... Die Nachfolge von „Präsident“ Hadi – Stockholm-Abkommen hat lokale Vermittlungen behindert – Beendet das „magische Denken“ im Nahen Osten – Wie die USA die Emirate beim Aufbau einer Spionageeinheit unterstützten – und mehr
Dec. 11, 2019: Corruption, squandering at UN organizations in Yemen – Riyadh agreement failed? – Taiz and the “proxy war prism” – The succession of “president” Hadi – Tribal mediator hampered by Stockholm agreement – An end to magical thinking in the Middle East – Hoe the US supported the UAE building up a spying unit – 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
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
cp9 USA
cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
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
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
Einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B H P)
As Yemen Starves, Billions in Donor Funds Fill the Coffers of International Aid Agencies
Of the billions of dollars pouring into Yemen from international donors, only a trickle is actually reaching the people who need it the most
The phenomenon of mercenarism in the impoverished Arab country of Yemen is not limited to the foreign fighters joining the Saudi-led coalition for money, but also includes UN relief organizations, international agencies, and their local partners who are ultimately denying Yemenis the food, healthcare, money and other aid they urgently need. Regardless of their goodwill.
In 2018, the UN praised international donors for raising large amounts of money to tackle Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Almost all of the $3 billion pledged has been either received by the UN or formally committed. In 2017, when the first pledging conference for Yemen was held, 94 percent of the pledges, $1.1 billion, was fulfilled, according to the UN.
However, this year, the United Nations announced that humanitarian needs in Yemen for this year amount to $2.96 billion, $2.1 billion of which has already been collected, while other countries pledged the remaining amount.
Where does the aid money go?
The United Nations annually declares and approves a public response plan involving local authorities including Yemen’s National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Recovery (NAMCHA).
By investigating official documents of the annual public response and its actual outcomes, as well as tracking the flow of millions of dollars of supplies and funds from aid programs, it becomes apparent that most donor funds go to the coffers of UN relief organizations and international and local NGOs. In other words, more than seventy percent of the aid is stolen off the top.
That money is distributed to dozens of UN agencies, international organizations and local NGOs. The largest recipients include the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
According to budget lists in the UN’s annual public response, 15-20 percent of grants are taken in the form of dues before they reach Yemenis. Then, an additional 45-60 percent of the grants go to relief organizations to cover operating and support expenses.
Moreover, a review of the UN budget shows that grant money allocated to Yemen has been wasted on projects that are not a part of the UN’s annual public response plan. That money is supposed to go towards serving the needs of Yemenis based on research by civil society organizations and local authorities.
At a time when hundreds of residents, mostly women and children, die every day due to shortages of food and medicine, millions of dollars are being funneled into reproductive health projects such as the International Child Welfare Organization’s reproductive health project with a budget of $4,592,632 to distribute contraceptives and educational sex dolls.
The Yemeni minister of public health and population, Taha al-Mutawakel called on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to clarify the fate of funds allocated to Yemen. Al-Mutawakel bemoaned how aid money has been squandered on cars and services instead of alleviating the sufferings of Yemenis. “Stop shedding tears for our children who get killed, whilst there is no credibility whatsoever in your international reports and they do not help assuage this tragic situation, he said from inside the Sabeen Maternal Hospital in the capital Sana’a.
“We are not demanding toys and video game consoles, but we are calling for incubators and other related devices to give children the right to life.”
Relief agency corruption trickles down to Yemen’s locals
Further analysis of public documents shows that a portion of aid money goes to the accounts of UN relief organizations via its procurement policy. Those organizations often allot excessive amounts of money to buy imported products, yet often end up buying those products from local markets or from abroad at lower prices than specified in their detailed humanitarian plan.
For example, in 2019, the World Food Program (WFP) budget included money to purchase 70 million liters of diesel at 92 cents per liter, for a total cost of $64.5 million. However, the domestic market price for diesel in just 75 cents per liter and the organization buys the diesel from Yemen Oil Company at the local price according to official agreements which have been reviewed by MintPress. That disparity means that a staggering $21,700,000 will end up in WFP coffers.
Relief organizations that have diverted donated food, medicine, fuel and money from desperate Yemenis amid their country’s five-year war also receive significant financial benefits by leveraging currency exchange rates. The procurement process and projects carried out by many of these organizations are paid for in local currency, not in U.S. dollars. In this way, organizations save substantial sums of money by engaging in a sort of currency speculation.
In addition, organizations workers have been caught selling relief items to local merchants who then trade them on the black market. Two merchants, as well as eyewitnesses, confirmed to MintPress that they were sold relief items bearing the WFP’s logo by the organization’s workers. Some residents engage in the sale of these items out of desperation and the need for money for medical treatment or to pay rent according to residents who spoke to MintPress.
Moreover, the scant food aid which millions of Yemenis rely on for their daily sustenance often doesn’t reach people until it is already expired, by that time often crawling with worms and cockroaches because of lack of proper storage facilities, constant power outages, or long hours in transport. Rotten food aid is sometimes burned as it is not fit for human consumption. To make matters worse, coalition forces have bombed bridges linking Yemen’s main port in Hodeida with Sana’a, the capital city, which has meant trucks loaded with vital supplies have to take other routes adding many hours to the journey.
Current conditions on the ground are seriously hindering the delivery and distribution of aid as the Saudi-led coalition is enforcing a commercial blockade on sea and air routes into the country, and placing restrictions on relief supplies where aid is subject to long inspection delays and in some cases, rejected altogether. The fate of the rejected aid is not known.
Inflated salaries and internal waste
The simultaneous funding of war and aid
Corruption undermines the trust of civilians and donors – by Ahmed Abdulkareem
and
(** B H P)
Organizations Making Business, and Non-Humanitarian International Assistance !!
Copy of an investigation in English disclosing the corruption of international organizations working in Yemen, which was published by Al-Thawra Newspaper in Arabic on December 3, 2019.
A Complete File Supported with Documents Detecting International Organizations Corruption:
Documents disclose financial, administrative, practical and moral corruption of those who disbursed grants to Yemen
The documents disclose wasting big funds as humanitarian assistance to Yemen
WFP allocated 330 billion YER for distribution, supervision and survey; 44 billion YER for transportation during the year 2019
Despite the UN organizations work in Yemen since the beginning of aggression, but poverty rate increased to 85% and unemployment rate reached 65%
Some International Organizations seize the opportunity while humanitarian work to carry out projects which actually serve aggression forces as soft and psychological warfare, utilizing citizens suffering
Illegal abuses of International Organizations while submitting their required reports
Changing food relief into financial aid is a step to reduce organizations' excesses and financial corruption
Organizations attract foreign experts with high paid despite the existence of qualified local cadres
Reports indicate that Organizations have allocated, to their Headquarters and regional offices abroad a big portion of humanitarian assistance, spending about 60% of these assistance on organizations operational expenditures, furniture and support; allocate huge sums, irrationally, to implementers for relief distributions processes, surveys required, direct and indirect support.
On same regard, the World Food Program (WFP) has allocated $ 599 million (330 billion YER), distribution, supervision and survey costs for the year 2019, in addition to $ 80 million (44 billion YER) was allocated for transportation.
Experts
In addition, on same time that Yemen has qualified cadres who can do their jobs in best possible way, with a suitable salary, however these organizations attract foreign experts with high amounts, despite the futility of their existence. On same regard, a memo of the United Nations, which Al-Thawra earlier received, has disclosed that 8 employees affiliated to one of UN International organizations working in Yemen received about $ 50 million (30 billion YER) as salaries for only 11 months. Meanwhile, according to reports, it was revealed that the Director of the WHO office, Nivio Zagaria in Yemen, during the period between 2016 - September 2018, was hired unqualified Filipino staff, already worked for him in Philippine, and appointed them to high-paying positions, two of them were assigned only to take care of the dog of the Director.
The UN organization pays a big amount of money to secure its staff housing, in addition to other premiums as a risk allowance, regardless the costs of delivering aid to conflict areas, in which the United Nations said that costs are very high, considering that Yemen is a dangerous and probably poses threats to them. The memo, as well, revealed that Internet bill for WFP, in one year, costed 1.2 million US dollars (660 million YER) on time that thousands of Yemeni families are starving.
Inappropriateness
Corruption of international agencies does not stop there; the funds allocated as grants for Yemenis are wasted in projects implementation and purchase materials with bad specifications and a large deviation rate. The report reveals that projects related to Seoul Organization ( UNICEF’s partners) set deviation based measures for its projects implementation by 116%, including rehabilitation of some destroyed schools and health projects, such as expired or unwanted drugs at current situation, in addition to spoiled food items as disclosed by Al-Thawrah in previous investigations.
Obstruction and reason
In context of talk about hindering the humanitarian aid to be accessed to citizens and wasting money, Al-Thawrah got documents on illegal abuses caused obstruction of organizations staff mobility and activities based regulations agreed between the Yemeni authorities and those components.
From this side, Mr. Abdul Mohsen Al-Tawoos, the chairman of the Supreme Council for Coordination and Administration of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation, stated that the suspended projects are the ones where the administrative expenditure and expenses reached to 80% of the total project fund.
One of such abuses is delay in submission of reports required by the UN and international organizations, or violation of the Organization's lines, move confidentially, in accordance with basic and sub-agreements of projects.
Unlisten voice
In one of the solutions put forward by the authorities to reduce the violations and financial corruption of the organizations, the Supreme Council proposed to convert food aid to financial aid, so that the cost of expenditure is used to get the needy people to receive an adequate return instead of the basket, which is not enough for some families for one week to return later to eat leaves – by Abdulqader Othman
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081040.htm
My remark: This is a game of mutual accusations between the Houthi government and UN organizations. Obviously, only a small part of the collected money really reaches those in need.
(** B P)
Peace deal for Yemen's south stumbles as deadline expires
The Yemeni government and southern separatists have failed to meet a deadline to establish a power-sharing government, an ominous sign for hopes of a wider deal to end years of war.
"The timeline of the Riyadh Agreement was always very ambitious. It is no surprise to see deadlines slip," Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen expert and senior research fellow at Oxford University, told AFP.
"The bigger question is: are the promises simply being delayed, or are they ultimately not achievable?"
The two sides say they are committed to the Riyadh Agreement but have traded accusations over who is responsible for the failure to meet the deadline to form a new government.
STC spokesman Nizar Haitham said on Thursday that Yemen's government was "deviating" from the agreement and mobilising its troops in the south, an accusation the government denied.
However in recent days an STC official told AFP that work to implement the Riyadh Agreement was ongoing and that there has been "significant progress" in implementing military and security arrangements.
"Starting next week, we'll begin steps in implementing what was agreed on," this source said in a written statement without elaborating.
According to government spokesman Rajih Badi, the secessionists are the ones failing to abide by the treaty.
He said that government military movements in the south are in line with the Riyadh Agreement and in coordination with the Saudi coalition, which continues to lead the anti-Huthi camp comprised of both government and secessionist forces.
But although clashes in the south have largely subsided, the situation on the ground remains fragile, said Kendall.
"This is a classic case of an agreement being easy to sign but near impossible to implement," she said.
Other parts of the deal, including placing forces from both sides under the authority of the defence and interior ministries, have also not been fulfilled.
The lack of concrete progress since the deal was signed comes as a blow to those hailing it as a stepping stone towards ending the wider conflict, described by the UN as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
"The Riyadh Agreement erected a whole set of deadlines that, for starters, rely on very different Yemeni parties being wholly sincere in wanting and being able to share power in Aden," Neil Partrick, a London-based Middle East analyst, told AFP.
"It's hugely ambitious just to hope to get a power-sharing deal to meaningfully hold up in Aden," he continued.
"But to see this as a basis for the sharing of power throughout the south and for then taking on the Huthis in the north, is possibly not even that serious."
Mohammed Bawzeer, an Aden resident, told AFP there was an overwhelming feeling of disappointment in the city.
"Deadlines have passed, and there is no change on the ground," he said. "We just see things getting worse and worse."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-7770971/Peace-deal-Yemens-south-stumbles-deadline-expires.html = https://thedefensepost.com/2019/12/09/yemen-southern-transitional-council-miss-power-sharing-deadline/
and similar https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/12/9/peace-deal-for-yemens-south-stumbles-as-deadline-expires
(** B K P)
The “Proxy War” Prism on Yemen
View from the City of Taiz
Executive Summary
Taiz, Yemen’s third most populous city and the capital of its largest governorate (province) of the same name, is engulfed by war. Long seen as the cultural heart of the country, Taiz emerged in early 2015 as the center of what many observers describe as a proxy war between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis, an armed Zaidi Shia revivalist movement with ties to Iran.
The current military situation in Taiz is a stalemate between the Houthis and a diverse, loosely formed coalition of anti-Houthi groups. Having surrounded and besieged the city of Taiz, the Houthis remain in control of most of its entrances and exits, controlling the passage of goods and people along with a strategically critical north-south gateway. The conflict in Taiz is emblematic of the way regional rivalries between Gulf States and Iran and hyperlocal competition for power and influence have played out and intersected across Yemen.
Foreign powers play an important role in the conflict by seeking to impose their own goals through sponsorship of armed factions and political groups. As a strategic location abutting Saudi Arabia’s southern border and the shipping lanes of the Red Sea, Yemen holds importance for several foreign powers’ regional agendas. This has led many commentators to analyze the conflict through the lens of proxy warfare.
Yet this lens can easily misrepresent the war as one in which Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Iran move their proxies like chess pieces seeking comparative advantage, while also reducing the war as a whole to these movements. It is not only a matter of misdiagnosing the dynamics involved; framing the conflict as primarily a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia complicates efforts to resolve the conflict. The framing provides strategic advantages for many of the belligerent parties who use it to fuel their war efforts. The narrative itself further internationalizes the conflict, obscuring the essential nature of the war in Yemen, which is at heart an internal Yemeni political conflict.
The internationalization of what was originally a domestic political struggle has made the conflict more complex, in turn making it more difficult to resolve, but it has not fundamentally altered the goals of the original domestic combatants. If the war is ever to end, the goals of Yemenis must be recognized for what they are, and elevated in importance above those of the international parties to the conflict.
Key Findings:
Various military forces in Yemen use the proxy war frame as a propaganda tool to recruit and raise funds, but the day-to-day experience of the conflict is highly local. In many cases, rather than a top-down proxy relationship of control, local forces exercise substantial agency despite receiving sponsorship, pursuing their own interests and using foreign sponsorship opportunities for their own purposes.
The complex web of forces and sponsorship opportunities has empowered individuals—in addition to groups—to act as major players in Yemen’s war. Abu al-Abbas, the leader of the Abu al-Abbas Brigades, for example, skillfully drew on Saudi, Emirati, local, and potentially al-Qaida support to drive his rise in influence.
Though the Houthis have increasingly aligned with Iran, they continue to enmesh themselves in Yemen’s wider body politic. Prior to the current war, the Houthis waged six wars against the Yemeni government in the twenty-first century, during which there is little evidence of firm Iranian command and control. Iran’s reported provision of missiles and drones shapes the conflict, but its roots are local and would not disappear were Iran to fully abandon the Houthis.
Foreign powers’ development of proxy relationships in the form of external sponsorship has made the conflict more complex and difficult to resolve via negotiations. Such foreign relationships have resulted in an interplay between an expanded and shifting set of local forces, national political factions, and international parties, each of which have their own interests and aims. This expanded set of armed and political groups fuels tensions and complicates efforts to end the violence through a negotiated settlement.
Uncritical adoption of the proxy war narrative poses challenges for peacemakers and policymakers, increasing the risks of escalation and frustrating efforts at conflict resolution. The narrative obscures the true localized nature of the conflict and ignores the goals and ambitions of key domestic stakeholders.
These wider divisions have dragged out the battle against the Houthis while providing growth opportunities to extremist groups like al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Al-Qaida’s strength has diminished recently and its power should not be exaggerated, but the group stands to benefit from persistent conflict – by Adam Baron and Raiman Al-Hamdani
https://www.newamerica.org/international-security/reports/the-proxy-war-prism-on-yemen/
(** B P)
A Caretaker President Clings to Legitimacy in Yemen
Back in 2012, during a moment of national and regional consensus, the reserved, nonthreatening Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi was chosen as a temporary president. But Hadi, now seventy-four years old, has held onto power ever since, despite lacking a large base of domestic loyalists. Most important for the Yemeni people, the war needs to end with either a transitional council or elections so that a future leader enjoys the popular legitimacy Hadi lacks.
Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi was selected as a temporary president during a moment of national and regional consensus in 2012, following the protracted Arab Spring crisis in Yemen that led to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure from power. Hadi has remained president well past his expected two-year term, overseeing a war with the Houthi rebel group primarily in the north and a conflict with secessionists in the south. This study examines what might happen when he departs the scene.
Given the role the current government has played in the war, a change at the top will almost certainly be necessary either in the transitional process or through a post-transition election. The current president’s legitimacy derives from a UN- and Gulf Cooperation Counci–agreed framework, not from the loyalty of followers or control of a unified military. Moreover, Hadi is in the somewhat paradoxical position of being a southerner leading a government that faces a renewed secessionist movement among southerners, further confusing his legitimacy in the public’s eyes
Underpinning Hadi’s legitimacy—unusually, by name—are the GCC initiative of 2011, its implementation mechanism, and UN Security Council Resolution 2216 (2015).4 According to the GCC initiative, which followed Saleh’s resignation, the parties in Yemen committed “not to nominate or endorse any candidate for the early presidential elections except for the consensus candidate Vice-President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.”5 Hadi was meant to serve as a transitional president who would oversee the National Dialogue Process, the writing of a new constitution, and the restructuring of the military, then oversee elections that would almost certainly unseat him. This process, however, was interrupted in September 2014 by the Houthi march into Sana and the rebel group’s eventual takeover of the state in early 2015
By March 2015, when the civil war began, Hadi had been serving for three years, a year longer than anticipated in the GCC initiative. Those who had supported extending his term beyond the two years had based their view on a reading of the initiative that bound the timeframe to tasks rather than a set period. The initiative did not spell out what would happen if the process to elections lasted longer than two years, so it was on this basis that Hadi remained president when the Houthis occupied Sana.
As a result of this unusual situation, some Yemenis contest Hadi’s legal legitimacy altogether. They point out that he was only supposed to be president for two years—until February 2014—and that his extension was without either an election or a negotiated settlement. Even those who accept the one-year extension point out that his term should have ended in February 2015, a month before the start of the current war.
Hadi is thus a president without a constituency and without the levers of a state, yet his embodiment as the Legitimacy has provided Saudi Arabia’s justification for carrying out the war.
There are two general ways a transition to the next leader of Yemen could occur: first, through a domestic and internationally agreed-upon process, perhaps as part of a peace deal to end the war, or second, as an involuntary rupture through death, a serious health matter, or forced removal—all of which might precipitate a constitutional crisis.
Whatever the transitional phase looks like—and whatever Hadi’s role in it—the main parties to the conflict agree notionally that a transitional government would be replaced through an election process, likely one or two years after the start of a peace agreement.
