Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 592 - Yemen War Mosaic 592

Yemen Press Reader 592: 31. Okt. 2019: Ärzte ohne Grenzen fordert Rechenschaft – Vertreibung in die Städte in einer ländlichen Gesellschaft – Migranten im Jemen: Vergewaltigung und Folter ...

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Eingebetteter Medieninhalt

... Die geheime britische Militäreinheit in saudischen Diensten – Die saudische Anti-Iran-Propaganda ist absurd – Sudan zieht sich zum Teil aus Jemen zurück – Iran: US-Sanktionen gefährden Gesundheit – Südjemen: Differenzen über Vertrag zwischen Regierung und Separatisten; Konflikt vor Ort geht weiter – und mehr

Oct. 31, 2019: Doctors Without Borders claims accountability – Urban displacement in a rural society – Rape and torture of migrants in Yemen – UK’s secret military unit in the service of Saudis – Saudi propaganda war against Iran is absurd – Sudan partially withdraws from Yemen – US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health – Southern Yemen: Disagreement about the deal between government and separatists; ongoing conflict on the ground – and more

Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

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

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

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

cp2 Allgemein / General

cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

cp6 Separatisten und Hadi-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Hadi government in Southern Yemen

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

cp9 USA

cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

cp12b Sudan

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade

cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp15 Propaganda

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

Klassifizierung / Classification

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**

*

(Kein Stern / No star)

? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating

A = Aktuell / Current news

B = Hintergrund / Background

C = Chronik / Chronicle

D = Details

E = Wirtschaft / Economy

H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions

K = Krieg / War

P = Politik / Politics

pH = Pro-Houthi

pS = Pro-Saudi

T = Terrorismus / Terrorism

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

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

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

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

Neue Artikel / New articles

(* B H K)

Film: One of the world's bloodiest conflicts have killed over 270,000 and yet It's also one of most under-reported not #Iraq not #Syria or Afghanistan But #Yemen, where war has been raging the country for five years and still called the forgotten war. A short view from Yemen’s war

https://twitter.com/MohammedHojily/status/1189570718557786112

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

(** B K P)

No true accountability three years after bombing of MSF-supported hospital

The Joint Incidents Assessment Team, the UK- and USA-supported body appointed by the Saudi and Emirati-led Coalition to investigate incidents in Yemen has released its findings related to the bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières- supported Shiara Hospital in Razeh, northern Yemen.

MSF believes the findings fail to provide true accountability, and calls for timely, transparent and independent investigations into such incidents.

Parties to the conflict in Yemen are attacking facilities protected under international humanitarian law - or hitting facilities because of negligence - with impunity.

The newly-released findings of the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) – the UK and USA-supported body appointed by the Saudi and Emirati-led Coalition (SELC) to investigate incidents in Yemen – have once again failed to provide true accountability for the victims of strikes on protected medical facilities in Yemen.

The JIAT’s latest findings, released in a press conference on 23 October 2019, relate to an incident that took place on 10 January 2016 in which the MSF-supported Shiara Hospital in Razeh, northern Yemen, was hit by a projectile. The strike killed six people and injured eight. In its findings, of which there is no written report available, the JIAT blamed the incident on “a projectile malfunction that led to a deviation from the target”, and recommends “voluntary assistance on casualties and material damage”.

MSF’s own investigation into the incident, completed in March 2016, concluded that there was no justifiable or legitimate reason for the attack, as the hospital remained protected in line with international humanitarian law, including in cases of error and negligence.

Such a finding from the JIAT highlights the failure of parties to the conflict in Yemen to take the necessary measures to ensure that protected medical facilities are not hit. It also follows a depressingly predictable pattern in which accountability is dodged by blaming either the victims of an attack or malfunctions that relieve the SELC of any culpability.

In another press conference held in January 2019, the JIAT attempted to shift responsibility for a June 2018 strike by the SELC onto MSF, falsely accusing the organisation of failing to take the appropriate steps to avoid being targeted. The strike resulted in the near total destruction of a newly-established Cholera Treatment Centre in Abs, which had been due to serve a catchment population of more than one1 million people.

Despite repeated calls by humanitarian actors for credible investigations into such events, the JIAT has consistently failed to report promptly and transparently on its findings, leaving both humanitarian agencies and individual victims of SELC attacks with no recourse to justice or accountability. Its recommendation in this instance for the provision of “voluntary assistance” amounts to a vague, inadequate pledge that comes three years too late.

Attacks that violate international humanitarian law – such as those that target protected medical facilities and civilian sites (like the 2018 bombing of a school bus and the 2019 strike on a prison in Dhamar) – are routinely perpetrated with impunity by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, and result in injury, death and displacement for the civilian population.

Such strikes not only have direct consequences for those who lose their lives or are injured in the attacks: they also impact the population by preventing humanitarian actors from doing their jobs, thereby and thus reducing the availability of critical humanitarian aid, even as needs continue to soar.

MSF facilities have been hit five times by SELC airstrikes since March 2015. With only half of health facilities in Yemen fully functional, more than 11 million people in acute need, and outbreaks of cholera and other easily preventable diseases occurring regularly across the country, access to medical facilities is crucial for the civilian population.

MSF reiterates once again the urgent need for truly independent investigations, conducted in a transparent and timely manner and resulting in shared, written reports that enable real accountability. MSF also calls on all parties to the conflict to urgently take the necessary steps to respect the neutrality and protected nature of the humanitarian medical mission, and to avoid damaging or destroying medical facilities and the loss of civilian lives.

https://www.msf.org/yemen-hospital-bombing-investigation-findings-too-little-too-late

(** B H)

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre: UnSettlement: Urban displacement in the 21st century - Yemen: Urban displacement in a rural society

War and displacement in Yemen are not primarily urban in nature. Despite the amount of media attention given to key urban battles such as the siege of Taiz and the battle for Hodeidah, the disaggregation of data on incidents of conflict and displacement by type of location shows that 68 per cent of the former and 69 per cent of the latter take place in rural areas. This is in line with the rural nature of the country’s population.

Rural to rural and urban to urban displacement are the dominant patterns of movement. The importance of having social networks in areas of displacement and transferable education and skills cannot be overemphasised. The war has also rendered typical pull factors to cities, such as access to basic services and livelihood opportunities, all but irrelevant, meaning that rural to urban displacement is not as common as it might otherwise have been.

Despite the impacts of war, internally displaced people (IDPs) in urban areas still have better access to basic services than their rural counterparts.

Access to water and electricity was poor in urban areas before the war, and even worse in rural areas. The war has only widened such gaps across sectors and the country as a whole. Rural inhabitants, including IDPs, are forced to travel long distances to access markets and health and education services, a costly and time-consuming endeavour that urban IDPs do not face.
Understanding pre-war trends, particularly the decline of rural life and the spread of informal settlements on urban peripheries, will be key in developing solutions to displacement. Urban IDPs join the ranks of the broader urban poor, living in areas where water and electricity supplies and sanitation are all but absent. Deteriorating rural conditions led to rural to urban migration before the war, and this is certain to increase as the conflict aggravates rural decline and leaves IDPs from rural areas nowhere to return to. Developing tailored local solutions that include the integration of urban IDPs into the urban economy will help mitigate the impacts of displacement on individuals and the urban ecosystem as a whole.

This paper examines the urban and rural characteristics of displacement in Yemen, including the push and pull factors in both areas. It provides an overview of historical urbanisation trends in the country, and a ruralurban disaggregation of large conflict and displacement datasets from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) and International Organization for Migration (IOM), respectively.

It examines rural and urban displacement patterns and assesses host conditions and the status of basic services in urban centres. It looks specifically at conditions in the cities of Taiz and Aden as they create internal displacement and shelter IDPs. It also analyses future intentions and preferences for durable solutions along urban and rural lines.

More than 80 interviews were conducted with internally displaced families in Aden, Lahj, Sana’a and Taiz governorates in August and September 2019.

More than half of the interviewees were living in urban centres, particularly the cities of Taiz and Aden which are the focus of this study. It also draws on 40 interviews conducted with Yemeni refugees in Europe and Djibouti in May and June 2019, many of whom were also from Aden and Taiz. National and international service providers working in the two cities were interviewed for triangulation and clarification purposes.

Yemen’s war has caused economic opportunities in cities to shrink, basic services to break down and prices to soar, rendering many of the usual draws to urban areas irrelevant. Rural to urban displacement has not been a prevalent pattern of movement as a result. The traditionally rural nature of Yemeni society is a further significant factor

Last-resort hosting sites also tend to be in rural areas, which potentially acts as a draw for the most vulnerable IDPs. Respondents interviewed for this study, however, placed great importance on the relevance of their education, skills and social networks in areas of displacement, these factors acting as the primary pull to new locations.

Cities have played a key role in Yemen’s conflict, and not only as theatres of war and power struggles from which hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Despite their limitations as a result of the conflict, they have also served as relatively safe havens for people displaced from both rural and other urban areas and have continued to provide better access to services for its residents.

Given the country’s pre-war urbanisation trends and the steady decline of rural life before the war, increasing rural to urban migration and displacement is inevitable. As Yemeni cities still offer better access to basic services and livelihood opportunities for skilled workers and professionals than rural areas, they will be pivotal to the country’s recovery and future development.

Given people’s general preference for sustainable support, especially in the form of establishing or re-establishing livelihoods, despite the emergency context, there is a need to reconsider different types of approaches to assistance. Cities, in particular, provide an opportunity to pilot new approaches, in which urban IDPs, along with the urban poor living on the peripheries, are integrated into the cities’ economies in a sustainable way so as to reduce the impacts of displacement on future urbanisation and development.

http://www.internal-displacement.org/publications/yemen-urban-displacement-in-a-rural-society

(** B H)

For migrants, stopover in Yemen often means rape and torture

“What will they do to us?” Zahra thought.

This story is part of an occasional series, “Outsourcing Migrants,” produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

She and 300 other Africans had just endured six hours crammed in a wooden smuggling boat to cross the narrow strait between the Red Sea and the gulf. When they landed, the traffickers loaded them into trucks and drove them to ramshackle compounds in the desert outside the coastal village of Ras al-Ara.

There was Zahra’s answer. She was imprisoned for a month in a tin-roofed hut, broiling and hungry, ordered to call home each day to beseech her family to wire $2,000. She said she did not have family to ask for money and pleaded for her freedom.

Instead, her captors raped her. And they raped the 20 other women with her — for weeks, different men all the time.

“They used each of the girls,” she told The Associated Press. “Every night there was rape.”

With its systematic torture, Ras al-Ara is a particular hell on the arduous, 900-mile (1,400 kilometer) journey from the Horn of Africa to oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Migrants leave home on sandaled feet with dreams of escaping poverty. They trek through mountains and deserts, sandstorms and 113-degree temperatures, surviving on crumbs of bread and salty water from ancient wells.

In Djibouti, long lines of migrants descend single file down mountain slopes to the rocky coastal plain, where many lay eyes on the sea for first time and eventually board the boats. Some find their way safely across war-torn Yemen to Saudi Arabia, only to be caught and tossed back over the border. The lucky ones make it into the kingdom to earn their livings as a servant and laborers.

But others are stranded in Yemen’s nightmare — in some measure because Europe has been shutting its doors, outsourcing migrants to other countries.

Meanwhile, more than 150,000 migrants landed in Yemen in 2018, a 50% increase from the year before, according to the International Organization for Migration.

This year, more than 107,000 had arrived by the end of September, along with perhaps tens of thousands more the organization was unable to track — or who were buried in graves along the trail.

And European policies may be making the Yemen route more dangerous. Funded by the EU, Ethiopia has cracked down on migrant smugglers and intensified border controls. Arrests of known brokers have prompted migrants to turn to unreliable traffickers, taking more dangerous paths and increasing the risk of abuses.

Many of those migrants end up in Ras al-Ara.

Nearly every migrant who lands here is imprisoned in hidden compounds while their families are shaken down for money. Like Zahra, they are subjected to daily torments ranging from beatings and rapes to starvation, their screams drowned out by the noise of generators or cars or simply lost in the desert.

“Out of every thousand, 800 disappear in the lockups,” said a humanitarian worker monitoring the flow of migrants.

Traffickers who torture are a mix of Yemenis and Ethiopians of different ethnic groups. So victims cannot appeal to tribal loyalties, they are tortured by men from other groups: If the migrants are Oromia, the torturers are Tigrinya.

The AP spoke to more than two dozen Ethiopians who survived torture at Ras al-Ara. Nearly all of them reported witnessing deaths, and one man died of starvation hours after the AP saw him.

The imprisonment and torture are largely ignored by Yemeni authorities. The AP saw trucks full of migrants passing unhindered through military checkpoints as they went from the beaches to drop their human cargo at each desert compound, known in Arabic as a “hosh.”

“The traffickers move freely, in public, giving bribes at the checkpoints,” said Mohammed Said, a former coast guard officer who now runs a gas station in the center of town – by Maggie Michael (with photos)

https://apimagesblog.com/blog/migrants-endure-sea-crossing-to-yemen-and-disembark-in-hell = (few photos only) https://apnews.com/476e15db8b77486e9d157b33f9494b22 = https://www.thestate.com/news/nation-world/world/article236806643.html = https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/migrants-stopover-yemen-means-rape-torture-191030073625125.html

and

(* B H)

Film: Torture awaits African migrants traveling in Yemen

Thousands of African migrants, ushered to Yemen by smugglers, find themselves in the particular hell of Ras al-Ara. There, many are raped or otherwise tortured by traffickers who demand more money from the families they left behind. (Oct. 30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9EaVxc11gE = https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/videos/torture-awaits-african-migrants-traveling-in-yemen/vi-AAJyPKf

(** B K P)

The UK’s secret military unit that answers to Saudi Arabian commanders

The UK military has a team of high-ranking soldiers embedded in the Saudi Arabian armed forces who are believed to be taking their orders from Saudi commanders, it can be revealed.

The British programme, details of which have long been kept secret from the British parliament and public, involves training the Saudis in “internal security”. Paid for by the Saudi regime – including the salaries and living costs of the British soldiers – the team’s role is controversial given the kingdom’s repressive political system.

It is also likely to raise questions since the British soldiers are embedded in a branch of the Saudi military that is involved in the devastating war in Yemen.

The British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard (BMM SANG) trains the de facto protection force of the ruling House of Saud and was established in 1964.

An elite, 130,000-strong force with soldiers drawn from tribes loyal to the ruling dynasty, the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) is separate from the regular Saudi army. Its central role is to defend the regime from a coup.

The British government told parliament this March that the UK has 10 military personnel “embedded” in the SANG. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has told us that the number is now 11 personnel, who are believed to be based at the unit’s headquarters in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The British government has repeatedly told parliament that all UK military personnel in Saudi Arabia “remain under UK command and control”. An MOD spokesman further told us: “The British Military Mission is commanded by a British officer, who reports directly to the Ministry of Defence, in London.”

