani Qais, where Issham lives, but humanitarian and local sources said that aid was now being held up because local tribal leaders associated with the Houthi government were blocking its work.
"They don't reach us here. They used to give us grains and flour but then they refused to give it to anyone. They don't give us anything," said Issham's mother, Hajja Ibrahim.
On a 2,500-mile (4,000-km) journey through Yemen's mountains and along its coastline, CNN investigated missing supplies and the systematic diversion of aid and corruption in Houthi-controlled areas.
We spoke to Yemeni and international NGO staff, local officials and residents in four provinces held by the Houthis and obtained United Nations documents detailing the previously hidden scale of the problem.
Missing supplies, missing money
In March, CNN met a dozen women at the headquarters of the Amanat El-Asemah, the local municipal authority in charge of aid distribution in Sanaa that the WFP said was at the center of the aid manipulation. Each complained they had not received aid.
Amira Saleh says she found her name listed as a beneficiary, but told us she and her family of 10 last received aid six months ago. She also found records indicating she received 110,000 Yemeni riyals (about $440) from another charity, but she says she received nothing.
Around her, women in black face veils said they were repeatedly refused aid because they don't have documents -- like electricity bills and school certificates -- which can only be obtained from the towns they fled.
UN takes drastic action
CNN's investigation found the issue affects many more than those in the capital.
Some 33 areas in Yemen showed a wide gap between the amount of aid that has been officially delivered and the impact on the ground, according to internal aid documents reviewed by CNN.
Twenty of these areas, including Bani Qais, were in Houthi-controlled territories, where 70% of Yemenis live, the documents showed.
And now, without Houthi permission to change aid distribution partners and monitor where the aid is going, the WFP aid has not reached its intended beneficiaries.
There is a gulf of mistrust between the Houthis and the WFP. The Houthis want more Yemeni staff involved -- an argument heard elsewhere in the world where the notion that foreigners can fix local problems is often considered absurd. But the UN group and other foreign NGOs say they have been punished for wanting to monitor their operations.
They say that complaints about this have led to further restrictions imposed by the Houthi government, delays on visas or the refusal to issue them at all.
Food for favors
In March this year, the WFP was also still struggling to get permission for monitors to keep an eye on food distributions in Saada, deep in Houthi territory in the far northwest of the country, 20 or so miles from the Saudi border.
Several diplomats and sources inside the humanitarian agencies said some aid was being diverted to fighting units or sold on the open market, but most was being used to buy political support for the Houthi cause.
Houthis say they are 'happy' with aid
The Houthis rejected the accusations put to them by CNN – By Sam Kiley, Sarah El Sirgany and Brice Lainé, CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/20/middleeast/yemen-houthi-aid-investigation-kiley/index.html
Film: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/05/20/yemen-houthi-un-food-kiley-pkg-vpx.cnn
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Yemen: A tragic battleground will get bloodier amid US-Iran tensions
Iran is likely to use the Houthis to give Saudi Arabia and by extension the US, a bloody nose - ruining any chance for peace in the process.
Last week witnessed a significant escalation between the Saudi-UAE coalition and the Houthi rebels, eroding around six months of discussions in Yemen following the Yemen Peace Talks in Sweden at the end of 2018.
The Houthi Defence Ministry stated that the recent drone strikes came as the first shot of a military operation which includes a list of 300 targets in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Recent developments have severely undermined all peace efforts following the talks in Sweden, and have revealed the true nature of the military sophistication of the Houthis.
The huge focus on resolving the conflict in Hodeidah has only posed as a distraction from the other major emerging conflict in the country.
These steps would seem positive ones only if new major fighting fronts did not emerge; such as the Houthi drone strikes against Saudi Arabia, the ground fighting in Hajjah, Taiz and Al Dhale, among other areas in Yemen, causing more civilian casualties, and the fact that the fight against famine and cholera is still not over.
The failure to completely resolve the Hodeidah battle means that we are now back to square one. UN peace efforts will remain limited in what they can achieve because international dynamics tend to play a more decisive role in the trajectory of the conflict and its resolution.
Nothing enhances or undermines peace efforts in Yemen as much as external factors do.
While UN peace efforts have been impeded, there has been an opportunity for the Houthis to reposition themselves and improve their ballistic missile technology - primarily obtained from assassinated former president Saleh’s air munitions.
In other words, crippling peace efforts helped the Houthis buy time to enhance their military force.
Recent Houthi drone strikes, however, are different. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of 'ordering' the attack, something the Saudis didn’t do in the previous incidents. The geopolitical dimension in this war is slowly coming to the fore.
Stuck between the US and Iran
Amidst the economic, proxy, and information wars between the US (and its close allies, Saudi Arabia and UAE) and Iran, Yemen is a battleground for them all. Iran’s desire not to go into a direct military confrontation with the US or Saudi Arabia has only meant that it has a desire to confront through proxy, with Yemen and the Houthis as its trump card.
With little or no evidence that Iran was militarily supporting the Houthis, the Saudis imposed themselves in this war. As it raged on, the Saudi claim has come true.
Iran’s influence throughout the war has dramatically increased – which is crucial to understanding the conflict’s direction. An investigation by Conflict Armament Research points out that some “Iranian technology transfers to Houthi rebels”.
Objectively, whether militarily or diplomatically, the Saudi-UAE coalition enjoys global goodwill and support while the Houthis have only the support of Iran and Hezbollah. Attacking Saudi oil facilities – claimed by Houthis – and the Iran-US crisis is connected. It's impossible to believe the timing is coincidental.
The logical conclusion is that the higher the tensions between the US and Iran, the more Iran will use Yemen as a battleground to antagonise the US and its partner, Saudi Arabia.
All UN diplomatic efforts seem futile, as international actors involved in the conflict continue to shape it through their rivalries. Unless we witness a drastic shift in these states, greater violence is coming – by Afrah Nasser
http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/2019/05/yemen-tragic-battleground-will-get.html = https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/yemen-a-tragic-battleground-will-get-bloodier-amid-us-iran-tensions-26829
My comment: „Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of 'ordering' the attack“: I believe this mainly is propaganda. The Saudis now try to play the Iran card in the case of Yemen – because now, with a looming US war against Iran which the Saudis desire to start soon, this would give them more leverage against Iran, hoping to create a pretense for an US attack.
The main problem of foreign interference – next to the Saudi / UAE war in Yemen – is the role of the US as supporter of the Saudi / UAE coalition. For years, US propaganda told us that the Houthis would be an Iranian proxy force. Now, with mounting tensions in the Middle East and the US increasing its aggressive behavior and preparing a war against Iran, for the US government, Yemen is merely seen through the lens of anti-Iranian policy. As the US ramps up its war against Iran, this would include any war against presumed Iranian proxies in Yemen, and therefor there will be little interest in the US to slow down the Yemen war and to pressure US allies to work on a political settlement.
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War With Iran Would Benefit the Emirates, Not the U.S.
With legislators and public alike focused on Saudi influence, another Gulf country's lobbying efforts are flying under the radar.
National Security Advisor John Bolton seems itching to provoke a war with Iran, claiming that when Iranian-backed groups like the Houthis attack oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia, Iran is effectively threatening U.S. interests. And one country benefiting from each of these U.S. foreign policy decisions is the United Arab Emirates.
Contrary to popular perception, the UAE has repeatedly outspent Saudi Arabia when it comes to lobbying money in the United States. In 2017, the UAE government spentover $21 million as compared to Saudi Arabia’s roughly $14 million—a gap that persisted in 2018 as well.
The money has bought them interesting friends on both sides of the aisle in Washington, as well as in other capitals around the world. According to FARA registration, David Rothkopf, the former editor of Foreign Policy magazine and a former Clinton administration official, is being paid $50,000 a month by the UAE for media advice—a relationship that was initially not disclosed in his opinion pieces or television appearances discussing Middle East politics. The UAE has given money to the Center for American Progress
While the killing of former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and the historic rejection by the United States Congress of support for the war in Yemen, has brought fresh scrutiny to Saudi Arabia’s financial influence and lobbying efforts, the UAE has mostly avoided this backlash
What the UAE wants is pretty clear. Its autocratic government fears political Islamand democracy. The Emirati government thus backs Haftar over the UN-recognized government in Libya, a democratically elected but struggling transitional government. It wants the Muslim Brotherhood not only outlawed but labeled a terrorist organization. The UAE is currently trying to influence the peaceful revolution in Sudan by providing direct aid to the military
Gulf influence over U.S. policy was evident in President Obama’s administration, too.
In classic international relations theory, a client state is a state that is economically, politically, or military subordinate to another more powerful state. Thus, the United Arab Emirates is at least theoretically a client state of the United States. But while United States provides markets, weapons, and military protection to the UAE, the UAE’s interests and goals seem to be driving United States policy in the Middle East. It exposes a tautology at the heart of current foreign policy commitments: We continue to hold onto the UAE as a partner because we regard them as needed to counter Iranian expansion and hegemony over the Middle East; the UAE requires us to act to protect them from Iran. The result is that the U.S. looks the other way when the UAE intervenes in the Middle East and North Africa region, and American administrations frequently make decisions seemingly contrary to stated foreign policy interests of the United States, which formally values the spread of democracy and human rights.
Now, these ties seem to be pushing the U.S. toward a disastrous war with Iran.
It was a remarkable turn of events, the U.S. both holding the Iranian government accountable for Houthi actions and, implicitly, declaring it a U.S. responsibility to punish the UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s enemies. Despite Iran lacking a nuclear bomb and posing no threat to the United States homeland, U.S. officials are now openly contemplating engaging in what would likely be the most devastating war the region has seen. With stakes this high, at this point we should all be questioning the process by which the United States produces its foreign policy – by Tyler Bellstrom
https://newrepublic.com/article/153974/war-iran-benefit-emirates-not-us
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
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World Health Organization: Yemen: Health Cluster Bulletin, April 2019
From 1 January 2019 to 28 April 2019, the cumulative figures were - 278,584 suspected cholera cases, 99,217 rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) were performed, 57,197 RDT positive, 2,915 confirmed cases with 561 associated deaths and a CFR of 0.20%. Children under five years of age represent 22.6% of the total suspected cases. The proportion of severe cases is 17%.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-health-cluster-bulletin-april-2019
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K pS)
Army engineering teams dismantle explosive network planted by Houthis south of Hodeidah
On Tuesday, the national army found the network in a tunnel under the highway, near Al-Manthar Square, south of the city.
The tunnel, which was discovered, contains dozens of explosive barrels, each weighing about 80 kg.
(A H K pH)
Film: #AlDurayhimi of #Hudaydah gov residents: besieged brutally by the coalition forces, starving them to death; lose the limbs by cluster bombs; & yet are shelled by the aggression with minimal or no medical services.
https://twitter.com/mamashami/status/1131321860082343937
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Tuesday, May 21st, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7039
(A K pS)
Houthi militia continues shelling civilians houses and popular markets in Hodiedah
(A K pS)
Family injured in Houthi shelling in Hays, Hodeidah
A man, his wife and two children were injured, including serious injuries in a violent bombardment by the Iran-backed militias on residential neighborhoods of Hays district, south of Hodeidah, Al-Amalika Media Centre reported on Wednesday.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4320
and also http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/22/houthi-shelling-hits-family-injures-four-members/
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GwQBjjid38
(A K P)
Meeting To Discuss Vessel Inspection Mechanism in Hodeidah Ports
A joint meeting of the members of the Technical Committee, which was assigned by the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation and the United Nations Monitoring Team at Hodeidah Port, was held today morning to discuss the mechanism of the work to be carried out to inspect vessels arriving at the port of Hodeidah. They discussed the mechanism of control of vessels carrying large "bulk" shipments, split shipments, oil derivatives and containers.
UNVIM can play its role in improving the inspection process and lifting the siege Imposed on the entry of goods and goods
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7022
(A K pS)
Houthis intensify digging trenches in Hodeida
Houthis have intensified the digging of trenches and plantation of mines in the Hodeida Airport and surrounding areas.
Military sources said that Houthis deployed tanks
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29929
(A K pS)
Houthis send massive reinforcement to Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4311
(A K pS)
Houthis pound al-Amalika positions in Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4313
(A K pH)
Air Defenses of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees Down Spy Drone in Hodeidah
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7026
(A K pH)
In Hodeidah, a child was injured with US-Saudi mercenaries' gunshots in Attohayta district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7024
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON MAY 22, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-may-22-2019-map-update/
ANSAR ALLAH CAPTURED 13 VILLAGES FROM SAUDI-LED FORCES IN YEMEN’S DHALE PROVINCE (MAP UPDATE)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON MAY 21, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-may-21-2019-map-update/
(* B P)
Is Partition Becoming a Reality in Yemen?
Developments in Yemen today help paint a picture of military stalemate
The political process for ending the conflict does not appear to be succeeding.
But all these specific problems do not obviate the reality of Yemen as a proxy battlefield for regional actors.
The regional influence is also manifesting in different approaches to the Yemeni factions opposed to the Houthis, thus weakening the overall effort to confront them. While the Saudi government has so far stood behind President Hadi as the representative of legitimate authority in Yemen, the UAE has preferred alternative leadership that guards its own long-term interests in the country and its surroundings.
Over the last few months, Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC), which the UAE helped bring into being following its entry into the Arab coalition’s war, has taken some important steps toward establishing itself as a sovereign authority in Aden and the country’s south.
The UAE’s plans for the south of Yemen do not appear to be registering much Saudi criticism or warnings about negative repercussions in the future. In fact, Yemen’s President Hadi was said to be practically under house arrest in Riyadh in 2018.
with the continued military and political stalemate with the Houthis, the world may be looking at the reemergence of an independent South Yemen—the UN’s Griffiths’s mission to find a political solution for the entire country notwithstanding.
If this is the case, then it is possible to think that the Saudi-led coalition’s insistence on completely controlling Hodeida is but one important part of an elaborate plan to compensate Hadi and his government for the assured loss of Aden, which will be the seat of a new south Yemeni state controlled by the UAE. Such a state may not see the wisdom of continuing to fight the Houthis and may very well let the north bleed in a war between the insurgents and Hadi supporters for control over Sanaa. In that eventuality, Saudi Arabia will be left with only two equally problematic choices: committing to support Hadi’s attempt to return to the capital––thus perpetuating the drain on its economy and moral standing––or abandoning the fight and letting the Houthis control what, to Riyadh, would most definitely be a state controlled by Iran – by Imad K. Harb
http://arabcenterdc.org/policy_analyses/is-partition-becoming-a-reality-in-yemen/
(A P)
The First Official Appearance Since His Father’s Death.. Ahmed Ali Salih Appears With Leader In Separatist “Transitional” Ben Brik
Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the son of the former Yemeni president appeared in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi with the vice president of the so-called transitional council, Hani Ben Brik, as his first official appearance since his father was killed by the Houthis in December 2017.
https://www.adennews.net/en/yemen-english-74386
(B K P)
Yemen’s Civil War Is Spilling Deeper Into the Gulf Region
[overview]
(A K P)
Rising US-Iran tensions risk endangering Yemen peace efforts, UK government warns
'I will raise this with President Trump when he comes; I have discussed this with Secretary Pompeo,' says Jeremy Hunt
The cautious progress being painstakingly achieved on the ground in Yemen’s bitter civil war risks being jeopardised by the rising tensions between the US and Iran, the foreign secretary has warned.