A constitutional crisis or the rise of a controversial figure like Ali Mohsen to the presidency might reorient the chess pieces in Yemen, providing either an opportunity for alternative solutions to the war or prompting further entrenchment. In the former case, an unpopular Ali Mohsen presidency might spur common cause among his adversaries for moving into a postwar transitional council with a more palatable figure at the helm – by Elana DeLozier
and full document:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyNote73-DeLozier-v3.pdf
My comment: "Those who had supported extending his term beyond the two years had based their view on a reading of the initiative that bound the timeframe to tasks rather than a set period. ": There simply is no base at all for such a viewpoint. The regulations had been strict: a two years term, prolonged for another year, and no day more.
(** B P)
Yemeni tribal mediator hampered by Stockholm agreement calls on UN to learn from the tribes
Despite securing the release of thousands of prisoners through tribal mediation, Sheikh Naji Murait and others have been ignored by the UN
Sheikh Naji Murait, a 42-year-old tribal mediator from Al-Hayma district west of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, told Almasdar Online English about his efforts to facilitate the exchange of prisoners since late 2015, and how the Stockholm agreement froze his efforts for more than half a year.
Over the past four years, Murait said that he has been able to release some 2,500 prisoners from both sides of the conflict. In December 2018, he was about to complete a big exchange, but the signing of the Swedish agreement hindered his efforts, and the parties refrained from responding to him on the pretext of their commitment to the agreement. "It was seven months until we were able to resume facilitating exchanges," he said.
The Stockholm agreement, signed Dec. 13, 2018, provided for "the release of prisoners and abductees from all parties." Subsequent meetings were held to discuss how to carry out the swap in Amman, Jordan, during which lists were exchanged identifying some 15,000 prisoners. But the process has been repeatedly stalled.
“We were optimistic about the Stockholm agreement, and we offered our services as local mediators to help implement the transfer of prisoners and abductees and facilitate the logistics,” he said. “But unfortunately, the UN did not exert sufficient effort and pressure to make this important item of the Swedish deal a success.”
Murait believes the reason for the failure of the prisoner file is that Griffiths has not prioritized it, focusing instead on the issue of Hodeidah, the strategic Red Sea port city where an impending battle between Saudi-led coalition-backed and Houthis last year threatened to compound the humanitarian crisis. “The abductees’ file is much less complex than the Hodeidah file,” Murait said, “but they are not interested.”
Murait said the UN envoy’s team has never contacted him and he has never received any request for assistance from any UN organization, despite his record of releasing 2,500 prisoners on his own accord.
"(The UN) have strong and effective means, but they are not like us tribes,” he said. “We have nothing but a serious effort to alleviate the suffering of thousands of families," he said.
The successes of Murait and other local mediators working on the file reflect the influence of local mediation in Yemeni society.
"The United Nations should study the methods of local tribes and mediators and learn from them," Murait said. “If warring parties resort to us and sign an agreement, we do all we can to enforce its implementation–the UN should do the same to respect the agreements it signs.”
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/160
(** B P)
An End to Magical Thinking in the Middle East
It’s time to abandon the dogma that’s driven our foreign policy and led to so much disaster in the region.
We have to come to grips with the deeper and more consequential betrayal of common sense—the notion that the only antidote to Trump’s fumbling attempts to disentangle the United States from the region is a retreat to the magical thinking that has animated so much of America’s moment in the Middle East since the end of the Cold War.
I served as a career diplomat throughout most of this era, sharing in our successes as well as our failures. Despite important achievements, we all too often misread regional currents and mismatched ends and means. In our episodic missionary zeal, especially after the terrible jolt to our system on 9/11, we tended to overreach militarily and underinvest diplomatically. We let our ambitions outstrip the practical possibilities of a region where perfect is rarely on the menu, and second- and third-order consequences are rarely uplifting. The temptations of magical thinking, the persistent tendency to assume too much about our influence and too little about the obstacles in our path and the agency of other actors, led to indiscipline and disappointments—steadily diminishing the appetite of most Americans for Middle East adventures.
That leaves American policy at a crossroads. Our moment as the singular dominant outside player in the Middle East has faded, but we still have a solid hand to play. The key to playing it well will be neither restoration of the inflated ambition and over-militarization of much of the post-9/11 period nor sweeping disengagement. Instead, we need a significant shift in the terms of our engagement in the region—lowering our expectations for transformation, ending our habit of indulging the worst instincts of our partners and engaging in cosmic confrontation with state adversaries, finding a more focused and sustainable approach to counterterrorism, and putting more emphasis on diplomacy backed up by military leverage, instead of the other way around.
[…]
Second, we need to recalibrate our relationships across the region in order to contribute to some long-term semblance of order. With Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arabs, that means much more of a two-way street. We ought to support them against legitimate external security threats, from Iran or anyone else, and back serious political and economic modernization. They need to stop acting as if they’re entitled to a blank check from us, end the catastrophic war in Yemen, stop meddling in political transitions in places such as Libya and Sudan, and manage their internal rivalries. And we need to find a way back to an updated nuclear deal with Iran.
I f we can recover the sense of discipline and limits that animated the diplomacy of George H. W. Bush and Baker, if not the geopolitical weight of their America, there is no reason we can’t navigate a very different moment in the Middle East without massive setbacks, and maybe even with occasional successes. It is certainly time to try – by Ambassador WILLIAM J. BURNS, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former Deputy Secretary of State
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/end-magical-thinking-middle-east/602953/
(** B P)
WHITE HOUSE VETERANS HELPED GULF MONARCHY BUILD SECRET SURVEILLANCE UNIT
In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets.
In 2008, Clarke went to work as a consultant guiding the United Arab Emirates as it created a cyber surveillance capability that would utilize top American intelligence contractors to help monitor threats against the tiny nation.
The secret unit Clarke helped create had an ominous acronym: DREAD, short for Development Research Exploitation and Analysis Department. In the years that followed, the UAE unit expanded its hunt far beyond suspected extremists to include a Saudi women’s rights activist, diplomats at the United Nations and personnel at FIFA, the world soccer body. By 2012, the program would be known among its American operatives by a codename: Project Raven.
Reuters reports this year revealed how a group of former National Security Agency operatives and other elite American intelligence veterans helped the UAE spy on a wide range of targets through the previously undisclosed program — from terrorists to human rights activists, journalists and dissidents.
Now, an examination of the origins of DREAD, reported here for the first time, shows how a pair of former senior White House leaders, working with ex-NSA spies and Beltway contractors, played pivotal roles in building a program whose actions are now under scrutiny by federal authorities.
To chart the UAE spying mission’s evolution, Reuters examined more than 10,000 DREAD program documents and interviewed more than a dozen contractors, intelligence operatives and former government insiders with direct knowledge of the program. The documents Reuters reviewed span nearly a decade of the DREAD program, starting in 2008, and include internal memos describing the project’s logistics, operational plans and targets.
Clarke was the first in a string of former White House and U.S. defense executives who arrived in the UAE after 9/11 to build the spying unit. Utilizing his close relationship to the country’s rulers, forged through decades of experience as a senior U.S. decision-maker, Clarke won numerous security consulting contracts in the UAE. One of them was to help build the secret spying unit in an unused airport facility in Abu Dhabi.
Drawn to the UAE with the promise of combating terrorism, dozens of American intelligence contractors cycled in and out of a secret hacking unit over the course of a decade. As time went on, the mission became less focused on preventing violent attacks than on targeting the country’s political enemies.
In an interview in Washington, Clarke said that after recommending that the UAE create a cyber surveillance agency, his company, Good Harbor Consulting, was hired to help the country build it. The idea, Clarke said, was to create a unit capable of tracking terrorists. He said the plan was approved by the U.S. State Department and the National Security Agency, and that Good Harbor followed U.S. law.
“The incentive was to help in the fight against Al Qaeda. The UAE is a very good counterterrorism partner. You need to remember the timing back then, post 9-11,” Clarke said. “The NSA wanted it to happen.”
Clarke’s work in creating DREAD launched a decade of deepening involvement in the UAE hacking unit by Beltway insiders and U.S. intelligence veterans. The Americans helped the UAE broaden the mission from a narrow focus on active extremist threats to a vast surveillance operation targeting thousands of people around the world perceived as foes by the Emirati government.
One of Clarke’s former Good Harbor partners, Paul Kurtz, said Reuters’ earlier reports showed that the program expanded into dangerous terrain and that the proliferation of cyber skills merits greater U.S. oversight. “I have felt revulsion reading what ultimately happened,” said Kurtz, a former senior director for national security at the White House.
At least five former White House veterans worked for Clarke in the UAE, either on DREAD or other projects. Clarke’s Good Harbor ceded control of DREAD in 2010 to other American contractors, just as the operation began successfully hacking targets.
A succession of U.S. contractors helped keep DREAD’s contingent of Americans on the UAE’s payroll, an engagement that was permitted through secret State Department agreements, Reuters found.
The program’s evolution illustrates how Washington’s contractor culture benefits from a system of legal and regulatory loopholes that allows ex-spies and government insiders to transfer their skills to foreign countries, even ones reputed to have poor human rights track records – by Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-raven-whitehouse/
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(B H)
The people of al-Wazi'iyah district in #Taiz governorate have been facing deteriorating health conditions as a result of the spread of dengue fever and diphtheria and the absence of medical services.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1204484554112806913
(A H)
State hospitals in Ibb turn away patient with swine flu
The patient was told there were inadequate resources to quarantine him and others who might become infected
The patient was taken to a private hospital in Ibb for treatment and remains in intensive care, according to the official.
Swine flu, which is preventable by vaccine, can be fatal if not properly treated.
https://al-masdaronline.net/local/168
(* A H)
Al-Baydha governorate declares state of emergency amid dengue fever outbreak
The number of cases continues to rise, according to a local official, and at least one person has died from the mosquito-borne illness
Local officials in the Nate’a district of Al-Baydha governorate in central Yemen have declared a state of emergency after identifying 30 cases of dengue fever, including at least one death.
https://al-masdaronline.net/local/164
(* B H)
UNICEF Yemen Country Office Humanitarian Situation Report (1 - 31 October 2019)
The number of suspected Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera cases continued to reduce since the first week in September 2019, with 287 out of 333 districts reporting suspected cases this month so far. In October, there have been 59,297 suspected AWD/cholera cases and 50 associated deaths recorded (0.08 case fatality rate, CFR). While children under five represent 30.9 per cent of the total suspected cases, the elderly are most seriously affected where deaths are higher among the over sixty age group, indicating possible comorbidity causes.
Between January and October 2019, 20,958 suspected cases of dengue fever with 99 associated deaths (CFR 0.5 per cent)3 were reported in Aden, Taizz, Lahj, Al Hudaydah, and Abyan. In the lowland coastal areas accounting for 87 per cent of the cases. Many of the cases were linked to the movement of internally displaced people (IDPs) or residents who had travelled to dengue-endemic governorates.
(* A H)
Reports from #Sanaa said on Sunday 8 people have died of swine flu, and more than 30 others have been infected.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1203808255790735360
(* B H)
Dengue attacks 736 persons in Mahwait
One man died and 736 others have been infected with dengue fever in several districts of Mahwait province since the beginning of 2019, according to a health office report on Sunday.
The report affirmed that 320 cases have been infected with malaria, while the rest the cases are under treatment in hospitals and health centers in the province.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081142.htm
(* B H P)
Epidemics spread among detainees in Houthis-run prisons
Various epidemics spread recently among thousands of political detainees in the Houthis-run prisons.
Spread of the epidemics exacerbates conditions of the illegal detainees who have been vulnerable to different forms of physical and psychological torture and inhuman treatment by the Houthis rebels in the capital Sana’a and other governorates since late 2014.
The militants instigated spread of the epidemics among the detainees as part of a systematic torture that includes medical negligence and block of access to medicines, according to the Abductees’ Mothers Association.
The association said that it reported 183 detainees that had various infections.
It said that eleven detainees in Dhamar were infected with the tuberculosis with no medical measures taken by the prison’s administration to control the disease.
Some detainees in the Houthis-run prisons in Sana’a were infected with the hepatitis virus and received no treatment to the disease.
The scabies is also reported among the detainees in all the Houthis-run prisons.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36683
(* B H)
54 Deaths under Fifteen Died of Cholera and Diphtheria in Ibb
Since the beginning of this year, the number of child deaths due to Cholera and Diphtheria epidemics in Ibb Governorate has reached 54 cases.
Medical sources in the governorate said that the number of deaths in the epidemic of diphtheria and cholera among children under the age of fifteen reached 54, while more than 37 thousand suspected cases of epidemics were recorded, since January 2019 until the end of November.
The sources indicated that 16 children died as a result of the diphtheria epidemic, while the suspected cases reached 90 cases.
The sources stated that the health authorities recorded 38 deaths of children under the age of 15 with the cholera epidemic, while 37,216 suspected cases were recorded in various districts of Ibb Governorate.
Ibb governorate witnessed a large spread of cholera and diphtheria, which led it to top the governorates of Yemen in the number of deaths and injuries, according to numerous medical reports and sources.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10129
and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36685
(A H)
Field campaign in foggy spraying against dengue in Hodeidah
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3080928.htm
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10174
(A K pS)
Houthi militia’s breaches of UN-sponsored ceasefire in Hodeida continue
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15012
(A E P)
Sanaa Economic Committee reveals Hodeidah ports’ November revenues to salary account
The Higher Economic Committee in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday revealed the size of Hodeidah ports’ revenues to the employees salary account at the Central Bank’s branch in Hodeidah in the last November.
The Committee also revealed, in a statement issued Tuesday evening, the volume of revenues of oil produced from fields under the control of the Saudi-led coalition and Hadi’s government during the same month.
“Tax and customs duties revenue of oil derivatives vessels in Hodeidah for November amounted to more than six billion riyals deposited into the salary initiative account,” the statement said.
The total revenue to the salary account in the Central Bank of Yemen branch in Hodeidah amounted to 11 billion and 863 million riyals by end of November, according to the statement.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081373.htm
(A K pH)
Film: Genocide practiced by the forces of aggression against the people of the besieged city of Al-Drahami 09-12-2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olJHl5mIXlk
(A K pS)
Houthis target people's homes in Hays, south Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15004
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15006
(A K pH)
Yet another child murdered by Saudi-led mercenaries in Hodeidah
Artillery shelling kills child in Tuhyata district
https://www.uprising.today/yet-another-child-murdered-by-saudi-led-mercenaries-in-hodeidah/
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Monday, December 9th, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10158
(A K pH)
Ein Bürger getötet und Häuser niedergebrannt bei der Bombardierung von Al-Tohayta und Al-Duraihimi durch die Aggression
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081154.htm
(A K P)
Delegation des UN-Beauftragten besucht YCB of Hodeidah, um über den Mechanismus zur Umsetzung des Hodeidah-Abkommens zu informieren
Heute besuchte eine Delegation des Büros des UN-Beauftragten in den Jemen den Direktor des Büros des Beauftragten, Nicolas Davis, und die Direktorin des Entwicklungsprogramms der Vereinten Nationen, Natasha Vandrain, die Zweigstelle der Zentralbank des Jemen (YCB) in Hodeidah.
Der Besuch basiert auf der Koordinierung und Weiterverfolgung des Obersten Wirtschaftsausschusses mit dem Büro des Gesandten, um das Hodeidah-Abkommen über die Lieferung von Einnahmen für Hodeidah-Häfen an die Bankfiliale in Hodeidah im Austausch für die Bezahlung der Gehälter aller Staatsangestellten umzusetzen.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081252.htm
(A K pH)
Al-Ruwaishan: Year Since Stockholm Agreement Signed While Aggression Forces Continue Violations
[Sanaa gov.] Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs Jalal Al-Ruwaishan said Monday, “it has been a year since Stockholm agreement was signed, and it was assumed that the first and second phases of the redeployment process had been accomplished, but the forces of aggression procrastinated and continued violations.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10156
(A K pH)
Ein Bürger getötet und Häuser niedergebrannt bei der Bombardierung von Al-Tohayta und Al-Duraihimi durch die Aggression
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081154.htm
(A K pS)
Joint forces repulse Houthi attack south Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14997
(* B)
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: Yemen: Al Hodeidah Governorate Reference Map (as of 1 November 2019)
https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-al-hodeidah-governorate-reference-map-1-november-2019
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Sunday, December 8th, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10146
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Forces Continues Targeting Besieged City of Ad-Durayhimi
West Coastguard Brigades warned the US-Saudi forces against continued targeting of the city of Ad-Durayhimi in Al-Hodeidah province. Brigadier-General Abdullah Al-Wazir said in a statement to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that the US-Saudi forces and their mercenaries continue to siege the city of Ad-Durayhimi and prevent the entry of food and medicine.
He emphasized the readiness of the Coastguard Brigades to respond to the aggression, its violations and crimes, which have increased dramatically during the past days.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10164
(B H K pS)
Houthi-laid landmines paralyze civilians' life in Yemen's Hodeidah
Landmines laid by the Houthi rebels in various areas of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah paralyzed the life of civilians there and restricted their daily movement.
Many families were affected by the excessive existence of landmines in the roads leading to their residential areas and farms in Hodeidah's southern parts.
A citizen named Ali Nahari explained his tragedy when a Houthi-laid landmine exploded on the beach and immediately amputated one of his legs at the scene last year.
"When my father heard the sound of the explosion, he rushed to rescue me, but unfortunately upon his arrival at the site another mine exploded and killed my father instantly," Nahari said.
Residents in the district of Tuhyata told Xinhua that the Houthi rebels are still planting landmines in many areas near their houses.
They said that a number of explosions caused by Houthi-laid landmines struck their district during the past weeks, leaving casualties among the citizens.
Last month, nearly 6,325 of mines and explosives were detonated by a team of the Saudi Landmine Clearance Project in the country's western coast area, Yemeni military sources said.
Large swathes of Yemen have been swamped by randomly-planted landmines, which are posing a lingering threat to the lives of citizens across the war-torn country.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/09/c_138615781.htm
and film:
(A K pS)
Film: Citizen Ahmed Al-Nahari tells the tragedy he suffered as a result of the explosion of a mine planted by the Houthi militia on a beach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsgCN9XYCDc
(A K pS)
Film: The Massam Demining Project team, in coordination with the joint forces and the Arab Coalition, destroyed 7287 mines laid by the Houthi militia on the roads, farms and residential areas of the West Coast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF6QCv_jAPo
(A K pH)
Aggressionskräfte verletzen weiterhin das Waffenstillstandsabkommen in Hodeidah
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081054.htm
(A K pH)
Woman, 2 Children Injured in Saudi-mercenaries’ Shelling in Hodeidah
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10136
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Saturday, December 7th, 2019
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10124
(A K pS)
Houthis sustained heavy losses in Hodeidah
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14982
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON DECEMBER 10, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-december-10-2019-map-update/
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON DECEMBER 9, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-december-9-2019-map-update/
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON DECEMBER 8, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-december-8-2019-map-update/
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON DECEMBER 7, 2019 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-december-7-2019-map-update/
(* B H K)
Hilfsorganisationen zum Jemen: Hodeida immer noch gefährlichster Ort für Zivilisten
Ein Jahr nach dem Stockholmer Abkommen ist die Hafenstadt Hodeida immer noch der gefährlichste Ort für Zivilisten im Jemen. Daran erinnern heute 15 internationale Hilfsorganisationen, darunter CARE, Aktion gegen den Hunger, Handicap International, International Rescue Committee, Islamic Relief Deutschland, NRC Flüchtlingshilfe und Oxfam in einem gemeinsamen Statement.