However, new information suggests that the chain of command on the ground is different.

‘Members of the Saudi National Guard’

The British embassy in Riyadh admitted in 2012 that the UK military officers involved in the mission “take their orders directly from His Royal Highness, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Cabinet Minister and Head of the Saudi Arabian National Guard”. Prince Miteb, the son of the late King Abdullah, was head of the SANG until 2017.

The admission came in an internal embassy publication, called Kingdom to Kingdom, intended for distribution within government. The British embassy even referred to the British soldiers as “members of the Saudi National Guard”, rather than advisers or trainers.

When presented with the document, the MOD told us the information is misleading.

However, we have also seen a 1983 document from the MOD entitled “Directive for the commander, British Military Mission to Saudi Arabian National Guard” stating that while the commander is formally answerable to the chief of defence staff in the UK, “members of BMM will ordinarily obey the orders of designated SANG superiors”.

Our understanding is that, although the formal chain of command may end in London, these British military personnel report on a day-to-day basis to their Saudi superiors, who are their effective commanders.

The MOD has also informed us that BMM SANG is a “loan service personnel” scheme. Such an arrangement is ordinarily described by the MOD as British soldiers being “embedded in a wide variety of training, educational and staff posts in the host nation’s armed forces”. Similarly, the MOD has previously stated that “UK embeds operate as if they were the host nation’s personnel, under that nation’s chain of command”.

However, when asked about this in relation to BMM SANG, the MOD told us that its previous statement was again misleading because it did not apply to all embed programmes – by By Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-28-the-uks-secret-military-unit-that-answers-to-saudi-arabian-commanders/

and more on this subject: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-27-britains-secret-saudi-military-support-programme/

(** B P)

How Saudi Arabia’s Propaganda War on Iran Has Reached a New Level of the Absurd

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir has recently called out Iran for its alleged “support of terrorist groups, its ballistic missile program and its destabilizing effect” in the Middle East even though Iran has not attacked a country in more than 200 years.

The Saudi Gazette, an English-language online daily newspaper published in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who describes itself as “The Tone of Truth and Moderation” reported on October 21st ‘Iranians are on a rampage — Al-Jubeir’ on a Q&A event that took place at the Chatham House, a think tank based in London with Al-Jubeir. Al-Jubeir claimed that “Iran’s hand is in almost all countries in the region… Iranians are on a rampage and have been on a rampage since 1979″ and that there is an ‘Iran Problem’ — its support of terrorist groups, its ballistic missile program and its destabilizing effect in the region and unless we deal with those problems, “we will always have an Iran problem as they keep on meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.”

Al-Jubeir said the Iran poses problems when it comes to the internal affairs of other countries, so is he talking about Syria who its President, Bashar al-Assad has invited not only Iran but also Russia to help fight the Islamic State? Let’s go back to 2011, during the start of the Syrian conflict which began as an uprising against the Assad government, there were U.S. backed moderate rebels and members of ISIS and other terrorist groups that came from Iraq, Libya and elsewhere who infiltrated the demonstrations.

Professor Tim Anderson, a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney and an author of several books including ‘The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance’ and ‘Daraa 2011: Syria’s Islamist Insurrection in Disguise’ described how the Syrian civil war actually began:

The US-Saudi Alliance: Supporting Terrorists One Step At A Time

Investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh published ‘The Red Line and the Rat Line’ in the London Review of Books in April 2014 where he interviewed an anonymous former pentagon official who claimed that the U.S. diplomatic post located in Benghazi, Libya existed for the purpose of sending weapons through a secret pipeline to the Syrian rebels who were fighting Syrian government forces. Hersh elaborated on the Obama administration’s role in sending weapons from Libya through Turkey and finally into the hands of the terrorists or the moderate rebels within Syria’s borders:

That’s just one side of the story. The majority of fighters that made their way into Syria were trained and armed in Jordan by the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies under ‘Operation Timber Sycamore’ that began in 2011 and supposedly lasted until 2013 according to the mainstream media. The pipeline to ISIS was through Saudi Arabia according to a September 2016 report by The New York Times ‘U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels’:

Iran is also guilty in the attacks on the Aramco oil facility according to Saudi Arabia.

However, Saudi Arabia itself has been involved in a relentless bombing campaign in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East since March of 2015.

The U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia are the destabilizing factors in the Middle East. Human rights for Saudi Arabia is non-existent in its foreign policy as well as their internal affairs with its own citizens.

Saudi Arabia, in my view is possibly the worst dictatorship on the planet is launching an all-out propaganda war against Iran, albeit, Iran is not perfect, it has its own domestic issues, but for a country like Saudi Arabia to criticize and accuse Iran of being hostile and dangerous is absurd. Saudi Arabia is on a rampage in Yemen and Syria, and don’t forget the rampage it has on its own citizens when it comes to women’s rights, torture, public beheadings and other human rights abuses – by Timothy Alexander Guzman

https://www.globalresearch.ca/saudi-arabia-propaganda-war-iran/5693245

(** A K P)

Sudan withdraws 10,000 troops from Yemen

Some 10,000 troops of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have definitively returned from Yemen in what is described gradual drawdown of the Sudanese soldiers participating in the Saudi-led war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The surprising withdrawal has been announced by the SRF General Commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemetti) who is also a member of the Sovereign Council in a joint meeting held on Monday including the two bodies of the transitional authority and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

Khartoum based Al-Tayyar newspaper reported that Hemetti told the tripartite meeting that 10,000 troupes have been withdrawn from Yemen and stressed that he would not replace them.

"The gradual withdrawal of troops from Yemen has already begun," he added.

One of the FFC senior officials who participated in the meeting confirmed to Sudan Tribune that Hemetti had unveiled the RSF drawdown from Yemen.

The official who refused to be identified further said that Hemetti spoke about the RSF withdrawal when he was responding to criticism over the RSF involvement the public transport and campaigns to eradicate epidemic diseases.

The RSF leader has been blamed during the meeting of seeking to improve his image as his troops are accused of killing peaceful protesters on 3 June.

In a separate report, the Associated Press reported that Sudanese official confirmed the partial withdrawal but stressed that does not mean that Sudan is quitting the coalition.

"The officials say Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the RSF, agreed with Saudi Arabia that he would not replace returned forces as fighting on the ground has dwindled in recent months," said the AP

"They said a "few thousand troops" remain for training Yemeni government forces".

The Sudanese officials further said the RSF participating in the Yemen war reached over 40,000 when the conflict was at its peak in 2016-2017.

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article68404

and

(* B K P)

Sudan drawing down troops in Yemen in recent months

Sudanese officials say Sudan has drawn down its forces taking part in a Saudi-led coalition at war with Yemen's rebels.

They declined to disclose how many troops have left Yemen and how many remain, but say "several thousand troops," mainly from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have returned over the past two months.

The officials say Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the RSF, agreed with Saudi Arabia that he will not replace returned forces, as fighting on the ground has dwindled in recent months.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-7630503/Sudan-drawing-troops-Yemen-recent-months.html

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

(A H)

Medical source: Two deaths of “cholera" epidemic recorded in Ibb

Two deaths from cholera have been reported in the central province of Ibb, a medical source said Monday.

A number of children and women were infected with cholera in al-Maseel area of al-Odin district in western Ibb province, the source said.

According to the source, two deaths from cholera have been recorded in "Al-Masil" area, and a number of cases have been reported to the Al-Mazahen Rural Hospital in the Directorate of Far’a Al-Odin.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173475

(* B H)

UNICEF Yemen Humanitarian Situation Report (September 2019)

Between January and September 2019, there have been 687,135 acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera suspected cases and 898 associated deaths recorded. In September, UNICEF vaccinated 1.1 million people with the second dose of oral cholera vaccination (OCV) in three high-risk districts in Amanat Al Asimah; this number accounts for 93 per cent of the campaign’s target, a record achievement.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unicef-yemen-humanitarian-situation-report-september-2019-enar

(B H)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Yemen Cholera Response Mechanism

Objective: To design and construct pilot wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) downstream of the existing WWTP in Sana'a City to provide farmers with water for irrigation that is safe and meets standards and guidelines.

Key partners: Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and Ministry of Water and Environment.

Beneficiaries reached: 240 households (1 920 people).

Activities implemented: Designed and constructed four pilot small-scale WWTPs in Bani Al-Harith District with the daily capacity to treat 600 m3 of poorly treated, cholera-contaminated wastewater that is discharged by the Sana’a City WWTP.

Conducted three monthly analyses on water samples from the newly constructed WWTPs. Developed a training programme on the operation and maintenance of small–scale WWTPs.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-cholera-response-mechanism

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

(A K pH)

In Hodeidah, US-Saudi forces targeted several areas southern and western At-tohayta district and 5 shells northern Hais district.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9535

(A K pH)

[Sanaa gov.] Yemeni forces beat back Saudi advance in Hodeidah

Saudi airstrikes fail to help offensive

https://www.uprising.today/yemeni-forces-beat-back-saudi-advance-in-hodeidah/

(A K pS)

Houthis continue to shell liberated areas of Hodeidah

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14647

(A K pH)

In Hodeidah, a civilian was killed with artillery shelling eastern Hais district. US-Saudi forces targeted several areas of Hais and At-tohayta districts with medium and heavy arms. US-Saudi mercenaries carried out a failed infiltration operation on Yemeni Army sites in Kilo-16. US-Saudi artillery shells targeted Ad-durayhimi city.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9523

(A K pH)

US-Saudi Aerial Aggression Renews Targeting Hodeidah

Coalition of aggression's warplanes, on Tuesday, targeted Al-Munira district of Hodeidah province in a serious escalation and violation of the Stockholm Agreement.

A security source said that the US-Saudi aerial aggression launched two raids on Al-Munira, amid intensive flight of the aggression's warplanes in the skies of the province.

the aggression-mercenaries bombarded the besieged city of Ad-Durayhimi.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9511

(A K pH)

US-Saudi Aggression Targets Fisherman’s Boat with Airstrike

A civilian was killed and another was injured after the US-Saudi aggression targeted a fisherman's boat with an airstrike near Al-Salif.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9507

and also https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/a-fisherman-killed-another-injured-in-a-raid-hit-their-boat-in-hodeidah/

(A K pH)

US-SAUDI INVADERS, PAID-MERCENARIES ESCALATED IN WEST COAST

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/us-saudi-invaders-paid-mercenaries-escalated-in-west-coast/

(A K pS)

A young man was injured in the explosion of a landmine planted by Houthi group in Haimah area in al-Deraihemy district in #Hodeida governorate.

https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1188900471991353344

(A K pH)

In Hodeidah, US-Saudi warplanes flight intensively in the city sky. US-Saudi aggression targeted fishermen's boats with 3 raids, killing and injuring a number of them.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9506

and also https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076801.htm

(A K pS)

Film: Joint forces engineering teams dismantle the Houthi minefield south of Hodeidah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjByqUnm6HU

(A K pH)

HODEIDAH : A citizen was wounded on Thursday in Saudi-led aggression coalition’s mercenaries' bombardment on Hodeidah province, a security source reported (photos)

https://www.facebook.com/fiduciaofficial/posts/2444593159133773

cp2 Allgemein / General

(* A K P)

Interactive Map of Yemen War

https://yemen.liveuamap.com/

(* A K)

MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON OCTOBER 30, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-october-30-2019-map-update/

MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON OCTOBER 29, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-october-29-2019-map-update/

(B K P)

ACLED Regional Overview – Middle East (20 - 26 October 2019)

In Yemen, a preliminary agreement between the pro-Hadi government and southern secessionists under the Southern Transitional Council (STC), in what will be called the “Riyadh Agreement” brokered by Saudi Arabia with support from the United Arab Emirates, was drafted.

In an effort to contain the violence in Hodeidah, five ceasefire observation posts were set up in Hodeidah by the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) and the United Nations Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA).

Moreover, clashes between pro-Houthi forces and pro-Hadi forces and affiliates continued

https://www.acleddata.com/2019/10/30/regional-overview-middle-east-20-26-october-2019/

(A K pS)

Brigadier-General Sadiq Doaid, spokesperson for the popular resistance, said that a boat carring smuggled materials used for the production of explosives was seized by the Yemeni Coast Guard in the Red Sea while it was heading to #Houthis.

https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1188864075024998400

and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-33976

cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade

(* B H P)

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen: Commodity Tracker (as of 30 September 2019)

Following record-high levels in June, fuel imports steadily decreased over the third quarter. In September, the Government of Yemen began strict enforcement of new fuel import regulations, including Decree 49. A large number of ships carrying commercial fuel imports were unable to enter Hudaydah port until an exception was granted at the end of September and again in October. Sustainable management of commercial fuel imports is required to avoid fuel shortages that exacerbate humanitarian needs.

Diesel prices increased significantly in June 2019 and then remained relatively stable through August.

Total food imports in September were 270,820 metric tons, bringing the total for the third quarter of the year to 911,538 metric tons. This represents an 20 per cent decrease from food import levels in the second quarter, which saw two consecutive months with recordhigh volumes of food enter Hudaydah and Saleef ports.

The average cost of the minimum food basket remains relatively stable at about twice as expensive as average food basket prices before the crisis.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-commodity-tracker-30-september-2019

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

(B H)

Film: Good night my best friends & our best team. With All my best wishes to you. Just say, I love you all, & thanks everyone for your trust in us & support. My heart bleed from what I saw during my trip from suffering of these children. Plz help via link http://gofundme.com/food-and-medicine-for-yemen

https://twitter.com/ghalebalsudmy/status/1189324696027832320

(* B H)

I remember hearing about Sirwah when I first started working on #Yemen. District in Marib heavily impacted by fighting. Rarely covered. Video by Yemen's @MusaalaOrg highlights what war has meant for civilians in Sirwah.

https://twitter.com/K_Beckerle/status/1189446822273736704

referring to film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBBOwoftNZA

(* B H)

WHO: 250,000 Yemenis at brink of starvation

250,000 Yemenis are on the brink of death from hunger, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Sunday.

“The ongoing conflict and its resulting economic crisis are the key factors behind food insecurity in Yemen,” WHO said.

The UN organisation pointed out that the Yemeni conflict had destroyed some of the country’s “vital civilian infrastructure,” adding that around 20 million Yemenis were “food insecure.”

“Nearly a quarter of a million people are on the brink of starvation, if not urgent intervention,” the humanitarian organisation stressed.