Jeremy Hunt stressed that he would raise his concerns over the issue with Donald Trump when the US president comes to the UK for his state visit in early June and has discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
(* B K P)
Jemen durch Krieg um Vierteljahrhundert zurückgeworfen
UNDP-Leiter: 80 Prozent der 28 Millionen Einwohner auf Hilfe angewiesen
Der Bürgerkrieg im Jemen hat das bitterarme Land auf der arabischen Halbinsel nach Einschätzung der UNO Jahrzehnte in die Vergangenheit katapultiert. Der Jemen sei nach vier Jahren Krieg "in seiner Entwicklung fast um ein Vierteljahrhundert zurückgeworfen worden", sagte der Leiter des UN-Entwicklungsprogramms UNDP, Achim Steiner, am Montag.
80 Prozent der etwa 28 Millionen Jemeniten seien auf Hilfe angewiesen. "Zehn Millionen Menschen sind wortwörtlich eine Mahlzeit vom Verhungern entfernt", so Steiner bei einer Veranstaltung des "Council on Foreign Relations".
Dem deutschen UN-Diplomaten Steiner zufolge habe die internationale Gemeinschaft bei dem Konflikt mit ihrer anfänglichen Passivität zu dem Desaster beigetragen: "Ich glaube, im Jemen haben wir traurigerweise viel zu lange gewartet", bis auch den an dem Stellvertreterkrieg beteiligten Mächten klar geworden sei, dass der Konflikt sich nicht von selbst löse oder gewonnen werden könnte.
https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000103529542/jemen-durch-krieg-vierteljahrhundert-zurueckgeworfen
Mein Kommentar: Der Vergleich mit der Vergangenheit ist schräg. Vor 25 Jahren – ohne einen solchen Krieg – ging es den Jemeniten sicher wesentlich besser. – Und: Steiner verharmlost die Rolle des Westens. Der Westen hat im Jemen auf nichts „gewartet“, sondern war von Anfang an aktiv beteiligt und schuldig: durch seine Waffenlieferung und die Unterstützung für die saudische Koalition hat er das Desaster überhaupt erst ermöglicht.
(* B K P)
Yemen's Houthis step up drone attacks on Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia this week in a resurgence of tactics that had largely subsided since late last year amid United Nations-led peace efforts.
It was not yet clear how the rising tension could impact a regional ceasefire and troop withdrawal deal in Hodeidah - the first major diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
My comment: Overview article, somewhat biased in favor of the Saudi coalition.
(* B H K)
Yemeni Photographers Show the Horrors of the Country's Civil War
The five-year conflict has left 80 percent of the population in desperate need.
VICE Arabia partnered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a collective of six young Yemeni photographers who have been chronicling the terrible impact of the conflict on their respective communities..
"I wanted my photography to be human, to convey a message and to instigate change," the 28-year-old says. "I honestly hope to go back to taking pictures of tourists and joyful moments in the city. But that's impossible now, because someone needs to tell the story of the war."
Scroll down to see more photos from photographers Ali Al Sonidar, Ahmad Al Basha, Karrar al-Moayyad, Saleh Bahlais, Abdallah Al Jaradi and Khaled Al Thawr.
and
(* B H K)
Yemen in sobering photos
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has released a dozen photographs, which it has described as a harrowing depiction of the current state of nature in war-torn Yemen
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/21/596511/Yemen-misery-Red-Cross-pictures-Saudi-Arabia
(A K P)
Film: Hassan Al-Haifi war live.
What happened to post? Got erased with tags!!?
https://www.facebook.com/hassan.alhaifi/videos/2270995506280738/
(* B K P)
From the Middle East to Northern Ireland, Western States are All Too Happy to Avoid Culpability for War Crimes
When is a war crime not a war crime? When it’s committed by us, of course.
But this truism is taking on a new and sinister meaning today – and not just because Trump and his crackpots may be planning another clutch of atrocities in the Middle East.
For there is now a dangerous slippage becoming apparent in which western states are more ready than ever to countenance military crimes against humanity, to accept them, approve of them and to expect us to connive at these gross and sickening breaches of international law – by Robert Fisk
(* B K)
Deep Complicity’: US-Supported Saudi Strikes Close Hundreds of Yemeni Hospitals
Yemeni Minister of Public Health and Population Taha Al-Mutwakel recently confirmed that at least 425 medical centers have been targeted by the Saudi-led coalition since the civil war began in Yemen in 2015.
"During the four years of war on Yemen, hospitals have been repeatedly targeted and destroyed by the Saudi-led coalition which does not value human life, and does not observe humanitarian principles, and all Yemeni people including women and children have been attacked in this war," Al-Mutwakel recently told Iran Press.
"Access to medical facilities is crucial right now for this population," El-Tayyab told Sputnik. "We've got outbreaks of cholera and other preventable diseases that are occurring, and to have these hospitals not in operation when you've got a cholera outbreak of 1.3 million people and 14 million people on the brink of famine is devastating."
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201905211075178791-us-supported-saudi-strikes-yemeni-hospitals/
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B H)
The Women of Sheba: Stories of Resilience in Yemen
A comic strip on violence against women in Yemen
https://www.oxfam.ca/blog/women-of-sheba-stories-of-resilience-in-yemen/
(* B H)
THE CLOSURE OF SANA’A INT. AIRPORT RESULTED IN THE DEATHS OF MORE THAN 30 THOUSAND PATIENT
Ministry of Health and Population spokesman, Dr. Youssef Al-Hadhery, confirmed that United Nations is not responding to urgent calls for help on urgent medical devices.
In a statement to Al-Masirah channel, Al-Hadhery said that that the closure of Sana’a Int. Airport resulted in the deaths of more than 30 thousand patients, and now we need to send out 300,000 cases for treatment.
He called on the United Nations to play its role in providing the necessary equipment and medicnes to treat thousands of cases. “What will the United Nations lose if it cooperates in transferring patients to countries that offered their assistance to the Yemeni people?” he asked.
The Ministry of Public Health and Population has confirmed on Saturday, that between 92 to 95% of the devices in hospitals, health centres and units in Yemen has been out of service due to required maintenance or broken, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry end of 2018.
(A H P)
High-Level Saudi-UAE-OCHA Humanitarian Meeting to Support Yemen Held at KSrelief HQ in Riyadh
In addition to addressing the meeting’s agenda, Saudi Arabia and the UAE also signed two agreements – one with the World Health Organization (WHO), and one with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The joint project with WHO will support Yemen’s WASH sector and treat malnutrition with a total funding amount of USD 40 million. The joint project with UNICEF will combat cholera at a total cost of USD 20 million.
My comment: The greatest perpetrators playing benefactors.
(B H)
World Health Organization: Yemen: Health Cluster Bulletin, April 2019
A total of 2,892 Health Facilities (17 Governorate Hospitals, 112 District Hospitals, 57 General Hospitals, 19 Specialized Hospitals, 907 Health Centers and 1,756 Health Units) are supported by Health Cluster Partners.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-health-cluster-bulletin-april-2019
(A H)
Film: Travel to #Hajjah governorate. #Yemen. #Ramadan food baskets distribution.
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1131202088518733825
(* B H)
Film: Yemeni children victims of the US-Saudi siege, after 5 years only more at risk 20-05-2019
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2304678229789629
(* B H)
Starving Yemen's drug problem
These figures for consumption of khat aren't guesses, they're government estimates, underpinned by the World Health Organization in 2008, which also notes that 15-20% of children under 12 also chew the drug.
The Ministry of Agriculture further reckons that a third of agricultural land and a third of water for farming is taken up with growing the drug.
Many officials believe that these figures may be woefully low -- some studies, cited by the United Nations, suggest that 60% of Yemen's farmland is given over to khat.
And anecdotally, on a 2,500-mile (4,000km) drive around the Houthi-held north of the country, which is divided by civil war, it is very clear that khat (Catha Edulis) is the region's preferred crop.
Which is odd when one considers that the UN's World Food Programme estimates that it will have to feed 12 million Yemenis this year. Before the latest round of conflict blew up four years ago, the WFP fed a million.
Even khat dealers think that it's silly for a nation, which is dangerously short of food, to be growing an inedible narcotic.
Chewing khat is a traditional and central part of Yemeni life. Afternoons are spent chatting, chewing, and sipping endless small glasses of sugary tea.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/21/middleeast/yemen-khat-kiley/index.html
and film: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/05/21/yemen-famine-khat-biggest-crop-kiley-pkg-vpx.cnn
(A H P)
Yemeni government insists on correcting the relief work mechanism and reviewing the list of local partners
The Yemeni government has stressed the need for a comprehensive correction of the relief work in Yemen through the principle of decentralizing aid distribution, revising the lists of local partners and local staff working in those organizations, and ensuring that aid is delivered to its beneficiaries without discrimination.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement to comment on the statement issued by the World Food Program, saying that the statement confirms what the Yemeni government has been warning of in its statements and speeches to the United Nations and its officials.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167823
(* B H)
Thousands of Yemen's Al Akhdam caste are trapped between frontlines
Dozens of children and women from the Al Akhdam caste have died due to lack of medical care and hunger
Thousands of Yemen’s oppressed Al Akhdam minority have been caught in cross fire between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels fighting in the southern province of Al Dhalea.
Al Akhdam, literally meaning servant, are the bottom of Yemen’s supposedly abolished social caste system. They are scattered all over the country but many live in Al Sadrein, an impoverished village in Al Dhalea.
Dozens of children and pregnant women belonging to the group have recently died due to hunger, malnutrition and lack of medical care as aid organisations have been blocked from entering the village, residents told The National.
“People in our village are dying in silence, our voices are no longer heard, war has surrounded our poor village from all directions, the sounds of the artillery and the tanks are much louder than our exhausted voices,” Abdulaziz Qaid, a resident told The National.
“We can’t describe the catastrophic situation we have been living in since the confrontations intensified around us, our village has been a subject for the Houthi shelling,” Mr Qaid said.
(B H)
Film: Over 14 millions people are on brink of famine Yemenis displaced by war don't know where their next meal will come from this #Ramadan
https://twitter.com/ghalebalsudmy/status/1130264185961701376
(* B H)
Yemen's War: Children Paying the Price
At least one in five schools is no longer in use in Yemen, mostly because they were destroyed by violence or are now being used as emergency shelters or military bases.
Hospitals also have shut down at alarming rates and roughly half of Yemeni children under age 5 have been permanently injured by malnutrition. Every 10 minutes a child in Yemen dies from a preventable cause, according to a recent UNICEF report.
Teachers' salaries are often not being paid, forcing many to look for other jobs. Sometimes children are simply too afraid to go to school, the report says.
As a result, Yemeni children are increasingly recruited to fight in militias, work at other adult jobs or married off at young ages. "If not in school, children would become an illiterate and unskilled parent and increasing the likelihood of passing on poverty to the next generation," it reads.
Besides violence, hunger, and disease, children in Yemen are also deeply threatened by the psychological trauma they are experiencing, according to Fathia al-Kuhlani, the principal of the Al Ra'ai School in Sanaa.
"After trauma, if students don't go back to school, anxiety can lead to depression," she said. "It was hard even for us to enter the school the day after the strike, but we needed to come to encourage the students to come back." (photos)
https://www.voanews.com/a/yemen-war-children-paying-the-price/4924576.html
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(* B H)
Displaced in Yemen where the needs continue to grow
One of the main causes of forced displacement in Yemen today remains the upsurge in violence.
The severe and sudden crises, faced by the displaced people on a daily basis, are brought about by attacks directed against civilians – sometimes indiscriminate in nature but always in violation of the international humanitarian law.
Yemen's vulnerable displaced face severe insecurity with an overwhelming need for assistance (photos)
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/untold-stories-yemens-internally-displaced
(* B H K)
Houthis’ war displaces 2492 households in Al-Dhale
Houthi militia’s war has forcibly displaced 2492 families from their homes in Al-Dhale province, south of the country.
Executive Unit of IDP Camps said those households were forced to flee their houses in Qataba, Al-Hasha and Al-Azarik districts, in the period from April until May 10, 2019.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/22/houthis-war-displaces-2492-households-in-al-dhale/
My comment: Hardly Houthis could lead a war just by themselves.
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: 4,095 refugee returnees from Yemen (2015-2019)
In addition to the 4,095 Assisted Spontaneous Returns since 2017, some approximately 41,000 Somalis were monitored as arriving from Yemen since March 2015.
https://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/somalia-refugee-returnees-somalia-30-april-2019
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Yemen Fact Sheet, March 2019
The situation continues to worsen in Hajjah governorate, in the north of Yemen. According to OCHA, around 25,000 families have been displaced from and within Hajjah Governorate since June 2018. The majority live in Abs District.
UNHCR continues to deliver lifesaving assistance to displaced persons. In the first three months of 2019, IDP families received 8,763 core relief items and 4,100 emergency shelter kits across 14 govemorates in Yemen.
Cholera is re-emerging with the rainy season. According to WHO, the number of suspected cases doubled in March compared with the previous two months. UNHCR is working in close collaboration with the authorities to contain this outbreak.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-fact-sheet-march-2019
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B K P)
WikiLeaks cable, makes a strong case against claims that Tehran arming the Houthis
The Trump administration consider the Houthi Rebels in Yemen to be an Iranian proxy and have accused Tehran of sending arms to the group. Trump blamed Iran for the war in Yemen in a statement from November of last year.
A WikiLeaks cable dated December 9th 2009 from former US Ambassador to Yemen Stephen Seche in Sa’na, Yemen addressed to the CIA and the Secretary of State, makes a strong case against claims that Tehran was arming the Houthis at the time.
The cable went on to address claims of Houthis use of Katyusha Rockets, one was reportedly found Sunday near the US Embassy in Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51645.htm
Comment: I think this was certainly the case when this Wikileaks cable was obtained. It was also the case in the early part of the war. However there has been evidence of technology transfer in the last couple of years - although as yet I haven't seen any credible evidence of weapons transfer.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10157596386338641
(A P)
YOCHT: Four women commit suicide inside militia prisons in Sana’a in 2 weeks
The Yemeni Organization for Combating Human Trafficing (YOCHT) has revealed the suicide of four kidnapped women in the Houthi militia’s prisons in Sana’a since the beginning of underway month, Ramadan.