Trotz des Waffenstillstands in der Hafenstadt, der durch das Stockholmer Abkommen seit Dezember 2018 herrscht, forderten Kämpfe in Hodeida in diesem Jahr 799 zivile Opfer - die höchste Zahl im landesweiten Vergleich. Auf die Region Hodeida fällt ein Viertel der gesamten Todesfälle und Verletzten im Land.
Im Jahr 2019 flohen rund 390.000 Menschen im Jemen aus ihren Heimatregionen. Die Hälfte aller Vertriebenen kommt aus Hajjah, Hodeida und Al Dhale. Trotz eines Rückgangs der Kampfhandlungen im Vergleich zu 2018 bleiben Hodeida, Sa'ada, Taizz, Al Dhale und Hajjah 2019 die gefährlichsten Orte für Zivilisten.
Diese Statistiken zeigen: Der Jemen bleibt die größte humanitäre Krise der Welt.
https://www.presseportal.de/pm/6745/4463863
Foto: https://www.facebook.com/aktiondeutschlandhilft.de/photos/a.227851461040/10157505452951041/
(* B H K)
Saudi-geführter Krieg gegen Jemen tötete bisher über 3.600 Kinder und 400.000 sind am Verhungern
Über 400.000 Kinder im Jemen sind stark unterernährt. Im Krieg wurden 3.600 Kinder getötet, 800 trugen durch die Luftangriffe bleibende körperliche Behinderungen wie Lähmungen davon. Die Zahl der psychischen geschädigten Kinder soll bei 80.000 liegen.
Nach Angaben des Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) hat der Krieg im Jemen bereits 100.000 Opfer gefordert. 24 Millionen Menschen sind in dem auch schon vor dem Krieg als arm geltenden Land auf humanitäre Hilfe angewiesen.
Die neuen Zahlen zu den minderjährigen Opfern des Jemen-Kriegs gab das jemenitische TV-Netzwerk al-Masirah bekannt. Durch Luftangriffe der saudisch geführten Koalition trugen 800 Kinder bleibende körperliche Behinderungen wie Lähmungen davon. 80.000 Kinder litten an psychischer und nervlichen Schäden durch den Krieg. Von den rund drei Millionen unterernährten Kindern sind 400.000 stark unterernährt, 3.600 Kinder wurden getötet.
Die Schließung des internationalen Flughafens von Sanaa führte dazu, dass 320.000 Jemeniten, die ins Ausland zur medizinischen Behandlung reisen wollten, nicht ausreisen konnten. Dadurch starben 42.000 Menschen, dreizehn Prozent davon Kinder.
https://deutsch.rt.com/international/95586-bilanz-jemen-kriegs-uber-3600/
(* B K)
According to local reports, 490 women have been killed in Taiz, 223 of them on the frontline, and 125 children have also been killed on the frontline since the beginning of the war in 2015
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1204483491871809538
(B H K)
Other medical reports confirmed that more than 90 children were born in emergency departments and obstetrics in Yemeni hospitals with congenital malformations due to the use of weapons and bombs that are internationally prohibited.
-A medical phenomenon and a serious humanitarian catastrophe began to escalate in the previous three years of the war waged by Saudi Arabia and the #UAE against #Yemen.
-The source confirmed that this distortion is a result of the use of internationally banned biological weapons by the countries of the coalition of aggression while shelling the towns and villages of #Saada on a daily basis (shocking photos)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1840105349333429/permalink/2940623619281591
(* B K P)
Angriff auf Ölanlage: Herkunft von Raketen weiter unklar
Bei dem Angriff vom 14. September auf saudische Ölanlagen können die Vereinten Nationen einen iranischen Ursprung der Raketen und Drohnen nicht bestätigen. Dies teilte Generalsekretär Antonio Guterres gestern vor dem Sicherheitsrat mit. Die USA, europäischen Staaten und Saudi-Arabien hatten den Iran für den Angriff verantwortlich gemacht
https://orf.at/stories/3147183/
(* B K P)
UN unable to verify that weapons used in Saudi oil attack were from Iran
The United Nations is “unable to independently corroborate” that missiles and drones used in attacks on Saudi oil facilities in September “are of Iranian origin,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The United States, European powers and Saudi Arabia have blamed the 14 September attack on Iran. Yemen’s Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Iran, which supports the Houthis, has denied any involvement.
Guterres said the United Nations examined debris of weapons used in attacks on a Saudi oil facility in Afif in May, on the Abha international airport in June and August and on the Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Khurais and Abqaiq in September.
“At this time, it is unable to independently corroborate that the cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles used in these attacks are of Iranian origin,” he wrote in the report, seen by Reuters.
UN experts monitoring Security Council sanctions on Iran and Yemen travelled to Saudi Arabia days after the Sept. 14 attack.
The report noted that Yemen’s Houthis “have not shown to be in possession, nor been assessed to be in possession” of the type of drones used in the attacks on the Aramco facilities.
(* B K P)
The Trump Administration Denies that It's Fighting Iran in Yemen
Donald Trump said that he needed to help Saudi Arabia fight Iran in Yemen. Now his administration is downplaying Iran’s connections to the Houthi rebels.
America’s involvement in the war has allowed Saudi Arabia to carry out a brutal siege on Houthi-held areas, where tens of thousands of civilians have died from air raids and starvation. Defenders of the war have always cited Iran’s support for the Houthis as a justification for the Saudi war effort.
But the Trump administration no longer considers the Shiite Muslim rebel group to be an Iranian proxy, according to State Department officials.
“Not all Houthis support Iran,” said Denise Natali, Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, at a Thursday morning briefing hosted by the newspaper Al Monitor.
“Iran clearly does not speak for the Houthis, nor has the best interests of the Yemeni people at heart,” said Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, at a press briefing later that day. “Iran is trying to prolong Yemen’s civil war to project power.”
The sudden policy change follows breakthroughs at the negotiating table between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi leadership.
But experts disagree on how accurate this policy change is.
“It’s about time the Trump administration woke up to the reality that the Houthis are not an Iranian proxy—something anyone who knows Yemen has known all along,” said Kate Kizer, policy director at Win Without War. “The State Department’s sudden about face on the Houthis completely undermines the administration's own arguments as to why fueling war crimes and the world's largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen is justified.”
State Department officials have privately believed that the decades-long Houthi rebellion was a problem created by Saudi Arabia rather than Iran since at least 2007, according to diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.
“The [Yemeni government] claims that al-Houthi followers envision a regime modeled after the Islamic Republic of Iran,” then-Ambassador Thomas C. Krajeski wrote from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen in February 2007. “This is still unclear, however, as the al-Houthi’s statements and military operations have focused mainly on control of Saada [in northern Yemen] in alliance with key tribes.”
Angie Bryan, then the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen wrote that an influx of Saudi-backed sectarian Sunni preachers had been “[o]ne of the deepest root causes” in “provoking the creation of the extremist Houthi organization” in an October 2009 cable.
“In the context of a battle for religious dominance between radicalized Shiites and Sunnis, a permanent conclusion to the Saada war is nowhere on the horizon,” she
“Let me be clear about this also: The Saudis and the Houthis have always been talking,” former Ambassador Gerald Feierstein told Al-Monitor. “What has been changed, is the Saudis coming out publicly, saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we have a dialogue going with the Houthis.’” – by Matthew Petti
(* B K P)
Jemenitische Zentrum für Menschenrechte: 137 Menschen wurden bei Luftangriffen und Granaten im November getötet und verwundet
Das jemenitische Zentrum für Menschenrechte bestätigte den Tod und die Verletzung von 137 Menschen, darunter Frauen, Kinder und afrikanische Migranten, infolge von Überfällen und Bombenangriffen auf die Gouvernorate Al-Hodeidah und Saada im vergangenen November.
Das Zentrum gab in seinem monatlichen Bericht an, dass die jemenitische Nachrichtenagentur (Saba) eine Kopie davon erhalten habe. Die Zahl der Märtyrer betrug 39, darunter zwei Kinder und eine Frau, während die Zahl der Verwundeten 98 erreichte, darunter 13 Kinder und sechs Frauen.
In dem Bericht heißt es, dass das Aggressionsflugzeug im selben Monat 145 Luftangriffe und 788 Raketen- und Artilleriegeschosse, 30 Wohngebäude, 27 Wohngebiete, eine Zivilgemeinschaft, einen Markt, einen Flughafen, eine Schule und 10 Farmen abfeuerte.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081249.htm
(* B K P)
137 killed, injured in Saudi-led aggression airstrikes, shelling during November: Yemeni Center for Human Rights
The Yemeni Center for Human Rights confirmed that 137 people, including African women, children and migrants, were killed and injured in the raids and shelling of Hodeidah and Saada provinces last November.
The number of killings, including two children and a woman, was 39, while 98 were injured, including 13 children and six women, the center told Saba in its monthly report.
During the same month, aggression warplane carried out 145 air strikes, targeting with 788 rockets and shelling 30 residential buildings, 27 residential areas, a civilian gathering, a market, an airport, a school and 10 farms, the report said.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081236.htm
(* B P)
Saudis' release of Houthis met with both hope, skepticism
Houthi militia detainees recently released by Saudi Arabia arrived Nov. 28 in Sanaa to be repatriated, leading to speculation over whether Riyadh took the action from a position of power or one of vulnerability.
Malki said the prisoner release may lead to a broader exchange deal that has been repeatedly delayed since an agreement was reached last year in Sweden between Yemen’s rival parties.
Abdul-Qader al-Murtada, head of the Houthis’ National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, also mentioned the Sweden deal. He said in a Nov. 28 tweet, “This (the current Saudi release) is a good step. We hope that it will be followed by other steps, and that the prisoner exchange deal stipulated [in the Sweden agreement] will be fully implemented."
Meanwhile, some military experts believe the Saudi release of detainees aims to send a message to its opponents that it remains in a strong position.
But Houthis sought to prove this message wrong.
United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths welcomed the Saudi release and the anticipated reopening of the airport.
Senior Houthi figures also welcomed the Saudi decision. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee and a member of the Supreme Political Council, praised the move in a Nov. 26 tweet, though he also called on Saudi Arabia to stop its alleged torturing of prisoners.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/12/yemen-saudi-release-houthi-prisoners-of-war.html
(* B H K)
33 Kinder pro Monat verletzt oder getötet
Pressemitteilung von Save the Children:
Ein Jahr nach der Vereinbarung einer Waffenruhe für Teile des Jemens bleibt die Situation für Kinder in den betroffenen Gebieten lebensgefährlich. In den Städten Hodeidah und Taiz gibt es seit der Unterzeichnung des Abkommens zwischen den Konfliktparteien in Stockholm am13. Dezember 2018immer wieder Gefechte. Zwischen Januar und Oktober 2019 wurden jeden Monat durchschnittlich 33 Kinder durch Kämpfe getötet oder verletzt. Die Hälfte aller Kinder, die in Folge der Kämpfe im Jemen getötet wurden, befanden sich in diesen beiden Städten.
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/33-kinder-pro-monat-verletzt-oder-getoetet = https://www.presseportal.de/pm/106106/4462669
und auch https://www.dw.com/de/dieser-krieg-gegen-kinder-muss-aufh%C3%B6ren/a-51583585
(* B H K)
Save the Children: Stockholm one year on: 33 children killed or injured every month in deadliest Yemeni towns
One year after the Stockholm agreement, which should have brought stability to Hodeidah and Taiz in Yemen, children there are still victims of conflict
Hodeidah and Taiz are the two deadliest areas for children in Yemen, Save the Children said today, one year after the signing of the Stockholm agreement which should have brought stability to these hotspots.
Between January and October 2019, 33 children have been killed or injured[i] every month in the western port city of Hodeidah and Taiz in the southwest, despite the signing of the Stockholm agreement on December 13 2018 aimed at stopping the fighting in the Red Sea area. Nationwide, almost half the children who died as a direct result of the conflict in Yemen, were killed in Hodeidah and Taiz.[ii]
https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2019-press-releases/yemen-deadliest-towns
(* B K)
Intsaf-Organisation veröffentlicht einen Bericht über Aggressionsländer gegen die Kindheit im Jemen
Eine Organisation für die Rechte von Frauen und Kindern, die heute in Sanaa, einem Bericht über Verstöße gegen die Aggression gegen Kinder im Jemen, während tausend und 700 Tagen auf einer Pressekonferenz in Sanaa veröffentlicht wurde.
Der Bericht wies darauf hin, dass die Zahl der Kinder, die durch die Bombardierung von Häusern, Schulen und Farmen durch die saudi-amerikanische Aggressionskoalition getötet wurden, dreitausend und 672 Kinder betrug, während die Zahl der Verwundeten dreitausend und 856 Kinder erreichte.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081134.htm
(* B H)
Saudi-led war on Yemen killed over 3,600 Yemeni children, paralyzed 800
After 1,700 days of a Saudi-led war on impoverished Yemen, more than 3,600 children have been killed, 800 paralyzed and 400,000 others hit with malnutrition.
According to a report released on Sunday by the Yemeni-based Organization for Women and Children’s Rights, 7,500 children have fallen victim to the ongoing Saudi-led war, since its start in March 2015.
Of these ill-fated children, 3,672 were killed and 800 others were paralyzed, it said, adding that the rest were either maimed or received other kinds of life altering injuries.
The war of aggression also hit 400,000 other Yemeni children with malnutrition, Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network further cited the report as saying.
Separately on Sunday, Yemen’s health ministry also confirmed that 800 children are suffering from permanent disabilities due to wounds they received in Saudi-led airstrikes during the past five years or so.
It added that 80,000 children also suffer from multiple types of war-caused psychological and neurological maladies.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/12/08/613180/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-children-war-malnutrition-US-UK
and also https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10145
My comment: The figures obviously are much higher; ca. 56.000 children are killed a year by diseases and hunger caused by war and blockade.
(A K P)
Hisham Sharaf: US False, Incorrect Allegations Come in Context of Political Maneuvers
[Sanaa gov.] Foreign Ministry Hisham Sharaf described the US allegations with false and incorrect allegations, that it had intercepted an Iranian missile shipment coming to Yemen.
Hisham Sharaf, considered in statements to "Al-Alam TV", that these allegations come in the context of political maneuvers that are now obvious to all.
In the view of some, the American administration seeks, through these repeated accusations, to Tehran to justify its participation in the aggression against Yemen, and to try to mislead public opinion about the nature of the American role, in a seemingly apparent step.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10154
and
(* A K P)
Al-Houthi: No Truth in US Allegations About Seizing Iranian Ship Coming to Yemen
Member of the Supreme Political Council, Mohammad Al-Houthi confirmed Saturday that there is no truth in the American allegations about seizing an Iranian ship coming to us carrying parts of the missiles.
Al-Houthi said during the opening of the wounded medical center in the capital, Sanaa, the aggression did not allow the entry of oil or medicine ships, so how about a ship carrying missiles.
He added that the Yemeni people proved that the media aura that was driven for American arms was incorrect and they were useless and the Saudis would not benefit from the THAAD system or other air defenses.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10117
and
(A K P)
Yemen urges steps against Iran for arms supply
The Yemeni [Hadi] government has urged the UN to take “firm” steps to stop smuggling of Iranian weapons to the country’s Al Houthis, days after the US disclosed seizing a ship carrying arms heading to the Yemeni militia.
“The international community, the UN and security Council are called upon to save the Yemeni people from Iranian interference and to take firm measures to stop smuggling of Iranian weapons to Al Houthis as a violation of all international laws,” Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al Eryani said on his Twitter account.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/yemen/yemen-urges-steps-against-iran-for-arms-supply-1.68331369
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
(* A H P)
Swiss proposal broadens ICC war crimes definition
Thanks to a Swiss initiative, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will now be able to prosecute as a war crime the intentional starvation of civilians in civil wars.
The ICC’s 122 member states unanimously approved a Swiss proposal to this effect at their annual meeting this week in The Hague. This will strengthen protection of victims of war, according to the Swiss foreign ministryexternal link.
“The majority of the over 800 million people who suffer from hunger every day live in conflict zones,” the ministry statement continues.
The International Criminal Court has a mandate to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Up until now, it could only prosecute intentional starvation of civilians as a war crime in an international armed conflict, but this has now been broadened to include non-international armed conflicts.
“The intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a major problem in civil wars,” says the Swiss foreign ministry.
Examples that could be cited include Syria and Yemen. Neither of these countries are ICC member states, and the amendment is unlikely to have much impact in the immediate future.
However, as pointed out on the international law website Opinio Jurisexternal link, “the amendment’s real utility would come in the context of Security Council referrals”. If the UN Security Council were to refer either Syria or Yemen to the ICC at some point in the future, for example (although this currently looks unlikely), it would make it possible for the OTP to prosecute starvation of civilians in those states.
(* A H P)
Director of Kuwait Hospital [at Sanaa] : 30% of Children with Leukemia Die due to Closing Sana’a Airport
Director General of Kuwait Hospital, Dr. Ameen Al-Junaid, stated that Kuwait's Leukemia Pediatric Center is the only center that treats hundreds of patients with leukemia, pointing out that 30% of children with leukemia who could have been transferred to specialized centers outside the country died as a result of the closure of Sana'a Airport.
Al-Junaid told Almasirah that the siege of the aggression alliance greatly affected the treatment of children with cancer, and there are dozens of deaths among them as a result of the lack of medicines and capabilities, adding, “we cannot reach Chemical drugs and deliver them to these patients. The aggression prevented other drugs, radiological devices and supplies that patients need."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10116 = https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10131
and film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_OKUWMOKxQ
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* B H)
Here’s How UNICEF Is Helping Children In Yemen
Yemen’s children are growing up in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. UNICEF is on the ground, working with partners to provide health care, nutrition, safe water, education and more.
Food insecurity is increasingly threatening the health of Yemen's children. More than 368,000 children under age 5 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), which can be life-threatening if left untreated. UNICEF and partners work with local health workers to screen and treat children for malnutrition, starting with the most vulnerable, providing timely assessments, essential Ready-to-Eat Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and medical supplies.
The threat of cholera and acute watery diarrhea continues to loom high in Yemen. In 2017, the country experienced a devastating cholera outbreak. Working with partners, UNICEF has scaled up emergency water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance, building capacity of local WASH authorities, solarizing water systems and harvesting rainwater. An estimated 5.4 million Yemenis now have access to safe water and 16 million people living in cholera-prone areas have benefitted from water treatment.