In collaboration with local health authorities and The World Bank (WB), WHO reportedly established a surveillance system to seek out the most vulnerable individuals for treatment. The initiative is being carried out as part of the so-called “Emergency Health and Nutrition Project (EHNP),” was launched by WHO in partnership with the WB and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191029-who-250000-yemenis-at-brink-of-starvation/

(* B H)

Ophthalmic services during ongoing conflict: the eye health system in Yemen

There is little information on the provision of ophthalmic services and the eye health system in Yemen. Using the WHO framework for analysing health systems, we aim to assess what is known about the current eye health system in Yemen with ongoing conflict. Financial constraints, transportation difficulties and security instability are barriers for many of Yemen’s people in need of healthcare. The most recent cataract surgical rate reported in 2012 is 2473 operations per million population, with an increase in operations performed in charity eye camps and the private sector. We identify many governorates of Yemen have inadequate ophthalmic resources. We describe the need for short-term solutions to reduce the backlog prevalence of blindness while local infrastructure is rebuilt, and the importance of long-term reconstruction and transition to local ownership with a sustainable workforce and health service as peace is restored – by McMaster D, Bamashmus MA.

https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/5/e001743?rss=1

(* B H)

Film: The War In Yemen: Tourism in mountain villages hit by conflict

War has destroyed Yemen’s economy, leaving millions of people with no choice but to scrape out a living. And that even includes parts of the country that have escaped the fighting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96eS1j21jM

(B H)

UNICEF Yemen Humanitarian Situation Report (September 2019)

Between January and September 2019, 215,578 children under five (67 per cent of annual target) with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), received treatment through fixed and mobile outpatient therapeutic programmes (OTPs).

In September, more than 600,000 people, including host communities and internally displaced persons, accessed safe drinking water through the operation and maintenance of the water supply systems.

32,292 people including 27,537 children in 16 governorates received psychosocial support through a network of fixed and mobile child friendly spaces to help them overcome the immediate and limit long-term consequences of their exposure to violence.

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unicef-yemen-humanitarian-situation-report-september-2019-enar

(* B H)

The impact of war on Yemen's children: Report

The UN reports that more than two million children are malnourished, with one in two now suffering from stunted growth because of food shortages.

The war in Yemen, now in its fifth year, continues to fuel the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Indiscriminate violence and destruction have wreaked havoc on the civilian population and pushed millions to the brink. Yet it is Yemen’s children who suffer first and suffer most.

Simply put, Yemen remains a nightmare for children.

The question now is what can be done to protect Yemen’s children and safeguard the country’s future before time runs out. Any solution must start and end with putting children first.

In this conservative country, girls are often married off young. But as the war has wrecked the economy, they’re being pulled out of school to be married even earlier than before, so their families can get dowry money to put food on the table.

Girls are also more vulnerable to abuse during wartime. There has been a 63 percent increase in incidents of gender-based violence, including rape and sexual assault, domestic violence and forced marriage, since the conflict began, the United Nations says.

Save the Children says it based its figures on mortality rates for untreated cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition in children under five from data compiled by the UN. According to conservative estimates, it calculated that around 84,700 children may have died between April 2015 and October 2018.

Rising food prices and the falling value of the country's currency as a result of a civil war are putting more families at risk of food insecurity.

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076539.htm

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

Siehe / Look at cp1

(* B H)

Somali refugees return home from Yemen in latest UNHCR-facilitated departure

More than 4,800 Somali refugees have now returned home from Yemen since UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, commenced an Assisted Spontaneous Return (ASR) programme in 2017. In the latest departure, a boat carrying 114 Somali refugees left the Port of Aden on Monday and arrived at the Port of Berbera in Somalia today.

With Yemen experiencing prolonged conflict and civilians facing life-threatening conditions, the situation for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the country has deteriorated significantly.

In addition to the dangers posed by ongoing hostilities many refugees are now encountering increased hardship, lack access to basic services and struggle to cover basic needs and sustain themselves given limited work and economic opportunities. UNHCR and humanitarian partners also face significant challenges in ensuring safety, humanitarian assistance and access to essential life-saving services for refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.

As a long-standing refugee host nation and the only country in the Arabian Peninsula which is signatory to the Refugee Convention and its Additional Protocol, Yemen hosts the world’s second largest Somali refugee population, some 250,000 people.

Refugee movements from Somalia to Yemen have been taking place since the 1980s

“An increasing number of Somali refugees have been approaching us for help to return home. After years of life in exile, the decision to return is a difficult one to make but given prevailing conflict insecurity and deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Yemen many tell us they are ready to go back and are hopeful about the future,” said Gwendoline Mensah, UNHCR’s Assistant Representative in Yemen.

https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/10/5db8299e4/somali-refugees-return-home-yemen-latest-unhcr-facilitated-departure.html

cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis

(A T)

Senior Houthi official killed in roadside bombing in southeastern Yemen

Ahmed al-Humaygani, head of Houthi general security in Bayda, was killed when his vehicle hit the bomb in a main road in the province's capital city, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two of al-Humaygani's bodyguards were injured in the blast, the source added, without giving further detail.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/30/c_138516160.htm

(A)

Houthi leader murders his mother in Sana’a

http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/10/30/houthi-leader-murders-his-mother-in-sanaa/

My remark: As claimed by a pro-Hadi government news site.

(A K P)

President Al-Mashat to Saudi-led Aggression, serious repercussions if you Countinue

Al-Mashat pointed out that the aggression forces have two options, either to stop their aggression or continue their tyranny, which could lead to serious repercussions on their regimes. "The Yemeni people have come a long way in the development of military capabilities and we have become in the forefront of Arab countries manufacturing drones and ballistic missiles," he said.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9536

(A T)

Al-Baydha.. pro-Houthi Director General of al-Zaher directorate killed in bomb blast in provincial center

A tribal sheikh loyal to al-Houthi was killed Wednesday when an explosive device exploded in the central Province of Al- Baydha.

While it was not immediately known who was behind the incident, sources said that there were internal liquidations and a struggle for internal command and control between Houthi loyalists in Al- Baydha province

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173540

(A P)

President al-Mashat confirms moving forward in combating corruption

President of the Supreme Political Council Mahdi al-Mashat on Wednesday confirmed the continuation of the open battle with financial and administrative corruption in the state institutions whatever the cost.

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076978.htm

My comment: This would include persecuting highest Houthi movement ranks. And I do not believe they will do this.

(A P)

Head of national delegation meets German ambassadors to Yemen, Oman

Head of the national negotiating delegation Mohammed Abdulsalam on Tuesday met in Muscat with German Ambassador to Yemen Carola Mueller Holtkemper and German Ambassador to Oman Thomas Schneider.

In the meeting, they discussed the political situation in Yemen and the United Nations' efforts for the settlement.

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076927.htm

and

(A K P)

ABDUL SALAM: ANY SETTLEMENT IN LIGHT OF THE CONTINUED AGGRESSION AND SIEGE IS UNREALISTIC

The head of the Yemeni delegation negotiation Mohammed Abdul Salam said that any settlement based on the military war is incompatible with the peace efforts and is absurd and unrealistic, pointing out that all past experiences proved the failure of any political dialogue in light of the continued aggression and siege.

During his meeting with German Ambassador to Yemen Carola Mueller Holtkemper and German Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman Thomas Schneider, Abdul Salam confirmed that the partial solutions that would result from the continuation of the aggression and siege are patchwork that cannot be proven.

He pointed out that the aggression imposed a negative reality at the political and military level and stressed that what the international community should turn to is to support the cessation of the aggression, lifting of the siege and to support the comprehensive political dialogue in a calm and stable atmosphere, not in the light of the sounds of guns and bombs.

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/abdul-salam-any-settlement-in-light-of-the-continued-aggression-and-siege-is-unrealistic/

(A P)

Health Ministry directs hospitals to provide medical check to citizens for free

Ministry of Public Health in the Salvation Government on Tuesday directed government and private hospitals in the capital Sanaa and provinces to provide free medical check service to all citizens on the occasion of the Prophet's birth anniversary.

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076924.htm

(A P)

Abductee Died in Houthi-run Prison in Al-Baida Province

Matloob Mousa Mohammed had been abducted and held in prison by Iranian-backed militia for three years where he was believed to endure brutal torture in Houthi-controlled Incarcerations, local sources said.

https://republicanyemen.net/archives/21644

and also http://en.adenpress.news/news/14645

https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-33974

(A P)

Yemeni ambassador: Iran has always been a moral supporter of Yemen

Ambassador Ibrahim Al-Dailami praises Islamic Republic of Iran

Yemen’s ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ibrahim al-Dailami, has said that Iran has always been a moral supporter of the Yemeni people, and that it had never left Yemen alone.

Speaking at a conference at the “Mujahedeen in Exile” conference held at Samana college in northeastern Iran, Al-Dailami said the Yemeni people, under their wise leadership, have always stood for Islam and human freedom.

https://www.uprising.today/yemeni-ambassador-iran-has-always-been-a-moral-supporter-of-yemen/

(A P)

Envoy: Yemeni Resistance Role Model for Islamic Countries

Yemeni Ambassador to Tehran Ibrahim Mohammad al-Deilami said that his country has come victorious out of the Saudi-laid 5-year siege against his compatriots, adding that their resistance against the Saudi-led cruelties can serve as a role model for all Islamic countries.

https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13980807000386

(* A P)

GPC Officials Rejoin Houthi Institutions After Receiving Threats

Houthis, in less than a week, managed to threaten the General People’s Congress (GPC) into rejoining the coup’s shadow public institutions after the latter had frozen its membership.
GPC leadership had taken a decision last week to suspend its participation in the Houthi-run institutions in protest of militias deciding to release five suspects involved in the bombing of the Presidential House Mosque in 2011. Fourteen were killed and another 200 injured in that attack.
Headed by Sadiq Amin Aburass, GPC leadership had held a meeting in Sanaa on the latest developments in Yemen.
According to the party’s website, Aburass discussed calls and meetings held with Houthis, particularly with Houthi head of political council Mahdi al-Mashat.
GPC sources, speaking under the conditions of anonymity, said that party leaders received clear threats to walk away from the suspension and rejoin Houthis in governing militia-held territory.
According to the sources, Aburass received a violent call from Houthi leader Mohammed Ali al-Houthi.
Houthis, since the decision on freezing GPC participation, worked to subvert party leaders, successfully dragging four ministers and 14 parliamentarians back into their shadow government.
GPC ministry staffers and governors also were brought back to work in Houthi-run areas.
Activists say that Houthis pressured GPC officials back into governing because local institutions run by the group would have collapsed upon their leave.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1964836/gpc-officials-rejoin-houthi-institutions-after-receiving-threats

My remark: By a Saudi news site.

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

(** B K P)

Southern separatists accept Saudi forces but Yemen government not welcome

A Saudi-brokered agreement in Yemen's Aden is faced with doubt and suspicion on all sides

STC supporters have welcomed an agreement made last week in Jeddah which will see ministries in the newly negotiated government between the STC and Hadi supporters, but remain hostile to Hadi's government nonetheless.

“Saudi forces replaced the UAE forces in the south as part of [last week's] Jeddah agreement and Saudi forces will supervise the situation in Aden and definitely that is a good step,” STC supporter Saeed Bahashwan told Middle East Eye.

“The Saudi forces are in military camps and they guide the SBF when they need advice, but the SBF control the ground and there is no Saudi fighter on the ground.”

Bahashwan said that there is no difference between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, describing both as under the umbrella of the anti-Houthi coalition.

“The coalition came to support us and we welcome any country from the coalition to take lead in the south but we do not welcome the Yemeni government in Aden," he said.

“Hadi’s government invaded the south and they fought southern people for a long time, so we are not willing to accept the Yemeni government again in Aden.”

"If the Jeddah agreement states that the Yemeni government returns to Aden, I confirm that agreement will fail, as it is impossible for us to accept the government in Aden," Bahashwan said.

“We will accept southern people who participated in the Sanaa government as civilians in the south but not as officials.”

While Sanaa and much of the north is now under the control of the Houthis, Aden and its surroundings are held by the STC, while only the areas of Shabwa, east of Aden; parts of Marib, near Sanaa; and parts of other provinces are controlled by Hadi's government.

“We are going to liberate Shabwa soon, then there will not be any province to welcome the Yemeni ministers,” said Bahashwan.

STC opponents fear speaking

The STC is not without its own critics in Yemen's south. Maeen, 43, an Aden resident who fought with the Yemeni government against the STC in August 2019, said the separatists' many opponents in the south do not dare to speak.

“I believe that the STC will not continue as it imitates the Houthis in all behaviours and marginalisation is the most dangerous one, as we cannot demand our rights,” Maeen said.

“The STC represent not the south but [only] itself and we are waiting for the Saudi-led coalition to leave Yemen and to liberate the south from the new dictators,” he added.

Residents suspect violence is brewing

Though the warring sides have claimed that they seek peace and the Jeddah agreement promised to deliver it, Aden's residents are less hopeful.

Ridhwan Qasim, 39, said dialogue and concessions are required from both sides but until now, he has only seen signs of more violence.

“New Saudi tanks and armoured vehicles arrived in Aden over the last two days and the pro-Hadi forces are gathering in Shabwa, waiting for the government to direct them to attack Aden, is that a signal of peace?” Qasim told MEE.

The agreement has failed to deliver peace in his view, only confirming the change of leadership in the city.

“The pro-Hadi people in the south did not welcome the Jeddah agreement as they think the STC won the battle, so clashes can break out anytime in the coming months,” Qasim said.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/southern-separatists-accept-saudi-forces-yemen-government-not-welcome-0

(** B P)

Saudi Arabia’s quick fix of Yemen’s southern conflict will face a durability problem

The deal recognizes the STC as a political entity, which is a welcome change for the group as the state and its loyalists have vilified it in the aftermath of recent clashes in South Yemen. The STC will be part of Yemen’s government delegation in its political pursuit of a solution to end the Houthi problem.

The parties went into this agreement with different intentions. For the Saudis, their mediation was meant to set aside any political or military disputes until after the conflict with the Houthis is resolved. For the government of Yemen, it aimed to reinforce its authority over southern lands after facing violent confrontations and loud calls for disunity. As for the STC, its objective was twofold: first, to be seen as a legitimate Yemeni political force worthy of respect, and second, to open diplomatic channels with Saudi Arabia that would grant it the same privileges and access that Yemen’s government has with Riyadh.

The relationship between the STC and the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been challenging and confrontational.

Within this context, the deal reached circumvented a violent disintegration of Yemen into two states, which, although unfavorable, seemed inevitable. While the issue of secession could potentially resurface in the future, the deal has effectively taken disunity off the table. The STC is now obligated to cooperate under the umbrella of a joint coordination committee, which the Saudis will also take part in, until there is a resolution to the Houthi problem that faces North Yemen.

Although the agreement reached in Riyadh is imperfect, it provides enough assurances for all parties as they made significant concessions and a collaborative plan.

Indeed, there is a reason to be skeptical about the agreement given the lack of political leadership and willingness to resolve the southern issue without the need for regional or international mediation. The government of Yemen had long refused to acknowledge the STC as a political authority and often sought to discredit it by painting it as a UAE proxy and establishing competing southern groups, such as al-Eitilaf, with the aim of reducing the STC’s monopoly on the South.

