... Spannungen am Golf: Trumps irrige Außenpolitik, Kriegsgefahr nimmt ab, nun geht es um Sanktionen und die Erledigung des Atomabkommens durch die Europäer
Jan. 17, 2020: Yemen: Asylum seekers’ gateway to hell – Yemen’s fractured south – How our media are covering foreign affairs (in German) – The US is droning the world – Dengue fever – Tensions at the Gulf: Trump’s crazy foreign policy, risk of war is dropping, now it’s sanctions and killing of the Nuclear deal by the Europeans
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Separatisten und Hadi-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Hadi government in Southern Yemen
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp9a1 USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf: Deutsch / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf: German
cp9a2 USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf: Englisch / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf: English
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp12b Sudan
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp15 Propaganda
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
Ältere einführende Artikel u. Überblicke für alle, die mit den Ereignissen im Jemen noch nicht vertraut sind, hier:
Yemen War: Older introductory articles, overviews, for those who are still unfamiliar with the Yemen war here:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-einfuehrende-artikel-u-ueberblicke
Neue Artikel / New articles
(* B H K P)
The Yemen Syllabus
Prepared by Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies
This document aims to guide readers toward substantive and important publications related to Yemen.
Section A includes suggestions on how to get accurate and up-to-date information on the country.
Section B lists academics and analysts who have written on Yemen.
Section C outlines what the Sana’a Center views as must-read publications on Yemen. These include books, reports and articles, broken down by theme.
https://sanaacenter.org/publications/main-publications/8569
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Jemen: Kriegsverbrechen im internationalen Fokus
Weiterhin kein Schutz und keine Gerechtigkeit für gefährdete Zivilisten
Millionen Zivilisten leiden unter dem bewaffneten Konflikt und der humanitären Krise im Jemen, trotz zunehmender Aufmerksamkeit in der ganzen Welt für die in diesem Land begangenen Menschenrechtsverletzungen, so Human Rights Watch heute in seinem World Report 2020.
Die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition und die Houthi-Rebellen, die einander seit März 2015 im Land bekämpfen, sind verantwortlich für Kriegsverbrechen und Menschenrechtsverletzungen. Tausende Zivilisten wurden in dem Konflikt getötet und verletzt. Ein Bericht der Vereinten Nationen vom September 2019 stellte fest, dass die Konfliktparteien im Jemen für eine Reihe von Menschenrechtsverletzungen und Verstößen gegen das humanitäre Völkerrecht verantwortlich seien. Bei einigen dieser Verstöße handle es sich wahrscheinlich um Kriegsverbrechen.
„Es ist bekannt, dass die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Koalition und die Houthi-Kräfte Menschen wahllos angreifen, verschwinden lassen und der jemenitischen Zivilbevölkerung den Zugang zu Lebensmitteln und Medikamenten verwehren. Dies sind nur einige der Menschenrechtsverletzungen, die sie begehen“, sagte Michael Page, stellvertretender Leiter der Abteilung Naher Osten und Nordafrika bei Human Rights Watch. „Die internationale Gemeinschaft, einschließlich der mit den Konfliktparteien verbündeten Staaten, soll all ihre Druckmittel nutzen, damit die Kriegsparteien die Menschenrechtsverletzungen stoppen und die Verantwortlichen zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden.“
Seit März 2015 hat die Koalition wahllos und unverhältnismäßig Luftangriffe durchgeführt, bei denen Tausende Zivilisten getötet und zivile Objekte getroffen wurden. Bei diesen Verstößen gegen Kriegsrecht kommt Munition zum Einsatz, die von den USA, Großbritannien und anderen Ländern erworben wurde. Der Luftangriff auf ein Gefangenenlager im August 2019, bei dem mindestens 200 Menschen getötet und verwundet wurden, war der tödlichste Einzelangriff seit Kriegsbeginn.
Houthi-Kräfte haben verbotene Antipersonenminen eingesetzt und Artilleriegeschosse wahllos auf Städte wie Taizz und Hodeida abgefeuert, wobei Zivilisten getötet und verwundet wurden. Zudem haben sie Saudi-Arabien wahllos mit ballistischen Raketen angegriffen.
Der Konflikt hat verheerende Auswirkungen auf das Leben der einfachen Bevölkerung im Jemen und hat Millionen Menschen dem Risiko einer Hungersnot ausgesetzt. Die Wirtschaft des Landes, die bereits vor dem Konflikt labil war, wurde stark in Mitleidenschaft gezogen. Hunderttausende Familien haben keine feste Einkommensquelle mehr, viele Beamte haben seit mehreren Jahren kein regelmäßiges Gehalt mehr erhalten.
Die Houthi, die jemenitische Regierung, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (VAE), Saudi-Arabien und verschiedene von den VAE und Saudi-Arabien unterstützte jemenitische bewaffnete Gruppen haben willkürlich Menschen, darunter auch Kinder, festgenommen und verschwinden lassen. Houthi-Kräfte haben Menschen als Geiseln genommen. Jemenitische Beamte in Aden haben inhaftierte Migranten und Asylsuchende vom Horn von Afrika, darunter Frauen und Kinder, geschlagen, vergewaltigt und gefoltert.
Keine Kriegspartei hat Verantwortung für Menschenrechtsverletzungen übernommen, was zu einem weitreichenden Mangel an Rechenschaftspflicht und Gerechtigkeit geführt hat.