YOCHT said in a statement, a copy of which obtained by September Net, that it has documented the recent suicide of two women entered the prisons of the Houthi militia; the first in one of militia’s secret prisons, and the other in the central prison during the month of Ramadan.
(A P)
President Al-Mashat Calls for National Reconciliation Leading to Building Strong Yemen
President Mahdi Al-Mashat, on Tuesday evening, addressed the people of Yemen on the occasion of the 29th National Day of the Unification of Yemen, May 22. He called for comprehensive national reconciliation and comprehensive internal dialogue leading to the restoration of brotherhood and unity and the building of strong Yemen.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7038
and also http://www.sabanews.net/en/news536945.htm
(* A H P)
Hilfslieferungen kommen nicht an
Im Jemen kommen offenbar viele Lebensmittelhilfen der UNO nicht bei den hungenden Menschen an.
Die Huthi-Rebellen, die Teile des Landes unter ihrer Kontrolle haben, blockierten Lieferungen oder beschlagten die Lebenmittel, um sie selbst zu verteilen, erklärte die UNO. Sollte das so weiter gehen, werde man keine Lebensmittel mehr in diese Regionen schicken. Auch der US-amerikanische Nachrichtensender CNN berichtet, dass die Rebellen die Uno-Lieferungen nicht an die Bevölkerung verteilen, sondern für sich selbst abzweigen – und zwar viel häufiger als bisher vermutet.
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/jemen-hilfslieferungen-kommen-nicht-an.1939.de.html
und
(* A H P)
UN beklagen Diebstahl von Lebensmitteln im Krisenland Jemen
Die Rationen für Hungernde seien im Dezember in von Huthi-Rebellen kontrollierten Gebieten des Konfliktlandes entwendet worden, sagte Herve Verhoosel, Sprecher des Welternährungsprogramms (WFP), dem Evangelischen Pressedienst am Mittwoch in Genf.
Das UN-Hilfswerk werde die Lieferungen in Huthi-Gebiete aussetzen, falls die Rebellen nicht eine reibungslose Verteilung der Nahrungsmittel garantieren könnten. WFP-Exekutivdirektor David Beasley habe der Huthi-Führung einen entsprechenden Brief geschrieben, sagte der Sprecher.
Beasley habe uneingeschränkten Zugang seiner Mitarbeiter zu den Bedürftigen gefordert. Zudem wolle das WFP die notleidenden Menschen biometrisch registrieren, um eine bedarfsgerechte Verteilung der Lebensmittel zu gewährleisten.
und auch https://www.srf.ch/news/international/humanitaeres-drama-in-jemen-kriegsparteien-blockieren-hilfe
(* A H P)
World Food Programme: World Food Programme to consider suspension of aid in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen
As WFP strives to deliver on our humanitarian mandate we face daily challenges due to the unrelenting fighting and insecurity in Yemen. And yet, our greatest challenge does not come from the guns, that are yet to fall silent in this conflict - instead, it is the obstructive and uncooperative role of some of the Houthi leaders in areas under their control.
Humanitarian workers in Yemen are being denied access to the hungry, aid convoys have been blocked, and local authorities have interfered with food distribution, and – most importantly, there have been repeated obstacles placed in the way of our independent selection of beneficiaries and a request for a roll out of a biometric registration system. This would allow WFP to identify and target the most hungry and ensure that they are the beneficiaries of food assistance.
This has to stop.
The conflict in Yemen has thrown up multiple challenges but until now, WFP has worked with leaders to find solutions that have ensured food gets to the hungry.
Negotiations with Houthi leaders on the question of independent access to the hungry are yet to yield tangible results. Some of the Houthi leaders have made positive commitments and are working closely with us to create conditions that would allow for a fully independent humanitarian process of selecting the most needy and ensuring that only they receive the required assistance. Unfortunately, they are being let down by other Houthi leaders who have broken assurances they gave us on stopping food diversions and finally agreeing to a beneficiary identification and biometric registration exercise.
Earlier this month, WFP wrote to the Houthi leadership again. This time we confirmed that WFP has reluctantly reached the conclusion that unless progress is made on previous agreements we will have to implement a phased suspension of aid.
This phased suspension of WFP operations will be taken as a last resort
and by Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-wfp-aid/wfp-may-suspend-aid-in-houthi-held-areas-of-yemen-cites-obstruction-idUSKCN1SQ1QA
and
(* A H P)
UN warns food aid to Yemen could be suspended
The WFP has previously collected evidence showing that the Houthis had diverted shipments of food sent to help alleviate "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".
But Houthi rebels denied accusations by the WFP of stealing humanitarian aid.
and
(* A H P)
Film: Official's impassioned response to aid in Yemen
David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme, responded to CNN's reporting on the systematic abuse of aid that millions of hungry people in Yemen depend on
and
(* A H P)
Yemen war: UN appeals to Houthi rebels over aid
David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), told the BBC the agency's efforts to reach people in need were being repeatedly blocked.
He said he hoped "good Houthi leaders" would prevail over the corrupt ones.
Mr Beasley said that his unusual public criticism could backfire, with Houthi leaders providing even less access to humanitarian workers, but said children were dying as a result of this "desperate, desperate situation".
"This violates the most fundamental international standards of humanitarian principles because innocent people are suffering from food diversion, theft, corruption," said Mr Beasley, who last year criticised the Saudi-led coalition for a blockade stopping vital assistance from reaching Yemen.
"I know all the Houthis and the Houthi leaders aren't like that. There are good Houthi leaders and I hope they can prevail."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48360912
and
(A H P)
Yemen, Saudi Arabia call for stopping Houthi fraud in aid distribution
My remark: „Yemen“ = hadi government at Riyadh.
(A H P)
Fatah: Houthi militia holds 80 trucks laden with relief stuffs in Ibb
[Hadi government] Minister of Local Administration—Chairman of High Relief Committee—Abduraqeeb Fatah al-Aswadi called on the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs to Yemen Lise Grande to act as soon as possible to set free 80 trucks loaded relief, humanitarian aids and fuels have been held back by Houthi militia for over 2 months.
(A P)
New abductee tortured to death in Houthi militias’ prisons in Hodiedah
An Abductee man Mohammed Yahya Ftini al-Masoudi died after torturing to death in a Houthi militia’s run prison in Durayhimi district western Hodeidah province.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/21/new-abductee-tortured-to-death-in-houthi-militias-prisons-in-hodiedah/ = http://en.adenpress.news/news/4312
(A P)
Houthi militia breaks into prominent sheikh’s house in Al-Baydha
elements of Houthi militia, early of this today raided the house of Sheikh Othman Al-Sawadi, one of the most prominent sheikhs supporting the legitimacy.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/20/houthi-militia-breaks-into-prominent-sheikhs-house-in-al-baydha/
My remark: „legitimacy” = propaganda claim labeling of Hadi government.
(A P)
Houthi militia murders citizen in front of family in Ibb
Local residents told September Net that the rebel militia broke into a house owned by Abdu Kaed Al-Sha’uri, in Hazm al-Audin district, west of the province, killing the man in the presence of his family members.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/21/houthi-militia-murders-citizen-in-front-of-family-in-ibb/
and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29930
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
(A P)
Clashes Erupt Between Security Forces And A Leader Of Shabwani Forces In Ataq
A security source in the city of Ateq Shabwa province, the circumstances of the clashes that took place yesterday evening between the security forces and the leader of the Shabwani elite in the axis of Harad Colonel Abu Aliwa supported by the UAE.
https://www.adennews.net/en/yemen-english-74384
My comment: There is permanent strife between Hadi government forces and southern separatist militia, which are backed by UAE.
(A)
Aden.. Gunmen intercept a car carrying prosecutors ' salaries in Abyan and loot 40 million riyals
The source said that the masked gunmen intercepted the prosecutor's car, stopped it by force and then looted the money loaded on board by force of arms.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167852
(A H P)
STC distributes 2,664 Ramadan food baskets in al-Mansoura, Aden
Under the direction of the president of the Southern Transitional Council, Aidroos al-Zubaidi, the STC Committee for Relief and Humanitarian Work distributed on Wednesday, 2,664 Ramadan food baskets in al-Mansoura district, the capital Aden.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4321
(A P)
National Alliance parties sign a pact of honour to unify media discourse to counter the coup
Yemeni political parties signed a document to control and unify the media discourse, according to the political program of the National Alliance, which was announced by the parties as a framework for coordinating their efforts in supporting the legitimate government in its battle to end the coup d'état and restore the state.
The National Alliance comprises the political forces supporting the Government (recognized)
It should be noted that a wave of information, media, rhetoric and recriminations are prevalent in many media outlets or close to political parties, depending on the state of tension and polarization in the country
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167836
(A P)
President Hadi: Unity continues to face dangers and threats
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said that political errors, selfish practices, illusions of exclusivity, exclusion and narrow private interests have injured the Yemeni contingent "with serious wounds which almost eliminated it ".
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167835
(A E)
Al Mualla commercial port in Aden is recovering
Cargo terminal at the al-Mualla commercial port in Aden improved markedly during the first quarter of this year after a slump in the port over the past four years.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167833
(A P)
Info. Minister voices disagreements with British officials’ statements about Hodeidah’s recent events
Minister of Information Muamer al-Iryani had a meeting with several members of the House of Commons of Great Britain on Tuesday among of them Mr Alistair Burt , former Minister of State for Middle East.
Concerning to the recent events in Hodeidah and the militia’s self-claimed to have withdrawn its militants from the seaports, Al- Iryani voiced disagreements with the statements of some British officials
(A K P)
Security Belt bolster its forces by hundreds of fighters
The Security Belt forces sent about 500 fighters from al-Dhale province as a first batch with a view to reinforcing the fighting fronts against the Iran-backed Houthi putschist militia
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4316
My remark: UAE-backed southern separatists’ militia.
(A P)
Activists launch hashtag campaign on the disengagement declaration
On the occasion of the disengagement declaration 21 May and the end of the Yemeni unification that previously existed between the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (the South) and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), many activists from the the South and the Arab world take to the social media to launch a hashtag campaign under the title # My Demand is Independence of the South.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4318
(A T)
A military commander survives an assassination attempt at dawn in Taiz
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167821
(A P)
Yemeni gov't praises UN agency' warning on aid delivery disruption in Houthi areas
Yemen's government on Tuesday praised the "courage and responsibility" of the World Food Program (WFP), which warned that aid distribution could be suspended in the Houthi-controlled areas due to lack of cooperation from the rebel group.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/22/c_138078162.htm
My comment: This is a real strange statement by a Yemeni government – as difficult and corrupt the Houthi government ever might be.
(A E P)
Yemen Presents Reconstruction Plan to Arab League
Yemen presented to the Arab League a comprehensive economic and social plan that includes the health, education, housing and tourism sectors in order to contribute to the Arab reconstruction and development of the country.
Arab League head of economic relations Thamer al-Ani said in a press statement at the League’s headquarters in Cairo that the plan was placed under assessment during various meetings between Yemeni representatives and the Arab bloc.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1732576/yemen-presents-reconstruction-plan-arab-league
and also http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/22/yemen-presents-reconstruction-plan-to-arab-league/
(A P)
After three months of running out, The Immigration service announces the arrival of the first batch of passports
The Immigration and Passports Department in the interim capital Aden announced the arrival of the first batch of newly printed passports.
According to the news published by the state news agency Saba, it will be distributed to all branches of the authority in the liberated areas until the rest of the batches arrive.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167805
(A P)
After the phenomenon has worsened. Protest in Aden to demand stoppage looting investors ' lands
Social figures and local residents of the al-Buriqa district, west of Aden, staged a protest against the takeover of the city's investors ' lands.
The legitimate government, the local authority in Aden and the security forces must take serious action to stop tampering, looting on land belonging to businessmen and investors in the city, said participants in the protest to "Al-Masdar online ".
They added that take over operations began since the liberation of Aden, through influential and armed figures, and relations with state officials
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167799
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
(* B P)
The Hodeidah smokescreen: A real peace deal requires Yemeni buy-in
Even if all fighters left Hodeidah city, it would still be a limited step towards stability in one part of the country.
All that aside, the hype and focus on Hodeidah and its ports is masking the bigger picture. Even if this week’s withdrawal and the deal as a whole represent a breakthrough, they still don’t address the root causes of Yemen’s conflict, nor are they replicable in Yemen’s other 21 provinces, where the war rattles on.
A unique combination of economic and military interests and incentives led to the agreement in Sweden. It’s a recipe that can’t be easily reproduced elsewhere, and if by some miracle the UN does pull off the Hodeidah deal, it will have a long way to go before the warring parties start negotiating seriously about the rest of the country, especially in difficult key governorates such as Taiz and the capital, Sana’a.
There are many challenges, shortcomings, and plenty of blame to go around.
Moreover, and more importantly, the Yemeni stakeholders will do well to buy into the process and show goodwill.
Unfortunately, the Yemeni parties, often too quick to adopt hardline stances and criticise any progress, are better at shooting down solutions than proposing them. Ultimately, no solution will work if not locally and mutually accepted. It is the responsibility of Yemenis to put their differences aside and make the necessary effort and compromises towards securing peace – by Hisham Al-Omeisy
My comment: His plainly negative look at what had been achieved at Hodeidah in the last two weeks, is not justified.
(A P)
Outrage against UN Envoy’s behavior mounts in Yemen
Voices calling for terminating the assignment of the UN Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths have increased, accusing him of collision with the Houthi Movement.
This wave of anger increased following Griffiths’ briefing to the UN Security Council in which he praised the Houthis’ withdrawal from Yemeni ports.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29965
and
(A P)
Yemen parliament snubs UN over Hodeidah deal
Officials frustrated with UN envoy over endorsement of Houthi 'withdrawal' from ports
“What is disappointing is that the so-called recent withdrawal has been endorsed by the UN envoy Martin Griffiths which is blatantly challenging UN Resolution 2216 and the Sweden agreement,” the parliament said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The approach that the UN envoy has taken will not achieve peace but will prolong the war and the suffering of the Yemeni people.”
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-parliament-snubs-un-over-hodeidah-deal-1.864830
My remark: Hadi government parliament.
and
(A P)
Yemen negotiation team demands to terminate assignment of Griffiths
Yemen negotiation team has demanded to terminate the assignment of the UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, saying that he has “wrong perceptions” and considers the legitimate government and criminal militia as equal.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-29931
My comment: “Yemen negotiation team” = Hadi government negotiation team. The Hadi government’s smear campaign against the UN envoy (earlier reporting: Yemen War Mosaic 538a, cp7) continues. The claims are absurd: They object that Griffiths is treating both sides as “equal”, i. e. stays neutral. Exactly this is what any mediator must do; claiming that he must take the side of one party simply is absurd.