However, there are three things in the agreement worthy of mentioning that, if implemented as intended, could turn things around and deepen an alliance between the government and the STC. First, the STC will have a significant say in the way the southern region is governed

Second, there are disarmament and redeployment components that should stop both parties from utilizing their resources and manpower against each other.

Third, the management of state resources will go beyond the exclusive control of the state, as the deal stipulated depositing all government revenues, including those from extractive sector industries and taxes, in the Central Bank of Aden.

The Riyadh agreement undoubtedly presents the STC with a governance challenge. Besides its ability to provide security through the Security Belt Forces and security establishments, the STC does not have sufficient expertise in running other state institutions.

Moreover, the agreement is drafted in a way that assumes that all parties are working toward the goal of maintaining a unified Yemeni state, which does not reflect reality. Nor does it address the need to build national identity or horizontal cohesion between members of society and the state in order to foster the unified outcomes it seeks.

For the time being, the deal represents a quick fix that gives all parties what they need for now – by Fatima Abo Alasrar

https://www.mei.edu/publications/saudi-arabias-quick-fix-yemens-southern-conflict-will-face-durability-problem

(** A P)

Peter Salisbury: So, the Riyadh Agreement (RIP, Jeddah Agreement) between STC and Hadi gov still hasn't been signed but a ceremony is reportedly imminent and a draft of what is the near-final text has now been distributed widely. Some quick thoughts

Draft is made up of a series of cascading/staggered national / local political and security arrangements aimed at integrating STC/southern secessionist political and affiliated forces into national defence/security structures. In return, STC participates in UN-led consultations.

If successful, the agreement solves two short-term problems: - It prevents a war-within-a-war between STC and Hadi government - It provides more credibility to future government negotiating platform with the Huthis. Great!

But... It also displays many of the hallmarks of past troubled political deals in Yemen. It puts a lid on a serious issue (GoY-STC divisions over future of south), and arguably kicks the can down the road. It is loosely worded, and open to interpretation....

.. And sets an ambitious timeline for implementation (new government, new southern governors, new southern security / military structures, within 3 months) without substantive detail of how these things will happen. In particular, sequencing and benchmarking are absent.

This last point (sequencing/benchmarking) seems to be the final issue in getting the agreement signed. Are military / security restructuring and gov't formation separate processes, or does the former have to happen before the latter? Unclear.

Still no news either on who will be PM, interior or defence minister. Each likely to be an important predictor of success as is the committee formed to oversee implementation. Big test for Saudi Arabia, which is taking over as Coalition lead in the south and will manage process.

For STC deal allows them to pursue agenda (independence) at UN-led talksas internationally legitimised actor . For GoY, is a re-assertion of sovereignty. The two have a history of enmity and clashing agendas. A lot could go wrong. GoY/STC contacts expect it will be short-lived.

If successfully implemented the agreement could lead to A) UN-led negotiations building on ongoing KSA-Huthi talks or B) A fresh offensive on Huthi-held territory by consolidated, Saudi-overseen anti-Huthi bloc. Would hope the former, but suspect the latter just as likely.

There is a lot to play for, a lot of reasons to be cautiously hopeful and a lot of reasons to be worried about risks of collapse. The Saudis are now very much in the driving seat. Will be up to them to fit the jigsaw together.

https://twitter.com/peterjsalisbury/status/1188891831704182785

(** B P)

The South Yemen Peace Deal Is A Pragmatic Step Towards Self-Determination

The South Transitional Council (STC) will receive domestic and international legitimacy for its separatist cause after entering into a reported power-sharing agreement with Hadi's government as part of a peace deal aimed at ending the ambiguity over South Yemen's political status following the group's dramatic liberation of Aden in August.

On the surface, it therefore appears as though the reported peace deal that was agreed to last week between the STC and the Hadi government is a step backwards for the former since its terms include surrendering control of the city to the national government, thus scaling back the enormous on-the-ground progress that they made in their separatist quest over the the past two months. Nevertheless, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that the agreement actually bestows domestic and international legitimacy to the movement's cause by decreeing that "Southerners are to be given 50 percent of ministerial roles within a period of 45 days from the signing of the agreement". This advances the goal of institutionally restoring Yemen's regional identity that was peacefully erased following their 1990 unification and then militantly enforced after the North's victory in the brief civil war that erupted in 1994 in an attempt by the South to reverse this decision upon feeling as though their counterparts took advantage of them and their resources during the intervening four years. This outcome wouldn't have been made possible had it not been for the August events, so it should still be seen as a step forward for the overall cause.

Without the UAE's full support (held back partially out of concern that it would make the emerging rift with Saudi Arabia irreconcilable and thus create a strategic opening for the Ansarullah), the STC was unable to liberate the rest of South Yemen, hence why it was compelled to compromise. Hadi, however, was also compelled to compromise as well by agreeing to the terms that recognize the STC as a legitimate political stakeholder in the country. This therefore puts the country on the path towards what may be its inevitable federalization back into its constituent Northern and Southern halves as part of an eventual peace deal between all sides that could potentially be mediated by Moscow. It's difficult to think of any other realistic solution to the stalled campaign that's failed to dislodge the Ansarullah from the North despite causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis in pursuit thereof, though the devil is obviously in the details and much more work would have to be done in that respect before Saudi Arabia would ever agreeing to anything like that. Still, thus far, the STC has made considerable progress in gaining domestic and international legitimacy.

The very fact that the STC is being legitimized is an unprecedented political development that gives rise to hope that a related formula might eventually be worked out for the Ansarullah to as part of a "grand compromise", but there's still a ways to go before that happens – By Andrew Korybko

http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1139

(* B P)

How Does Southern Yemen Peace Deal Affect War Course?

The agreement comes while the previous round of negotiations in Saudi Arabia failed as the two sides’ deep differences sustained. This time the Saudi efforts seem to have yielded results. But what is the Saudi aim behind the push for the agreement and what are its implications on future developments?

After nearly 5 years of war, National Salvation Government, led by Ansarullah, proved a success in the management of the course of developments amid unceasing war

Saudi Arabia has now sustained a defeat and sooner or later it has to admit this through announcing the end of the war. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is deeply worried about an exit from Yemen without an achievement, seriously seeks a way to split Yemen to at least realize part of his goals for which he started the aggression.

Taking control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb Strait using a secessionist agenda of the southerners was part of his goals. Additionally, Yemen partition will materialize the Saudi goal of cutting independence on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz for oil transportation. Saudi Arabia plans an oil pipeline from its territories to Yemen’s Al Mahra province to transfer oil to Sea of Oman for shipment. The pipeline and a port have been negotiated for decades with various Yemeni governments.

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to allow Saudi companies to build the pipeline and port in the country’s territories. The escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf over the past year pushed the Saudis to seek alternatives to oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz.

The considerable issue is that just contrary to the past in which Hadi, at least ostensibly, insisted on the unity of the country and was not inclined to make compromises to the separatists, the new agreement will recognize the armed separatists as a legitimate force, giving Hadi’s green light to split of the country.

Boosting Riyadh’s military and political position

Brokering a deal between the resigned government and the STC, from another aspect, is part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to beat the huge challenges it is facing on the battlegrounds. As the UAE separated its ways from the Saudis and the southerners declined to fight Ansarullah in the north, Riyadh sustained big defeats.

By pushing forward the deal, Saudi Arabia is hopeful of strengthened position against Ansarullah in any negotiations.

http://alwaght.com/en/News/165664/How-Does-Southern-Yemen-Peace-Deal-Affect-War-Course?

My comment: I do not think that the Saudis intend to divide Yemen.

(* A P)

Sources: Riyadh agreement signing between The Yemeni government and the Transitional Council on Thursday

According to multiple sources, the official signing and announcement of the Riyadh agreement reached by the Yemeni government and the UAE-backed Transitional Council, sponsored by Saudi Arabia, will take place on Thursday.

The Yemeni government and UAE-backed separatists will sign the agreement on Thursday, which was led by an indirect consultation sponsored by Saudi Arabia for weeks in Jeddah and Riyadh, Anadolu news agency and UAE newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The official signing and announcement is expected to take place in the presence of President Hadi, representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Yemen, the UN special envoy, as well as Gulf officials.

The government and the Transitional Council signed the draft agreement in principle last Thursday, Information Minister Muammar al-Iryani said.

The Yemeni presidency announced Sunday that it had reached a national formula for resolving the crisis in Aden, sponsored by Saudi Arabia.

The director of president office Abdullah al-Alimi's confirmed the government's full commitment to the Riyadh agreement and its "absolute confidence in its (Saudi) efforts in the serious implementation of the agreement in its difficult stages."

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173515

and

(* A P)

Al-Hadath: Yemeni government, STC sign agreement on Thursday

Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) will formally sign an agreement in Riyadh next Thursday, Al-Hadath TV said on its news.
Both sides had approved the final draft and it was scheduled to be signed today, but some obstacles delayed the ceremony until Thursday.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince, minister of defense, Mohammed bin Salman along with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces, Mohammed bin Zayed, ambassadors and diplomats are expected to attend the signing ceremony in Riyadh.

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14642

and

(* A P)

Signing of deal between Hadi puppet govt and STC delayed

Lasting differences prevent immediate signing of accord

Big and lasting differences between the Saudi-backed Hadi government and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) have delayed the signing of the Riyadh agreement indefinitely.

The differences were dominated by the matrix of the agreement, which includes the formation of a new government in a 50-50 way between the two parties, with the withdrawal of STC forces from the military camps and institutions in the occupied Aden province and their handover to the Hadi administration.

According to observers, Saudi Arabia is putting more pressure on Hadi’s government in order to sign the agreement on Tuesday after it was expected to be signed on Monday.

Observers pointed out that the signing of the agreement is the last chance to get rid of the Islah party’s massive influence in the Hadi government

https://www.uprising.today/signing-of-deal-between-hadi-puppet-govt-and-stc-delayed/

(* A P)

Riyadh agreement unites ranks against Houthis and Muslim Brotherhood

With the signing of the Riyadh agreement between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council, votes affiliated with the Brotherhood’s Yemeni Congregation for Reform Party (Islah) in the legitimate government began to stand against this Saudi-sponsored agreement as part of the Brotherhood's efforts to unilaterally rule Yemen, said a report published by The Reference website for studies and foresight researches on misinterpreted islam.
The Riyadh agreement and the process of uniting ranks are against the Iran-backed Houthi militia, Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, because the agreement constitutes a major step in countering the Houthi militia and ending the Brotherhood’s fortunes in Yemen.

Yemeni Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari, who is close to the Brotherhood and Qatar, attacked the agreement, describing it as an entrenchment in the administration of the Yemeni state.
Local media quoted Maysari as saying on Saturday, October 26 during an event in the province of Shabwah that he refuses to form what he called a “government controlled by Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” referring to the government expected to emerge from the Riyadh agreement when it comes into force.
Meanwhile, media close to the Southern Transitional Council reported that Yemeni Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and Abdullah al-Alimi, head of President Hadi's office, also rejected the agreement, calling it a rebellion against the Yemeni state.
Ahmar described the southern people as rebels in a report submitted to a meeting of President Hadi’s advisers, which he then deliberately published a description of on his Twitter account.

Abu Oudhil added that there is no doubt that Islah and its regional and international allies suffered a painful blow in Yemen following the Riyadh agreement. The agreement ends the Brotherhood’s control of Hadi’s government and restores the rights of those in the South, but it will lose much of its dominance in the coming days, he said.

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14652

My remark: From a pro-separatist news site.

(A P)

Lamlas reveals three main axes in Jeddah agreement

Secretary General of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), Mr. Ahmed Hamid Lamlas revealed the main three axes of Jeddah agreement to be signed by the STC and Yemen's government on Thursday, in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Speaking to Al-Arabiya TV, Lamlas said that the agreement represents a three-stage roadmap for the Council; the first, adressing service and developmental aspects in the southern liberated regions, battling the Houthi movement and the third stage will start after the end of the military operations by engaging in negotiations leading to a just solution to the southern issue under the aegis of the United Nations and/or the Arab Coalition.

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14654

and another separatist leaders comment: http://en.adenpress.news/news/14655

(* A K P)

Saudi-Arabien schicken mehr Militärs in den Südjemen

Einem Sputnikbericht zufolge sind am Montagabend saudische Hilfstruppen in Aden eingetroffen.

Eine der Lokalregierung in Aden nahestehende Quelle sagte zu Sputnik, dass ein großes saudi-arabisches Schiff mit Dutzenden Soldaten und Offizieren im Hafen von Aden eingelaufen sei. Außerdem habe das Schiff auch eine Menge militärischer Ausrüstungen gebracht.

Saudische und sudanesische Militärs haben am Montag letzter Woche die Kontrolle über den internationalen Flughafen von Aden von den emiratischen Militärs übernommen.

In diesem Zusammenhang haben verschiedene Nachrichtenquellen in den vergangenen Wochen über den Abzug der emiratischen Militärs aus verschiedenen Gebieten des Jemen berichtet.

https://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i49546-saudi_arabien_schicken_mehr_militärs_in_den_südjemen

(A K P)

Film: Saudi forces replace UAE forces in Aden

Military and strategic expert Ali Al-Khalafi said that the arrival of these forces in Aden in the south of the country is aimed at filling the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the UAE for a large part of its forces there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxe9l1XoZTc

(* A K P)

Saudi Arabia's first force arrives in Aden via Al- Zeit Port

A military source told "Al-Masdar Online" that Saudi forces including military vehicles and soldiers arrived yesterday evening in the interim capital Aden in the south of the country, in the first Saudi military batch to reach the city through Zeit port following the announcement of the repositioning of coalition forces in the southern city.

The source said a Saudi military force comprising about 40 armored vehicles, vehicles and soldiers arrived at the port of Al-Zeit, west of Aden, before it began distributing it to the city's airport and the headquarters of the coalition forces, while some of these forces are likely to be stationed in the presidential palace in Ma'ashik area in the city of Crater, south of the city.

This is the first batch of Saudi troops to arrive by sea after UAE forces left their bases in Aden

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173473

and

(* A K P)

Saudi forces begin deployment and position at Ma'ashik Palace south of Aden

A military source said that Saudi force began its position at the presidential palace in Crater district south of Aden on Tuesday, 24 hours after arriving in the coastal city, which is being taken by the government as the country's interim capital,.

The source confirmed in his talk to "Al-Masdar Online" that vehicles, mechanisms and military vehicles of the Saudi forces in addition to dozens of soldiers began to deploy and station in the vicinity of the Palace of Maashik in a Saudi move to prepare for the return of the recognized government after the signing of the Riyadh agreement to be announced at the end of this week.