As of the start of the academic year in September 2019, at least 2 million children across Yemen are out of school. UNICEF is adamant about helping these children get back to learning so they can create a better future for themselves and for their nation. With the support of partners, UNICEF is continuing to rehabilitate damaged school buildings and establishing temporary safe learning spaces where children can resume their educations. UNICEF is also providing cash incentives to teachers and school-based staff and educational supplies to keep children learning. To date in 2019, UNICEF has provided access to education for 216,464 children, and aims to reach 800,000 by the end of 2020.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2019/12/10/heres-how-unicef-is-helping-children-in-yemen/
(* B H)
8 facts about girls’ education in Yemen
In Yemen, about 32 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 with 9 percent being married before turning 15. Due to poverty, girls in Yemen are being married off as a source of income. Marriage will reduce the cost of looking after girls and is believed to offer girls the safety a husband can provide. However, Girls Not Brides is an organization dedicated to ending child marriage. This organization aims to raise awareness of the negative impact of child marriages through open discussions with communities. It mobilizes policy to bring child marriages to an end and works to empower girls and offer them a support network.
According to UNICEF, there is a significant gender gap in education in Yemen’s youth with males enrolled in primary school at 79 percent and females at 66 percent. However, UNICEF is working with the government of Yemen on decreasing this gap and improving the quality of education. The goal is to increase the number of girls enrolled in school. It is also working with other organizations to improve conditions for teachers in Yemen, which will increase access to education overall.
The goal of the Secondary Education Development and Girls Access Project is to improve gender equity and quality of secondary education with a specific focus on girls in rural areas.
https://borgenproject.org/girls-education-in-yemen/
(* B H)
Bread loaves the "size and weight of a pen" are symbols of Yemen’s currency crisis
The shrinking volume of a popular Yemeni bread is a byproduct of the weakening national currency
Before the war, Helmi said he could buy 25 rooti for 375 riyals, and the loaves were bigger and heavier. “Now a single loaf is the size and weight of a pen,” he said.
Helmi’s baker, who spoke to Almasdar Online on condition of anonymity, said the cost of ingredients to make rooti has skyrocketed: The price of a bag of flour has increased from 4,300 riyals to 10,700 riyals, he said, while a bag of yeast has more than tripled in price from 250 riyals to 850 riyals.
The baker said he called on the authorities to lower flour prices so he and others can offer the same size and weight of bread they used to. Overhead costs including firewood, electricity, water, labor, taxes and other supplies have also increased significantly, he said.
The price of flour had reached 11,000 riyals per bag at one point, but it has since fallen to about 9,000 riyals, according to an official at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He refuted the baker’s claim that a bag sold for 4,300 riyals before the war.
Fadel Sweileh, director general of market stability and consumer protection at the ministry, said he has received complaints about at least 20 bakeries in Aden governorate manipulating the price and weight of rooti, which were set at 20 riyals per loaf (weighing 57 grams) in 2018. Bakeries that don’t comply with ministry regulations are fined 10,000 riyals, he said.
The manipulation of these regulations is a byproduct of the drop in the value of the Yemeni riyal, whose pre-war exchange rate of 250 riyals per $1 dollar is now nearly 600 riyals per $1.
"The recent collapse of the riyal raises fears of a new increase in commodity prices due to high inflation," said economist Abdul Wahid Al-Obaly.
Stabilizing the currency requires an urgent intervention by Saudi Arabia in the form of a $2 billion cash deposit in the Central Bank in Aden, he said, noting that the last Saudi cash injection is running out.
Due to a lack of controls and unethical practices in the industry, many bakers have begun to use extra yeast in their recipes to make the flour go further. That has led to lower quality rooti, according to many Adenis.
Some bakeries are now also producing lower quality types of bread aside from rooti.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/167
(* B H)
UNICEF Yemen Country Office Humanitarian Situation Report (1 - 31 October 2019)
Between January and October 2019, UNICEF received $194.2 million of contributions towards the 2019 Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal, which has been aligned with the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan for 2019.
In October, Northern Yemen experienced acute fuel and gas shortages due to recent Government regulations on commercial fuel imports. On black markets, the price of fuel rose to over 1,000 YER/litre, almost three times the official price. Many fuel stations were closed or had limited operating hours, with several kilometres of queues and 2-3 days of waiting time. The fuel crisis impacted transportation, pumping of drinking water and power to sanitation systems. In some parts of the country, water in urban centres forced to stop. Without fuel, 15 million people would face water supplies cut. 11 million people (38 per cent of the population) across the country rely on piped water networks, which requires solar or fuel to operate. An additional 4 million people who depend on commercial water trucking might be impacted by the fuel crisis as trucks cannot operate with fuel shortages . Nearly threequarters of hospitals might be impacted by the fuel crisis, to provide health care .
(B H)
Trauriger Bericht der Jemenhilfe
"Immer noch gibt es keine Entwarnung im Kriegsgebiet Jemen". Mit diesen Worten beginnt der diesjährige Bericht des Fördervereins Aktion Jemen und der Kinder-Jemenhilfe. Trotz großer Rückschläge versichert die Vorsitzende Aenne Rappel: "Wir geben nicht auf!"
Die Lage im Jemen ist nach wie vor extrem. Terrorgruppen, wie der IS, Al Kaida oder die Huthis agieren "in einem unbeschreiblichen Maße unmenschlich", berichtete Rappel. Zudem leidet das Land unter den Bombardements Saudi-Arabiens. Große Teile der Infrastruktur, sogar Moscheen sind zerstört. Strom und sauberes Wasser sind rar, Dieselkraftstoff gibt es keinen mehr. Somit kann der Müll nicht mehr entsorgt werden. Hinzu kommt, dass sich viele Familien keine Nahrungsmittel leisten können. Die Arbeitslosigkeit ist groß, und der Staat zahlt kaum Gehälter aus.
Rund 50 Prozent der Bevölkerung leiden an Hunger. Dem nicht genug: Die Cholera ist ausgebrochen, erzählt Rappel weiter.
https://www.aichacher-zeitung.de/vorort/aichach/art18,156181
(A H P)
UN delegation visits Taiz
A delegation of the United Nations (UN) headed by the regional deputy director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), Ali Redha visited on Saturday Taiz governorate.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36709
(A H)
Typhoon Pavan hits #Socotra archipelago causing extensive damage to civilian houses, service facilities and road networks.
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1203794489338400768
and
(A H)
[Hadi] Government calls on humanitarian organizations to provide relief to Socotra
Minister of the Local Administration and Chief of the Supreme Relief Committee, Abdulraqib Fateh, called on international humanitarian organizations to provide relief to the cyclone-hit- Socotra governorate.
Socotra is a Yemeni archipelago in the Indian Ocean that was hit by two cyclones during the past month.
Fateh said that the government is following up closely consequences of the tropical storm that hit Socotra.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36707
(* B H)
Film: Group: more Yemen wars to cost billions in aid
Another five years of fighting in Yemen would cost as much as $29 billion just to sustain the current level of humanitarian aid, an international relief group said on Monday, a sum that amounts to more than the entire annual humanitarian budget globally. The war in Yemen has killed over 100,000 people and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, leaving millions suffering from food and medical shortages. A report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) says that 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, need humanitarian aid and 16 million are living on the verge of famine.
"Our research has taken the UN figures, or the donor figures, it's taken the trends that explain the 24 million people in humanitarian need in Yemen, out of a total population of 26, 28 million, and we've applied them, or the researchers have applied that, over the next five years. And what comes through very, very clearly is that while the aid sector can make a difference in saving lives, while the war carries on, it's as if we are running up a downward escalator," says David Miliband, president of the IRC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLiGMyyTy1A
(B H)
Film: WFP in Yemen is working to treat malnutrition as well as prevent children from becoming malnourished it in the first place. We must reduce malnutrition, saving children's lives, helping them to thrive and grow to their full potential so they can contribute to the development of their communities and country.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2405563609682083
(B H)
Film: Charity ceremony to help people with special needs in Aden Al-Mualla District in Aden Governorate, South Yemen, witnessed a charity ceremony yesterday, organized by several youth initiatives aimed at helping people with special needs, and the ceremony had several activities between the vocals and the bazaar for charity dishes, that it returns goes to people with special needs and social works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kha3bAnsSqk
(* B H)
Film: People in Yemen go solar amid fuel shortages
Millions of people have been displaced by the war in Yemen, now in its fifth year.
Many live in camps or abandoned buildings, with no electricity or proper sanitation facilities.
Fuel imports are restricted, or banned, making their hardship worse.
Many people are now turning to solar power to try to ease their suffering.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/people-yemen-solar-fuel-shortages-191207112121934.html = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqj-1mP_HOY = https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/people-in-yemen-go-solar-amid-fuel-shortages/vp-BBXTkvy
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(B H)
This photo was circulated on social media of apparently African migrants being smuggled into Saudi Arabia through Yemeni border. One of the options to cross into Gulf is to climb mountains and walk on such a mountaintop. The other option is die in crossfire.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1204106228495978496
(* B H)
Yemen: UNHCR Operational Update, 6 December 2019
A pilot project to install 30 Refugee Housing Units (RHUs) for returnee families living in the hot, semi-arid regions of Taizz, Al Dhale'e and Ibb governorates, has been completed.
Following the 27 November airstrikes on a public market in Monabbih district, Sa’ada governorate, the Protection Cluster Coordinator followed-up with partner DRC to assist survivors with emergency medical support.
UNHCR Field Office Sana’a began implementing community support projects in Amran governorate, targeting both IDPs and the local host communitie
During the reporting period, UNHCR through partner YWU implemented multiple livelihood support projects for IDPs in Taizz and Ibb governorates.
UNHCR provided a one-off cash assistance to 3,324 refugee families living in Aden and Mukalla city
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-unhcr-operational-update-6-december-2019
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(B H)
Many #diseases are exposed to sheep & goats at the barns! SMEPS included the strong livestock breeders to be #partOfSolution & trained them on best practices in raising sheep, through a curriculum of #veterinary skills & personal #hygiene. These women make change happen
https://twitter.com/SMEPSYEMEN/status/1204429559006973953
(* B H P)
Houthis Reject UN Call to Open Humanitarian Corridors in Taiz
Houthi rebels have rejected the UN call to lift the four-year siege imposed on Taiz and open humanitarian corridors to the city.
A UN delegation, headed by Deputy Country Director of World Food Programme (WFP) Ali Redah, visited on Saturday the besieged city of Taiz and met with officials in the city, Al Khalij News reported.
The Deputy Country Director called on Houthis to lift the imposed siege and allow to open humanitarian corridors to salvage the suffering of the people in the city, yet the Deputy’s call was turned down by the rebels, according to the source.
Last month Houthi rebels said they were willing to open humanitarian corridors to the besieged city of Taiz but nothing has been done since then.
https://republicanyemen.net/archives/22235
(* A P)
Huthis beginnen Prozess gegen Journalisten im Jemen
Die Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen haben einen Prozess gegen zehn Journalisten begonnen, die seit fast vier Jahren in der Hauptstadt Sanaa festgehalten werden. Weder ihr Verteidiger noch ihre Angehörigen seien vorab informiert worden, teilte der Anwalt der Gruppe gestern mit.
Den Journalisten wird vorgeworfen, mit dem von Saudi-Arabien angeführten Militärbündnis zusammenzuarbeiten. D
Der Menschenrechtsorganisation Amnesty International zufolge wurden die Journalisten gefoltert und könnten bei einem Schuldspruch wegen Spionage zum Tode verurteilt werden. Einige von ihnen sollen für Nachrichtenkanäle gearbeitet haben, die einer Huthi-feindlichen Partei nahestehen.
Menschenrechtler und das Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hatten mehrfach die Freilassung der Journalisten gefordert.
https://orf.at/stories/3147023/
(* A P)
Houthis start trial for 10 Yemeni journalists detained in their prisons
A Houthi court on Monday held its first hearing in the trial of 10 journalists who have been detained in its prisons. Abdul Majid Sabra, the lawyer representing the 10 journalists said the hearing was unexpected. "We were surprised today by the start of the first trial, despite our daily follow-up on the case,” he said. “If the journalists had not insisted on my presence, the hearing would have been held without a lawyer present.”
The judge had “preconceived notions about the journalists” and repeated the prosecution's argument that they are “enemies of the people," according to Sabra
The trial comes two days after the Houthis announced an agreement to release the 10 journalists in exchange for the release of the same number of their prisoners, among whom are Houthi media professionals employed at the Houthi television channel Al-Masirah.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/162
(A P)
Das Repräsentantenhaus hört auf die Botschaft des Premierministers
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081222.htm
(A P)
Parliament listens to Prime Minister's letter
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081229.htm
(A P)
Erörterung der Fortschritte bei der Umsetzung der ersten Stufe der nationalen Vision
Unter dem Vorsitz von Muhammad al-Noimi, Mitglied des Obersten Politischen Rates, und Dr. Abdulaziz Saleh bin Habtoor, Sekretär des Obersten Politischen Rates, berichtete Dr. Yasser al-Houry über Aspekte der Umsetzung der ersten Stufe der nationalen Vision für den Aufbau des modernen jemenitischen Staates.
Das Treffen, an dem der Finanzminister Sharafuddin Al-Kahalani teilnahm, befasste sich mit den verfahrenstechnischen und technischen Prozessen im Zusammenhang mit dem Beginn der Umsetzung der nationalen Vision, der ersten Stufe 2019-2020
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081230.htm
(A P)
Al-Nuaimi, Ben Habtoor discuss implementation of first phase of national vision
Member of the Supreme Political Council Mohammed al-Nuaimi, Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz Saleh bin Habtoor and The Secretary of the Supreme Political Council, Dr. Yasser Al-Hori, on Monday discussed aspects related to the implementation of the first phase of the national vision for building a modern Yemeni state.
The meeting, which was attended by Finance Minister Sharaf al-Din Al-Kuhlani, reviewed the procedural and technical processes related to the start of the implementation of the national vision phase 1 2019-2020 phase of resilience and recovery at the central and local levels and the translation of its general orientations on the ground, especially those related to citizens and alleviate their suffering.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081231.htm
My comment: This stays illusion (or propaganda, if you want) as long as the war did not end, and as far as the despotic rule into which the Houthi-dominated government has morphed stays unchanged.
(* A K P)
JEMEN: PRO-HOUTHI-REBELLEN WOLLEN SICH AN ISRAEL RÄCHEN
Verteidigungsminister (Ansarallah), Generalmajor Mohamed El-Atifi, kündigte am Sonntag an, dass die jemenitische Armee weitaus kampfbereiter sei als zuvor, und wies darauf hin, dass die Streitkräfte seines Landes bereit seien, jeden anzugreifen, der den Jemen bedroht.
«Unsere Streitkräfte halten immer noch ihr Versprechen in Bezug auf den Feind in den Emiraten ein und wir beobachten aufmerksam seine verschwörerischen Aktivitäten», sagte der in Sanaa ansässige jemenitische Verteidigungsminister.
Al-Atifi sagte: «Die Länder der Aggression sind nicht aufrichtig in Bezug auf Frieden und Dialog, und wenn Aggression und Belagerung anhalten, werden wir nicht untätig bleiben.»
«Es liegt im Interesse des Feindes, unsere Initiative anzunehmen, und sie werden es sehr bedauern, wenn sie die Gelegenheit nicht nutzen», sagte er und wies darauf hin, dass «unsere Streitkräfte alle Aspekte des militärischen Aufbaus abgeschlossen haben, die sie für den Start einer befähigen.» Ein strategischer Angriff, der die Fähigkeiten des Feindes lähmt. “
«Wir haben neue und entwickelte Rüstungsfähigkeiten im Jemen, die die Mächte des Bösen und der Aggression einschüchtern»
https://de.news-front.info/2019/12/09/jemen-pro-houthi-rebellen-wollen-sich-an-israel-rachen/
(* A K P)
Yemen: Houthi-led army developing new defence systems
The Ministry of Defence in the Houthi-aligned National Salvation Government has announced that it is working on new technology for its air defence system in order to neutralise future threats from Saudi-led coalition aircraft.
According to an interview with Al-Masirah newspaper published yesterday, Minister of Defence Major General Mohammed Al-Atefi said forces were preparing to launch a “strategic offensive that will cripple the Saudi-led aggression coalition capabilities.”
They are also issuing warnings to coalition partner UAE and Israel who it claims “is still present from the first day of the aggression against our country” emphasising that “we have a databank of naval and ground military targets of the Zionist enemy, and we will not hesitate to strike them if the leadership decides to.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191209-yemen-houthi-led-army-developing-new-defence-systems/
and
(A K P)
Yemeni Defense Minister: Much more Ready to Hit Back at US-Saudi Aggression, than before Our last Peace Initiative
The Minister of Defense, Major General Mohammed Al-Atefi, affirmed that the Yemeni Armed Forces have completed all needed preparations to launch a comprehensive strategic attack that cripples the enemies capabilities, indicating that the countries of aggression are not sincere regarding peace and if the aggression and the blockade continue, we will not stand idly by.
In an interview with Almasirah newspaper published on Sunday, Al-Atefi said, "we stand ready on the brink, of combat readiness much more better than before our political leadership has presented the initiative. It was put forth from the position of strength."
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10148
(A)
I'm so sorry to tell you guys that my son Mohammed has killed today after being shot in Sana'a. May Allah RIP. Please pray for him. Fatik (photos)
https://twitter.com/Al_rodaini1/status/1203443585393270784
(A P)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels threaten to attack Israel
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have threatened to attack Israel, claiming they have prepared a list of targets that can be hit at any time.
In an interview published Sunday, Houthi defense minister Major General Mohammed Al-Atefi claimed to the Al-Masira newspaper, which is aligned with the rebels, that Israel has been involved in the Yemen conflict since it began in 2015 and that “there’s no doubt revenge is coming.”
He said the Houthis have a “bank of military and maritime targets of the Zionist enemy” and that “we will not hesitate to attack them if the leadership decides to.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/yemens-houthi-rebels-threaten-to-attack-israel/
and
(A P)
Yemen Houthis Claim to Have List of Viable Israeli Targets
Yemen Shiite Houthi rebels say they have identified a range of Israeli military targets they are able to attack.
“We will not hesitate even a minute to destroy these targets if the leadership takes the decision to do so,” Mohammed Al-Atifi, the Houthi defense minister, said in an interview with rebel-linked Al-Masirah newspaper published on Sunday.
and
(A P)
The Houthis have a bank of Israeli ground and maritime targets that they will not hesitate for a second to attack if needed, Houthi defence minister said on Sunday in a statement carried by Almasirah newspaper, adding that Israel has been participating in aggression on Yemen.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1203671316508884992
(A P)
Children’s disappearance on rise in Dhamar
Cases of children’s disappearance are increasing in the Houthis-held governorate of Dhamar, 100 KM, south the capital Sana’a.
The latest case took place last Sunday. Ahlam, 14 years old female child was abducted on Sunday in front of her school in Al-Sakania quarter of Dhamar city. Her fate is still unknown until writing of this report.