And comment by a southern separatist leader:
(A P)
Yemen's legitimacy wants a UN envoy in its size: Shatara
Member of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council, Lutfi Shatara said that the legitimate government wants a UN envoy who goes well with its size and to the extent that it fits with its failure.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4317
and a propaganda cartoon: https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1131216988301406209
and spreading rumours:
(A P)
Griffith seeks resignation from his mission in anticipation of the Yemeni government's refusal to deal with him
Al-Masdar online new from sources that UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffith is looking to resign from his mission in anticipation of the Yemeni government's official announcement of refusing to deal with him and trying to save his face.
The sources told Al-Masdar online that Griffith, following the issuance of the Council of Representatives ' memorandum to the Government, held a meeting with his staff in the Jordanian capital Amman to discuss the options available to deal with the escalation witnessed in the last days against him
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167850
cp7a Saudi-Arabien und Iran / Saudi Arabia and Iran
Siehe / Look at cp19a, b
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(A K P)
Saudi Whistle-Blower: MbS Mad at Saudi Intelligence Bodies' Failure in Yemen Drone Attacks
Saudi whistle-blower Mujtahid, who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family, disclosed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is furious over the Yemenis' recent drone attacks against the country's oil facilities since he believes that Riyadh has been humilitated.
"Mohammed bin Salman has questioned the military intelligence unit over the incident and they have admitted their total ignorance and lack of any intel about the drones' flights," Mujtahid wrote on his twitter page on Wednesday.
Faced with the MbS' wrath, the military intelligence unit has claimed that most possibly the drones have flown from a region inside Saudi Arabia and from a location close to the targets, he added.
Satellite imagery revealed the extent of damage to Saudi Arabia's oil facilities in Yemen's drone strikes last week, which forced the kingdom to stop oil flow in a major pipeline.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980301000953
(* A P)
Saudi Arabia to execute three prominent moderate scholars after Ramadan
The treatment of Salman al-Odah, Awad al-Qarni and Ali al-Omari, all facing charges of 'terrorism', has been condemned by rights groups
Three prominent moderate Saudi Sunni scholars held on multiple charges of “terrorism” will be sentenced to death and executed shortly after Ramadan, two government sources and one of the men’s relatives have told Middle East Eye.
The most prominent of these is Sheikh Salman al-Odah, an internationally renowned scholar known for his comparatively progressive views in the Islamic world on Sharia and homosexuality.
Odah was arrested in September 2017 shortly after tweeting a prayer for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbour Qatar, three months after Riyadh launched a blockade on the emirate.
The other two slated for execution are Awad al-Qarni, a Sunni preacher, academic and author, and Ali al-Omari, a popular broadcaster. They too were arrested in September 2017.
One source told MEE: “They will not wait to execute these men once the death sentence has been passed.”
(* A P)
Saudi Feminist Loujain al-Hathloul Was Waterboarded, Flogged and Electrocuted
It’s been a year since women’s right activist Loujain al-Hathloul was detained and jailed in Saudi Arabia for leading a movement to lift the kingdom’s ban on female drivers and overhaul its male “guardianship” system. Despite international outcry, she’s been imprisoned ever since. During that time, her family says, she’s been held in solitary confinement and faced abuse, including electric shocks, flogging and threats of sexual violence. The Saudi government has resisted calls from human rights groups and lawmakers from around the world to release Loujain and the other jailed activists. We speak with two of Loujain’s siblings, Walid and Lina al-Hathloul.
(A B P)
WHAT IS SAUDI AGENDA FOR ‘EMERGENCY SUMMITS’ ON IRAN?
Saudi Arabia is taking a wait-and-see approach in lead up to important summits.
The nature of the Riyadh-led emergency meeting is still unclear, but Riyadh is likely unwilling to do anything more on its own. It is already dealing with several years of war in Yemen
Saudi Arabia wants to cement its alliance, but it doesn’t want a new conflict. This appears to be the message of waiting to hold the meeting and also not openly calling on Washington for new measures.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/What-is-Saudi-agenda-for-emergency-summits-on-Iran-590306
(A E P)
Saudi cabinet affirms desire to avoid war, stabilize oil markets
Saudi Arabia’s council of ministers reiterated the country’s commitment to balancing global oil markets and preventing regional conflict amid tensions between Iran and the United States
Oil falls after Saudi assurances on market balance, Mideast tensions
Oil prices fell on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia reiterated it would aim to keep the market balanced and try to reduce tensions in the Middle East, while industry data showed a surprise increase in U.S. crude inventories.
(A P)
#Saudi jailing of a Sunni imam exposes the #Saudi practice of id check of mosque goers in #Ramadan
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1130820764909887488
referring to https://twitter.com/m3takl/status/1130799783143235584
(* B P)
When Home Is a Prison, More Saudi Women Are Choosing to Flee
The latest refugees from the kingdom fled to Tbilisi, Georgia, and spoke to Foreign Policy before seeking asylum in the West.
The sisters’ extraordinary story follows a trend of women fleeing Saudi Arabia even as the government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tout progress in women’s rights, such as lifting the ban on women driving in June 2018.
“The cases of Saudi women fleeing the country is indicative of the situation of women in Saudi Arabia,” said Amnesty International’s Dana Ahmed. “Despite some limited reforms, women are inadequately protected against domestic violence and abuse and more generally are discriminated against in large part as a result of the male guardianship system.”
Ahmed said that while it’s difficult to know exactly how many women are fleeing Saudi Arabia, the number of asylum-seekers from the kingdom has tripled between 2012 and 2017, to 800 cases worldwide.
Yasmine Farouk, a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that Saudi influence on the global scene is stopping governments that accept asylum-seekers from publicizing the help they offer.
“Recent social and economic reforms inside Saudi Arabia also make it a fertile ground for considerable Western investments. So some countries don’t publicize the cases of Saudi women because they don’t want to sabotage their relations with Saudi Arabia and lose all this,” Farouk said.
Still, the obstacles Saudi women from conservative families face to escape, along with the fear of what would happen to them if they were caught in the process, make it nearly impossible to gain freedom.
If new reforms open up even more opportunities for Saudi women on paper, society at large will also need to adapt to keep up with the changes. In that meantime, there likely will be more runaway Saudi women who are counting on a world ready to help them – by Laura Kasinof
(A P)
Saudi Arabia opens registration for Dakar Rally 2020
The Saudi General Sports Authority (GSA), a co-organizer along with the Saudi Arabian Motor Federation and Amaury Sport Organization, said registrations opened on May 15 on the Dakar Rally Saudi 2020 website.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/05/176_269136.html
cp9 USA
(* B K P)
Trump administration may use Iran threat to sell bombs to Saudis without Congress' approval: senator
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration plans to use a loophole and rising tensions with Iran to sell bombs to Saudi Arabia, even though Congress blocked such sales for months over concerns about civilian deaths in the war in Yemen, Senator Chris Murphy said on Wednesday.
“I am hearing that Trump may use an obscure loophole in the Arms Control Act and notice a major new sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia (the ones they drop in Yemen) in a way that would prevent Congress from objecting. Could happen this week,” the Democratic senator warned on Twitter.
Congressional aides said there are provisions of the Arms Control Act, which sets rules for international arms transactions, that would allow a president to approve a sale without congressional review in case of a national emergency.
My comment: This would be absurd in itself, as the “Iran threat” is a propaganda sham in itself, and – even if it would exist – this would not be a threat against the USA (7,000 miles away from Iran) and no “case of a national emergency” at all.
(* B K P)
Saudi Warplanes, Most Made in America, Still Bomb Civilians in Yemen
The civilian carnage remains an American liability, too.
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress in April 2018 that the United States, although a close ally of the coalition, is not involved in the “kill chain” in Yemen.
The war’s many critics, in Congress as well as in the human rights community, call that a gross understatement.
“Stronger levers to hold the coalition accountable are a fantastic idea,” said Kristine Beckerle of Mwatana, which has called on the United States to cut its support to the Saudi-led coalition. “But if your partner appears consistently unwilling to comply with international law, or to minimize harm to civilian life, then at some point you should not be partnering with them at all, as is clearly the case for Yemen.”
Andrew Miller, a former State Department official now working with the Project on Middle East Democracy, a nonpartisan group, said that American officials intent on countering Iranian influence in the Arabian Peninsula presume that continued military assistance to Saudi Arabia and its allies is necessary.
“We need them, we don’t have any alternatives, and so we need to make the best of a bad lot,” Mr. Miller said, explaining the mind-set.
While stronger controls for military assistance programs are welcome, he added, skepticism about the coalition’s willingness to change is warranted by its record of civilian casualties.
“Either they are less concerned about civilian casualties or they see some utility in killing civilians as a form of collective punishment,” Mr. Miller said. “I have no evidence to support either case. But it would not be the first time in the Middle East that we see such tactics.” – by Declan Walsh
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/middleeast/saudi-yemen-airstrikes-civilians.html
My comment: This article is somewhat a sum-up of US invovment in Yemen, but it sounds quite weak and toothless.
(B P)
Ambassador Christopher Henzel
Christopher Henzel is the United States ambassador to Yemen. Until April, 2019 he was chargé d’affaires ad interim at the American Embassy in Riyadh. Mr. Henzel has spent most of his career specializing in the Muslim world.
https://ye.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/our-ambassador/
and
(A P)
[Hadi government] VP briefs US ambassador on Houthi-made humanitarian crisis
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/23/vp-briefs-us-ambassador-on-houthi-made-humanitarian-crisis/
(* B K P)
The US should have no room for alliances with murderers
Reports that three prominent and moderate Saudi Arabian Sunni scholars held on multiple charges of “terrorism” will be executed shortly after Ramadan are startling, not because the charges are false, but more so because of US complacency towards egregious human rights abuses, along with Washington’s continued support for regimes responsible for such things.
Keeping that alliance together is the Trump administration’s approval of the counter-revolutionary effort by the Saudis and UAE; its desire to ensure that their thrones are safe; and the wish to protect the thrones — real and metaphorical — of other US allies in the Middle East. In return, the Arab quartet of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have ensured that US interests and, by extension, Israeli interests, would be realised in the region.
It is undoubtedly this administration’s complicity that has encouraged the likes of Bin Salman and Bin Zayed to act with little regard for life in the Middle East.
Many factors stand in the way of the US abandoning such figures as Bin Salman, Bin Zayed and the like, but the possibility of a new US President in less than two years figures prominently.
It is time for the US to abandon despots in the Middle East; it should have no room for alliances with murderers
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190522-the-us-should-have-no-room-for-alliances-with-murderers/
(* B P)
Where Is the Democratic Alternative to Forever War?
The truth is the Democratic Party, especially of late, has abandoned serious foreign policy analysis and ceded national security—and supposedly macho “toughness”—to hawkish Republicans.
Admittedly, the Democratic base is, for the most part, unconcerned with minor matters like forever war. Part of this can be explained by America’s lack of a military draft, and thus the citizenry’s lack of “skin in the game.”
So what are the 2020 Dems offering in the way of fresh foreign policy?
Let me demonstrate this foreign affairs vacuousness with a brief survey of the political pasts and campaign websites of the 10 main frontrunners. First, the good news: all the serving candidates in the Senate and House voted against continued U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s terror war in Yemen.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/17/where-democratic-alternative-forever-war
(A P)
US Embassy Yemen: Ambassador Christopher Henzel arrived in Riyadh on May 18 to assume his duties & presented his credentials to Foreign Minister Khaled alYamani. Ambassador looks forward to working closely with the Foreign Minister & his team to continue strengthening the US-#Yemen-i relationship (photo)
https://twitter.com/USEmbassyYemen/status/1130635178756509696
(A K)
USA: Killer-Rakete R9X tötet Terroristen mit Riesen-Messern
Die USA töten gezielt Anführer von Terrororganisationen mit der bisher geheimen Rakete R9X. Die Rakete tötet ihre Opfer mit sechs riesigen Messerklingen.
Die USA besitzen laut The Wall Street Journal eine bisher hochgeheime Rakete, die tötet, ohne zu explodieren: R9X. Damit sollen möglichst exakte Schläge gegen Terroristen möglich sein, ohne dass dabei Zivilisten gefährdet werden. Das Wall Street Journal beruft sich bei seinem Bericht auf ehemaligen und aktive US-Staatsbedienstete.
https://www.pcwelt.de/news/USA-Killer-Rakete-R9X-toetet-Terroristen-mit-Riesen-Messern-10591327.html
Earlier reporting in English: https://www.wsj.com/articles/secret-u-s-missile-aims-to-kill-only-terrorists-not-nearby-civilians-11557403411
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
(* A P)
Citizens committee puts Saudi arms sales under scrutiny
Group of MPs and experts established after select committee’s failure to investigate trade
The failure of Britain’s “broken select committee system” to mount a new inquiry into UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia has prompted a group of MPs, arms sales analysts and former army officers to form its own citizens committee to argue against the multibillion-pound weapons contracts.
Nearly half of UK arms sales go to Saudi Arabia, which is involved in an intractable five-year civil war in Yemen where international law has been violated by both sides.
The new citizens committee on arms sales (CCAS), meeting in Westminster on Wednesday, is due to take evidence from Yemeni human rights campaigners speaking from the capital Sana’a as well as a former UK brigadier to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, who has previously claimed the UK is breaking its own rules by selling arms for use in Yemen.
(* A B P)
Why are MPs thanking Jeremy Hunt for his efforts towards peace in Yemen?
The UK government’s attempts to justify arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition are becoming ever more absurd
At this point in the conflict, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Yemen, Keith Vaz MP, has chosen to write to the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to thank him for his efforts to secure peace in Yemen. The letter, co-sponsored by MPs Andrew Mitchell and Alison Thewliss, asks the government to “use every available tool to put pressure on our allies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to bring about an end to the conflict”.
Curiously, at no point does the letter mention the uncomfortable fact of UK arms exports to the Saudi-led coalition, which have played a central role in creating the humanitarian disaster to which the government claims to be responding.
The key problem with the government’s position is that targeting the civilian population, which is illegal under international law, appears to be a core component of the Saudi-led coalition’s strategy in Yemen. Excessive civilian harm in the war is not an accidental side-effect of an otherwise effective military strategy.
So the effort to tally the balance sheet between arms on the one side and diplomacy combined with humanitarian aid on the other simply cannot work. No amount of funding can compensate for a military strategy that relies on harming the civilian population physically, economically and psychologically.
The government has been told this.