According to the source, more than 30 armored vehicles, a number of tanks, vehicles with soldiers on board moved to the presidential palace after arriving at Al-Ziet port at dawn on Tuesday.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173524

(* A K P)

UAE withdraws its troops from Aden, hands control to Saudi Arabia

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that its troops have left Yemen’s southern port of Aden and returned home, handing over control to Saudi Arabia which is leading an Arab military coalition engaged in Yemen.

The UAE, which had already in June scaled down its military presence in Yemen, would continue fighting “terrorist organizations” in southern provinces and other areas, the General Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement carried on state news agency WAM.

Sources had told Reuters that Emirati forces started pulling out from Aden earlier this month in a move seen as paving the way for a deal to end a power struggle between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and southern separatists supported by the UAE.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-military-yemen/uae-withdraws-its-troops-from-aden-hands-control-to-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1X923A

and also https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/uae-withdraws-troops-yemen-southern-port-city-aden-191030194002718.html

and

(* A K P)

UAE troops return from Yemen

Members of the UAE Armed Forces welcomed to Abu Dhabi by the Minister of State for Defence Affairs

UAE army chiefs have announced the return of soldiers serving in Aden in Yemen after restoring stability to the area.

The General Command of the UAE Armed Forces said its troops had achieved their goal of “liberating the region”, with responsibility for maintaining security now being transferred to Yemeni and Saudi Arabian troops.

A statement from the General Command said forces returning from Aden had liberated the city from Houthi and terrorist organisations on July 17, 2015.

"Thereafter, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition forces spread out from Aden and liberated many other areas of Yemen from the Houthi rebels, foiling Iranian attempts to infiltrate Yemen and dominate its affairs," the statement said.

The General Command said UAE and Saudi troops worked in tandem to uproot terrorist threats.

https://www.thenational.ae/uae/government/uae-troops-return-from-yemen-1.930957

and also https://www.arabnews.com/node/1576676/middle-east

(* A K P)

UAE Hands over “Zaqr” archipelago to Tarek Saleh forces and supplies him with modern naval equipment

Two days ago, Brigadier General Tariq Saleh's Coast Guard Brigade took over the "Zaqar" archipelago in the Red Sea from the UAE forces that controlled it.

A military source told Al-Masdar Online that the last UAE soldiers and officers left the " Zaqr" archipelago in the heart of the Red Sea after three years of control, and this is part of the arrangements for the withdrawal of UAE forces from several areas in Yemen.

The source pointed out that, the UAE naval forces handed over Zaqr archipelago to the forces of the Coast Guard Brigade, one of the brigades of Tarek Saleh forces, which calls itself " Guards of the Republic Forces "

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173538

(A P)

A militia aligned with the Islamist al Islah party arrested the son of the head of the Transitional Political Council for the South’s (STC’s) branch in Shabwah governorate in southern Yemen on October 29, according to anti-al Islahi media. The militia arrested Hammam Ali Mohsen al Sulaimani while he was traveling to Shabwah’s capital, Ataq.[2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-october-30-2019

(A P)

Basurrah calls on Hadhrami people to take advantage of the opportunity and agree on a specific vision

Mohsen Basra, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, called on the Hadhrami components of all directions to take advantage of the opportunity to achieve Hadramout's demands and agree on a specific vision.

He told Al-Masdar online that the leaders of Hadramout in the southern and national components "should benefit their province and harness their positions for the benefit of Hadhramaut

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173472

(A P)

[Separatists in] Socotra protests against Muslim Brotherhood presence (Photos)

Hundreds held an open sit-in on Wednesday in front of the building of the local authority of Socotra archipelago in protest against Islah-linked officials within the legitimate government.
The protestors demanded the departure of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked governor, Ramzi Mahrous and the other officials, accusing them of corruption-related issues

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14648

and

(A P)

An Emirati-backed armed rebellion in Socotra. Gunmen deployed in the streets of Hadibo and attack the provincial office

Dozens of supporters of the UAE-backed southern transitional council (STC) on Wednesday attacked the gate of the Socotra archipelago's provincial building in hadebo.

A local source in Socotra told Al-Masdar Online that supporters of the transitional, armed with armed protection from elements of the UAE security belt, attacked the provincial office building while the governor and the security committee were present.

He said the gunmen have been deployed in different parts of the city and have cut off some streets and that the situation is still tense as the security committee holds a meeting to discuss the UAE's escalation on the island.

The Executive Office of the Socotra Archipelago refused the exploit of some of the entities operating in Socotra for humanitarian work in violation of applicable and internationally recognized law and order.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173531

and

(A P)

Socotra governor directs army to end armed demonstrations and gives transitional leaders hours to remove their sit-in

The governor of the Socotra archipelago, Ramzi Mahrous, gave the groups of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) hours to remove their sit-in.

In a memorandum filed Wednesday, the governor assured President Hadi that he directed the army forces to remove tents, open roads in front of the provincial command building and end armed demonstrations.

He noted that the sit-in came after transitional leaders met with representatives of the Khalifa Humanitarian Foundation and the UAE Red Crescent.

In his memorandum, the governor called on the coalition to strengthen the efforts of the local authority in ending armed manifestations and not allowing the disruption of legitimate state institutions.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173545

(A P)

Socotra authorities uphold decision to ban Emiratis from entering except by Visa and UAE mobilize the street

The Executive Office of the Socotra Archipelago rejected what it called "the exploitation of some actors operating in Socotra" for humanitarian work in violation of applicable and internationally recognized law and order.

In a statement issued by the office , a copy of which was received by Al-Masdar online , on Tuesday, called on the parties working in Socotra to abide by law and harmony with the local authority in order to achieve the security and stability of the province, praising the implementation of the security agencies of these decisions.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173476

(* A P)

UAE DESTROYED THE AIRPORT AND LEFT: ADEN AIRPORT ADMINISTRATION

The general acting director of Aden International Airport, Abdul Raqib Al-Omari, said that the UAE has made some reforms at Aden International Airport, but not totally, pointing out that the executing company left the airport when the UAE and has left, leaving great technical and security imbalances in the airport.

Al-Omari said that the company that carried out the work did not involve the management of the airport in the supervision of technical equipment, restoration of infrastructure, repairs and renovations of the building, and various airport facilities, and was dealing directly with Abu Dhabi, which contracted with them.

“When the company completed its work, it left Aden and did not hand over the management of the airport in a formal manner, and many imbalances and problems were discovered, both in terms of technical readiness and security and infrastructure, Al-Omari revealed.

He warned that leaving the airport in this way and these problems left by the UAE affect the activity of the airport

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/uae-destroyed-the-airport-and-left-aden-airport-administration/

(* A H P)

UAE Red Crescent Confiscation Generators and Equipment from Schools, Hospitals in Aden

Citizens in the occupied province of Aden expressed their dissatisfaction with the insane actions of the UAE Red Crescent Society, after it announced the end of its mission in the province.

Citizens condemned what the UAE Red Crescent taking generators provided to a number of hospitals in the province. It also recovered a number of counters and very simple equipment that it gave to some associations, institutions and schools.
The people of Aden have denied false claims about benefiting from the UAE and its Social organization.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9521

(* A K P)

Presidential Protection Force arrives in Ataq on its way to Abyan

The presidential protection force arrived early Tuesday in the capital city of Ataq, southeastern Yemen, the source said.

According to the sources, a force consisting of dozens of individuals with light and medium weapons loaded upon 12 vehicles arrived in the city of Ataq from Marib province and stationed at the headquarters of the Ataq military axis in accordance with operational directives.

However, a military source suggested that these forces were on their way to "Shaqra" in Abyan province in preparation for taking up their duties in the interim capital Aden in accordance with the arrangements approved by the recent settlement between the legitimate government and the rebels of the Transitional Council.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173479

(* A K P)

President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s Transportation Minister, Saleh al Jabwani, claimed on October 29 that members of the Transitional Political Council for the South (STC), a southern Yemeni secessionist group, were behind a recent assassination attempt against him and another minister. Security forces in Shabwah governorate in southern Yemen arrested militants as they attempted to place an explosive device outside the residence of Interior Minister Ahmed al Maysiri in Ataq, Shabwah’s capital, on October 28 in a suspected assassination attempt against al Maysiri and al Jabwani. The two ministers have recently criticized a power-sharing agreement between the STC and Hadi government.[2]

https://www.criticalthreats.org/briefs/gulf-of-aden-security-review/gulf-of-aden-security-review-october-29-2019

(A P)

Injured mercenaries storm government building in Taiz

Demonstrators demand full payment and end to corruption

Dozens of wounded mercenaries of the Saudi-led coalition have stormed the headquarters of Hadi’s governor in areas controlled by al-Islah militias in Taiz province on Monday, local sources reported.

According to the local sources, the angry demonstration of the “wounded coalition” turned into a raid on the headquarters of Hadi’s governor in Jamal Street, after the wounded demonstrators demanded the fulfilment of promises to pay their dues.

The sources explained that the injured soldiers refused to leave the building and evacuate it until all their demands are fulfilled: the handing over their dues and elimination of the effects of corruption that is rampant within the body of the authority,.

https://www.uprising.today/injured-mercenaries-storm-government-building-in-taiz/

(A P)

Politics has become messy in #Mahra, east #Yemen. It has been an active 10 days (see my summary below). All main regional powers are involved. These fractures are especially worrying in a previously stable region far from Yemen's main war.

https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1189617424947015680

(* A P)

NO SMUGGLING OF WEAPONS TO HOUTHIS THROUGH AL-MAHRA AND SAUDI ARABIA IS AN OCCUPYING POWER: OFFICIAL

The leader in the Southern Rescue Council, Shiekh Ali Salem Al-Huraizi, said that there is no smuggling of weapons to the Houthis thorough Al-Mahra, and the Saudi Arabia and its affiliated troops have not arrested a single weapon since it entered Al-Mahra until today.

“Saudi troops are an alternative to the UAE and the conspiracy is going on,” Al-Huraizi pointed out in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera.

Regarding replacing Saudi troops with Emirati troops in Aden, Al-Huraizi considered that if there is a brigade affiliated with Aidroos al-Zubaidi, to protect members of Transitional Council and its headquarters and a brigade affiliated to Hadi protect the presidential palace, that would create a ticking time bomb.

Al-Harizi ridiculed Saudi Arabia, where he said that the benefit of Saudi Arabia has been noticed in the destruction of institutions, insulting and robbing the dignity of the Mahri citizens, and the occupation of their territories.

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/no-smuggling-of-weapons-to-houthis-through-al-mahra-and-saudi-arabia-is-an-occupying-power-official/

(A P)

Rape of an eight-year-old girl by the transitional elements

Aden the oldest members of the transitional [separatist] militia in the Cairo police rape of a girl from the anus and vulva displaced girl from the governorate of Sana'a and a resident of the Mansoura Directorate block 5 eight-year-old girl.

https://www.facebook.com/KhalijAden/photos/a.1261964313967367/1405308449632952/?type=3&theater

(* A K P)

Yemen defense minister escapes attack on convoy

Yemen’s defense minister of the internationally recognized government has survived an attack targeting the headquarters of the ministry in Marib province, Yemeni officials and local reports said Tuesday.

A large explosion hit Defense Minister Mohammed Al-Maqdishi’s convoy while it was inside a complex of buildings used as the ministry's interim headquarters in the province.

The minister was scheduled to hold a meeting with top military officials.

Two guards were killed and four others wounded, a military source said.

It was not immediately clear if blast was caused by an explosive device or a projectile fired from outside the compound.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1576071/middle-east

and

(* A K P)

Army Spokesman: 1 soldier martyred, 2 injured by rocket in Marib

Spokesman of the Yemeni Armed Forces said one of the heroes of the national army was martyred and two others wounded after a rocket fell on one of the military sites of the Defense Ministry in the city of Marib on Tuesday morning.

Brig. Gen. Abdu Mojali, in statement, told September Net that the rocket landed on the guards’ room at the military site and that one of the officers who was on duty died and two were injured.

“This attack is part of a series of terrorist acts targeting the Yemeni people and its armed forces that have been engaged in battles against the Iran-backed Houthi rebel militia and outlaw terrorist groups,” Mojali added.

He stressed that these terrorist acts will not stop the national army and its leadership from the pursuit of finalizing the liberation of the remaining soil of the precious homeland

http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/10/29/army-spokesman-1-soldier-martyred-2-injured-by-rocket-in-marib/

and also https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173528

and

(A P)

Ben Farid to Al Maqdashi : The time of Corruption is Over

Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Southern Transitional Council in Europe Ahmed Omar Bin Farid commented on the Minister of Defense’s claim that he was targeted.

Ben Farid said in a tweet, that the frail theatrical performances of poor quality acting are flowing from Ataq to Marib.

"Fabricated incidents of imaginary heroes which aim to achieve political advances that create an unstable atmosphere to hinder the Riyadh agreement will not change anything,” Farid said.

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14643

and

(* A K P)

Pro-aggression Govt. Official: Emirati Drone Behind Attack on Military Leaders’ Meeting in Marib

Hadi's government, pro-aggression government, on Tuesday accused the UAE of being behind the attack, that targeted military leaders in Marib province on a meeting headed by Defense Minister Mohammed Ali Al-Maqdashi at the Joint Operations Headquarters, YPA reporeted.

"An Emirati drone targeted a military leaders’ meeting at the Joint Operations Headquarters," Yahya Abu Hatem, an adviser to the Minister of Defense of the pro- aggression government said . He did not say whether the attack was before the explosion inside the meeting headed by Maqdashi, or after.

Abu Hatem linked the attack with the intensified campaign by UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council’s supporters against Maqdashi during the past days.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9529

(* A K P)

Yemen Defence Minister survives assassination attempt

There are conflicting narratives as to who was behind the attempt. Saudi-aligned Asharq Al-Awsat claimed that Yahya Abu Hatem, an adviser to the Minister of Defence, had alleged that a Houthi missile was fired from the drone. The Houthi-aligned Yemen Press Agency, meanwhile, reported that Abu Hatem had said that an Emirati drone targeted the military leaders’ meeting, linking the attack with the campaign by the UAE-backed separatists, the Southern Transitional Council.

Al-Maqdashi is the third minister in Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi’s administration to survive assassination attempts this week.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191030-yemen-defence-minister-survives-assassination-attempt/

and here a Houthi attack is claimed:

(* A K P)

Yemen’s Defence Minister survives Houthi drone attack in Marib province

Gen Mohammed Al Maqdashi is unharmed but his private driver is killed

Yemen's Minister of Defence, Gen Mohammed Al Maqdashi, survived a Houthi shelling on the ministry’s headquarters in Marib province, northern Yemen, on Tuesday, a military source said.

“The minister survived the desperate attempt but his private driver, Capt Fuad Al Marhabi, was killed along with another soldier when the Houthi drone blasted near the room where they were sitting,” the source told The National.

Col Yehya Abu Hatim, an adviser to Mr Al Maqdashi, confirmed that the minister and officers who were taking part in a meeting were not harmed in the attack by the Iran-backed rebels.