On the following day, two other male children were disappeared from the city’s downtown and were later found in Ibb governorate, 65 KM off Dhamar.
Sources told Alsahwa Net that the Houthis militants requested family of the two male children to conceal news of the disappearance and to circulate that the two boys went for a family visit to one of their relatives in Ibb.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36680
(* A P)
Clashes Flare between Houthis and Tribal Men, 9 Killed
Clashes intensified on Thursday between Iran-allied Houthis and tribal gunmen south the rebel-held capital Sana’a, killing 9 and wounding dozens.
Local sources said the infighting broke out when the Houthi rebels stormed a village called Al Hait to stop the commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whom Houthis killed two years ago.
According to eyewitnesses, tribes of Sanhan confronted the militia and took control of Kanea Mountain, which overlooks the entire area.
Houthis, for their part, sent more reinforcement to deter the tribes.
“I saw about 40 personnel vehicles carrying fighters and heading south,” a resident in Sana’a spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear for his own safety.
https://republicanyemen.net/archives/22183
(A P)
Houthis Kill Two Residents for Refusing to Give up Their Properties
A man and an elderly woman were killed by gunmen affiliated to Iran-aligned Houthi rebels after dispossessing their properties.
An elderly woman was killed Friday in Sa’dah province, Houthis’ stronghold, as she was trying to prevent the militia from tearing down her old house in Al Safra district, September Net cited local sources.
The sources said that armed Houthis, led by a Houthi leader named Lotf Al Awawi, started to tear down her old home using a bulldozer, and when she tried to stop them, they shot her dead.
In late November, a man was also killed in his own land ___ located near the Central Prison, north Sanaa ___ for refusing to give up his property, according to Khabar News Agency.
A Houthi supervisor, along with gunmen, opened fire on the man and killed him after he resisted them and refused to leave his land, the local news agency said.
https://republicanyemen.net/archives/22188
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A P)
Medical staff on strike in Aden in protest of security risks
Lack of security for doctors cause for strike in city rife with violence
Dozens of doctors have on Monday announced a general strike in a medical complex in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, according to medical sources.
The sources said the strike came after a female doctor was stabbed by an acquaintance of one of patients in Craiter district in October.
During a protest rally, the doctors demanded to be provided with security bodyguards to protect the complex with its medical staff.
As a part of the security chaos, a violent explosion on Monday hit the fishing port of Tawahi district in Aden province.
A local source said that the explosion was caused by a rocket-propelled grenade launched by a soldier at the port, confirming that the rocket did not cause any casualties.
https://www.uprising.today/medical-staff-on-strike-in-aden-in-protest-of-security-risks/
(* A K P)
STC Security Belt forces beef up security in Aden after latest assassinations
Less than three days after a high-ranking Security Belt officer and a Yemeni Coast Guard marine were killed in the interim capital Aden, the Security Belt forces have increased troop levels in several Adeni neighborhoods.
The Security Belt, loyal to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), reinforced existing checkpoints and setup new ones in the Al-Buraiqa, Sheikh Othman and Khormaksar neighborhoods, a security official in Aden who preferred not to be named told Almasdar Online.
The group also deployed forces to positions along the borders between the Sheikh Osman, Mansoura, Crater and Khormaksar neighborhoods, according to the official.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/166
and also https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36754
(* A K P)
The 'Islah Party' is Behind the Latest Assassinations in Aden
Over the past months, after eliminating the Islah terrorist groups, Aden has not experienced any terrorist incidents or assassinations such as those which we are witnessing in the current days.
Aden faces a barrage of security problems following the return of terrorist elements under the pretext of implementing the Riyadh Agreement.
The 'Legitimacy' depends on the elements, which it recently sent to Aden, in the name of contributing to the implementation of the military arrangements of the Riyadh Agreement, to create confusion in the south. Those elements serve a starting point to commit terrorist crimes including the assassinations that include security personnel and the general public to create chaos.
These factors try to exploit the peaceful intentions of the Arab coalition and the Southern Transitional Council to fulfil the Riyadh Agreement.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15008
My comment: Separatists blame the main supporters of the Hadi government. The Riyadh agreement is dead.
(A P)
The Leadership of the Arab Coalition in Aden Respond to the Families of the Detained in Shabwa
Families ofd etainees in Shabwa governorate stood today in protest in front the headquarters of the Arab coalition. Thefamilies handed in a detailed report explaining the results of the committee includingthe difficulties in implementing it.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15005
(A T)
Today, local websites said unknown gunmen in #Aden shot dead a man in his 20s who had been displaced from Hodeidah. It seems Aden is seeking to break the record. That's progress thanks to the Saudi-led coalition.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1204436671661584385
(* A P)
Separatists accuse Hadi of carrying out assassinations in Aden
Saudi-backed Hadi government responsible for failure of Riyadh Agreement according to Southern Transitional Council
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has on Monday accused the exiled Hadi’s government of carrying out assassinations in Aden province, southern Yemen.
The council’s spokesman Nizar Haitham said that “Hadi’s government thwarted the Riyadh Agreement, which had failed to implement its first clauses.”
“Hadi’s government, after arriving in Aden, wants to practice its work normally, ignoring that it is a caretaker government,” he added.
The spokesman revealed the reason for the STC’s refusal to allow any forces loyal to Hadi in Aden, stressing that no military elements should be allowed to enter before the appointment of a new governor and security director in Aden, according to the Riyadh agreement.
In the same context, Haitham pointed out that the forces that clashed with the STC’s militia in Ahwar city of Abyan province, were not affiliated with the presidential protection brigades, but rather came from Ma’rib province, which is controlled by the pro-Hadi Islah Party.
On the assassinations in Aden, he said that “Islah is trying to show Aden as unsafe,” and revealed the arrest of an alleged group of assassins.
https://www.uprising.today/separatists-accuse-hadi-of-carrying-out-assassinations-in-aden/
(A K P)
35th Brigade in Taiz holds first meeting after commander assassinated
The meeting signaled that the military unit plans to continue fighting Houthi forces in the absence of Brig. Gen. Adnan Mohammed Al-Hammadi
https://al-masdaronline.net/local/165
(A P)
Yemeni fishermen protest UAE blockade of southern coast
The protesters demanded the re-opening of a stretch of coast flanking an Emirati military base
Fishermen in Yemen’s eastern governorate of Hadhramout staged a vigil on Sunday denouncing the continued fishing ban near the Saudi-led coalition’s Emirati command center in the capital Mukalla.
In their vigil near Al-Rayyan International Airport, protesters demanded the re-opening of the Shahri coast in Ghail Bawazir district to fishermen, now banned for three years.
While the UAE presence has helped restore commerce in Mukalla, some Yemenis have been left out of the war economy.
The protesters carried banners reading, "Open our sea to our livelihood," while denouncing the Saudi-led coalition for preventing them from earning a living.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/163
(* A P)
Film: After the return of assassinations...Large-scale security campaign in Aden
Kamal al-Alami, a security commander in the security zone in the Mansoura district sector of Aden, said in a special statement to Arab 24 that the security campaign launched by the security authorities in the interim capital Aden in southern Yemen is aimed at confiscating all motorcycles and cars without any official numbers and papers, in addition to unlicensed weapons, al-Alami added that motorcycles, unnumbered cars and unlicensed weapons were all used in the assassinations in Aden, which have killed a number of security officials in recent days, this campaign comes in accordance with directives issued by the Arab Coalition Forces Command in Aden yesterday evening, hours after several assassinations targeting security leaders from the security belt and police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpzfTz84aE
(* A P)
Mass arrest and deportation of Yemenis in Mahrah province
Saudis deport and abduct Yemeni citizens on trumped-up and unproven charges
The Saudi occupation forces in the eastern Yemeni province of Mahrah have carried out a large-scale arrest campaign against Yemenis returning from abroad to Yemen through the Shehin crossing with Oman, security sources reported on Monday.
According al-Mahrah Post outlet, Saudi forces have arrested some Yemenis returning from abroad at the port and accused them of working for Iran, Hezbollah or terrorist organisations.
The sources confirmed that the Saudi forces have taken the abductees directly to Riyadh under the direction of the governor Rajeh Bakret, who was appointed by the Saudi ambassador Mohammed Al Jaber, without regard or respect for the Yemeni state, its authorities or security and judicial agencies.
The outlet obtained pictures of some of the people who have been arrested at the port by Saudi forces and deported to Riyadh.
Mahrah’s peaceful sit-in protest committee had earlier warned of arbitrary arrests by Saudi forces of Yemenis in Shehin port.
https://www.uprising.today/mass-arrest-and-deportation-of-yemenis-in-mahrah-province/
(* B K P)
A 4th army is taking shape in Yemen's #Taiz city. It consists of thousands of soldiers coming back from border with Saudi Arabia & other recruits. It's based in Tafrus area, Jabal Habashi district. It was the idea of Qatari-backed resistance leader in the city Hamoud Al-Mikhlafi.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1204063787969646593
(A T)
A new assassination in #Aden. A mosque imam was killed at his home in Sheikh Othman by unknown attackers tonight.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1204125161206820873
(* A P)
Hadi government planning to split Hadhramaut in half
Ancient Yemeni region likely to be split by puppet regime in order to facilitate foreign exploitation
The so-called Minister of Local Administration in the Saudi-backed Hadi government, Abdul Raqeeb Saif Fatah Al-Aswadi , has revealed a planned decision for self-proclaimed president Hadi, to split the occupied Hadhramaut province into two provinces.
Fatah said that the division of Hadhramaut province into two has become a “realistic thing that needs to be implemented.”
He pointed out that there is a presidential committee consisting of the minister of Local Administration and officials in the Saudi-backed government, along with three Saudi experts and a French expert, in order to develop a full study of the various geographical, administrative, local and political aspects.
“Hadhramaut province has an area of about 193,032 square kilometers spread over 30 directorates, including about 23 directorates in the valley and desert and seven directorates in the coast,” Fatah said.
According to Fatah, the administrative division of the number of directorates for the two provinces will be equal for each province.
He expected the exiled Hadi to make a decision to announce the two provinces early in the new year.
Observers pointed out that the division of Hadhramaut province are steps to implement the agendas and interests of the coalition countries, being the plundering of wealth and taking over of an area of Yemeni territory.
https://www.uprising.today/hadi-government-planning-to-split-hadhramaut-in-half/
(A P)
Yemen's speaker of house of representatives lauds Saudi Arabia's role in supporting his country
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008489
(* A K P T)
Timeline of assassinations in Aden in one week
The city of Aden continues to see assassinations on a daily basis amid failure to implement Al-Riyadh agreement that was supposed to end insecurity in the city and restore public peace.
The agreement was signed on 5 November 2019 between the southern rebels who control Aden and the government.
The city is still managed by the southern rebels affiliated militias known as the Security Belt Forces that operates out of the government’s command.
The southern rebels show defiance to the Al-Riyadh agreement that stipulates that all local militias be reorganized under the government’s control.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36708
and
(A K P T)
11 assassinations this week in Aden South Yemen where Saudis and Emiratis occupiers conflict over war spoils! 7 assassinations were successful including 3 over the last 24 hours. The other 4 failed. Tension remains high in the city where chaos and lawlessness prevail.
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/1203716394002604034
(A T)
Three Assassinations in Occupied Aden within Hours
Yemeni southern province of Aden has witnessed during the past few hours three assassinations in a renewed series of security chaos and assassinations under the Saudi-UAE occupation.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10132
(A P)
Saudi-led coalition permits only one flight per week in Mukalla
The Saudi-led coalition permitted for only one commercial flight per week in Mukalla Airport despite an announcement by Yemen’s Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority (CAMA) in mid-November that the airport is ready for commercial flights.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36681
My comment: We can see who the real masters in Southern Yemen are.
(A K P)
Shatara: Tampering with Aden's security will not be allowed
Member of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council, Lutfi Shatara said that the security of Aden will be a red line and top priorities.
Shatara wrote on his Facebook timeline that "tampering with Aden's security, obfuscating the issues and evading the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement will not be allowed anymore."
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14998
My comment: Translate: The STC (separatists) will not cede any military power to Hadi government forces at Aden.
(A K P)
Al-Zubaidi Discusses Securing Abyan Against Muslim Brotherhood
President of the Southern Transitional Council and Supreme Commander of the Southern Armed Forces, Aidroos Qassem al-Zubaidi met in Aden on Sunday, with high-ranking military commanders of the southern forces in the governorate of Abyan.
The meeting discussed the prepared plan to secure Abyan province and prevent the invasion of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked armed groups.
Al-Zubaidi highly praised the efforts and sacrifices made by the southern armed forces in Abyan, voicing the STC support for them.
For their parts, the commanders expressed their military readiness to achieve the tasks assigned to them in accordance with the higher interest of the South.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14990
(* A K P)
Saudi Warplanes Strike UAE Allies in Aden, Transitional Council Threatens to Kill Saudi Forces
The warplanes of Saudi-led aggression, Friday evening, flew over the sky of the occupied city of Aden, in southern Yemen, throwing light bombs.
Local residents told the Yemeni Press Agency that jets flew at low altitudes and threw light grenades that caused great panic among the people. Warplanes and light bombs coincide with the great military alert for the Transitional militias in Aden and Abyan after military build-up of the Hadi and Islah militias moved towards the districts of the occupied Abyan governorate.
In response to these bombs that were launched and the flying jets, a statement of one of the brigades fighting with the Transitional Council said that "we will not retreat, we will not budge, and their planes will not scare us."
The militias of the so-called Southern Resistance and the Transitional Council's security belts have threatened to storm the Al-Maaseq Palace in Aden to arrest Hadi government ministers, fighting any force trying to intercept them, in reference to Saudi forces.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10130
(* A P)
Yemen’s Legitimacy, STC Exchange Accusations on Obstacles to Riyadh Agreement
The Yemeni legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) exchanged accusations on Friday on which side violated the Riyadh Agreement signed in Saudi Arabia between the two parties last month.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the STC rejected the so-called “continuous military mobilization of government forces towards the south.”
However, the government denied those claims and instead, it held the STC accountable for the escalation and the endeavor to impede the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement.
Spokesperson for the legitimate government Rajeh Badi affirmed Friday that the government strictly abides by the Agreement and is committed to implement its clauses in line with the specified mechanism.
He categorically denied any military mobilization toward the interim capital Aden as claimed in the STC statement.
Badi affirmed that a battalion of the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) came to Abyan heading toward Aden in accordance with the Riyadh Agreement, which stipulated the PGB’s return to Aden.
“The battalion, which has been authorized to return to Aden was moved in coordination with the brethren in the Command of Arab Coalition in accordance with the Riyadh Agreement's clauses,” he said.
(A P)
Al-Jaadi: Muslim Brotherhood tries to lead us to confrontation
Member of the presidency of the Southern Transitional Council and assistant secretary general, Fadl al-Jaadi strongly criticized the aggression unleashed by the Muslim Brotherhood's militia on southern protesters in Say'un district of Hadramout governorate.
Al-Jaadi wrote on his Twitter account that "the attack of the Brotherhood's militias against the young protesters in Say'un, severely beating them with rifle butts and arresting a number of them, brings back memories of the practices conducted by Saleh's regime."
"insofar as these acts of barbarism try to lead us to confrontation, we are surprised by the silence of the Arab Coalition over the attempts to undermine the Riyadh agreement." Al-Jaadi added.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14985
(* A K P)
Saudi-led coalition has threatened to strike Yemeni government forces if they don't leave Shaqra town in #Abyan, a classified document said on Friday, amid reports a Saudi committee is expected to arrive in Abyan to probe after clashes between those forces and STC militias.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1203208058719133699
(A K P)
Security official assassinated in Aden
Unknown gunmen assassinated on Saturday, a senior official of the Security Belt forces in Aden, local news websites reported.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14986
My comment: No “security official”, but a high rank separatist militia (Security Belt) man.
And
(A P T)
ISIS claims responsibility for assassinating senior commander of UAE-backed forces
Mohammed al-Radfani killed by Daesh hit squad in Aden
Terrorist group Daesh has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Security Belt officer Mohammed Saleh al-Radfani in the southern port city of Aden.
and also https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1203655623193309185
(* A K P)
Separatists call for withdrawal of Hadi forces from southern Yemen
Southern Transitional Council issues stern warning against Saudi-backed forces
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has on Friday expressed its “right to defend itself and to counter the ongoing mobilisations of Hadi’s government towards the occupied southern provinces,” calling for their immediate withdrawal.
STC spokesman Nizar Haitham said in a statement that the STC affirms its adherence to its” right to defend its territory, its ability to counter and deter any force that tries to cross the current lines of contact,” and calls on these forces to withdraw immediately.
Nizar stressed that “the Council supports peace and blesses Saudi efforts to overcome the current problem” and that “they are ready to deter all the bullying and reckless behaviour by force.”
The statement warned against any attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood militias to thwart the Riyadh Agreement.
https://www.uprising.today/separatists-call-for-withdrawal-of-hadi-forces-from-southern-yemen/
(B P T)
8 military and security officials have been assassinated in Aden, Yemen's interim capital, since the beginning of November.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1203334021213773825
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A H P)
Government expects USD one billion UN support in 2020
The government said on Monday that it hopes that the United Nations (UN) Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will achieve the financial goal that was set by the General Assembly at USD one billion for Yemen’s 2020 humanitarian emergency needs.
Abdullah Al-Sa’adi, Yemen’s Permanent Representative to the UN voiced this on Monday during a fundraising by the CERF in New York city of the United States.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36755
(A P)
Ready for prisoner swaps, Iran says US holding 20 Iranians
Iran said on Tuesday that American authorities are holding about 20 Iranian nationals in jail, its official news agency reported, a day after Tehran said it was ready for more prisoner swaps with the U.S.
A prisoner exchange over the weekend saw Iran free a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton who had been held for three years on widely criticized espionage charges. It was seen as a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions.
“We told the American side that our figure is more or less 20 but this is not final,” IRNA quoted as saying Mohsen Baharvand, an aid to Iran’s foreign minister
https://apnews.com/10ebb96ebdea3f3ff14ce90727d8a3ee
(A P)
Al-Mughals: Yemen Future Cannot Be Determined by Washington, Riyadh nor Abu Dhabi
"The future of Yemen cannot be determined by neither Washington nor Riyadh nor Abu Dhabi, so the future of Yemen is to be determined only by the Yemeni people alone," said [Sanaa gov.] Deputy Director of the Presidency Office, Salim Al-Mughals.
In response to the provocative statements of Saudi Minister Adel Al-Jubeir about Yemen, Al-Mughals said in a post on Facebook: “The so-called Adel Al-Jubeir and his masters in the Saudi regime and the Americans should wake up from their negligence and leave their dreams that were overlooked by reality which has become very impossible for them to return to Yemen. It is impossible for them to have any role in the future of Yemen, they must understand the developments and reality, as Yemen today is not like yesterday's Yemen.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10115
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(B P)
Experts question possibility of G20 summit in Saudi Arabia in November due to its track record of crimes
Many economists have questioned the possibility of holding the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia on November 21st and 22nd because of its track record of crimes related to the aggression against Yemen and the arbitrary arrests of writers, journalists and social activists and its involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
From December 1, 2019, Saudi Arabia will begin its g20 presidency, which will continue "until the Leaders' Summit in Riyadh" next year.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081282.htm
(* A E P)
Saudi 2020 budget forecasts a slight drop in spending as deficit
Despite a drop in spending Saudi Arabia plans to continue to pay a cost of living allowance to citizens.