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A K P)
Trotz Jemen-Kriegs weiter Rüstungsexporte in die Emirate möglich
Trotz der Beteiligung der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate am Jemen-Krieg sind deutsche Rüstungsexporte in den reichen Golfstaat weiterhin grundsätzlich möglich. Das Wirtschaftsministerium stellte in einer Antwort auf eine Frage der Linksfraktion klar, dass für die VAE anders als für Saudi-Arabien kein Exportstopp gilt - weder für in Deutschland produzierte Rüstungsgüter noch für Gemeinschaftsprodukte mit Partnerländern.
https://www.boersennews.de/nachrichten/artikel/trotz-jemen-kriegs-weiter-r-stungsexporte-in-die-emirate-m-glich/1822389/ = https://www.focus.de/finanzen/boerse/wirtschaftsticker/unternehmen-trotz-jemen-kriegs-weiter-ruestungsexporte-in-die-emirate-moeglich_id_10746274.html
Mein Kommentar: Es war einmal ausdrücklixch von einem Waffenexportstopp in alle am Jemenkrieg beteiligten Länder die Rede – offenbar schon wieder vergessen?
und
(B K P)
Für einen kompletten Waffenexportstopp
Die Vereinigte Arabischen Emirate sind ein reicher Geschäftspartner - und Kriegspartei im Jemen. Alle Waffenexporte sollten eingestellt werden. Ein Kommentar.
Das kann doch wohl nicht wahr sein. Oder richtig. Da wird, was ja gut ist, zunehmend über wertegebundene Außenpolitik geredet. National wie international. Trotzdem sind deutsche Rüstungsexporte in die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (VAE) grundsätzlich weiter möglich.
Was ist der Wert, außer – zynisch gesprochen – dass der Golfstaat ein reicher Geschäftspartner ist?
(A E K P)
Daimler AG Hauptversammlung 2019: „Auch Ihr Unimog-Chassis gehört zu den im Jemen-Krieg identifizierten Rüstungsgütern“: Rede von Markus Dufner
Meine Damen und Herren, bei Rüstungsunternehmen denken viele zuerst an Krauss-Maffei Wegmann oder Heckler & Koch. Doch auch die deutsche Automobilindustrie verdient mit Rüstungsgeschäften Geld. Bei Daimler reicht das Portfolio von Geländewagen über Kleintransporter bis hin zu Unimogs und schweren Lastwagen.
Herr Zetsche, darauf scheinen Sie richtig stolz zu sein. In Ihrer Militär-Werbung heißt es: „Unsere größte Bestätigung ist das Vertrauen vieler Armeen. Seit mehr als 100 Jahren. In mehr als 80 Ländern.“
Wie passt dieses Militär-Image zum Selbstverständnis eines modernen Autoherstellers?
(A E K P)
Rheinmetall: Die Toten kommen!
Wenn am 28. Mai 2019Deutschlands größter Rüstungskonzern Rheinmetall im Berliner Maritim Hotel zur Hauptversammlung lädt, möchten wir mit einer Parade den Toten gedenken, ihr Leben nochmals feiern und gegen die skrupellose Geschäftsstrategie von Rheinmetall protestieren!
Während bei Rheinmetall die Kassen klingeln, werden anderswo neue tickende Zeitbomben geschaffen, Kriege angeheizt und Menschen ins Elend getrieben. Am Ende einer solchen Gewaltspirale steht für viele, vor allem auch Kinder, der Tod.
Kommt und demonstriert mit uns gegen diese skrupellose Geschäftsstrategie!
https://urgewald.org/rheinmetall
(A P)
Film: BPK: Trump droht Iran mit Auslöschung – Bundesregierung sieht kein Grund zur Verurteilung
Der Präsident der Atommacht USA, Donald Trump, hat dem Iran mit der kompletten Auslöschung gedroht. Auf Nachfrage bei der Bundespressekonferenz wollten aber die Regierungssprecher diese verbale Eskalation nicht verurteilen. Bei anderen Ländern ist man da weniger zurückhaltend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp8aXVNMZ6s
(A K P)
Stoppt den Massenmord!
Außenminister Maas warnt die USA vor einem Irankrieg. Man kann sich richtig vorstellen, wie der skrupellose ehemalige CIA-Direktor und heutige Außenminister Mike Pompeo („Wir haben gelogen, gestohlen und betrogen“) beeindruckt war.
Dabei zeigte sich doch der deutsche Außenminister im Falle Venezuelas gerade noch als unterwürfiger Vasall der USA
Die deutsche Politik wäre nur glaubwürdig, wenn sie den USA die Nutzung ihrer Militärbasen auf deutschem Boden und die Überflugrechte, die für das Morden in vielen Ländern notwendig sind, endlich verweigern und die grundgesetzwidrige Beteiligung der Bundeswehr an US-geführten Kriegen beenden würde – von Oskar Lafontaine
https://www.facebook.com/oskarlafontaine/photos/a.198567656871376/2303144766413644/
(* B K P)
Film, Feb. 2019: Waffen für Diktatoren?
Eine „gemeinsame Kultur der Rüstungsexporte“ in Europa – das hat Bundeskanzlerin Merkel auf der Münchener Sicherheitskonferenz angemahnt. Heißt das am Ende weniger Rüstungskontrolle? Und Waffen für Diktatoren?
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=297071180966763
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(A P)
Egypt supports Yemen to end coup, restore state: Amb.
Yemen's Ambassador to Cairo Mohammed Ali Maram lauded Egypt's role headed by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in backing the legitimacy in Yemen to end the coup and restore the Yemeni state.
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/2/70680/Egypt-supports-Yemen-to-end-coup-restore-state-Amb
(* B P)
Unrelenting Repression in the UAE
The repression of political dissidents such as Ahmed Mansoor belies the UAE’s attempts to brand itself as a promoter of tolerance.
W ednesday, May 29 marks one year since the State Security Chamber of the Federal Appeals Court of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sentenced Ahmed Mansoor to ten years in prison and imposed a fine equivalent to more than a quarter of a million dollars. He was convicted for allegedly insulting “the status and prestige of the UAE,” including its rulers, and publishing false reports on social media intending to harm the country’s relations with neighboring countries.
Prior to his arrest in a midnight raid on his home on March 20, 2017, Ahmed Mansoor used to quip that he was “the last man talking” in the UAE, reflecting that over the previous several years the authorities had jailed almost all other Emirati rights activists and their lawyers.
In the weeks before his 2017 arrest, Mansoor had criticized the UAE’s prosecutions of other activists for speech “crimes” and tweeted about rights violations in Egypt and Yemen. At the time, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was arrested for “inciting hatred and defaming the country online” and promoting “false and shaded” information.
https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/79173
(B E P)
Saudi Arabia, UAE to attend U.S.-led Palestine investment meeting
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will participate in a conference next month in Bahrain aimed at encouraging investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Israel-Palestinian peace plan.
My comment: What a sham this will be?
(* B K P)
Is Canada's Minister of Defence an Arms Pusher?
While Sajjan's responsibility for NATO and military spending are straightforward, his role in fueling the Saudi led war in Yemen is less obvious. But, the Department of National Defence (DND) plays a substantial role in Canadian arms exports to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
As he did the last three years, Sajjan is set to speak at the CANSEC arms bazar in Ottawa later this month.
Beyond contracts, subsidies and various other forms of support to Canadian weapons makers, DND has long promoted arms exports. Its website highlights different forms of support to arms exporters. "Learn how the Department of National Defence can assist in connecting Canadian industry to foreign markets", explains one section.
Harjit Sajjan heads a ministry intimately tied to a globally oriented corporate weapons industry that profits from war. Is this something Canadians understand and support? Or would the majority of us be upset to learn their Minister of Defence is an arms pusher, promoting sales to anti-democratic, repressive regimes?
(B P)
The 'ghost' embassy
Spain keeps the legation open in Yemen, but does not lend diplomatic function nor does it have its own personnel due to the war the country is experiencing / Two Yemenis work in the mission, who are in charge of guarding the chancellery and archives
Specifically, according to the aforementioned sources, the two employees work "exclusively" for the maintenance and custody of both the building of the Foreign Ministry - located behind the Hotel Hadda, in the diplomatic district of the capital - and the residence of the ambassador as " the archives and other equipment. " At the moment, there is no date for the mission to offer services
https://www.elindependiente.com/politica/2019/05/19/embajada-fantasma
(A K P)
Film: « Le message envoyé aux sources des journalistes c'est "où que vous soyez, on vous trouvera" »
Pour avoir révélé que des armes vendues par la France étaient utilisées par l'Arabie saoudite au Yémen, Geoffrey Livolsi a été auditionné par la DGSI. Il dénonce une atteinte à la liberté de la presse.
https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2283302588389425
(B P)
Porti aperti alle armi, chiusi agli umani
Nella visione del governo la guerra è da tempo diventata «umanitaria» e l’accoglienza umanitaria è tout-court «criminale». Quando dovrebbe essere evidente che chi apre i porti ai mercanti di armi e li chiude al soccorso umanitario e all’accoglienza, distrugge la civiltà, cancella il futuro e prepara il campo aperto dell’odio
Se volete avere una rappresentazione tangibile e concreta della natura del governo in carica, quello del «contratto» tra sovranismo razzista della Lega e populismo giustizialista del M5S, guardate il Belpaese da nord a sud, nei suoi due porti di Genova e di Lampedusa.
https://ilmanifesto.it/porti-aperti-alle-armi-chiusi-agli-umani/
(A K P)
Genova, riprendono le operazioni di carico sulla nave che trasporta armi. Merce sensibile lasciata in porto
Il cargo che, da quanto trapelato, sarebbe carico di armamenti destinati a Riyad, è attraccato intorno alle 6 al terminal Gmt, nonostante il tentativo del Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali di impedire l'approdo bloccando l’ingresso degli ormeggiatori con lo striscione "Stop ai traffici di armi, guerra alla guerra". Le casse contenenti i generatori della Teknel che hanno scatenato le proteste non saranno caricati sulla nave, come deciso durante l'incontro tra sindacati e prefetto
and also photos https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/posts/2284408611612156
(A K P)
Film: ‘We won’t be complicit’: Italian dock workers refuse to load Saudi arms ship over Yemen war (VIDEO)
Italian unions have refused to load cargo onto a Saudi ship carrying weapons, in protest against Riyadh’s war on Yemen. The dock workers have gone on strike, refusing to work until the ship leaves port in Genoa.
https://www.rt.com/news/459806-saudi-arms-ship-blocked-italian-port/
photos: https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1130791236128759809
(B K P)
Tutte le guerra in corso di cui l'Italia è complice mentre fa finta di niente
Siamo noi a costruire le bombe che dilaniano donne e bambini, noi a violare la nostra stessa Costituzione, ancora noi coinvolti in una nuova crisi che produrrà orde di profughi
L’Italia sta in mezzo alle guerre del Golfo ma se ne accorge soltanto adesso che è attraccata una nave saudita a Genova con un carico di armi.
https://notizie.tiscali.it/esteri/articoli/italia-complice-di-guerre/
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
(A P)
Qatar Not Invited to Emergency Summits in Saudi Arabia: Qatari Official
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A K P)
Airbus seeks resolution to German arms export row: CEO
Airbus is in discussions to try to find solutions to a row with the German government over a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia that threatens a border security contract, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on Tuesday.
The planemaker has warned of legal action against Germany after taking financial charges over the long-delayed border contract between Airbus’s defense unit and the Gulf kingdom.
“We are not yet there,” Faury told reporters when asked about possible legal action.
“We are very much impacted by the situation which is now being extended and trying to find different solutions,”
(A K P)
Arms shipment to Saudi Arabia flouts multiple EU states’ Arms Trade Treaty obligations
Reacting to the onward voyage of the Saudi Arabian state shipping company’s vessel, the Bahri Yanbu, from the Spanish port of Santander this afternoon, Ara Marcen Naval, Deputy Director for Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International, said:
“This is a serious test of EU countries’ resolve to uphold their obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and EU Common Position on Arms Exports. Several states have failed this test in the space of just a few days.
“No EU state should be making the deadly decision to authorize the transfer or transit of arms to a conflict where there is a clear risk they will be used in war crimes and other serious violations of international law.
cp13b Wirtschaft / Economy
(* B E)
Yemen Socio-Economic Update, Issue 41 - March, 2019
In this regard, the issue highlights Yemen’s situation in a package of important international reports related to human development, hunger, good governance, corruption control, fragile states, global peace and happiness. In general, Yemen was placed at the bottom of these reports. There are some rankings that no country wants to lead but unfortunately Yemen came on top of the 2019 Fragile States Index (FSI). Only three countries worldwide ranked on top of the FSI since the release of the FSI.
The conflicts that are currently plaguing Yemen don’t only threaten human security, but also undermine development achievements of decades. Yemen’s rank significantly descended into the bottom three countries in the Global Hunger Index and fall back to about 16 years in the HDI.
There is no doubt that these ranks are upsetting for every Yemeni and ring the alarm bells that it’s enough.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-socio-economic-update-issue-41-march-2019-enar
(* B E)
The IMF estimates that Yemen’s economy has contracted by around 50% since the conflict began in 2015, with GDP per capita down from $1,570 in 2014 to $873 in 2018.
Both the formal and informal economies have collapsed as a result of conflict lines preventing the movements of goods and people, infrastructure damage including to factories and roads, lack of electricity and clean water and a population beset by lack of food and disease.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2019-05-14.254122.h
(* B E K)
YEMEN FACES WAR OF ANOTHER KIND!
The aggression not only committed many crimes and caused tragedies, but resorted to an economic war along with its military aggression. Since the first moment of the aggression on Yemen, the siege of the Yemeni People, the closure of all ports, and corridors of land sea and air and systematic targeting of economic infrastructure of factories, companies and laboratories. By closing ports and corridors, Saudi Arabia wanted to deprive the Yemeni People of billions of riyals of tax and customs revenues. Aggression forces also attacked grain silos, food stores, markets, commercial complexes, power plants, fuel, poultry farms and food stock.
By this suffocating siege and the destruction of infrastructure, most of the Yemeni economic establishments went outside the production process, which cost the Yemeni economy huge losses and created social crises characterized by unemployment and poverty.
The forces of aggression also targeted the Central Bank of Yemen, where it was transferred from Sanaa to Aden in an illegal move. These forces also printed trillions of the Yemeni currency continuously without monetary cover, which was clearly reflected in the insane rise in the prices o
Contemplating what is woven from conspiracies and schemes to humiliate the people of Yemen and its stagnation, it undoubtedly includes the seriousness of that. It is certain that the main reason for the deterioration of the Yemeni economy, the collapse of the exchange rate and the rise in prices is due mainly to the economic war waged by the forces of aggression and its mercenaries.
https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/yemen-faces-war-of-another-kind/
My remark: A Houthi view. – and this from the Houthi government:
(B E K)
Finance Ministry Condemns US-Saudi Aggression’s Targeting Of Economic Establishments
Customs Authority and commercial sector held a special meeting on Tuesday in Sana'a to discuss the effects and repercussions of the brutal aggression targeting of customs offices and centers.
In the meeting, Minister of Finance Dr. Rashid Abu Lhuom stressed the importance of meeting with the commercial sector to discuss the effects of repeated targeting of this vital sector. As well as the impact of targeting customs centers and ports on the national economy in general.