Afterwards, Yemeni President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi sacked the director of the security forces in Marib province, Col Abdul Malik Al Madani.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-s-defence-minister-survives-houthi-drone-attack-in-marib-province-1.930550

and by a Saudi news site. https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1968126/yemen%E2%80%99s-defense-minister-survives-houthi-attack-marib-2-soldiers-killed

and also https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173477

and

(* A K P)

Revealing the fate of al-Maqdashi and army leaders after targeting the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Marib

A powerful explosion was heard Tuesday in Marib, according to sources who said it was the result of a meeting of the defense minister and senior army commanders in Marib. Marib Press quoted other sources as saying that a Houthi missile targeted the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Marib and killed two soldiers.

https://marebpress.net/news_details.php?lang=arabic&sid=157084

(* A P)

Yemen Parliament to Convene in Aden after Inking of Riyadh Agreement

A senior Yemeni official revealed that the war-torn country’s lawmakers will convene for the second time in the interim capital of Aden after the Riyadh agreement gets signed by the internationally-recognized government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and the Shura Council Mohammed Moqbel al-Himyari, in a phone conversation with Asharq Al-Awsat, said that parliament will hold its second session in Aden upon the signing of the Riyadh agreement.
Speaking on the lawmakers’ task of monitoring the cabinet’s work, Himyari said: “It will only be through the presence of all state institutions inside Yemen and in the city where state organs are located and the permanent seat of government.”
As for convening the second session, he stated it will be held as soon as government officials are back.
He stressed that the convening of the legislature in the interim capital of Aden would be a new blow to the Iran-backed Houthi militias.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1966451/yemen-parliament-convene-aden-after-inking-riyadh-agreement

My comment: It’s the Hadi government’s rump parliament. This meeting would not be a blow to the Houthis but to the southern separatists, who always had raged against this parliament and its meetings.

(* A P)

Yemen minister: We reject Saudi, UAE controlling our government

Yemeni Interior Minister Ahmed Al-Maisari has said that his country “will not accept any humiliating agreement, and will not return to Aden except with its weapons,” calling on President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to preserve the independence of Yemen’s decision.

In a press conference on Saturday, Al-Maisari said: “The Emirati project failed in Yemen, and we do not want a government; half of which is controlled by the Saudi ambassador while an Emirati officer controls the rest of it,” in reference to the Saudi-brokered agreement which has recently been reached between the warring sides in the south of Yemen.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191028-yemen-minister-we-reject-saudi-uae-controlling-our-government/

(* A H P)

The [separatist] security Belt forces in Lahj found a big amount of the UN WFP wheat sacks stored in a warehouse belongs to Al-Saeed trading co. according to the SBF, the manager of the warehouse admitted that they take the WFP supplies and change its bags to be traded in the markets. (photos)

https://twitter.com/alimahmood19844/status/1187052177195438080

@WFPChief check these reports of continued humanitarian aid diversion in #Yemen. dug only the iceberg.

https://twitter.com/RashaJarhum/status/1187447838143324161

cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks

(A P)

Griffiths: Jeddah talks contribute to finding solutions in Yemen

The United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths praised “the Saudi priceless support” in helping facilitate talks between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council

Griffiths, in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat said “The Jeddah talks have concluded successfully on the South with an agreement that can be a positive step forward in resolving the Yemeni crisis.” he added.
“The leadership of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is playing a key role in facilitating solutions to fundamental points of divergence among the parties like the recent Jeddah talks and creating new opportunities for the parties to build confidence and find common ground between them,”

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14656

My comment: ?????????????????????????

(A P)

UN Special Envoy to Yemen leaves Sanaa

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076779.htm

(A P)

UN Envoy praises Sayyid Abdul-Malik al-Houthi after meeting

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, has praised the results of his meeting with the Leader of the Revolution Sayyid Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on Monday

He said on Twitter that he “had a constructive meeting with Abdul-Malik Al Houthi earlier today”, adding that they “discussed efforts to defuse tensions in Yemen and to prepare the ground for the resumption of the political process.”

https://www.uprising.today/un-envoy-praises-sayyid-abdul-malik-al-houthi-after-meeting/

(A K P)

Sayyed Abdulmalik: Military Aggression and Economic Siege cannot Create Peace in Yemen, or Region

Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi met on Monday with the UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. During the meeting, Sayyed Abdulmalik affirmed that the options of aggression, military and economic siege, cannot create peace in in Yemen or in the region.

"It is important to stop the aggression in a comprehensive manner, end the siege completely and conduct urgent humanitarian treatments at various levels", Sayyed Abdulmalik said. In particular, he called for urgent humanitarian treatment of war prisoners and detainees. He, also, reminded Griffiths of several initiatives under which hundreds of prisoners were released with the aim of making some progress leading to the release of all detainees and prisoners.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9504

and also https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191029-houthi-leader-meets-un-special-envoy/

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076772.htm

and

(A K P)

President Al-Mashat Discusses with Griffiths Efforts to Advance Peace Process in Yemen

Head of the Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, on Monday discussed with UN envoy Martin Griffiths the results of his efforts in his visits to the region in the framework of advancing the peace process in Yemen.
The President thanked the UN envoy for his positive attitude towards the initiative announced on the fifth anniversary of the September 21st revolution.

President Al-Mashat discussed continuation of the siege and detention of ships, saying that "this does not help peace, pointing out that the UN position is still inferior to deal with these unjust measures against the Yemen People.
They also discussed continued closure of Sana'a International Airport

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9502

and also https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076774.htm

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

(B P)

Inside Lindsay Lohan’s Bizarre Friendship With Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

The actress’ father says his daughter has a “platonic and respectful” friendship with the unpredictable Saudi royal.

Indeed, ever since rumors first started to emerge of a friendship between Lilo and MBS—reports claimed they’ve become text buddies and that the Saudi ruler has been flying the actress around the world by private jet and even gave her a gift-wrapped credit card—students of Hollywood-Middle Eastern relations have wrestled with the question of what their after-dinner chats might comprise.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-lindsay-lohan-and-mbss-bizarre-friendship?ref=scroll

(* B P)

Krieg? Menschenrechte? Tourismus! Wie Influencer Saudi-Arabiens Image aufpolieren sollen

Kronprinz Mohammed bin Salman hat deshalb eine PR-Offensive gestartet, die das Image des Königreichs aufbessern soll.

Wichtiger Bestandteil ist die Einladung an Influencer aus aller Welt: Sie sollen Saudi-Arabien auf Instagram und Youtube zum Tourismusparadies hochloben. Wir haben mit einigen von ihnen gesprochen.

Das zweite Video ist bunt, laut und kitschig. Panoramashots über die Wüste, durch die Berge, über das Meer. Nahaufnahmen von Menschen, Lachen, Tanzen, Staunen, Hände, Hufe, Muscheln, Tee. Ein Sprecher raspelhaucht über Teppichen aus Synthiemusik von „versteckten Schätzen“ und „atemberaubender Schönheit“. „Wo in der Welt könnte das nur sein?“ Na klar, in Saudi-Arabien, dem neuen Touristenparadies.

Das Video ist Teil der PR-Strategie des Kronprinzen bin Salman. Wochenlang lief es als Werbung vor vielen Videos auf Youtube in Deutschland. Bin Salman verspricht immer wieder, Saudi-Arabien zu mordernisieren und zu öffnen, seit September dürfen nun auch ausländische Touristen ganz offiziell ins Land.

Um diese wirbt nicht nur Saudi-Arabien selbst in aufwendigen Onlinespots. Auch junge Influencer und Prominente aus dem Westen, die das Königshaus zu extravaganten Touren durch das Land einlädt, beteiligen sich an bin Salmans Imagekampagne.

Likes und Shares für das saudische Königshaus

Zu ihnen gehört Agnieszka Lal, Betreiberin des Instagram-Accounts 'Travel in her Shoes' mit 863.000 Followern. Lal besuchte Saudi-Arabien im März. Auf Instagram beschrieb sie ihre Eindrücke mit Hochglanzfotos und Postkartensprüchen wie: „Wir sehen die Welt nicht wie sie ist, sondern wie wir sind.“

Eingeladen hatte Lal die Agentur Gateway KSA, die sich eine NGO nennt, aber doch durch staatliche Unternehmen und Mitglieder der Königsfamilie finanziert und verantwortet wird.

Neben dem Tourismus öffnet sich Saudi-Arabien auch für Akademiker aus dem Ausland. Auch darum kümmert sich Gateway KSA.

Studenten aus dem Ausland können sich bei der Agentur für eine zehntägige Reise ins saudische Königreich bewerben, all inclusive. Bewerben sollen sich vor allem „Influencer, politische Entscheidungsträger und Führungskräfte von morgen“, also Studierende von Prestigeuniversitäten wie Harvard oder Princeton, Yale oder Oxford. Auch Stipendiaten der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes sind ausdrücklich erwünscht.

https://www.businessinsider.de/wie-saudi-arabien-mit-influencern-aus-dem-westen-seinen-ruf-retten-will-2019-10

(* B H P)

Workers' Plight in Saudi Arabia Exposes Chinks in Modi's Policy For Indians Abroad

As is evident from the recent events, Saudi Arabia has not lived up to the labour cooperation agreement signed with India in April this year.

However, barely three months after this agreement was signed, things have taken a U-turn. Reports of the deplorable conditions Indian workers are made to work under in the kingdom have started to surface. The issue came to light when a man tweeted to India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj saying that around 800 Indians in Jeddah had not eaten for three days and asked her to intervene.

Saudi Oger, a leading construction company, did not pay wages to its employees for seven months. Of the 50,000 people who work there, 4,000 are Indians.

As the news spread, the Indian government took action. Around 16,000 kg of food was distributed by the consulate to the close to 10,000 starving Indian citizens in Saudi Arabia. Most of these were workers who had lost their jobs and not been paid their dues.

According to the foreign ministry, a crisis management group has been set up by the labour ministry to settle all issues related to Indian workers, along with making the necessary arrangements for those who wish to return to India.

Reports from the Indian consulate in Riyadh have said that the Saudi government will soon be appointing a lawyer and necessary procedures will be taken to help the workers get their pending dues.

Indians are the largest community of expatriates in Saudi Arabia, numbering around 3 million.

https://thewire.in/external-affairs/saudi-arabia-indians-labour

(A E P)

India's Modi says Saudi to invest in India's downstream oil, gas projects

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday Saudi Arabia will invest in downstream oil and gas projects in India as part of a strategic partnership between the two countries, a move that would also help the world’s top oil exporter find a stable outlet for its crude.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-saudiarabia/indias-modi-says-saudi-to-invest-in-indias-downstream-oil-gas-projects-idUSKBN1X80M0

My comment: They all run for Saudi money.

(A P)

Saudi Crown Prince congratulates Trump on killing of Islamic State leader

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-baghdadi-saudi/saudi-crown-prince-congratulates-trump-on-killing-of-islamic-state-leader-idUSKBN1X80SN

(A E P)

Aramco signs slew of deals at Future Investment Initiative conference

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-investment-aramco-deals/aramco-signs-slew-of-deals-at-future-investment-initiative-conference-idUSKBN1X81F0

cp9 USA

Siehe / Look at cp9a

(A P)

Film: House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on Middle East Policy

State Department officials testified on Middle East policy before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Topics included relations with Iran, Turkey’s military operation in Syria, humanitarian efforts in the region, and foreign aid to Saudi Arabia.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?465844-1/house-foreign-affairs-subcommittee-hearing-middle-east-policy

(A P)

Top #US officials meet top #Saudi torturer & mustered AbdulAziz AlHuwaireni (photos)

https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1189585786519408644

(A P)

US official: Saudi Arabia failed to hold Khashoggi's killers accountable

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker says there has been a failure in the Saudi judicial process to hold those responsible for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi accountable.

Speaking at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Schenker said the Saudis had been informed.

Schenker said his country was putting pressure on the Saudis to reach a peace deal in Yemen.

In the same context, the Los Angeles Times published a comment by art critic Christopher Knight criticizing the approval of the exhibition "Desert X" American art, located in the Cucilla Valley in southern California, to establish a copy of it in Saudi Arabia.

The critic says that Desert X's stay in Saudi Arabia is "moral corruption" and marks the beginning of the end of a promising art event.

He criticized the organizers' justifications for cooperating with Riyadh.

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2019-10-30---us-official--saudi-arabia-failed-to-hold-khashoggi-s-killers-accountable-.SJSTNIIqB.html

and also https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173548

(* B P)

It's been a year since Khashoggi's murder. Trump has stopped pretending to care

Saudi Arabia’s dismal record isn’t deterring Mnuchin, Kushner and a flock of executives from attending ‘Davos in the desert’

A year after Saudi agents murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump’s administration is eager to rehabilitate the reputation of the kingdom’s brutal crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. This week, Steven Mnuchin, the US treasury secretary, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will attend a lavish investment conference in the Saudi capital intended to burnish the prince’s image as a reformer.

The conference, nicknamed “Davos in the desert”, is expected to draw dozens of US and western business executives who stayed away from last year’s gathering, which took place only weeks after Khashoggi’s assassination inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Last year the CIA concluded, with “high confidence”, that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US resident.

But today, the Trump administration and Wall Street executives are sending a clear message: Saudi Arabia is open for business, and US firms don’t want to miss out on billions of dollars being dangled by Saudi leaders. They’re hoping that the international outrage over Khashoggi’s murder and the kingdom’s human rights record has died down, and that there won’t be a political cost to attending the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.

At least Trump doesn’t bother with niceties about reform and rule of law. Last October, Trump was asked whether he would cancel billions of dollars in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia if its leaders were implicated in Khashoggi’s murder. The president responded: “We don’t like it even a little bit. But whether or not we should stop $110bn from being spent in this country … That would not be acceptable to me.”

Trump dropped any pretext that the US-Saudi alliance is more than a transactional relationship based on maintaining weapons deals, stable oil prices and regional security interests. After all: why would he isolate the reckless crown prince – and lose sales to America’s largest weapons buyer? – by Mohamad Bazzi

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/29/saudi-arabia-trump-administration-jamal-khashoggi-prince-mohammed

(A E P)

The Funded: Silicon Valley goes back to 'Davos in the Desert'

A year after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi shined a spotlight on Saudi money pouring into Silicon Valley, some of the region's leaders are attending an annual conference known as "Davos in the Desert."

Many tech leaders canceled plans to attend last year's Future Investment Initiative conference in the glare of accusations that the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, crown prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the killing of the dissident journalist in Turkey.

MBS and the Saudi sovereign fund have been major investors in the Valley, both directly and indirectly through the SoftBank Vision Fund.