Saudi Arabia announced a 1.02 trillion riyal ($272bn) budget for 2020 on Monday, a slight fall in spending that reversed three years of expenditure increases intended to spur growth.
Revenues in 2020 are forecast at 833 billion riyals ($222.1bn), widening the budget deficit to 187 billion riyals ($50bn), or 6.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with a projected deficit of 131 billion riyals ($35bn), or 4.7 percent of GDP, in 2019, according to the budget document
Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan told reporters the 2020 budget was conservative on revenues because of the global economic outlook, but the government would continue to pay a cost of living allowance to citizens.
(A P)
We Will Continue Building, Progress as the Budget for the Year 2020 Enhances Vision 2030 Objectives, says HRH Crown Prince
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense whos is also Chairman of the Economic and Development Affairs Council, lauded the lofty implications of the speech of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, on the occasion of the issuance of the State Budget for the Fiscal Year 2020 and his keenness on the implementation of economic reforms.
HRH Crown Prince stressed that the stage of economic transformation adopted by the Kingdom’s government is progressing, at a steady pace, according to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 as the budget has come to reinforce the commitment to implement reforms, plans and programs aimed at achieving what was included in the strategy, as it sets specific goals and multiple domains to achieve a vibrant society, a prosperous economy and an ambitious homeland.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008945
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008949
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008961
(* B P)
Exclusive Report: Saudi Military’s Official Magazine Promotes Hatred Of Jews & Christians
The Institute for Gulf Affairs is releasing a short report revealing the extremist contents of the Saudi military publications that may have triggered the Saudi military officer who killed three American navy sailors on Friday.
The report translates selections of the Saudi military’s official magazine (The Muslim Soldier) published the Saudi Ministry of Defense’s Department of Religious Affairs. The department is led by General Mohamed Abdulrahman AlSaadan, who also supervises the magazine.
For years, the United States has been aware of this particular publication and the hatful ideology being taught within the Saudi armed forces. A retired American official who worked at the National Security Council, and the Pentagon, confirmed to us the US knew of the magazine and its contents years ago. He is a top Arabic linguist in US government and worked on Saudi issues for more than 25 years. His name and contacts will be provided to a selected number of the media.
The Saudi Airforce has been mainly dependent on the United States arsenal and training since the foundation of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The Saudi Air Force is notorious for being the most sectarian and racist of all branches of Saudi's armed forces. To date, not a single black or Shia, not to mention females, are accepted as pilots in the Saudi air force, something that did not appear to concern consecutive American administrations.
The articles translated were all written by known extremist clerics with a long and public history of anti-Antisemitism, anti-Christian and anti-Shia hatred and some of supporting terrorism.
Just like the Saudi state was built on the extremist Wahhabi ideology, so is the Saudi military as shown in this and other publications.
This is a rush report due to time constraints but there is a large cache of Saudi military literature that read like ISIS publications. We aim to tackle that as a separate project in the future when resources are available.
and full report: www.gulfinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Saudi-Military-and-ISIS-1.pdf
Excerpts here. https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1204114188433575937
And audio:
(* B P)
The Role of Saudi Wahhabi Islam in Motivating the Pensacola Killer
(* B E P)
Saudi Arabia’s deficit widens to $49B ahead of Aramco sale
Saudi Arabia will reduce spending in 2020 as the budget deficit widens to $49 billion amid sluggish oil prices and deeper curbs on oil production by the heavyweight producer.
King Salman announced Monday expenditures will reach $272 billion next year, a nearly 8% decrease from last year’s record-high spending estimate of $295 billion.
Saudi Arabia anticipates $222 billion in revenue next year, down 14.6% from the $260 billion estimated for 2019.
The kingdom has been grappling with a deficit since oil prices first plunged in 2014.
For years, one of the largest expenditures has been on public sector wages. The government is looking to the private sector, however, to create the needed new jobs for Saudis.
Analysts say Saudi Arabia needs oil prices at least above $70 a barrel to balance its budget. Brent crude traded at $64 on Monday.
To diversify away from its reliance on oil revenue, the government aims to generate billions of dollars from the partial sale this week of state oil company, Aramco. The IPO is also seen as means to attract foreign investment.
The sale is expected to break the record for the biggest flotation ever when trading commences on the Saudi stock exchange Wednesday. A lead bank advising Aramco on the IPO said Monday the company is selling a 1.7% stake for $29.4 billion following strong interest by local Saudi funds.
https://apnews.com/7104e4cb3b8b7f7c8657b5d8719ef134
(* B P)
Saudi prince’s ambitions hinge on triumphant Aramco sale
Saudi Arabia is expected to set a new record for the largest stock flotation in history on Wednesday with the sale of part of Aramco, the state-owned oil company valued at $1.7 trillion.
The offering’s success is crucial to the ambitious plan by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to overhaul Saudi Arabia’s economy and wean it off its reliance on oil revenue for survival.
The company is looking to raise $29.4 billion from selling a 1.7% stake on the local Saudi exchange, making it the world’s biggest ever initial public offering. Prince Mohammed had envisioned an even bigger stock market debut for the kingdom’s crown jewel. The aim is to attract foreign investment to rapidly create jobs for millions of young Saudis entering the workforce as he prepares to inherit the throne.
The government has traditionally been the primary employer of Saudis, but lower oil prices, a budget deficit and a large young population mean the private sector must expand to absorb new entrants into the workforce to keep unemployment from rising beyond 12%.
The flotation is “a step in the right direction that will enable the crown prince to build confidence around Aramco,” said Ayham Kamel, head of Eurasia Group’s Middle East division.
That could lead to confidence in the Saudi economy and generate billions of dollars in capital to invest in job-creating projects, analysts say.
https://apnews.com/9bbc94f818c33806b69d43e8bbc2142a
(* A P)
Reinvesting Aramco IPO money will aid government revenues: minister
Saudi Arabia’s finance minister on Monday said that reinvesting money from the initial public offering (IPO) of oil group Saudi Aramco would help to create more revenue channels for the government.
Speaking after the release of the 1.02 trillion riyals($272.00 billion) 2020 budget, Mohammed al-Jadaan said the budget’s revenue expectations were conservative in light of the gloomy global economic outlook.
My comment: Saudis’ estimated cost of the Yemen war so far: Ca. US$ 350 billion.
(* A P)
Iran, Yemen war likely to top GCC summit agenda
Subversive activities by Iran and the war in Yemen are likely to dominate the 40th GCC summit here on Tuesday.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman will chair the summit, which is expected to discuss regional and international political developments as well as the security situation in the region and their impact on the GCC states’ security and stability.
Riyadh has previously hosted the GCC summit on eight occasions.
Earlier, GCC Secretary General Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani said the Kingdom’s hosting of the meeting reflects its leadership’s keenness on the council, which has proven its ability to overcome challenges and achieve its higher goals.
He hailed King Salman’s leadership and his dedicated efforts to bolster the GCC out of his belief in the strength of fraternal relations among the bloc’s member states.
My comment: The GCC is a Saudi-dominated body.
(* B P)
Amid flurry of Saudi reforms, mocktails on order in execution square
For decades, criminals in Saudi Arabia were lined up after Friday prayers at a central Riyadh plaza and beheaded by sword in a gruesome public spectacle overseen by the religious police.
These days, families sipping designer coffee stroll through what foreigners call Chop-Chop Square, where the blood of the condemned once flowed. At night, diners drop 5,000 riyals ($1,333) at an alcohol-free restaurant imported from Ibiza.
Such jarring contrasts are accompanying the rapid social changes under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, like lifting bans on women driving, gender mixing and public entertainment.
Many Saudis embrace the new openness, but even supporters worry it might be coming too quickly and risks provoking a conservative backlash.
“The change is fast and extreme. We are people who are not used to change,” said Uber driver Abu Mohsen.
The festivities at the former execution site are part of the state’s entertainment drive, aimed at capturing money spent abroad and encouraging fun.
New tourist visas have lured some holidaymakers, and temporary attractions like a safari, amusement park, and open-air theater have drawn over 8 million visitors to Riyadh since October.
Critics say the government is spending billions of riyals to distract Saudis from slower-than-expected economic growth and divert Western criticism of Riyadh’s human rights record, including last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi which tarnished the crown prince’s reputation as a reformer.
Despite the glitz, executions continue in less conspicuous locations, with at least 134 so far this year, according to the United Nations.
(A P)
Saudi Arabia ends gender-segregated entrances for restaurants
Restaurants in Saudi Arabia will no longer need to maintain entrances segregated by sex, the authorities said on Sunday, further eroding some of the world’s strictest social rules as sweeping reforms take hold.
Previously, Saudi Arabia required all restaurants to have one entrance for families and women, and another for men on their own. The ministry of municipalities and rural affairs announced on Twitter this would no longer be mandatory.
Unrelated men and women have for decades been barred from mixing in public places under strict social rules once enforced by hardline clerics and the religious police.
(A P)
#Saudi has sadistically diversified the means by which it kills #Qatif'i youth to include running them over with military vehicles, as they did yesterday with 32YO motorcyclist Hassan Al Dakhil, fatally crushing his skull and leaving him for dead!
https://twitter.com/PrintempsArabeS/status/1203391375963828224
#Qatif: It has been confirmed that #Hassan_Al_Dakhil was martyred yesterday, Dec. 6, when he was run over while driving his motorcycle by a Saudi military vehicle that fled the scene. Saudi is pressuring the martyr's family to cover up and deny the incident. (photos)
https://twitter.com/nashetqatifi/status/1203285826416906241
(A E P)
Saudi delivers deeper cuts as OPEC+ oil producers back new pact
Saudi Arabia spearheaded a deal on Friday that will see the OPEC+ group of oil producers commit to some of the sector’s deepest output cuts in a decade aiming to avert oversupply and support prices.
(A P)
Amnesty slams Saudi Arabia for 'outrageous' mistreatment of jailed rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair
Waleed Abu al-Khair is a lawyer and human rights activist who has defended numerous victims of rights violations in Saudi Arabia, including Raif Badawi.
Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday condemned the "outrageous" treatment of jailed rights activist and lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair, who was detained in 2014.
The group said in a statement that it had received credible reports that prison authorities at Dhahban jail near Jeddah had "arbitrarily" placed Abu al-Khair in solitary confinement under tightened security in late November.
He has been on a hunger strike since 29 November to protest his ill-treatment.
(B P)
Film: Live look at Saudi Arabia making its foreign policy.
https://twitter.com/rezamarashi/status/1203048995464986624
cp8a Jamal Khashoggi
(A P)
U.S. bars former Saudi diplomat in Turkey from entering U.S. over Khashoggi murder
The United States on Tuesday barred from entering the country Mohammed al Otaibi, the former Saudi consul general in Istanbul in October 2018, when Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, the U.S. State Department said.
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1
(* A P)
U.S. grounds Saudi pilots, halts military training after base shooting
The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people last week at a base in Florida.
The decision will have far-reaching impacts on visiting Saudi personnel, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students as part of a “safety stand-down,” first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday.
The Pentagon later confirmed the Reuters report about aviation students and added the move would also affect infantry personnel and all other Saudi training, other than classroom training. Such coursework, which includes English-language classes, will continue.
A senior U.S. defense official, briefing Pentagon reporters on the decision, said the move was intended to allow for a broader review of security procedures that would eventually apply to all of some 5,000 international military students in the United States.
Still, the safety standdown only applied to the some 850 visiting students from Saudi Arabia. The defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shooting “suggested that there could be a particular improvement with that (nation’s) population.”
(A P)
'Avengers' Actor Asks Congress to Oppose Defense Budget
Actor Mark Ruffalo is encouraging lawmakers to block the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 unless the defense budget keeps a toxic chemical out of drinking water.
Congress has been at an impasse on the NDAA this year due to President Donald Trump's border wall proposal, among other issues, but lawmakers said a bipartisan draft will likely be released later this week.
(* B P)
Latest push to end American support for Saudi war in Yemen fails
Progressive legislators slam revised defence spending bill for excluding provision to end US role in 'horrific Saudi-led bombings of Yemen'
The 2020 Pentagon budget will not end US involvement in the war in Yemen as some Democratic lawmakers had hoped.
The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives in July approved amendments to next year's military budget legislation that would have halted US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
But an advanced version of the bill - released late on Monday - excluded the provisions, effectively ending the push to use American military spending to help end the devastating war in Yemen.
Progressive members of Congress, several of whom have lobbied against US support for Saudi Arabia, were outraged by the final draft of the budget, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Senator Bernie Sanders and California Congressman Ro Khanna said the revised bill demonstrated "astounding moral cowardice".
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/push-end-american-support-yemen-war-blocked-us-defence-budget
and
(* B P)
Democratic Leaders Turn Backs on Yemen in ‘Compromise’ Defense Bill
Progressive lawmakers and organizers are vowing to try to block this year’s Pentagon budget after several key amendments were excluded from the final bill, including provisions that would end American support for the ongoing Saudi-led war in Yemen.
The National Defense Authorization Act – a massive, 700-page bill – is considered “must-pass” legislation because the U.S. military can’t operate without it being renewed after December.
This year’s proposed budget authorizes a record $738 billion in military spending – well over the defense budgets of China and Russia combined.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed its version of the NDAA in July that included a series of amendments aimed at ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition that has laid siege to Yemen since 2015 in an effort to drive Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from power.
But almost none of these provisions were included in the final, “reconciled” bill that was agreed to by House and Senate leaders on Monday.
“It was one thing when we were going to stop the war in Yemen,” Congressman Ro Khanna told The Globe Post Tuesday. “We were willing to possibly consider swallowing this defense increase.”
But without those provisions, progressives say they will do everything in their power to block the bill and force House and Senate leaders to go back to the drawing board.
https://theglobepost.com/2019/12/10/yemen-ndaa-compromise/
and
(* B P)
'Astonishing Moral Cowardice': Sanders and Khanna Denounce $738 Billion Bipartisan Pentagon Giveaway
"This bill does nothing to rein in out-of-control military spending, prevent unconstitutional war against Iran, limit the poisoning of Americans' drinking water, or end the obscenity of innocent children in Yemen being killed by U.S. bombs."
After House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Monday on a massive annual military spending measure, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna condemned the bipartisan compromise as "a bill of astonishing moral cowardice" that will hand the Pentagon $738 billion in 2020 while doing nothing to end U.S. complicity in Saudi Arabia's assault on Yemen.
"Congress should have used this National Defense Authorization Act to stop our endless wars," Sanders and Khanna said in a joint statement late Monday. "Instead, this bill does nothing to rein in out-of-control military spending, prevent unconstitutional war against Iran, limit the poisoning of Americans' drinking water, or end the obscenity of innocent children in Yemen being killed by U.S. bombs."
The two progressives noted that the tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending under the 2020 NDAA would be "more than enough to fund tuition-free public college across America."
As Common Dreams reported last month, Sanders and Khanna led an effort to include amendments to the NDAA that would cut off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's bombings in Yemen, which have fueled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
But during negotiations with the Senate, the House agreed to strike from the final NDAA a provision that would have suspended the sale of U.S. air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for one year. No other amendments to end U.S. complicity in Yemen were included in the measure, which could receive a vote in the House as soon as Wednesday.
House-backed provisions to stop Trump from attacking Iran and reverse the president's transgender military ban were also cut out of the final version of the 2020 NDAA.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/10/astonishing-moral-cowardice-sanders-and-khanna-denounce-738-billion-bipartisan = https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/astonishing-moral-cowardice-sen-bernie-sanders-and-rep-ro-khanna-denounce-738-billion-bipartisan-pentagon-giveaway/
(* A P)
Tell Congress: Vote NO on the Pentagon Bill that Continues the Yemen War!
The House and Senate are poised to vote this week on a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – the bill that uses half of our income tax dollars to fatten the Pentagon and its contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin - that doesn't end unconstitutional Pentagon participation in the genocidal Saudi war in Yemen.
This is a shameful betrayal of promises by Democratic leadership to use the NDAA as a vehicle end the Yemen war.
We need members of Congress to vote against any NDAA that doesn’t end the war-- and we need your help getting them on the record.
and
(A P)
Congress could've defunded the #Yemen war through the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, but the final bill will not include amendments related to ending the carnage (except re-affirming that refueling midair is illegal). Call 1-833-STOP-WAR and demand a NO VOTE on #NDAA.
https://twitter.com/shireen818/status/1204192458747211779
How come @SenJackReed is bringing back a #NDAA tonight that does NOTHING to end the war in Yemen
https://twitter.com/masspeaceaction/status/1204200457918394370
(* A P)
U.S. defense policy bill requires nuclear power inspections for Saudi Arabia: sources
Saudi Arabia and other countries seeking to use U.S. technology to develop nuclear power plants must agree to comprehensive U.N. inspections under legislation to be included in the defense policy bill expected to be announced as soon as early this week, two Democratic congressional aides said on Monday.
The measure, spearheaded by Democratic U.S. Representative Bradley Sherman, requires countries to sign the so-called Additional Protocol. The measure requires the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, to conduct snap inspections of nuclear power facilities to ensure countries are not developing materials for nuclear weapons.
The language is included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, one of the few pieces of legislation that Congress must pass every year, the two aides said. The $700 billion NDAA bill could be announced in coming days after months of negotiations.
President Donald Trump’s administration has long held quiet talks with Saudi Arabia, which wants to build two nuclear power plants and could use U.S. technology to do so.
Lawmakers have been seeking more oversight over any deal with Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last year his country does not want nuclear weapons but will pursue them if rival Iran develops them.
My comment: This obviously would be necessary. The only Middle Eastern state disposing of nuclear weapons is Israel.
(* A P)
Following the Pensacola shooting, Trump auditions as Saudi Arabia’s press secretary
It turns out that Trump actually has a triple standard, because he treats attacks by Saudis differently than those from other Muslim nations. On Friday, a Saudi air force officer studying at the Naval Air Station Pensacola shot dead three Americans and wounded eight others. Instead of expressing
(C)
Spiro Agnew was also a massive Anti-Semite. As a Jew, I was proud to expose this draft I uncovered of an off the charts Anti-Semitic “manifesto” sent as ex-VP to the Saudi Crown Prince. He praises the killing of Jews and begs for $. @maddow revealed these on TRMS in Feb. 1/ con’t (text in images)
Considering how subservient Trump is towards the Crown Prince & Saudis, this is pertinent now. In a later draft above, it is clear the Saudis gave Agnew at least $100,000 in cash to help him out. It is an amazing read. I found these in 2015 w other docs I bought via Agnew’s kids.
https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1203463645570592769
(* B P)
Yemen war still on radar of US Congress
A bitter fight between proponents and opponents regarding the Yemen legislative initiative is likely in the US Congress.