He pointed out that targeting of these centers is a part of the aggression economic war on Yemen. He added that these attacks come with "premeditation, despite informing the United Nations in advance of the coordinates of all the customs centers in order not to be targeted."
Dr. Abu Lhuom stressed that the citizen is the primary victim of targeting the commercial sector because of the high value of goods, as a result of the high costs of transport and insurance as well as the traders fear of repeated targeting of their imported goods.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7045
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T K P)
Al-Qaeda’s former Mufti: Gulf fools underestimate dangers of war with Iran
Al-Qaeda’s former Mufti Mahfouz Ould Al-Walid, known as Abu Hafs Al-Mauritani, has criticised the Saudi war on Yemen and its reliance on the United States against Iran.
Ould Al-Walid explained, on his Facebook page, that it is unlikely that a US-Iranian war is planned. But a confrontation “by mistake or miscalculation” is possible.
He added: “Some of the fools who are Gulf rulers hoping for a war between Iran and the US, though this war is unlikely to occur. However, if it erupted, the Arab Gulf monarchies will be the first victims.”
“In case of a confrontation, the Gulf States will pay the cost of the war. And in case of non-occurrence, they will pay the price of peace,” Ould Al-Walid continued.
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
JIAT: Arab coalition committed to the rules of engagement in Yemen
The Joint Accident Assessment Team (JIAT) in Yemen said that the Arab coalition is committed to the rules of engagement, the spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Mansour Al-Mansour confirmed that the JIAT is committed to transparency and impartiality.
Speaking at a press conference in Riyadh, Al-Mansour said the investigation into the fishing boats that the Arab coalition targeted in 2017 in Yemen’s Al-Badi island showed that they were loaded with weapons for the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
He also said the Arab coalition bombed weapons stores belonging to the Houthi militia in Bani Hashish in the capital Sana’a.
He also refuted claims about air strike in Hodiedah, stressing that they were in line with international conventions and laws
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/23/jiat-arab-coalition-committed-to-the-rules-of-engagement-in-yemen/ = http://en.adenpress.news/news/4325
My comment: The Saudi self-investigation whitewashing sham again.
(A P)
Info Minister:Peace won’t be established unless international pressures ramped up upon Iran, Houthi militia
My comment: The British parliament should not give a stage to one-sided propaganda. MP Vaz seems not to look so happy in this photo.
(A P)
Rolling Back Iran’s Aggression Means Disrupting Its Networks
Despite a host of sanctions by the US, which include a recent terrorist designation of its Iraqi proxy Harakat Hizbullah al-Nujaba, the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, cancelation of oil trade waivers, and a recent announcement additional sanctions on metals, which fund weapons development, Iran’s internal and external aggression remains unabated.
https://www.dusc.org/en/article/2955
(A P)
World must unite to confront Iran
Tehran-backed attacks carrried out by Al Houthis threaten escalation in the region
Over the past three years, whether it be inside the internal borders of Yemen itself or more recently in desperate attacks against vessels off the coast of the UAE or at oil facilities and centres of population in Saudi Arabia, Al Houthi rebels have proven to the lowest common denominator when it comes to spreading chaos. Make no mistake, this Iranian-trained, armed and supported group is nothing more than a proxy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the regime in Tehran.
This terrorist group has shown no compunction when it comes to launching Iranian-supplied and supported missiles against Makkah itself, and these and others have been recently intercepted and brought down over Taif and Jeddah.
But Al Houthis themselves only have these capabilities because of the material support provided by Iran plain and simple. And the support provided by the regime in Tehran to Al Houthis has been reckless
https://gulfnews.com/opinion/op-eds/world-must-unite-to-confront-iran-1.64088037
(A P)
KSrelief Hails WFP Statement Condemning Al-Houthi Militia
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1926473
(A P)
More Saudi coalition „We are benefactors” propaganda
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4328
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4326
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4323
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4319
http://en.adenpress.news/news/4306
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/20/ksrelief-signs-contracts-for-treating-yemeni-inured/
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids and shelling day by day
May 20: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1558456616./1313176195499409/
(* A K)
Saudi Warplanes, Most Made in America, Still Bomb Civilians in Yemen
After five days of treatment in a shabby Yemeni hospital, Luai Sabri died on Tuesday. The 20-year-old had a cracked skull, a ruptured spleen and a damaged liver, according to a relative, injuries caused by a bomb that dropped from a warplane flown by the Saudi-led coalition.
The airstrike was part of a wave of bombings over the Yemeni capital, Sana, last Thursday that coincided with a spike in tensions between the United States — which supports the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen — and Iran — which backs the coalition’s enemies, the Houthi rebels.
Several airstrikes hit Houthi targets on the city outskirts. But one pulverized several homes in a crowded residential area where Mr. Luai, a recent high school graduate, lived.
Five people died immediately — his brother Hassan, 17, and four children in a house next door, the youngest of whom was 6. Among the 31 people wounded in the attack were Mr. Luai’s father, a former Houthi official, his grandparents and another 15 children, according to relatives and the Yemeni human rights group Mwatana – by Declan Walsh
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/middleeast/saudi-yemen-airstrikes-civilians.html
(A K pH)
More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:
May 21: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7039 Saada p.
May 20: https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-may-21-2019 Al Dhalea p.
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(* A K P)
Head of the National Delegation : We Avoid Targeting Civilians As Well As Holy Places, This Show Saudi Bankruptcy about Mecca Attack Claim
The official spokesman of Ansar Alleh, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said that Saudi’s claim of targeting AL Taif area is a failed attempt to get ride of dilemma that has put itself in .
He clarified, that any operation of Defense Ministry is announced, so there’s nothing wrong with us . We just defense of our people and country.
Abdul Salam : ” when we response to this aggression, we target and strike military objectives, so we are proud of these operations.
(* A K)
Yemen's Houthis Say They Launched Second Drone Attack on Airport in Saudi Arabia
The group's Al Masirah TV said it targeted hangars containing war planes in Najran
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched a drone attack on Saudi Arabia's Najran airport, the group's Al Masirah TV said early on Wednesday.
It said it targeted hangars containing war planes. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. There was also no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia or the Saudi-led coalition.
On Tuesday, Houthi rebels said they targeted the airport in Najran with a Qasef-2K drone, striking an "arms depot.
(A K)
Yemeni forces aligned with President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi claimed to shoot down an al Houthi drone near Ghul Sabulah village east of Dhaleh city in Dhaleh governorate in central Yemen on May 20.[3]
(* B K pH)
Arab Paper: Well-Equipped Saudi Arabia Humiliated by Yemenis' Simple Technology
The Ansarullah movement of Yemen has changed its defense strategy against the Saudi and UAE military aggression to an offensive one relying on low-cost, but highly capable and dangerous technologies that have humiliated Riyadh that is equipped with state-of-the-art weapons systems, a leading Arab newspaper wrote on Tuesday.
The Arabic-language Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper wrote that the Yemenis' drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia have changed all battlefield equations.
It referred to Ansarullah's statement that it has identified 300 military and vital points in Saudi Arabia and the UAE for impending attacks, noting that the Yemenis have entered a new offensive stage which relies on low-cost and simple technology with a high destructive power.
"The most complicated and advanced defense networks near the Saudi and UAE oil installations which have cost billions of dollars have not been able to intercept the drones and prevent their destructive impacts," the paper underlined.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980231000848
(A K pH)
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Shida border district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7024
(* A K pS)
"Sam " accuses both sides of the conflict of attacking civilian targets in Al-Dale
The "Sam " rights and freedoms organization has accused both sides of the conflict in Yemen of attacking civilian targets in Al-Dale (southern Yemen), causing the deaths and injuries of civilians, mostly women.
In a statement released Wednesday, the two parties to the conflict in the Hajar district of al-Dale province have caused thousands of people to flee to other areas where they lack relief, said Sam.
"The civilians are suffering from a very bad humanitarian situation due to military operations, poor humanitarian assistance, the lack of prefabricated shelters and a near-total absence of relief organizations," Sam said.
"Sam" warned that the use of Katyusha rockets and tank shells to deliberately target civilians is contrary to international law, as "Katyusha" rockets and tank shells are inaccurate weapons and represent indiscriminate shelling, and violate the principle of distinguishing civilians from combatants
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167849
(A K pS)
80 Houthis killed, 35 captured & army making advance in Al-Dhale
The national army forces, backed by the popular resistance, have been making rapid significant military advancements against the Houthi rebel militia in the southern province of Al-Dhale.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/23/80-houthis-killed-35-captured-army-making-advance-in-al-dhale/
(A K pS)
The Houthis blow up a bridge north of Qa’tabah and the government and coalition forces dominate Wa’el mountain
According to the source, the Houthi gunmen blew up “Qardah” bridge in a bid to obstruct the progress of the army and Southern resistance forces towards the remaining northern areas of Qa’tabah
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167851
(A K pS)
A civilian killed in the Houthi attack with a heat missile and a woman shot by a sniper in al-Dale
The source said that al-Houthi militia attacked a taxi with civilians on board in the "al-Fakher" area
A Houthi sniper targeted a woman in her seven decade near "Hajar" directorate in Al-Dale, which led to severe injuries.
https://almasdaronline.com/articles/167800
(A K pH)
SPOILS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT OBTAINED BY THE YEMENI ARMY AND THE POPULAR COMMITTEES DURING AN ATTACK IN QU’TOBA DISTRICT IN DHALE PROVINCE (film, photos)
All this and more is from one frontline. Believe it or not. All these new and advanced vehicles & weapons of all kinds were seized this week, and pictured only yesterday. Yemeni fighters captured them all from the UAE-led occupation forces in Qataba, Dale’e south of Yemen (photos, film)
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1131077249413865472
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1131075881848459264
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1131073106683019264
while the other side claims this:
(A K pS)
In 24 Hours, Al-Houthis’ Loses Exceed Their Loses in the Liberation of Kataba
https://en.smanews.org/in-24-hours-al-houthis-loses-exceed-their-loses-in-the-liberation-of-kataba
(A K pS)
Child shot dead by Houthi snipers in Al-Dhale (photo)
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/22/child-shot-dead-by-houthi-snipers-in-al-dhale/
(A K pS)
Houthi militia shells civilian houses in Al-Dhale
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/05/21/houthi-militia-shells-civilian-houses-in-al-dhale/
(* A K P)
Saudi Arabia says it intercepted Houthi missiles in Mecca province
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it had intercepted two missiles in Mecca province fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who earlier denied having targeted Islam’s holiest site.
A Saudi coalition spokesman said, “Royal Saudi Defence Forces spotted aerial targets flying through restricted areas in the provinces of Jeddah and Taif and dealt with them as required by the situation,” according to Saudi’s state news agency SPA.
In a tweet, Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Washington said the two missiles had been intercepted in Mecca province, which includes Jeddah and Taif.
and
(A K P)
FM Denies Saudi Allegations that Yemeni Army Targets Holy Places in Saudi Arabia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Yemeni People, who supported Islam and spread it through out the world, can not target the holy places. They were, and still and will remain at the forefront of the defenders of all Islamic holy sites. This came in a statement by the ministry denying the allegations and accusations of the countries of the aggression that the Army and Popular Committees targeted the holy places in Saudi Arabia.
The Ministry stressed that the Army and Popular Committees did not carry out any military operation towards Saudi territory after the 9th of Ramadhan operation, which targeted Aramco.
The statement stressed that these allegations are a kind of inciting the Arab and Islamic countries against Yemen.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7025
and
(A K P)
Leader of Revolution: Saudi regime allegations over targeting Mecca are slanders
Leader of the Revolution Sayed Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi on Tuesday said "the fabricated lies about targeting the holy city of Mecca are not strange to Saudi regime, which relies on lies and false claims."
During a lecture he delivered on Tuesday evening, Sayed Abdulmalik al-Houthi confirmed that "the attacks of the army and popular committees are announced with the utmost courage, clarity and defiance, and they are always within the moral and legitimate principles of the Yemeni people."
http://www.sabanews.net/en/news536947.htm
and
(A K P)
Sayyed Abdulmalik: US, Saudis and ISIS Real Threats to Holy Places, Mecca and Holy Mosque
In response to the Saudi regime's claims, accusing the Yemeni Army of targeting Holy places in Mecca, the leader of the revolution, Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, said that "those conspiring against Al-Aqsa mosque, are the ones conspiring against the Holy Mosque. They will do it at the moment it they are asked by Enemies of Islam."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7040
and
(A K P)
AbdulSalam: Saudis Fabricate Lies about Targeting Mecca to Divert Attention from What Is Happening in Yemen
In a statement to Almasirah channel, Abdulsalam said that "Saudi Arabia fabricated the lie of a threat to Mecca to mobilize on the official and popular level." He considers the Arab and Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia is a bubble aimed at diverting attention from the reality of what is happening in Yemen and to get international sympathy.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=7023
and
(A K P)
Pakistan condemns firing of ballistic missiles by Houthis towards Makkah
“Pakistan reaffirms its solidarity with Saudi Arabia and reiterates its support against any threat to the security of the Kingdom,”
(* A K)
Huthi-Rebellen greifen saudischen Flughafen an
Die jemenitischen Huthi-Rebellen haben mit einer Drohne einen Bombenanschlag auf den Flughafen der saudischen Stadt Nadschran verübt. Ein militärisches Waffendepot auf dem Flughafen sei mit einer Qasef-2K-Drohne angegriffen worden. Das teilten die Rebellen über ihren Fernsehsender Al-Masirah mit.
Die Huthis hätten "versucht", Nadschran zu treffen. Das teilte die staatliche saudische Nachrichtenagentur unter Berufung auf den Sprecher der saudisch geführten Militärkoalition, Turki al-Maliki, mit
https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2019-05/jemen-huthi-rebellen-angriff-saudi-arabien
und auch https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/huthi-rebellen-angriff-saudi-arabien-101.html
(* A K)
Yemen rebels say drone hits arms depot at Saudi airport
Yemen's Houthi rebels say they launched a bomb-laden drone targeting an airport in Saudi Arabia that also has a military base inside of it.
The Houthi's Al-Masirah satellite news channel said early Tuesday they targeted the airport in Najran with a Qasef-2K drone, striking an "arms depot" there.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article230638189.html
and also, with photo (but not much to be seen): http://en.abna24.com/news//yemeni-drone-attack-hits-arms-depot-at-saudi-airport-in-najran_943174.html
and
(A K)
Yemen’s Houthi's drone targeted civilian facility: Saudi coalition
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement tried to target a civilian facility in Saudi Arabia’s province of Najran with a drone carrying explosives, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the Saudi-led military coalition as saying early on Tuesday.