Among those speaking over the next three days at this year's conference are

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/10/28/the-funded-silicon-valley-goes-back-to-davos-on.html

(A P)

Statement by Sen. Jack Reed

https://twitter.com/SenJackReed/status/1188985934076882946

cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf

(** B H P)

Human Rights Watch: Iran: Sanktionen gefährden Gesundheit

USA sollen gewährleisten, dass humanitäre Ausnahmen funktionieren

Wegen der umfangreichen Sanktionen der Trump-Regierung ist der Iran kaum noch in der Lage, humanitäre Importe, darunter auch Medikamente, zu finanzieren. Das stellt die iranische Bevölkerung vor große Probleme und bedroht ihr Recht auf Gesundheit, so Human Rights Watch in einem heute veröffentlichten Bericht. Die US-Regierung soll unverzüglich Schritte einleiten, damit der Handel mit humanitären Gütern mit Iran möglich ist.

Der 47-seitige Bericht „‘Maximum Pressure’: US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health“ dokumentiert, dass iranische Unternehmen und staatliche Stellen wegen der weitreichenden Einschränkungen finanzieller Transaktionen und der aggressiven Rhetorik der USA kaum mehr humanitäre Importe finanzieren können. Dies betrifft auch lebenswichtige Medikamente und medizinische Ausrüstung. Zwar sind humanitäre Importe von den Sanktionen der US-Regierung ausgenommen, aber diese Ausnahmen erweisen sich in der Praxis als wirkungslos. US-amerikanische und europäische Unternehmen und Banken befürchten Sanktionen und rechtliche Schritte, wenn sie eigentlich nicht von den Sanktionen betroffene humanitäre Güter exportieren und finanzieren. Dadurch verliert die iranische Bevölkerung Zugang zu lebenswichtigen Medikamenten und ihr Recht auf Gesundheit wird beeinträchtigt. Völkerrechtliche Bestimmungen verpflichten die USA dazu, die Auswirkungen ihrer Sanktionen auf die Menschenrechte der iranischen Bevölkerung zu prüfen und bei Beeinträchtigungen Abhilfe zu schaffen.

„Mitarbeiter der Trump-Regierung behaupten, sie stünden an der Seite der Iraner. Aber das viel zu weitreichende und belastende US-Sanktionsregime verletzt das Recht der Iraner auf eine angemessene Gesundheitsversorgung, etwa den Zugang zu lebenserhaltenden Medikamenten“, sagt Sarah Leah Whitson, Leiterin der Abteilung Naher Osten bei Human Rights Watch. „Wegen des lückenlosen Sanktionsnetzes der USA nehmen Banken und Unternehmen auch vom humanitären Handel mit dem Iran Abstand. Iraner mit seltenen oder komplexen Erkrankungen erhalten nicht mehr die Medikamente und die Behandlung, die sie brauchen.“

Zwischen November 2018 und Oktober 2019 befragte Human Rights Watch 21 Personen, darunter iranische Ärzte, ehemalige und aktuelle Mitarbeiter iranischer und internationaler Arzneimittelimporteure sowie Anwälte und Nichtregierungsorganisationen mit Fachkenntnis über humanitäre Maßnahmen im Iran. Einige Befragte leben im Iran, viele lebten entweder bislang im Iran und/oder reisen regelmäßig dorthin, leben aber in einem anderen Land. Zudem befragte Human Rights Watch Experten für US-Regierungspolitik, die direkt oder indirekt mit dem Iran befasst sind. Auch flossen Aussagen mehrerer Iraner in den Bericht ein, die sich in sozialen Netzwerken darüber beklagt hatten, keine Medikamente für sich oder Familienangehörige mehr bekommen zu können. Einbezogen wurden auch die verfügbaren offiziellen Stellungnahmen der US-amerikanischen und der iranischen Regierung. Außerdem analysierte Human Rights Watch Wirtschafts- und Handelsdaten der iranischen Zentralbank, der iranischen staatlichen Gesundheitsorganisation Sazman-e-Ghaza-va-Daroo und von Eurostat, der Statistikbehörde der Europäischen Union mit Sitz in Luxemburg.

Seit die US-Regierung im Mai 2018 offiziell aus dem internationalen Atomabkommen ausstieg, reaktivierte sie zuvor ausgesetzte Wirtschaftssanktionen unter anderem auf den Öl-Export und erließ weitere Sanktionen. Das US-Finanzministerium prognostizierte, dass die Sanktionen zu zunehmender finanzieller Isolation des Irans und zum wirtschaftlichen Stillstand führen würden. „Sanktionen, die so umfassend sind wie die der Trump-Regierung und auf unbestimmte Zeit erlassen werden, wirken sich negativ auf die humanitäre Versorgung von Millionen Iranern aus. Zudem beeinträchtigen sie deren Recht auf Gesundheit“, sagt Human Rights Watch.

Die Wirtschaftssanktionen verursachen trotz der humanitären Ausnahmen unnötiges Leid bei Iranern, die unter unterschiedlichen Krankheiten und Beeinträchtigungen leiden. Am stärksten betroffen sind Iraner mit seltenen Krankheiten, die besonderer Behandlung bedürfen und ihre bisherigen Medikamente und Versorgung nun nicht mehr erhalten. Dazu zählen unter anderem Patienten mit Leukämie, Epidermolysis bullosa (EB, eine Hautkrankheit), Epilepsie und chronischen Augenkrankheiten, die von chemischen Kampfstoffen im Iran-Irak Krieg verursacht wurden.

https://www.hrw.org/de/news/2019/10/29/iran-sanktionen-gefaehrden-gesundheit

(** B H P)

Human Rights Watch: Maximum Pressure:’ US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health.

Though the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanction regime, broad US sanctions against Iranian banks, coupled with aggressive rhetoric from US officials, have drastically constrained Iran’s ability to finance such humanitarian imports. The consequences of redoubled US sanctions, whether intentional or not, pose a serious threat to Iranians’ right to health and access to essential medicines—and has almost certainly contributed to documented shortages—ranging from a lack of critical drugs for epilepsy patients to limited chemotherapy medications for Iranians with cancer.

At the core of the harmful knock-on effects of renewed US sanctions on Iran is that in practice, these sanctions have largely deterred international banks and firms from participating in commercial or financial transactions with Iran, including for exempted humanitarian transactions, due to the fear of triggering US secondary sanctions on themselves. As a result, Iranians’ access to essential medicine and their right to health is being negatively impacted, and may well worsen if the situation remains unchanged, thereby threatening the health of millions of Iranians.

On several occasions, US officials have indicated that the pain US sanctions are causing for ordinary Iranians is intentional, part of a strategy to compel Iranian citizens to demand their autocratic government to “change behavior” – a recipe for collective punishment that infringes on Iranians’ economic rights. For instance, on February 14, 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CBS News, "Things are much worse for the Iranian people [with the US sanctions], and we are convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime.” The US Treasury Department itself predicted that US policies would lead to Iran’s “mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation.”

The Trump administration, beyond re-imposing economic sanctions that had been suspended under the JCPOA, has repeatedly targeted Iranian financial institutions. On October 16, 2018, for example, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department further restricted Iran’s access to global financial markets by adding about 20 Iranian institutions to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) for “supporting military force that recruits and trains child soldiers.”

These restrictions on financing, combined with the sharp depreciation of the Iranian currency, the rial, have resulted in severely limiting Iranian companies and hospitals from purchasing essential medicines and medical equipment from outside Iran that residents depend upon for critical medical care. Moreover, renewed US sanctions have directly impacted families’ purchasing power, contributing to inflation rates of around 30 percent in the past year. Iran’s nearly universal health care coverage currently absorbs a significant portion of health care costs. But the failure of this system, which is already under serious financial stress, will likely have devasting effects on millions of patients.

In July 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran said that he is “not only concerned that sanctions and banking restrictions will unduly affect food security and the availability and distribution of medicines, pharmaceutical equipment and supplies, but is also concerned at their potential negative impact on United Nations and other operations and programs in the country.”

Human Rights Watch found that current economic sanctions, despite the humanitarian exemptions, are causing unnecessary suffering to Iranian citizens afflicted with a range of diseases and medical conditions. Some of the worst-affected are Iranians with rare diseases and/or conditions that require specialized treatment who are unable to acquire previously available medicines or supplies.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/10/29/maximum-pressure/us-economic-sanctions-harm-iranians-right-health

(A P)

US State Department Prepares Budget to Counter Tehran’s Regional Activities

David Schenker, assistant secretary for the US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told the Congress that 2020’s fiscal year budget will focus primarily on countering Iran's influence.
He said Iran is a “provocative and malicious player” that threatens US allies and intervenes in the affairs of Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and other regional countries.
In a session held by the House Foreign Affairs’ Middle East and South Africa Subcommittee, Schenker said the US administration’s strategy on Iran primarily focuses on “neutralizing Iran's destabilizing influence and constraining its malign activities, particularly in support for terrorism and militants.”
“Strong diplomatic, economic and security measures must be bolstered by US assistance programs that support key partners and seek to deny access and influence to Iran and its proxies,” he stressed.
“Resources requested in this budget will counter Iran’s malign influence in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen by working through our local partners.”

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1968826/us-state-department-prepares-budget-counter-tehran%E2%80%99s-regional-activities

(A P)

Iran’s FM: US Attempts to Exclude Iran from Any Regional Arrangement Futile

US attempts to exclude Iran from any regional arrangement futile: FM Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lashed out at the United States for pursuing a policy aimed at isolating the Islamic Republic in the region, saying such attempts are futile.

Zarif, who is in Qatar to attend the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC), made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the Doha-based television network Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

He said Washington’s policy of excluding Iran “from any regional arrangement - whether in Syria, Afghanistan or Yemen - will just not work,” once again emphasizing that US sanctions against Iran have “failed.”

He also described as “unacceptable” Saudi Arabia’s similar attempts to isolate Iran, Turkey and Qatar from regional security equations, saying, “We all have to come together” in the face of such isolationist agendas.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/10/29/609894/Zarif-Al-Jazeera-MSC-Doha-Qatar-JCPOA-Saudi-Arabia

(A P T)

US propaganda on Baghdadi’s death aims to undermine efforts of Resistance Axis: IRGC

A ranking IRGC commander said that Washington aims to play down the role of Resistance Axis in fighting terrorism in the region.

“ISIL has been defeated by regional nations and the Resistance Axis and Americans aim to question the role of Resistance in the fight against terrorism and say that ‘we are the one undermining ISIL and fighting terrorism’, but this is not the case,” Brigadier General Ism

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/151700/US-propaganda-on-Baghdadi-s-death-aims-to-undermine-efforts-of

(A P)

IRANISCHE BEDROHUNG: ISRAELISCHE BOTSCHAFTEN IN ERHÖHTER ALARMBEREITSCHAFT

Zahlreiche israelische Botschaften haben angesichts der wachsenden Bedrohung durch den Iran ihre Sicherheitsvorkehrungen verstärkt. Das meldete die Jerusalem Post am heutigen Dienstag. Diese Maßnahmen folgten auf vermehrte Warnungen durch die israelische Armee, der Iran plane Angriffe auf israelische Ziele mit Drohnen und Marschflugkörpern (die ICEJ berichtete)

https://de.icej.org/news/headlines/iranische-bedrohung-israelische-botschaften-erh%C3%B6hter-alarmbereitschaft

(* A P)

Top Houthi official rejects Netanyahu’s claim of Iran seeking to fire missiles at Israel from Yemen

Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has strongly dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations that Iran is seeking the means to launch precision-guided missiles at the Israeli-occupied territories from Yemen, stressing that such remarks are meant to prolong the Saudi-led military campaign against the Yemeni nation.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, said on Tuesday that Netanyahu contradicts himself, as he says on one occasion that Iranians have given ballistic missiles to Yemeni forces and claims another time that the Islamic Republic is developing the capacity to produce such armament, Yemen's official Saba news agency reported.

“How quickly has Iran’s ambition to develop such missiles been realized that it has even exported them to Yemen?” the top Houthi official questioned.

He further noted that Netanyahu’s remarks during his meeting with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Jerusalem al-Quds attests to the fact that the Tel Aviv regime is a dominant partner in the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/10/29/609862/Top-Houthi-official-rejects-Netanyahus-allegation-Iran-seeking-to-fire-missiles-at-Israel-from-Yemen

and also https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076793.htm

https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/al-houthi-netanyahus-statements-are-nothing-but-a-message-regarding-renewal-of-aggression-on-yemen/

(A P)

The deception of the Zionist entity is over and its time is over, and @netanyahu contradicts himself Mohammad AlHouthi @Moh_Alhouthi “Member of the Supreme Political Council in #Yemen” said.

And he said: These statements serve the awareness of #Yemen, as they are an additional confirmation of the real partnership of the #Zionist entity in the aggression against Yemen along with the #US, #Saudi, #Emirati coalition of aggression.

@netanyahu's statements are a message for continuing the aggression against the Yemeni people, especially when he announced them in presence of the US minister

https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/1188895973457694721

https://twitter.com/A7medJa7af/status/1188895969192140810

referring to

https://twitter.com/Moh_Alhouthi/status/1188872620692987904

https://twitter.com/Moh_Alhouthi/status/1188873990447812609

(* B P)

What Trump’s travel ban really looks like, almost two years in

Now that time has passed, policymakers, political scientists like myself and all Americans can start to understand the ban’s effects.

Was it actually a Muslim ban, as it was called at the time it was introduced? Or was that just an anti-Trump label? What percentage of people from those banned countries did pass the “enhanced vetting” and get an actual visa to enter the United States?

I looked through the government’s data to find answers.

U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs data shows that there was a significant decrease in the number of immigrant visas issued to Muslim countries affected by the travel ban. Meanwhile, the number of immigrant visas issued per month to the non-Muslim countries in the ban virtually remained unchanged.

https://theconversation.com/what-trumps-travel-ban-really-looks-like-almost-two-years-in-123564

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

(* A P)

Berliner Jemen-Konferenz 2019

Einladung zur Berliner Jemen-Konferenz 2019
(Max. 100 Teilnehmer möglich)
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,es ist unabdingbar, die Aufmerksamkeit der Welt auf den vergessenen Krieg im Jemen zu verstärken, um die größte humanitäre Krise der Welt seit Ende des 2. Weltkrieges beenden zu können. Deshalb wollen wir – in Deutschland lebende Jemeniten und die Friedensinitiative Stop the WAR in Yemen aus Berlin-Brandenburg, Sie zur „Berliner-Jemen-Konferenz 2019“ einladen.
Mit Ihrer Hilfe und Ihrer Teilnahme können wir gemeinsam das jemenitische Volk unterstützen. Bitte lassen Sie uns wissen, ob sie an unserer Konferenz teilnehmen werden. Nutzen Sie dazu bitte das unten beigefügte Anmeldeformular.
https://www.krieg-im-jemen.de/anmeldung-konferenz2019/

https://www.neues-deutschland.de/termine/86818.html

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

(A K P)

Vatikan fordert Waffenstillstand im Jemen

Vor der UNO in New York hat ein Vatikan-Vertreter einen Waffenstillstand im Jemen-Konflikt gefordert. Das sei „entscheidend, um dem unerträglichen Leiden der Bevölkerung im Jemen wenigstens vorübergehend ein Ende zu machen“.

https://www.vaticannews.va/de/vatikan/news/2019-10/vatikan-auza-uno-jemen-krieg-waffen-syrien-menschenrechte-bischo.html

(* A K P)

Turkey criticizes Arab coalition over civilian casualties in Yemen

Turkish foreign minister says Saudi-led coalition targets civilians in Yemen on pretext of counterterrorism

Turkey’s cross-border operation in northern Syria only targets terrorists, but Saudi-led coalition killed tens of thousands of civilians on the pretext of fighting terrorism in Yemen, the Turkish foreign minister said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Al Jazeera news network, Mevlut Cavusoglu said if Turkey’s anti-terror Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria is compared to Saudi Arabia and UAE’s operations in Yemen, “then there are lots of things to say.”