Despite the political buzz in Washington over the possible impeachment of US President Donald Trump, a story that dominates the headlines, attention to the Yemen war has not fallen off the radar screen of the US Congress.
That is because several influential members of Congress have attached or are signalling they will support an amendment on the Yemen war to the fiscal year 2020 National Defence Authorisation Act.
This act covers everything from military procurement and base construction to pay and health-care benefits. Because it is considered a bill vital to the national security of the country, critics of US involvement in the Yemen war see it as the best vehicle to attach amendments that would prohibit an American role in the conflict.
The Trump administration, perhaps because of opposition in Congress, has been engaged in negotiations with the Houthis since at least early September to end the Yemen war, the Wall Street Journal reported. US Assistant Secretary of State David Schenker said the United States has been talking “to the extent possible with the Houthis to try to find a mutually acceptable negotiated solution to the conflict.”
If a breakthrough does occur in the next few weeks, that would take the wind out of the sails of the effort to include the Yemen provision in the final version of the defence act. If it does not occur, then a bitter fight between proponents and opponents of the provision is likely.
https://thearabweekly.com/yemen-war-still-radar-us-congress
(* B H P)
Yemeni nationals in U.S. backed into a deadly corner by uncertain TPS policies
“If I go back to Yemen, I have only one option: To die.”
So said a Brooklyn shopkeeper as he movingly described how a lifeline provided him by the United States has allowed him to thrive despite the horrors of the war afflicting his native country.
The Department of Homeland Security could end that lifeline early in 2020. On Jan. 3, DHS will decide whether to extend “Temporary Protected Status” for Yemenis. If it decides not to, as it has in the cases of six other countries during this presidency, the shopkeeper’s legal status will end 60 days later.
TPS was initiated in 1990, in the aftermath of China’s Tiananmen Square massacres. It allows people already in the United States to remain and to work if conflict, environmental disasters or “extraordinary temporary conditions” in the country from which they came make it impossible for them to return there.
The shopkeeper, identified only as “MM”, was the first speaker in a teleconference organized by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), on Nov. 18 to call attention to DHS’ imminent review of Yemenis’ TPS eligibility.
He was a student in the United States when war broke out in his native country. He said he fears for his life if he were to return and worries about his family still there. He lost his best friend from childhood and several others who have already died in the fighting in Yemen that erupted in 2015.
“America gave me a chance to start my life again,” MM said, “to work and pay taxes, get health insurance, start a family … to live like a human being.”
TPS status is granted for 6, 12 or 18 months, depending on a country’s situation. Each country’s status can be extended and, historically, such extensions have included a “re-designation”, too, so that people who’ve arrived in the United States after their country’s TPS began are covered also.
When the Trump administration came into power, people from 10 countries were eligible for TPS: Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Nepal.
Since then, DHS has eliminated TPS for six of those 10 and declined to offer re-designations for the four others (Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia), according to CLINIC’s Jose Magaña-Salgado, one of the teleconference speakers.
For now, ongoing lawsuits have forestalled deportations of people no longer covered by TPS.
(A P)
Craft: Riyadh Agreement is one step closer to political solution
US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft hailed on Friday, the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, saying she was encouraged by the Riyadh Agreement struck in November.
"we hope that that’s going to take us one step closer to this UN talks on political solution to the conflict."
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14984
(* A P)
Lawmakers seek suspension, review of US training for Saudis
A top Republican ally of President Donald Trump went a step further than the White House on Sunday by calling for Saudi Arabia to be suspended from an American military training program after a student pilot from the kingdom shot and killed three sailors at a U.S. naval base in Florida.
Trump had called for the program to be reviewed but Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wanted more.
“We need to suspend the Saudi program until we find out what happened here,” he said, adding that he likes the idea of training foreign pilots and helping them understand how the U.S. system works.
“But there’s something really bad here,” Graham said. “We need to slow this program down and reevaluate.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whose district includes the base in Pensacola, said Friday’s shooting “has to inform our ongoing relationship with Saudi Arabia.”
https://apnews.com/18f1f12d6857d5f2d8c585399829a2da
and
(* A P)
Lawmaker: ’No Interference’ from Saudi in US Probe into Navy Base Attack
A US lawmaker says the Saudi kingdom must engage in “no interference” in the American investigation into the Saudi aviation officer, who killed three people and wounded more Friday at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said in a tweet on Saturday that Mohammed Saeed al-Shamrani “wasn’t alone.”
"Just spoke w Saudi Ambassador Reema Al Saud & received her condolences," Gaetz tweeted. "I expressed in the strongest possible terms that we expect to conduct our investigation w full cooperation & no interference from the Kingdom."
"This was a planned terrorist attack & the shooter wasn’t alone."
The Saudi suspect, second lieutenant in the Saudi Arabian military, reportedly hosted a dinner party the night before the attack to watch mass shooting videos.
He apparently posted criticism of US wars and quoted slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on social media hours before the shooting spree.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/12/07/613104/&
(* A P)
Pensacola attack: Gunman 'played mass-shooting videos at dinner'
Why were Saudis at the US base?
The Pensacola base has long offered aviation training to foreign military.
Saudi pilots started training at the Pensacola base in 1995, alongside other personnel from Italy, Singapore and Germany.
Cpt Kinsella Jnr said that about 200 international students were enrolled in programmes there.
According to its website, the base employs more than
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50701665
and
(* A P)
Saudi national who shot 11 people at Pensacola Naval Air Station was taking aviation classes
The gunman in a deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida was a second lieutenant in the Saudi Arabian military involved in flight training at the station, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday.
Officials are looking into whether the shooting was terror-related as a possible motive, but it's still early in the investigation.
Three people were killed in the shooting and at least eight others were injured and taken to a hospital, authorities said.
Two law enforcement sources told CNN the shooter, who was killed, has been identified as Saudi Arabian national Mohammed Alshamrani.
The gunman started his training in August 2017 as part of a three-year program. He was taking classes in basic aviation, initial pilot training and English, according to a spokesperson for the assistant to the Secretary of Defense.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/06/us/pensacola-naval-station-lockdown/index.html
My comment: Keep in mind: The US is training Saudi pilots, who once might kill Yemenis when flying fighter jets.
And
(* B P)
Saudi's role in Florida naval base shooting poses new threat to alliance
The deadly shooting at a U.S. Navy base in Florida by a Saudi military trainee places new strain on America’s especially thorny relationship with the kingdom, a key ally in confronting Iran that is also still accused of stoking militancy in the region.
Capt. Timothy Kinsella, commanding officer at the Pensacola naval base, said at a news conference that the shooting occurred in a classroom building on the base, which has long hosted international students from allied militaries. “We have students from several different countries that come here,” Kinsella said.
“This was not a murder. This was an act of terrorism,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote on Twitter. The base is in Gaetz‘s congressional district and employs 16,000 military personnel and 7,400 civilians.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he told President Donald Trump that “the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims.”
But even as additional details of the shooter's identity were still being learned, others worried the tragedy is a stark reminder of the testy relationship between the United States and its longtime military ally, including the sustained pressure in Congress to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing last year of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the slaughter of civilians in Yemen’s civil war, often using American-made weapons.
"I was not surprised because this is the culture of the Saudi Army," said Ali Ahmed, a Saudi analyst in Washington who was stripped of his citizenship due to his outspoken criticism of the regime. “They teach ISIS, Al Qaeda literature in the Saudi military,” he added, including that singles out Christians and Jews as enemies.
“I thought they removed these things, but they didn’t,” added Ahmed, who has also visited numerous U.S. military bases to share insights on the region.
cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B P)
Will the Improved Iran-Saudi Ties Stabilize the Middle East and End The Yemen War?
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said his country is willing to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia aimed at creating stability in the Middle East and ending the bloodshed in Yemen.
Rouhani urged Saudi to end its military operation in Yemen, adding that by withdrawing troops from Yemen, Saudi’s security would be guaranteed.
“The security of Saudi Arabia will be guaranteed with the termination of aggression in Yemen, rather than by inviting foreigners,” Rouhani told the UN General Assembly.
Saudi and its allies have started a dialogue with Iran (as the United Arab Emirates held maritime talks with Tehran), showing that the anti-Iran alliance is waning and dialogue with Tehran is necessary to create the peaceful Middle East.
The anti-Iran alliance is not just faltering; it’s crumbling.
(A P)
Trump, Obama advisers say Russia, Iran remain threats to US
Russia’s challenge to NATO and democratic nations, as well as Iran’s influence on the wider Middle East, remain two of the top threats to world peace, two former White House advisers to presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump said Tuesday.
For Jones, who served nearly two years in Obama’s White House, Iran remains an “existential threat.” He praised the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after the president unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers over a year ago.
https://apnews.com/00375bc6b79592150052f5e2f28abad1
My comment: This is a US propaganda bullshit: Iran, Russia are no “threats to world peace”, but only threats to US worldwide hegemony. The one has nothing to do with the other; US propagandists of course would not mention that.
(A P)
Gulf leaders meet in Saudi Arabia under looming Iran threat
Arab Gulf leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for an annual summit that was intended to showcase their unity in the face of shared threats. But looming over the meeting were their frayed ties and heightened worries about Iran.
For all their diverging views and interests, members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council share a common goal of stability in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping corridor that’s vital to their energy exports from the Persian Gulf. The GCC bloc is composed of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
“The Gulf region must unite in the face of Iran’s aggression and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council must secure themselves in the face of ballistic missile attacks,” Saudi Arabia’s King Salman said in his opening remarks.
Sigurd Neubauer, a Mideast analyst based in Washington, said recent attacks on oil targets in the Persian Gulf have accelerated the need for Gulf reconciliation.
“The external threat to the GCC is significant now from Iran as opposed to just a year ago,” he said.
https://apnews.com/126a1fec86fdc5e76ffcc3b78acfb7a8
My comment: Propaganda rattles.
(A P)
Iran downgrades Israeli threat, warns of regretful response to stupid act
Iran on Monday downgraded Israeli threat of air strikes, warning that any stupid act will cause regretful response from Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that the Israeli officials' threats and allegations against Iran indicate their weaknesses, warning that any Israeli stupid act will be dealt with regretful and destructive response.
https://en.irna.ir/news/83587595/Iran-downgrades-Israeli-threat-warns-of-regretful-response-to
(A P)
Iran ready for more prisoner swaps with US, not negotiations
Iran is ready for more prisoner swaps with the United States, the Cabinet spokesman said Monday even as he reiterated the Iranian leadership’s stance that there will be no other negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
The remarks by the spokesman, Ali Rabiei, were the first after a prisoner exchange over the weekend saw Iran free a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton who had been held for three years on widely criticized espionage charges.
https://apnews.com/693e7c13192bd8c0e7679af5dcbd649e
(A P)
[Saudi] Minister of Hajj and Umrah Receives Head of Iranian Hajj and Visit Organization
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008412
(A P)
AE, US joint military exercise commences
'Iron Union 12', a joint military exercise between the ground forces of the UAE and the United States, has commenced in the presence of Major General Saleh Mohamed Saleh Al Amiri, UAE Commander of Land Forces, and Lieutenant General Terry Ferrell, Commander of US Army Central, USARCENT.
http://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302808788
(* B P)
Iran says new budget bucks US oil embargo, uses Russian loan
Iran’s president said on Sunday his country will depend less on oil revenue next year, in a new budget that is designed to resist crippling U.S. trade embargoes.
Iran is in the grip of an economic crisis. The U.S. re-imposed sanctions that block Iran from selling its crude oil abroad, following President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
“The budget sends a message to the world that despite the sanctions, we will manage the country,” President Hassan Rouhani told the opening session of Parliament.
The proposed budget will counter “maximum pressure and sanctions″ by the U.S., he said.
Iranian media, including the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, said that the submitted budget would raise taxes, sell some government-owned property and add more government bonds. But it wasn’t immediately clear from Rouhani’s speech whether these proposed measures would fully compensate for plummeting oil revenues.
https://apnews.com/32d871233b66887a1d8018f77a893d0b
(A P)
Zarif criticizes E3, US for their silence against Israeli Nukes
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message referred to Israeli regime's recent nuke test, saying E3, US never complained about only nuclear arsenal in West Asia.
"Israel today tested a nuke-missile, aimed at Iran," Zarif tweeted on Friday.
"E3 & US never complain about the only nuclear arsenal in West Asia—armed with missiles actually DESIGNED to be capable of carrying nukes—but has fits of apoplexy over our conventional & defensive ones," he added.
https://en.irna.ir/news/83583542/Zarif-criticizes-E3-US-for-their-silence-against-Israeli-Nukes
(A P)
Iran frees Chinese-American scholar for US-held scientist
Iran and the U.S. conducted a prisoner exchange Saturday that saw a detained Princeton scholar released for an Iranian scientist held by America, marking a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington after months of tensions.
In a trade conducted in Zurich, Switzerland, Iranian officials handed over Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang, detained in Tehran since 2016, for scientist Massoud Soleimani, who had faced a federal trial in Georgia.
https://apnews.com/93d8ad4cc7a1b8dc7a01296bd770d5d9
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(* B P)
China looks to boost its influence in Yemen
On Nov. 22, China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun laid out Beijing’s vision for Yemen’s post-conflict future. In an official statement, Zhang Jun called upon the international community to provide “tailored assistance” to improve the living conditions of the Yemeni people and highlighted Yemen as a case for China’s position that development is an effective pathway to peace and stability for countries facing internal conflicts.
Zhang Jun’s statement on Yemen was noteworthy because it was more specific than Beijing’s traditionally ambiguous calls for intra-Yemeni dialogue and a political solution to the Yemen war. The Chinese representative’s comments coincide with a broader expansion of China’s involvement in Yemen. As China possesses comprehensive strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China has cautiously supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government, while maintaining lines of communication with the Houthis and the Southern Transitional Council (STC). China has leveraged these close diplomatic ties with Yemen’s warring factions to expand its economic presence in Yemen and in turn further consolidate its influence on the Red Sea.
China’s presence in Yemen is strengthened further by its outreach efforts to the STC. Much like its ties with the Houthis, China’s relations with the STC have historical antecedents.
China’s economic interests have become codified into official policy, as Beijing supports the inclusion of Yemen into its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and stated that it “stands ready” to participate in the economic reconstruction of Yemen.
China’s efforts to integrate Yemen into the BRI largely run through southern Yemen, which acts as a bridge between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. According to Ahmed Atef, China views the Gulf of Aden as a strategically important location for the BRI, and Beijing is seeking to reprise its Cold War-era infrastructure construction projects in Aden. In order to protect these investments, China is leveraging its close ties with the Hadi government and the STC to potentially expand its role as a security provider on Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
To complement these infrastructure investments, China has paid greater attention to Yemen’s economic development needs – by Samuel Ramani
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/12/china-boost-influence-yemen-stc-war-economy.html
(A P)
UAE is role model of tolerance, coexistence, peace: Pope Francis
His Holiness Pope Francis, Head of the Catholic Church praised the UAE's approach that enhances the pillars of tolerance, coexistence and peace.
http://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302808592
My comment: Si tacuisses…
cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis
(A P)
Qatari PM attends Gulf summit but no mention of 2-1/2 year row
Qatar’s premier attended an annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, its highest representation since 2017, but there was no public mention of a 2-1/2 year boycott by its neighbors despite hints of a thaw.
Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani’s presence follows an intensification of efforts to resolve the row among U.S. allies which shattered the GCC alliance amid growing Iran tensions.
(A P)
Qatar emir not attending annual Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia
A summit of Arab Gulf nations opened on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia without Qatar’s ruler in attendance, despite signs of a thaw in a diplomatic crisis that has gripped the regions U.S. allies.
Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani instead sent Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani to head Qatar’s delegation to the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting.
The GCC bloc, composed of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, has been fractured since mid-2017. That’s when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and blockaded the tiny peninsula-nation.
https://apnews.com/126a1fec86fdc5e76ffcc3b78acfb7a8
(* B P)
Wie das kleine Katar das mächtige Saudi-Arabien zum Einlenken zwingt
Seit zweieinhalb Jahren trotzt Katar erfolgreich der Blockade der Saudis. Nun scheinen sich die Kontrahenten wieder anzunähern. Das liegt auch am Iran.
Die Fußball-Diplomatie war Teil einer Wiederannäherung, die beim 40. Gipfeltreffen des Golf-Kooperationsrates in Riad an diesem Dienstag mit einer Versöhnung enden könnte.
Dass das Königreich und Kronprinz Mohammed bin Salman jetzt einlenken, liegt nicht allein am Widerstand der Kataris. Auch der desaströse Krieg im Jemen, wo eine Allianz unter saudischer Führung seit vier Jahren ohne nennenswerten Erfolg gegen die vom Iran unterstützten Huthi-Rebellen kämpft, zwingt die Herrscher in Riad, von ihrer kompromisslosen Linie abzurücken.
Besonders jedoch die gewachsene Kriegsgefahr in der Region wegen der Eskalation zwischen dem Iran und den USA veranlasst Saudi-Arabien, wieder mehr auf Partnerschaft zu setzen.
Die Entsendung der Fußballmannschaften aus Saudi-Arabien, den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten und Bahrain zu dem Turnier nach Katar Ende November war ein wichtiges Zeichen der Entspannung. Auch die politischen Kontakte wurden intensiviert.
So reiste der katarische Außenminister Scheich Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani nach Medienberichten zu Gesprächen nach Riad. Es gebe Fortschritte, sagte der Minister Al Dschasira zufolge. Kuwait, das in der Krise vermittelt, sprach von Anzeichen dafür, dass der Streit am Dienstag offiziell beigelegt werden könnte.
Der Gewinner
Sicher scheint schon jetzt: Katar wird wohl als Sieger aus der Konfrontation hervorgehen. Von den 13 Forderungen ist keine Rede mehr. Die Türkei verkündete kürzlich sogar den Bau einer weiteren Militärbasis in Katar. Als Zugeständnis an die Saudis ist das Emirat offenbar aber bereit, sich von den Muslimbrüdern zu distanzieren, die von Riad als Terrorgruppe bekämpft werden.
Katar dürfte dennoch mit gestärktem Selbstbewusstsein aus der Krise hervorgehen.
(A P)
Qatar state minister for foreign affairs arrives in Riyadh: QNA
Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday, state news agency QNA said, for a preparatory meeting ahead of an annual summit of Gulf Cooperation Council leaders that could see a thaw in a 2-1/2-year Gulf crisis.
Minister Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi represented Qatar last year at the summit, but it is still possible that the ruling emir will attend this year’s meeting on Tuesday, following high-level Saudi-Qatari discussions to end the boycott of Qatar.