(A K pH)
Film: Aggression machine continues to destroy the property and mosques in the Directorate of Baqm border in Saada province 17-05-2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XwCkZtgRas
(B K)
Saudi-led Coalition Drone Downed in Yemen
Houthi forces down a coalition-piloted drone in the fields of Sadaa in Yemen
Houthi forces downed a China-made coalition combat drone over the Saada region of Yemen on or around April 19, 2019, when Houthi-affiliated media outlets first reported on the incident.
Judging by the video, Houthi forces used a surface-to-air missile to take it out of the sky, demonstrating that the Houthi forces, despite their technological inferiority to the coalition forces, are able to put up a fight against more advanced weaponry.
Photos and videos that appeared on social media provided open source data on the incident
https://medium.com/dfrlab/saudi-led-coalition-drone-downed-in-yemen-7d465edc37b2
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* B)
In Yemen’s war, a photographer finds points of light in the darkness
Amira Al-Sharif trains her lens on the hope that stubbornly persists in her homeland amid shadows of conflict.
AMIRA AL-SHARIF HAS been displaced by Yemen’s civil war. Though the photojournalist longs to go home, conflict, disease, and the constant threat of arrest for her work have driven her away from her country for now.
Since she was a child, Al-Sharif has trained her lens on the world around her.
Al-Sharif isn’t interested in statistics, either. She is dismayed at Westerners’ appetite for photographs of Yemenis who, deprived of food during the ongoing crisis, have been reduced to desperate skeletons. She tells me about people who have not received their salaries in five years, whose lives are now consumed by the basics. Finding food. Scavenging in dumps. Avoiding disease.
She prefers her photographs of Yemenis going about their business, children at school and at play, women living and loving, flowers blooming. She captures the light in Yemen that stubbornly persists in the shadows of war.
Al-Sharif’s choice to focus on hope within despair is strategic. “Everybody has their own miseries,” she says. “They don’t want to see other miseries.” She hopes her photos can short-circuit the impulse to look away. Yet she fears she isn’t doing enough.
“People communicate to strength,” she says. “To hope. To life. To blooming. To resilience. People want light.”
Amira Al-Sharif is a Yemeni photographer who focuses on women's issues and social taboos, particularly in Yemen. See more of her work by following her on Instagram. (photos)
https://www.instagram.com/amiraalsharif6618/
(* B D)
Plants & Nations: Yemen
Located at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has over 200 islands including one of the most beautiful places on the planet- Socotra.
Yemen was also the first country to cultivate coffee commercially. You must have heard of or tasted "Mocha coffee"- a chocolaty coffee drink, but in fact the "true" Mocha coffee comes from Yemen's iconic port town of Mocha or Al-Makha. Between the 15th and the 18th centuries, the port was one of the world's famous coffee markets. Hence, the coffee from Mocha started to be simply called Mocha coffee.
In this article, we introduce three plants that have shaped the country's image and history. (photos)
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514f3045444f34457a6333566d54/index.html
cp19a USA bereitet Krieg gegen Iran vor / The US is preparing war against Iran
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Iran and the Problem of Occupation Warfare
For the U.S., defeating the Iranian military wouldn’t be the end of the war.
There has recently been a lot of talk about a war between the United States and Iran. In my view, it’s unlikely because the risks are too high for both countries. Iran can’t take the chance that its military would be destroyed, and the U.S. can’t accept the costs a real victory would entail. Since Korea, the United States has performed poorly in war, with the exception of Desert Storm, when the destruction of Iraqi forces allowed U.S. entry into Kuwait and no Kuwaiti resistance to American occupation emerged. But in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States faced the problem of what I would call occupation warfare, a type of combat that carries a substantial price even after the initial war has been won.
This is why occupation warfare is so difficult. It requires the occupier to craft a strategy appropriate for the occupied country, one based on knowledge of the country that the occupying force doesn’t have. The occupier, therefore, can’t obliterate the resisting force, but the resisting force can strike as and where it chooses, depending on its capability.
This means that the occupied win so long as they are not defeated, and the occupiers lose so long as the resistance continues.
Occupation warfare, against a motivated and supplied resistance, is the most difficult type of warfare. It breaks an occupier not by main force but by steadily draining its resources.
The United States can certainly destroy the Iranian military. It can also likely occupy Iran, but it would then be forced into occupation warfare. The Iranians would lose control of their country for an extended period of time. The costs would be too high for each side.
There will be mutual threats and possibly even airstrikes and counterstrikes. But the destruction of the Iranian military would lead to occupation and necessitate breaking the will to resist. The dangers of occupation warfare are well known, but the calm after the destruction of the enemy’s military is the most dangerous point in war – by George Friedman
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/iran-and-the-problem-of-occupation-warfare/
My comment: Articles like this one demonstrate how „far“ US thinking already goes in direction to a war against Iran.
(A B P)
Iran: USA bedrohen den Weltfrieden - IALANA Stellungnahme vom 21.5.2019
Der Iran hat in Reaktion auf diese völkerrechtswidrigen Maßnahmen der USA den Internationalen Gerichtshof angerufen, der am 03.10.2018 einstimmig eine einstweilige Anordnung gegen die USA erlassen hat. Darin werden den USA einige der besonders inhumanen Sanktionen, wie der Boykott der Lieferung von Arzneimitteln, verboten.
Über die weitere Aufforderung des IGH an die USA und den Iran, von konfliktverschärfenden Maßnahmen bis zur Entscheidung in der Hauptsache, setzen sich die USA hinweg.
Die Bundesregierung muss deutlich erklären, dass sie sich an einem Angriff auf den Iran weder beteiligen noch diesen in irgendeiner Weise unterstützen noch dulden wird, dass deutsches Staatsgebiet dafür genutzt wird.
(* A K P)
Film: Der heiße Mai – MARKmobil aktuell
Die Vorbereitungen zum Schlag gegen den Iran sind in der Endphase angelangt. Alle amerikanischen Zivilisten sind zum Verlassen der Region aufgerufen worden. Der Iran ist von drei Seiten eingekreist. Wenige “Tage oder auch nur Stunden” können über einen Ausbruch des Krieges entscheiden, so US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo.
Unser Reporter Mark Hegewald liefert einen letzten Bericht für die Friedensbewegung aus dem künftigen Krisenherd. Dann packt er seine Koffer und überlässt den Kriegsberichterstattern das Feld. Sie sind bereits angereist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMNXRNU8Kw
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Film: USA-Iran bald im Krieg? Russlands Rolle
Welche Rolle spielt Russland vor Ort, welche kann es, welche will es spielen? Was sind die Beweggründe der Vereinigten Staaten und von Trump für das eskalierende Verhalten, würde Russland dem Iran beistehen oder sich heraus halten? Wie orientieren sich örtliche Regionalmächte wie die Türkei, wie verschiebt sich das internationale Kräftegleichgewicht? Sind die US-Aktionen nur eine Drohkulisse oder Vorbereitungen auf einen Kampfeinsatz? Das sind gar nicht so einfach zu beantwortende Fragen und deswegen hat sich Julia Dudnik für ihren Beitrag gleich doppelt fachkundige Unterstützung zur Analyse geholt. Zu Gast in ihrer Sendung sind der bekannte Publizist und Ostexperte Dr. Christian Wipperfürth vor allem zur Rollen Russlands und der Politikwissenschaftler Professor Peter W. Schulze von der Uni Göttingen zur Analyse der Absichten der USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KezwAtBunY
(A K P)
Iranian commanders say US fears war with Iran; ‘foreigners must leave' region
Amid escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran, two Iranian military commanders on Wednesday claimed the US and its allies fear confrontation with their country and that all foreign forces must leave the area.
“If the criminal America and its Western and regional allies do not dare to carry out a face-to-face military attack on our country, it will be because of the spirit of resistance and sacrifice of the people and the youth,” Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Gholamali Rashid said in a statement.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/35b768d3-fdab-48cf-81b3-03a718e45647
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UK Dirty Ops on Iran?
British media have reported that small teams of Britain’s elite commandoes are being deployed on UK-registered oil tankers in the Persian Gulf by way of protecting these vessels.
There's something fishy about the reports, if they are indeed accurate and not some form of British intelligence disinformation.
The unhinged hyperbole out of Washington of inflicting mass destruction against Iran sounds ominous. It is also criminally reckless aggression which violates international law and the UN Charter.
That's why the international public must be acutely vigilant of "false flag" attacks being staged, aimed at giving the impression that Iran is targeting the vital interests of the US or its allies. Iran has repeatedly said that it has no interest in going to war with the US. It is not in Iranian interests to plunge their country into catastrophic conflict, although Tehran has warned that if it is attacked it will respond with formidable defenses, as well as shutting down the global oil economy by blocking the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
The deployment of British commandoes in "top secret" missions at this crucial juncture raises perplexing questions. It comes just as British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Iran to not antagonize Washington from what he called "destabilizing activities".
First question right off is: how are individual British soldiers assigned to huge oil tankers supposed to afford protection to those ships?
That raises the more sinister question about what exactly these British commandoes are really up to?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51647.htm
Comment: Hmmm. I wonder how far these stories of Iranian dirty tricks are true. It's not new for Western powers to distort reality in order to make a cause for war - take the case of WMD in Iraq for example. And once the infrastructure is destroyed it is very difficult to put countries together again.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10157596402203641
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Republikanischer Senator fordert „überwältigenden“ Militärangriff gegen Iran
Nach einem Treffen mit Sicherheitsberater John Bolton verlangt der republikanische Senator Lindsey Graham einen amerikanischen Angriff auf Iran. Auch Präsident Trump hatte Iran zuvor unverhohlen gedroht.
Der republikanische Senator Lindsey Graham hat einen „überwältigenden“ Militärangriff auf Iran gefordert. Graham, der als Vertrauter von Präsident Donald Trump gilt, äußerte sich am Montag nach einem Treffen mit dem Nationalen Sicherheitsberater John Bolton. Dieser ist bekannt für seine aggressive Haltung gegenüber Teheran.
(A P)
Iranian nation will not bow to bullies: Rouhani
President Hassan Rouhani asserts that the Iranian nation may be under pressure, but will not “bow its head in the face of bullies.”
Rouhani made the remarks on Tuesday in the country’s northwestern West Azerbaijan Province, where he inaugurated eight developmental projects, including two dams.
“Holding onto premature perceptions, they had thought they would be able to shatter Iran’s grandeur,” he said, adding, however, that “we have been witnessing prosperity across this land every day in this tough time and under sanctions.”
“This is a very decisive response to the White House…and to those who reckon they can make the great nation of Iran buckle under their pressures,” the president noted.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/21/596525/Iran-United-States-pressure-Rouhani-Trump
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US playing very, very dangerous game by boosting regional military presence: Iran FM
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that the United States is “playing a very, very dangerous game” by beefing up its military presence in the region.
In an exclusive interview with the CNN broadcast on Tuesday, Zarif criticized the US for sending military reinforcements, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers, and a battery of patriot missiles, to the Middle East.
“Having all these military assets in a small waterway is in and of itself prone to accident, particularly when you have people who are interested in accidents. So extreme prudence is required and the United States is playing a very, very dangerous game,” the Iranian foreign minister said.
Zarif further emphasized that Iran was “not interested in escalation,” adding, “We have very clearly that we will not be the party to begin escalation, but we will defend ourselves.” He warned that there “will be painful consequences if there is an escalation for everybody.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/21/596521/Zarif-Trump-CNN-Abraham-Lincoln-JCPOA-respect
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Iran’s network of fighters in the Middle East aren’t always loyal to Iran
They are more than willing to ignore what Iran tells them to do.
With tensions mounting between the Trump administration and Iran, national security adviser John Bolton put Iran — and Iran’s nonstate partners, the regime’s preferred foreign policy tool — on notice. As the United States and its regional partners scramble to determine what happened to four tankers and two Saudi Aramco oil pumping stations — all allegedly attacked by Iranian forces or Iranian proxies — these incidents highlight how the ambiguity of Tehran’s multilayered proxy network complicates efforts to attribute responsibility to Iran.
While Iran’s nonstate partners are often thought of as a uniform group with unshakable loyalty to the Islamic republic, there are important differences among the groups. Iran’s nonstate partners are emerging as central players in the escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran — and may be a driver of further escalation. Iran provides support to militias and terrorist groups aiming to destabilize countries throughout the Middle East — contributing to insecurity and posing a challenge to the United States. But how involved is Iran with these proxy groups?
The degree to which Iran exercises power over many of these groups is debatable.
These entities’ leaders have made it clear that while they will happily accept Iranian financial or material support, Iranian advice is not always welcome. For example, despite receiving financing and weapons from Tehran and training via Hezbollah, the Houthis have a track record of ignoring Iranian recommendationsabout the best course of action in Yemen – by Becca Wasser, a policy analys,t and Ariane Tabatabai, associate political scientist at Rand Corp.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/21/how-do-irans-proxies-actually-work/
My comment: Even article like this one more fire US Iranomania than calm it down. Stay calm, stay out: All this happens more than 6,000 miles away from US territory.
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Iran's reach puts U.S. forces, allies in striking range
Threats of conflict between the United States and Iran have highlighted the places and ways their forces, proxies or allies could clash.
Iran backs militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are also based, and in Lebanon and Yemen, located next to Washington’s closest regional allies Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Iraq
Iran-backed Shi’ite groups gained strength in the chaos after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and were incorporated last year into the security forces, underscoring their pervasive role despite the American presence.
The strongest groups - trained, equipped and funded by Tehran - are Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and the Badr Organization.
THE GULF
Revolutionary Guards commanders have long warned that in a war they could cut off Gulf oil supplies flowing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Indian Ocean. Iran holds one side of the strait, putting shipping in range of its forces from the sea or shore, and allowing it to lay mines.
YEMEN
Yemen’s Houthis chant “Death to America, Death to Israel”
SYRIA
While backing President Bashar al-Assad during eight years of conflict, Iran has built a network of militias in government-held areas.
LEBANON
The U.S. blames Hezbollah for its military’s bloodiest day since the Vietnam war: the truck bombing at a marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. service members. It also accuses it of taking Americans hostage in Lebanon in the 1980s.
The group, set up by Iran to resist Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon, is today the most powerful in the country.
AFGHANISTAN
Western officials and analysts say they believe Iran gives some help to the Taliban.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-flashpoints-idUSKCN1SR18G
My comment: A typical propaganda article. US proxies all the world round are ok, Iranian proxies in other countries are a horrible threat. And, in claiming who is an Iranian proxy (or not)., just US propaganda is parroted.
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Film: Trump Says the Military Industrial Complex is Pressuring him Into a War With Iran
With a thirty year Boeing veteran at the Pentagon, Patrick Shanahan as Acting Secretary of Defense, and with John Bolton and Mike Pompeo at the helm, war with Iran is likely says the former chief of staff to Secretary of State, Col. Larry Wilkerson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j-kaXHobY
referring to interview from May 19, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4vYWJfJnE
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Pompeo to Iraq: Stand with US against Iran or move aside
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iraqi leaders that if they are not going to stand with the US against Iran, then they should stand aside, AP reported.