“Turkey launched this operation against the [YPG/PKK] terror group […] In Yemen, tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombardments of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates,” said Cavusoglu, stressing that no civilians were killed during Turkey’s operation.

Cavusoglu also recalled that hundreds of thousands of people also died of famine and epidemic diseases due to the siege in Yemen.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/turkey-criticizes-arab-coalition-over-civilian-casualties-in-yemen-/1631160 = https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2019/10/30/turkey-slams-saudi-led-coalition-over-civilian-casualties-in-yemen

My comment: A strange excuse for own war crimes.

cp12b Sudan

Siehe / Look at cp1

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

(* B K P)

Saudi Arabia is $3.4B behind on its payments for Canadian LAVs

The Saudi shortfall has been growing by $200 million every quarter since the start of 2019

Saudi Arabia still owes about $3.4 billion in late payments for Canadian-produced Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs), according to the latest quarterly financial results released by General Dynamics last week.

The Liberal government endorsed a controversial deal, made by the previous Conservative government in 2014, to supply the Saudis with hundreds of LAV 6.0 advanced combat vehicles used to transport troops on the battlefield.

The LAVs are wheeled military vehicles armed with various weapons, including automatic cannons, machine guns, mortars and anti-tank missiles. They're being produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) at its plant in London, Ontario.

According to General Dynamics' quarterly earnings statements, the Saudi late payment debt has been growing by $200 million every quarter since the beginning of the year.

According to CCC's website, "every contract signed has the legal effect of being signed in the name of the Government of Canada, providing foreign government buyers with the assurance that the contract will be delivered per the agreed terms and conditions, guaranteed."

That arrangement means that the exporting company acts as a subcontractor and gets paid by the federal government — once Ottawa receives payment from the foreign purchaser.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/saudi-arabia-lav-canada-armoured-vehicles-1.5340087

(A K P)

Mohamed bin Zayed receives Chairman of Raytheon Company

http://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302798741

cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage

(A K)

Hadi forces destroy historic dome in Lahj province

National heritage of Yemen targeted by mercenaries

A number of extremist elements belongs to the forces of Hadi have destroyed one of the historic domes in the Tor Baha Directorate of Lahj province.

Local sources said that extremist elements joining the forces of Hadi destroyed a historic dome in the area of Shaab district of Tor Baha (photo, really from this raid?)

https://www.uprising.today/hadi-forces-destroys-historic-dome-in-lahj-province/

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

(A T)

#AQAP #Yemen has little to report this week: It sniped 1 ISIS fighter & fired mortars in al-Bayda' Sunday. AQAP devoted more effort to complaining about #ISIS roadside bombs that it says keep hitting ordinary Muslims on public roads. (AQAP wires being deleted very quickly now)

https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1189543113091629056

cp15 Propaganda

Siehe / Look at cp1

(A P)

Saudi Media Aims at Iran at any Cost, Manipulates Photo of Lebanon Protests

The news service posted on its Twitter account on Monday a visibly manipulated photo, showing a Lebanese protester holding the national flag with anti-Iran slogan written on it.

http://english.almanar.com.lb/860576

(A P)

An Iranian war against the Arabs. Tehran militias strike in Marib, Beirut and Karbala

Iran continues its wars in several Arab countries in various forms to perpetuate its occupation and influence, while the Arab peoples of Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria continue to resist this aggression and be free from Iranian occupation disguised by their militias.

On Tuesday, Tehran's militias hit more than one Arab country, in Yemen, a missile fired by Houthi militias at the defense ministry headquarters in Marib, killing two soldiers, and continuing its war against Yemenis in more than one Yemeni province.

In Lebanon, where protests took place on the 13th day, Hezbollah and Amal militias attacked demonstrators in downtown Beirut and set their tents on fire.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173526

(A P)

Iranian Threat to Israel Is Real, Even if It Serves Netanyahu’s Interests

Tehran is deploying long-range missiles in Yemen, tipping the balance of deterrence and sending the Israeli air force into high alert

Every new piece of security-related information these days should be taken with a measure of skepticism. The various interests behind the revelation of Iranian threats are pretty clear. Many of the senior officials discussing the grave regional situation have a fairly transparent goal, a unity government. Everyone has his reasons, and the more serious the security situation, the greater the chance of establishing such a government.

For Netanyahu, it could be a way to remain in power after all, despite his second consecutive electoral failure.

Still, the new information about Yemen is significant and important. It represents the other half of the picture of threats that until now had not been revealed to the public. Military intelligence officials warned last month of the possibility that Iran would try to attack Israel from Western Iraq by launching cruise missiles or drones from bases it established in the area with the assistance of Shi’ite militias that it operates. It seems that the second scenario relates to Yemen. Tehran provided Houthi rebels there with drones and Scud missiles, which it has used in the last few years to attack airfields and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Now, according to Netanyahu’s speech, long-range ballistic missiles have been added to the Iranian arsenal in Yemen.

Because the distance between northern Yemen and Eilat, the southernmost point in Israel, is over 1,800 kilometers, it is possibly the type known as Khorramshahr, derived from the North Korean Musudan missile

Iranian missiles can reach Israel from Iran itself, of course. But deploying long-range missiles in Yemen, not only enabled Tehran to fire on Saudi Arabia in the past, but also indicates that the Iranians are preparing another option for themselves.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iranian-threat-to-israel-is-real-even-if-it-serves-netanyahu-s-interests-1.8056353

My remark: Netanyahu’s claims here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-iran-yemen/netanyahu-says-iran-seeking-means-to-attack-israel-from-yemen-idUSKBN1X71SA

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/10/29/iran-seeking-to-strike-israel-from-yemen-netanyahu-claims

(A P)

Scholars and preachers of Yemen praise the role of Kingdom and stress: Yemen in good hands

For his part, Deputy Chairman of the Yemeni Scholars Association Sheikh Ahmed bin Hassan Al-Moallem expressed his appreciation to the Government of Saudi Arabia for their support of this program and the support of Yemeni scholars, especially in the circumstances that Yemen is going through.
He also thanked the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance, Dr. Abdullatif Al-Sheikh, for his efforts in sponsoring the program.
Al-Moallem pointed to the practices of the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist militia that target the depth of Yemeni society by poisoning ideas and changing the right approach of society, stressing that the role of Scholars is to fight perverted ideas.

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1987895

(A P)

Al-Muallimi: We do not seek war, but at the same time we will not hesitate to protect our territory from any enemies by all legitimate means

Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the United Nations Ambassador Abdullah bin Yahya Al-Muallimi reiterated the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's clear stance on igniting any strife or war in the region, stressing that we do not seek war and do not want it or ignite it, but at the same time will not hesitate to defend our citizens and the capabilities of our country by all legitimate means, affirming the kingdom's belief in the principle of dialogue and peaceful settlement of disputes, but any call for dialogue should be consistent with an effective cessation of threats and hostilities, and countries that call for dialogue should reject policies based on exporting the revolution and creating sectarian enclaves and groups in the countries in order to interfere in their affairs.
This came in the kingdom's speech delivered today at the Security Council session on the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1987908

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1987909

(A P)

More Saudi coalition „We are benefactors“ propaganda

http://www.wam.ae/de/details/1395302798550

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=oZpqRxJ_-Ss

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1989470

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1989453

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14639

http://en.adenpress.news/news/14638

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988981

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988979

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988859

https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988840 https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988981https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988979https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988859https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=1988840

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1575706/saudi-arabia

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

(* A K pH)

Saudi coalition air raids and shelling day by day

Oct. 29: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1572451713./1457273727756321/

Oct. 28: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000.1572373627./1456711987812495/

Oct. 27: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInYemenOnTheEdge/photos/pb.961126490607048.-2207520000.1572373631./2578614182191596/

(A K pH)

US-Saudi aggression launched on Monday more than 43 airstrikes on a number of governorates, mostly Sa'ada

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9524

and

(A K pS)

Arab coalition strikes Houthi militia in Al-Jawf

The coalition airstrikes targeted sites and gatherings of Houthi militia in Ham front, killing and wounding several militants and also destroying a number of their combat vehicles.

http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/10/30/arab-coalition-strikes-houthi-militia-in-al-jawf/

and

(A K pS)

Coalition raids leave number of Houthis killed & wounded in Sa’ada

A number of the Iran-backed Houthi rebel militants were killed on Wednesday in raids by the coalition supporting Yemeni government in the front of Al- Hashwa, east of Sa’ada province, north of the country

http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/10/30/coalition-raids-leave-number-of-houthis-killed-wounded-in-saada/

(A K pS)

Government forces thwart militia attack north of Hajjah, and the coalition fighters destroy Houthi equipment

According to government forces, in the past 16 hours, Saudi-led coalition fighters destroyed a BTR vehicle and four militia military pickups with sporadic air strikes in Haradh district

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173483

(A K pH)

Coalition of aggression's warplanes, on Tuesday, targeted Al-Munira district of Hodeidah province in a serious escalation and violation of the Stockholm Agreement.

A security source said that the US-Saudi aerial aggression launched two raids on Al-Munira, amid intensive flight of the aggression's warplanes in the skies of the province.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9511

(A K pH)

US-Saudi Aggression Targets Fisherman’s Boat with Airstrike

A civilian was killed and another was injured after the US-Saudi aggression targeted a fisherman's boat with an airstrike near Al-Salif.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9507

and also https://www.yemenpress.org/yemen/a-fisherman-killed-another-injured-in-a-raid-hit-their-boat-in-hodeidah/

(A K pH)

12 Saudi aggression-led airstrikes hit Hajjah

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076797.htm

(A K pH)

Saudi aggression fighter jets attack Jawf

https://www.saba.ye/en/news3076771.htm

(A K pH)

Civilian housing destroyed by Saudi bombing

Saada province civilian house ruined by airstrike

https://www.uprising.today/civilian-housing-destroyed-by-saudi-bombing/

(A K pH)

More Saudi coalition air raids recorded on:

Oct. 30: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9523 and https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9535 Hajjah p., Jawf p., Saada p., Asir

Oct. 28: https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9506 Hodeidah p., Saada p., Jawf p., Taiz p.

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

Siehe / Look at cp1b

(A K pH)

injuring a civilian with Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Razih district.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9535

(A K pS)

Houthi militia blasts main road bridge in Al-Dhale

The Iran-backed Houthi rebel militia blew up on Monday a main road bridge in Moris area, north of Al-Dhale province, in the southern of the country.

http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/10/30/houthi-militia-blasts-main-road-bridge-in-al-dhale/

(A K pH)

Saudi Shelling Injures Old Woman in Sa’adah

the Saudi army shelling resulted in the injury of an elderly woman and material damage in farms, houses and property of citizens.

https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=9527

(A K pS)

Three civilians were injured, including a woman, in the explosion of a landmine in Qa'ataba city in al-Dhale province.

https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1189190652497551362

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

(* A)

Marine traffic: Port of Aden

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/19504

Marine traffic: Port of Hodeidah

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/19502

Marine traffic: Port of Salif

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/19503

Marine traffic: Port of Mukallah

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/3036

Marine traffic: Port of Mokhah

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ports/19501

(* A)

"Maha" cyclone will hit the Al-Mahrah in early November. Yemen among 6 countries most threatened by climate change disasters

Hurricane "Kiar" threatens the Yemeni coast on the Arabian Sea early next week, and meteorologists predict that a new hurricane called "Maha", may hit Yemeni territory, specifically the province of Al-Mahra, on November 5th, and then move with severe storms and heavy rains towards Hadramout and Shabwa changing to an atmospheric depression affected by the northern and central regions.

https://almasdaronline.com/articles/173522

(* A)

Yemen: Cyclones October - November 2019, Anticipatory short note - 29 October 2019

Two cyclones may affect Yemen between 30 October and 8 November. The first, cyclone Kyarr, will likely weaken before passing Yemen on 2 November. The second (unnamed) cyclone, forecasted to make a landfall on 5 November, could be worse than cyclones in 2018 which displaced 17,000 people. Accurate projections about the impact will be available about 72 hours before landfall ( 2 November 2019).

https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-cyclones-october-november-2019-anticipatory-short-note-29-october-2019

(* B)

A Photographer’s Journey to Yemen to Shoot the Dragon Blood Tree

The dragon blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari) is a bizarre umbrella-shaped tree that gets its name from its red sap, which was thought to be the dragon’s blood of the ancients.

Above is an 18-minute documentary film of Van Oosten’s journey made by filmmaker Awi Rabelista.

The dragon blood tree is classified as Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — climate change (the drying out of the island and irregular monsoon weather), people (who extract the resin for medicine, makeup, and paint), and animals (domesticated goats eat the seedlings) are three big things that are said to threaten the future of the trees.

“Socotra has been a World Heritage Site since 2008, which has led to high levels of environmental protection, but the challenge will be to convince the local population to keep their goats out of protected areas,” Van Oosten says.

https://petapixel.com/2019/10/24/a-photographers-journey-to-yemen-to-shoot-the-dragon-blood-tree/

Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ckI811gII

(-)

Film: QANBUS… THE LOST SOUND OF YEMEN

The Vidiot is joined by Yemeni journalist Firas Shamsan on a quest to find the lost sound of Yemen and the marvellous instrument „qanbus“ – the lute of Yemen…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94AqQEazLhs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLXs8dg6M6puLxwIH_2HuFpGsva4s_HiNZ&v=94AqQEazLhs

and also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wAmHJyNTHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCY-9FwtS1k

Vorige / Previous:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-591-yemen-war-mosaic-591

Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-591 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-591:

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

Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:

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

http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm

http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/

http://www.yemenwar.info/

Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:

http://yemendataproject.org/data/

Untersuchung ausgewählter Luftangriffe durch Bellingcat / Bellingcat investigations of selected aur raids:

https://yemen.bellingcat.com/

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

Dietrich Klose

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

Dietrich Klose

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