(A P)
In an apparent setback to #Saudi #Qatari rapprochement the Emir of #Qatar is set to travel to #Rwanda tomorrow instead of #GCC summit #Riyadh
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1203813875860344832
referring to https://twitter.com/al_watanQatar/status/1203724142241075200
(A P)
Today 12 flights will depart Bahrain to Doha. First, the flights were supposed to be via Kuwait Airport. However, seems like the planes will reach Kuwaiti airspace and u turn to Doha which is just 120 km from BAH. Unnecessary and strange step— a metaphor for the whole blockade. (images)
https://twitter.com/Halawala/status/1203560676071034880
(A P)
Reports of #Saudi #Qatar rapprochement prove that #Qatar holding out has worked & it may get even more returns from the #Saudis if it waits a little longer. The #floridashooting , #US #IRAN prisoners swap, Brian Hook finally admitting Ansarrulah (Houthis) are #Yemenis.
These developments come on the heals of the failure of #AramcoIPO & the failure of the #RiyadhAgreement on #Yemen make the #Saudis even more vulnerable & more welling to compromise further. Splitting them from #UAE is naturally accruing & no political capital is needed
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1203384878198378501
(A P)
Doha will never forget Tehran’s help: Qatari FM
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that Doha will never forget Tehran's help when Qatar was besieged by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain from land, sea and air.
"When we were under blockade, Iran opened its airspace to us and we will never forget it," the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying on Saturday in an interview with Arabic RT.
He also said, "Iran is our neighbor and Qatar is committed to the principle of good neighborliness. Doha makes efforts to have good relations with Tehran."
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/442776/Doha-will-never-forget-Tehran-s-help-Qatari-FM
cp12b Sudan
(A P)
Sudan’s government departs for peace talks with rebels
Sudan’s transitional government departed on Tuesday for peace talks with rebel leaders in a bid to end the country’s protracted civil war.
The talks were being held in Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011 following decades of war.
https://apnews.com/707d9d69e4a2c090a879f95cdb43dcc6
(A P)
Sudan: 'New Beginning in U.S.-Sudan Relations' - PM
At a press conference upon his return from the USA, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said that his six-day visit led to "a new beginning" in relations between the USA and Sudan.
According to Hamdok "good relations with the USA are very necessary for any country that wants to develop and move forward". He pointed out that both governments managed to raise the diplomatic representation of their countries to the level of ambassadors.
https://allafrica.com/stories/201912100280.html
(A P)
Mohammed al-Houthi welcomes Sudanese decision to withdraw from Yemen
Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok's decision is "positive", al-Houthi says
https://www.uprising.today/mohammed-al-houthi-welcomes-sudanese-decision-to-withdraw-from-yemen/
(* B K P)
Sudan has 5,000 troops in Yemen, down from 15,000
Sudan has 5,000 troops operating in Yemen, down from a peak of 15,000, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Sunday, adding that he believed no military solution was possible.
Briefing journalists on his return from Washington, Hamdok said there had been no discussions during his visit about withdrawing the troops.
“Regarding Yemen we said that there is no military solution and there must be a political solution,” Hamdok told reporters at Khartoum airport.
and
(* B K P)
Film: Sudan reduces number of troops in Yemen to 5,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Ol72GhMXM
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
(A K P)
Spain: Saudi cargo ship allowed to dock despite arms to Yemen fears
Saudi state-owned ‘Bahri Abha’ arrives at port in Valencia amid concerns Spanish authorities are failing to prevent possible war crimes in Yemen
Since Yemen conflict began, same vessel has transported £120m of arms to Saudi Arabia
‘If officials allow this operation, they risk being complicit in the commission of war crimes’
and
(A K P)
Spanish activists protest against Saudi ship suspected of carrying US-made weapons for Yemen conflict
ANTI-WAR campaigners at a Spanish port today protested against the presence of a Saudi cargo ship which is suspected of carrying US and Canadian-manufactured weapons for use in the horrific war on Yemen.
(B K P)
Bundeswehr statt Saudis
Waffenproduzenten machen gemeinhin glänzende Geschäfte.
Wer aber unaufhörlich Waffen in ein Krisengebiet hineinpumpt, muss sich über Spannungen, Gefechte, Kriege, Tote nicht wundern. Auch Deutschland hat es jahrelang für opportun gehalten, Großaufträge aus Saudi-Arabien abzuarbeiten – und trug damit dazu bei, dass der Krieg im Jemen kein Ende nimmt. Erst die Ermordung des regimekritischen Publizisten Jamal Kashoggi hat zu einem vorläufigen Stopp deutscher Lieferungen geführt. Für die USA und Frankreich reichte es nicht einmal dafür. Aber das darf für uns keine Rechtfertigung sein. Deutsche Waffen gehören nicht nach Saudi-Arabien – sondern lieber in die Bundeswehr. Die braucht bekanntlich funktionierendes Material – von Hajo Zenker
https://www.schwaebische-post.de/politik/bundeswehr-statt-saudis/1848196/
(B K P)
SCHWEIZER SCHIFF SOLL WAFFEN NACH SAUDI-ARABIEN GEBRACHT HABEN
Die Waffen sollen für die Saudische Armee bestimmt gewesen sein
Ein Schweizer Hochseeschiff soll Waffen nach Saudi-Arabien transportiert haben. Laut Recherchen des Sonntagsblicks läuft deshalb bei Massoel eine interne Untersuchung. Massoel ist die Muttergesellschaft der Firma, zu welcher die Hochseeschiffe gehören.
Konkret soll eines der Schiffe serbische Mörsergranaten an Bord mitgeführt haben. Der Schweizer Tanker hat diese offenbar von Bulgarien über Istanbul nach Saudi-Arabien gebracht. Der Empfänger sei die Saudische Armee gewesen.
cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
(B K pH)
Film: The old souqs of Saada is a historical legacy that the aggression raids turned into ruins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfkpmvhCXOo
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
(A T)
Much to note in new 27-minute #AQAP #Yemen video -Ops in Abyan vs #UAE-backed forces & Bayda vs Houthis & #ISIS. Some date back -Speeches of dead leaders inspire, incl Zarqawi -Traditional melodies infused with #jihad lyrics -Al-Qusi links fight to #Palestine -12 martyrs named
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1204446420180328452
(A T)
#ISIS #Yemen is apparently still able to run training courses. 9 new photos of graduation from artillery course in al-Bayda'. Max 5 students. Comes a month after 2 cohorts graduated from sniper & explosives courses (may be same students). Wonder who's printing the coursebooks... (photos)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1204386444380377088
#ISIS artillery classes in #Yemen may be paying off... ISIS praises Allah for a direct mortar hit on #alQaeda in Tabbat Jalajil (second time in a week that it has targeted #AQAP there). 1 killed, 2 injured (photos)
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1204393128532291584
(A T)
#AlQaeda is keeping up its niggling against #ISIS in #Yemen. It claims that on Saturday it bombed ISIS "Kharijites" and killed 1 by sniper in locations in Upper Qayfa in al-Bayda'
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1204110720041963521
(A T)
After a long silence (or just poor comms) #ISIS is back on offensive against #AlQaeda in #Yemen -Attack Friday on Tabbat Jalajil killed 1 #AQAP, injured 1 -Artillery attack Wednesday on Sha'b Jalajil killed 1 & injured 1 Possible that claims refer to same op as released same day
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1203363780308164609
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
One full year since signing of Stockholm agreement, escalation again in Hodeida
The government’s forces and the Saudi-led coalition deny targeting citizens’ houses.
They say that the Houthis militants abuse the Stockholm agreement and keep violating it since its signing in December 2018.
The UN always keeps silence towards the Houthis’ breaching to the Stockholm agreement.
Yet, Chief of the United Nations Mission in Hodeida, Abhijt Guha released several statements accusing both parties of escalation and military mobilization.
Spokesman of the government’s joint forces in Hodeida, Wadah Al-Dabaish held the UN and its special envoy to Yemen, liability to stumbling of the Stockholm agreement implementation.
He said that the Houthis have no desire to peace and that they only care for Iran’s interests.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36751
(A P)
NSHR Chairman: KSA is Keen to Implement Human Rights Development
Dr. Mufleh Rabian Al-Qahtani, Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), affirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks to implement human rights and economic development steps in accordance with the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and HRH the Crown Prince.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2009494
(A P)
King Salman: The Kingdom will continue to support Yemen to ensure security and stability
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz, during his opening speech at the 40th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit held in Riyadh on Tuesday, stressed that the Gulf countries must unite against the Iranian regime’s aggression in the region.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/15010
(A P)
Why does the UN hate us?
"In many cities like Sana'a and Aden, humanitarian aid from the UN reaches every home." "And houses stuffed over capacity with double donations sell extra cooking oil, rice and flour to shopkeepers. Although Taiz is the worst affected by this war, the UN does not have us in its mind."
Rayed Salah, 34 year old activist from the city, says, "the UN is more concerned about lifting the blockade of Sana'a airport which Houthis want to use for smuggling in arms than its concern about ending the extremists' siege on our city."
"The UN tendency to ignore the Houthi siege and concomitant miseries of it on Taiz is now more widely noticed and more exclamatory."
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36725
My comment: Of course, the suffering of people at Taiz are real. But the tendency of this report is propaganda.
(A P)
UAE is fully committed to noble values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence: Nahyan bin Mubarak
Tolerance in the UAE is living in peace with others, respecting their beliefs and cultures, and protecting their places of worship, with a conscious awareness that pluralism and diversity are sources of strength for human societies, said Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, while inaugurating the sixth annual Assembly of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies in Abu Dhabi, with the participation of key religious leaders and spiritual thinkers from around the world.
http://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302809189
(A P)
Cheney warns disengagement in Mideast benefits Iran, Russia
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned Monday that “American disengagement” in the Middle East will benefit only Iran and Russia, indirectly criticizing President Donald Trump’s pledges to pull forces out of the region.
While stressing that he’s no longer in government, Cheney’s comments in Dubai cut to the core of several policies taken by Trump, including the sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria.
The former vice president mentioned Trump by name only once in praising him for pulling out the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. But Cheney’s backing of a muscular military response in the Mideast starkly contrasts Trump’s promises to pull America from what he calls the Mideast’s “blood-stained sands.”
https://apnews.com/580272c70e1b733c6b7af6c0e6c7e155
My comment: A zombie of the past appears again.
(A P)
[Hadi gov.] Info Minister: Houthis use Iranian arms to kill Yemenis, attack neighboring countries#
Yemen’s Information Minister said Friday the arms shipment Iran recently attempted to smuggle to its Houthi agents in Yemen refutes the rebel militia’s rhetoric on peace.
Muammar Al-Eryan’s made the statements to Saba a day after the U.S. released first photos of ‘sophisticated Iranian weapons’ including big quantities of missile parts that the US Navy had seized on a boat en route to Yemen.
“The Houth militia use these arms to kill Yemenis، attack neighboring countries، and intimidate international shipping.”
and more https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-36684
(A P)
More Saudi coalition „We are benefactors“ propaganda
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14999
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008874
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008873
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008867
http://en.adenpress.news/news/14996
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008046
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/ksrelief-supports-yemeni-health-sector-16-ambulances-enar
http://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302808471
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=200792
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
(* A K pH)
Saudi coalition air raids and shelling day by day
Dec. 8: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000../1501723026644724/
Dec. 7: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000../1500610060089354
Dec. 6: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000../1499457526871274/
Dec. 5: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000../1499457030204657/
Dec. 4: https://www.facebook.com/lcrdye/photos/pb.551288185021551.-2207520000../1499456540204706/
(* B K)
Russian Citizen Reveals to RT: When living in Yemen, 2 Employees of Relief Organization Inquired about Journalist Sabri before Saudi Air Strike
A Russian citizen revealed that a man and woman from a relief organization visited the building where the journalist Abdullah Sabri lived three days before he was targeted by an air strike of US-Saudi aggression.
"The neighbors told us that a man and woman from a relief organization went to the building to inquire about its residents and were looking for a journalist working for (Ansarullah) media," said Dr. Shams Al-Nuaimi in a statement to the Arabic-speaking channel Russia Today today. "Three days after they came, the house was bombed by an air strike."
The criminal report issued by the Ministry of the Interior revealed that the center of the missile explosion that occurred on the building of Haj Hassan Al-Azzi was in the apartment of journalist Abdullah Sabri and his family, which confirms the deliberate targeting, contrary to the claim of the spokesman of the aggression coalition, who at the time claimed that the raid was wrong.
Mother of Sabri and his two sons, Louay and Hassan, was killed in the raid, while Sabri, the head of the Yemeni Media Union, sustained fractures and cuts to his legs, and he is still undergoing physical therapy.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10147
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1b
(A K pH)
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Shida district, damaging a school.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10174
(* B K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression Carried out 7 Thousands and 628 Hostile Operations in October
The report of the Team for Foreign Communications stated that, during the month of October 2019, the US-Saudi aggression carried out 7 thousands and 628 hostile operation, including air strikes, missile and artillery shelling in the country. The Director General of Air Transport at the General Authority of Civil Aviation, Dr. Mazen Al-Soufi, stressed during an event held in the capital, Sana'a, about the role of Yemeni activists abroad who oppose the aggression,
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10161
(A K pH)
Spionageflugzeug der Aggression wurde gegenüber von Nadschran abgeschossen
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081273.htm
(A K pH)
Once Again, Yemeni Army Shoots Down Spy Drone off Najran
Air Defenses of the Army and Popular Committees shot down, Tuesday, a hostile spy drone, run by the US-Saudi aggression, across from Najran.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10169
and also https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081289.htm
(A K pS)
KSrelief Project "Masam" Dismantles 4,536 Mines in first week of December
King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center's project for clearing mines (Masam) in Yemen demined 4,536 mines during the first week of December 2019, including 24 antipersonnel mines, 372 anti-tank, 4,139 unexploded ordnance, and one explosive device.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2008865
(A K pH)
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted Razih district, killing a number of livestock.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10158
(A K pS)
Army defuses 1470 landmines in the stronghold of Militia in Saada
Army’s Engineering Teams have managed to extract and dismantle 1740 of landmines and explosive devices laid by Iran-allied Houthi rebels in the district of Marran, the militia stronghold, Yemen's official website of Defence Ministry reported.
http://en.26sepnews.net/2019/12/08/army-defuse-1470-landmines-in-the-stronghold-of-militia-in-saada/ = http://en.adenpress.news/news/14995
(* A K pH)
Drei afrikanische Migranten bei saudischen Artillerieangriffen auf Saada getötet
Drei afrikanische Einwanderer wurden heute getötet und andere verletzt, nachdem im Raqouq-Gebiet des Grenzbezirks Manbeh im Gouvernement Saada saudische Artilleriegeschosse abgefeuert worden waren.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081098.htm
(A K)
3 Saudi soldiers killed near Yemen border
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191208-3-saudi-soldiers-killed-near-yemen-border/
(A K PH)
In Sa'ada, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Razih district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10124
(A K pH)
Luftverteidigung schießt ein Spionageflugzeug in Dschisan
Die Luftverteidigung der Armee und der Volkskomitees hat heute ein feindliches Spionageflugzeug im Jizan-Sektor abgeschossen.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3081016.htm
(A K pH)
Army shoots down spy plane in Jizan
The air defense of the army and popular forces shot down on Saturday a spy aircraft of the Saudi-led aggression coalition in Jizan province, a military official told Saba.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3081002.htm
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* B P)
Afrah Nasser. A critical discourse analysis of how BBC World vs. Al Jazeera English Constructed Yemen’s 2011 Uprising Coverage
After some correspondence, my previous university, the University of Gothenburg just published my MA thesis. Written in 2015, titled, "Discursive Construction in Media: A critical discourse analysis of how BBC World vs. Al Jazeera English Constructed Yemen’s 2011 Uprising Coverage" discusses how, in comparison, both online media outlets covered the first 100 days of the uprising. Every chapter is dear to me but I enjoyed the most analyzing postcolonial theories & their relations to Yemen.
http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-critical-discourse-analysis-of-how.html
The way in which different media portrayed and constructed the notion of the Arab Spring has received a great deal of scholarly attention since the start of these revolutions in late 2010. However, the role of media in the news construction and framing of the Yemeni Uprising in particular has been less wellexamined; that is perhaps attributed to the fact that Yemen’s sociopolitical features are complex, and it is often an intimidating task to analyse the media’s interrelation with the country’s political developments. Hence, in tackling this gap, this thesis focuses on the first stage of Yemen’s 2011 Uprising and how media portrayed it, by specifically displaying a comparative analysis between the BBC World and Al Jazeera English onlinepublished articles during the first 100 days of the Yemeni uprising. These articles represent the initial portrayal that shaped the early understanding of the events in Yemen
https://ub016004.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/62713/1/gupea_2077_62713_1.pdf
(* B)
Feature: Nature reserves in war-ravaged Yemen face risk of abandonment
Yemeni families used to flock toward nature reserves for relaxation to heal the wounds caused by the years-long military conflict.
But the negative effects of the military conflict gradually expanded to the beautiful nature reserves in the impoverished Arab country.
In the southern port city of Aden, families are unable to visit the Huswah Nature Reserve to watch various kinds of protected animals and plants there as they used to do.
During the past years, the Huswah Nature Reserve received large swarms of migratory birds with around 150 different species but recently the number of migratory birds dwindled until 50 species, according to local officials.
They said the situation of this nature reserve deteriorated and it faces the risk of abandonment for lack of the government's support.
The number of visitors to the Huswah nature reserve in Aden significantly decreased in recent months as destruction and negligence hit many parts of the protected land.
Other residents in Aden asked the Yemeni authorities to intervene and protect the nature reserve from continuing deterioration and destruction.
"It's necessary to protect the nature reserve because it is considered as a tourist landmark that serves our economy," said Amal Ali, a female resident of Aden Province.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/09/c_138617986.htm
(A)
Government of India: Sub: Depression over southwest Arabian Sea
lay centered at 2330 hrs IST of 09th December, 2019, over southwest Arabian Sea near latitude 10.6°N and longitude 57.0°E, about 400 km east-southeast of Socotra Island (Yemen)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/sub-depression-over-southwest-arabian-sea
and
(* A)
Tropical storm #Pawan--Rains are continuing in Yemen's #Socotra for a week now, with floods damaging everything in this archipelago which has been devastated by several cyclones in recent years.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1204234012203597824
(A)
Rains are continuing to fall on Hadiboh island, part of Yemen's #Socotra archipelago, for a fifth successive day. Floods have damaged homes and roads forcing families to seek shelter on mountains.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1203234352257273856
(A H P)
Young artists and musicians in the city of #Taiz the cultural capital of #Yemen sending a message to the world to save the people trapped by the siege and armed conflict Thank you to AbdulKhalek Saif Director of the culture office for restoring hope in a destroyed city (photos)
https://twitter.com/munaluqman/status/1203211973154004992
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-604-yemen-war-mosaic-604
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-604 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-604:
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/
Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
http://yemendataproject.org/data/
Untersuchung ausgewählter Luftangriffe durch Bellingcat / Bellingcat investigations of selected air raids:
Untersuchungen von Angriffen, hunderte von Filmen / Investigations of attacks, hundreds of films:
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