Pompeo’s message came last week as he met with Iraqi leaders to discuss the mounting tensionbetween Washington and Tehran.
“There are fears that Baghdad will get caught again in the conflict between Washington and Tehran after recovering from the effects of its war on the Islamic State,” the news site reported, in reference to Daesh.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190520-pompeo-to-iraq-stand-with-us-against-iran-or-move-aside/
My comment: OH – threats against countries which intend to stay neutral also are part of the US war preparations.
(A P)
Zarif to Trump: Never threaten an Iranian, try respect
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned US President Donald Trump to avoid threatening Iranians, advising him to try respect as it is the only approach to the Iranian nation, which may bear fruit.
"NeverThreatenAnIranian. Try respect—it works!" Zarif said in a post on his official Twitter account on Monday amid a spike in tensions between Tehran and Washington.
The Iranian foreign minister added that the policy of "economic terrorism and genocidal taunts" pursued by Trump would fail to "end Iran."
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/20/596421/Zarif-Trump-Twitter-terrorism-Baghdad-Green-Zone
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„Der nächste Schritt könnte durchaus Krieg bedeuten“
Die führenden Iran-Politiker der USA seien bereit, einen „Showdown mit dem Iran zu riskieren“, sagte der Nahost-Experte Michael Lüders im Dlf. Die Aufkündigung des Atomabkommens seitens des Irans sei ein weiterer Schritt in Richtung Eskalation. Der Konflikt könnte sich „massiv und gewalttätig“ entladen.
Tobias Armbrüster im Gespräch mit Michael Lüders
Michael Lüders: Die Lage spitzt sich gefährlich zu.
Die Zeichen stehen auf Zuspitzung. Sowohl der Verteidigungsminister Pompeo wie auch der nationale Sicherheitsberater John Bolton, die beide federführend die Iran-Politik der USA bündeln, sind offenbar bereit, gegebenenfalls auch einen Showdown mit dem Iran zu riskieren.
Die Amerikaner wissen natürlich, dass es im Falle einer militärischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Iran zu Gegenschlägen des Iran kommen wird. Der Iran ist militärisch den USA, Israel und Saudi-Arabien, den drei Widersachern der Islamischen Republik, hoffnungslos unterlegen. Sie werden sich auf einen asymmetrischen Krieg verlegen, die Iraner, wenn es zu einem solchen kommen sollte, und das bedeutet konkret, dass amerikanische Ziele im Irak angegriffen werden könnten als Vergeltung.
Es gibt vor allem auch keine direkten Kommunikationskanäle mehr zwischen Washington und Teheran. Es gibt kein Rotes Telefon. Wenn es zur Krise kommt, dann wird diese Krise massiv und gewalttätig sich entladen, und die Europäische Union, die ja eigentlich Mitunterzeichner ist des Atomvertrages mit dem Iran, macht hier eine sehr unglückliche Figur.
Das Atomabkommen in dieser Form ist nicht mehr zu retten. Die USA haben es aufgekündigt und es gibt ja keinerlei Verhandlungsangebote Washingtons an die Adresse Teherans. Was die Amerikaner und ihre nahöstlichen Verbündeten Israel und Saudi-Arabien zu erreichen versuchen, ist eine Implosion des iranischen Regimes. Sie wollen einen Regimewechsel dort herbeiführen, und den kann man vertraglich nicht herbeiführen.
Es gibt keinerlei diplomatisch überzeugende Möglichkeiten mehr, zwischen dem Iran und den USA eine Verhandlungslösung herbeizuführen, und die Zeichen stehen in der Tat auf Sturm.
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/konflikt-usa-iran-der-naechste-schritt-koennte-durchaus.694.de.html
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U.S. Military Officials Say There Is No Actual Plan to Confront Iran
The Trump Administration is turning up the heat on Iran, broadcasting a new plan to send as many as 120,000 U.S. forces to the Middle East to counter purported “identified, credible threats” from Iran.
But in the world of the Pentagon, there are plans you present to politicians, and then there are real plans. And three U.S. military officials involved in planning and overseeing military forces in the region tell TIME that no actual, executable plan, or anything like it, exists for a large-scale troop deployment to the Gulf.
“That requires knowing what contingency you’re addressing,” says one officer. “Is the target Iran’s own forces or is it a militia? Is the enemy in Iraq or Syria or someplace else? A car bomb or missiles or cyber? Is there credible evidence linking an attack to the Iranian government so that targets inside Iran are legitimate?” All three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter publicly, told TIME they had seen no such detailed data.
National Security Advisor John Bolton recently requested a plan for sending a substantial number of additional U.S. ground and air forces to the Persian Gulf, according to the three officials. On May 9, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented him and other top national security officials with a preliminary outline of plans to deploy as many as 120,000 more Americans to the region, according to the officials, who were briefed on the meeting, which was first reported by the New York Times.
But deployments of even limited forces to deal with credible threats require what’s called a time-phased force and deployment list, or TPFDL.
http://time.com/5589780/iran-military-plan/
My comment: I fear, this war will be started also without any such plans.
(* B K P)
In the complex game of wits being played between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, it appears that the U.S. temporarily checked Iran’s usual behavior. Iran prefers bluster in rhetoric with a careful strategy of extending its influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, knowing that any real battle with U.S. forces will result in Iranian defeat. Tehran can’t risk massive retaliation against its allies or the regime at home for fear that it will lead to instability and the destruction of all it has carefully built up in the last years. Iran is suffering from the effects of recent nationwide floods and from shortages due to sanctions.
The question is what can be learned from the escalating tensions. If Iran thinks Washington isn’t serious, or if it senses that domestic opposition to Washington’s saber-rattling is building, Iran may call America’s bluff. But if Iran thinks that Trump’s team really will retaliate, it will tread carefully in all the areas of the Middle East where U.S. allies and Iran’s proxies rub up against one another.
To understand the chessboard, we must look at the Middle East the way Iran does
Iran now wants to assure its own people that war isn’t likely through media stories about how the Trump administration isn’t serious. This is in contrast to the usual Tehran bluster and threats, even historic harassment of ships in the Persian Gulf and harassment of U.S. forces in Iraq.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/the-u-s-is-outplaying-iran-in-a-regional-chess-match/
My comment: Also in this article,there is a certain propaganda bias, and thus it is a contribution to influence the reader in the course to accept a war.
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Trump droht 80 Millionen Menschen Vernichtung an, aber keine Empörung bei Regierung und Medien
Wir sind von Donald Trump ja einiges gewöhnt, aber dass er nun einem 80-Millionen Volk mit Vernichtung droht, ist eine neue Kategorie selbst für Trump.
Trump hat letzte Nacht einen Tweet abgesetzt, der die Rahmen des Erträglichen sprengt: „Wenn Iran kämpfen will, wird das das offizielle Ende Irans sein. Droht nie wieder den Vereinigten Staaten!“
Bei der Vernichtung von Völkern sollte der Spaß eigentlich vorbei sein, das müsste auch die deutsche Bundesregierung aus der deutschen Geschichte gelernt haben. Und wenn iranische Politiker Israel drohen, dann funktionieren diese Reflexe der deutschen Regierung und Presse auch wunderbar. Nur wenn es die USA tun, dann scheint irgendetwas mit den Reflexen nicht zu stimmen.
Es ist bemerkenswert, dass sich die Regierung nicht zu einer Verurteilung dieses Tweets hinreißen lässt.
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Das russische Fernsehen über die Kriegsgefahr im Persischen Golf
In der russischen Sendung „Nachrichten der Woche“ ging es am Sonntag auch um die Iran-Krise. Da diese Krise und die wachsende Kriegsgefahr im Golf auch in Deutschland die Schlagzeilen beherrscht, ist es interessant zu sehen, wie Russland diese Situation beurteilt.
„Im Iran ist die Situation wie bei einem Pulverfass im Funkenflug. Es ist sehr gefährlich für die ganze Welt. Angefangen hat Amerika, als es im vergangenen Jahr ohne Grund aus dem sogenannten Atomabkommen mit dem Iran ausgestiegen ist. Allein und sogar gegen den Willen seiner NATO-Verbündeten. Trotz der Warnungen Russlands und Chinas. Den USA ist die Meinung anderer wurscht. Danach verhängten die Amerikaner illegale Sanktionen gegen den Iran und verboten Anfang Mai allen Ländern der Welt, Öl, Stahl, Kupfer und Aluminium aus dem Iran zu kaufen. Der Iran drohte als Reaktion, sich nicht mehr an die freiwillig übernommenen Beschränkungen des Atomabkommens zu halten. Trump war sauer und schickte eine Armada von sieben Kriegsschiffen an die Küsten des Iran. Jetzt sind sie da und bereit zum Kampf.“
https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2019/das-russische-fernsehen-ueber-die-kriegsgefahr-im-persischen-golf/
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Iran-Krise: Neue alarmierende Meldungen über steigende Kriegsgefahr
Daher möchte ich hier die aktuellen internationalen Meldungen zusammenfassen.
Bei dem Thema Iran dürfen wir nicht vergessen, dass es diese Krise nur aus einem einzigen Grund gibt: Die USA haben vertrags- und völkerrechtswidrig das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran gebrochen. Die EU, ebenfalls Vertragspartner, hat aus Angst vor den USA ebenfalls ihren Teil des Abkommens nicht eingehalten. So liest man das natürlich nicht in den deutschen Medien.
Die ganze Krise inklusive Kriegsgefahr ist also durch das Verschulden der „westlichen Wertegemeinschaft“ entstanden.
Schon in den letzten Tagen kamen immer mehr Meldungen, die auf eine Kriegsgefahr in der Region hindeuten. Ob es sich dabei tatsächlich um Kriegsvorbereitungen der USA handelt, oder ob durch Bluffen Druck aufgebaut werden soll, ist schwer zu sagen. Fakt ist, auch heute gab es wieder Meldungen in dieser Richtung.
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False-Flag-Operationen? Weitere „Provokationen“ des Iran gemeldet
Auch heute gibt es neue Meldungen von der Iran-Krise. Die Spannungen steigen weiter an und es wird immer deutlicher, wie sehr die US-Falken hier zündeln.
Gestern haben die Huthis aus dem Jemen als Vergeltung auf die ungezählten Bombardierungen durch die Saudis auf ihre Gebiete und tausenden toten Zivilisten eine saudische Öl-Pumpstation mit Drohnen angegriffen.
Weltpolitische Bedeutung bekommt der Vorfall, weil die Saudis den Iran beschuldigen, den Drohnenangriff angeordnet zu haben. Das kann dann von den Falken in den USA als weiterer Vorwand für einen Angriff auf den Iranverwendet werden, der angeblich US-Interessen in der Region bedroht. Die Falken brauchen nun möglichst viele Vorfälle, die man dem Iran anlasten kann, um in der Öffentlichkeit genug Empörung zu erzeugen, um einen Angriff auf den Iran zu rechtfertigen.
Es ist natürlich absurd, dass die Medien auf diesen Zug aufspringen, denn der Iran hat in den letzten 40 Jahren nichts dergleichen getan. Aber ausgerechnet jetzt, wo er damit einen aussichtslosen Krieg mit den USA provozieren würde, fängt er angeblich damit an. Im Iran regieren zwar religiöse Fanatiker, aber es sind keine irren Selbstmörder, wie die letzten 40 Jahre gezeigt haben.
Trotzdem nehmen die Medien diese Berichte über angebliche iranische Provokationen kritiklos auf, wie dieses Zitat aus einem Spiegel-Artikel zeigt
https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2019/false-flag-operationen-weitere-provokationen-des-iran-gemeldet/
(* A K P)
Film, 14. Mai: "Iranische Bedrohung eindämmen" – USA planen Verlegung von 120.000 Soldaten in den Nahen Osten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRZwFGmWDUE
cp19b Weitere Spannungen im Mittleren Osten / More tensions in the Middle East
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The Reckless Saudis Want to Start Another War
Bruce Riedel reports that the Saudi government is agitating for a U.S. attack on Iran, and the crown prince is the leading supporter of a new war.
Mohammed bin Salman has appalling judgment and a terrible track record, so it comes as no surprise that he thinks having the U.S. start a war with Iran is a good idea. Bogged down in a disastrous war of his own making in Yemen, he would have the U.S. set the entire region aflame with more reckless military intervention. The Trump administration should obviously ignore Saudi calls for war, but given the president’s history of doing Riyadh’s bidding there is no guarantee that a concerted push from regional clients won’t have the desired effect. Saudi support for attacking Iran is the latest example of their government’s destructive and destabilizing role in the region, and it is another reminder that the crown prince is reckless and incapable of learning any of the right lessons from his previous failures.
If the Saudi government really thinks that attacking Iran will trigger regime change, their leaders are even more clueless than we thought. Governments are not brought down by a few “surgical strikes.”
Riedel goes on to say that the crown prince wants the war in the hopes of distracting attention from the disaster in Yemen and his other crimes – by Daniel Larison
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-reckless-saudis-want-to-start-another-war/ = https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2019/05/20/the-reckless-saudis-want-to-start-another-war/
referring to
(* B K P)
Why Saudi Arabia is focused on tensions with Iran
Saudi Arabia is eager for the United States to take military action against Iran in the expectation that it will lead to regime change in Tehran. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the leading hawk, has a disastrous track record in military affairs.
The Saudi government-controlled and -directed press is openly pushing for “surgical strikes” by the United States against targets in Iran.
Other opinion pieces argue that the Iranians have a weak military that would be easily defeated by America’s forces, and that a military humiliation would lead to popular demonstrations and the end of the clerical regime. Under this theory, the Iranians' allies, including Hezbollah, would also be destroyed in a war
The crown prince is eager to draw attention away from the Yemen imbroglio and his reckless decisions there. The war has become a public relations disaster for the Saudi prince in Europe and the United States. The Democrats are using it as a campaign issue in the 2020 elections.
Mohammed also wants to distract attention away from the premeditated murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
The prince wants public and congressional attention to focus on Iran instead. But that seems unlikely.
The Saudis are making pro forma statements against a regional war but it appears the palace wants a limited US military operation – by Bruce Riedel
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UAE says joint probe into tanker attack ensures impartiality
The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that the participation of several countries in an investigation into last week’s attack on oil tankers off its coast would support the “impartiality and transparency” of the findings.
The Gulf Arab state has not yet blamed anyone for the acts of sabotage on four vessels including two Saudi oil tankers, but a senior UAE official has said Abu Dhabi was concerned about Iranian behavior in the region.
U.S. government sources told Reuters they believe Iran encouraged Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group or Iraq-based Shi’ite militias to carry out the operation.
Tehran has distanced itself from the attack.
Vorige / Previous
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-538-yemen-war-mosaic-538
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-538a-yemen-war-mosaic-538a
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-538 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-538:
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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