Die jemenitische Zivilgesellschaft wird Opfer von Sicherheits- und Machtmissbrauch.
https://www.hrw.org/de/news/2020/01/14/jemen-kriegsverbrechen-im-internationalen-fokus
and English version:
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Yemen: Wartime Abuses Face Global Spotlight
Still No Protections, Justice, for Civilians at Risk
Yemen’s armed conflict and humanitarian crisis is resulting in unspeakable suffering for millions of civilians despite increasing global attention to abuses occurring in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020. The Saudi government’s murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in late 2018 galvanized the international community to scrutinize Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations in Yemen and their own potential complicity in these abuses through arms sales.
The Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi armed group fighting since March 2015 are responsible for laws-of-war violations and human rights abuses. The conflict has killed and injured thousands of civilians. A United Nations report in September 2019 found that: “parties to the conflict in Yemen are responsible for an array of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. Some of these violations are likely to amount to war crimes.”
“It’s well-established that the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi forces are indiscriminately attacking, forcibly disappearing, and obstructing food and medicine to Yemeni civilians, among other abuses,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The international community, including states allied with parties to the conflict, should use the leverage they have to press the warring parties to end their violations and ensure accountability.”
Since March 2015, the coalition has conducted scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes killing thousands of civilians and hitting civilian objects in violation of the laws of war, using munitions sold by the United States, United Kingdom, and others. The airstrike on a detention center in August 2019 that killed and wounded at least 200 people was the single deadliest attack since the war began.
Houthi forces have used banned antipersonnel landmines and fired artillery indiscriminately into cities such as Taizz and Hodeida, killing and wounding civilians, and indiscriminately launched ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia.
The conflict has had a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary Yemenis, placing millions of people at risk of famine. Yemen’s economy, already fragile prior to the conflict, has been gravely affected. Hundreds of thousands of families no longer have a steady source of income, and many public servants have not received a regular salary in several years.
Houthi forces, the Yemeni government, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and various UAE and Saudi-backed Yemeni armed groups have arbitrarily detained people, including children, and committed forced disappearances. Houthi forces have held people hostage. Yemeni officials in Aden have beaten, raped, and tortured detained migrants and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa, including women and children.
The warring parties have not acknowledged any responsibility for violations, which has resulted in a pervasive lack of accountability and justice.
Yemen’s civil society has faced security and political abuses.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/14/yemen-wartime-abuses-face-global-spotlight
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
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Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor: Ras Al Ara... Ethiopian Asylum Seekers’ Gateway to Hell
A report published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and SAM for Human Rights and Liberties revealed ten patterns of grave violations practiced against African migrants in illegal detention camps in Yemen.
The two organizations said in their joint report, entitled "Ras Al Ara... Ethiopian Immigrants’ Gateway to Hell," that for several years, Yemen has become a gateway for migrants from Africa to Saudi Arabia through a long and harsh journey fraught with risks and grave violations from various parties.
The report stated that despite all kinds of violations and risks they face during the migration journey, dozens of thousands of Africans annually attempt to immigrate to Saudi Arabia to escape poverty, security prosecutions and lack of job opportunities in their home countries..
According to the report, the economic situation is the main factor of migration from Ethiopia and all of Africa, but there are significant numbers of people fleeing serious human rights violations by their governments.
The recent years have witnessed a high rate of smuggling of African migrants, especially Ethiopians and Somalis, due to deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions in their home countries. Smugglers, who belong to Yemeni and African mafias, help the victims to get out of their country by transporting them to Yemen, via small and inadequately equipped fishing boats that take them to the Yemeni shores.
As of February 2018, Yemen was hosting about 281,000 refugees, many of whom were Somalis who are recognized as refugees and asylum seekers. The number may be much higher given the problems migrants face when registering with humanitarian agencies.
According to IOM statistics, more than 150,000 immigrants arrived in Yemen in 2018, which is a 50% increase compared to 2017. As for the year 2019, it witnessed the arrival of 107,000 until the beginning of last October.
Ras al-Ara area, a coastal area belonging to Al-Madaribah Directorate, in Lahj Governorate, in southern Yemen, is a haven for the smuggling mafia. The report confirmed that migrant smuggling gangs consider Ras al-Ara as their headquarters where they manage their criminal acts.
These gangs have established wards where African migrants and asylum-seekers are detained and are reportedly subjected to torture, beatings, and rape, and where they are prevented from food, clothing, and shelter to force them to pay money and bargain with their relatives to transfer money in exchange for the release of their relatives.
At the end of the report, the two organizations called on Yemeni authorities to shoulder their responsibilities towards what is happening on its borders
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/3323/New-Report:-Ras-Al-Ara...-Ethiopian-Asylum-Seekers%E2%80%99-Gateway-to-Hell = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/ras-al-ara-ethiopian-asylum-seekers-gateway-hell-enar
(** B K P)
Yemen’s fractured south: ACLED’s three-part series
ACLED’s three-part series exploring the fragmentation of state authority in Southern Yemen can now be accessed here in its entirety. Please find the reports below, followed by concluding analysis highlighting key findings from each of the three installments.
Part III: Aden, Abyan, and Lahij
After an initial review of the dynamics at play in the governorates of Shabwah and Hadramawt, this series on Southern Yemen looks at the island of Socotra and the easternmost governorate of Mahrah, before concluding with Aden, Abyan, and Lahij. The aim of the series is to uncover the various patterns of political violence playing out in the South of Yemen and its different actors, amid a context of increased state fragmentation exacerbated by the current conflict.
Along with the fight against militant jihadi groups, the main feature of political violence in most of Southern Yemen in the last five years has been the emergence of pro-STC and UAE-backed armed forces, which effectively operate as paramilitary forces despite being formal state actors of the Hadi government. The establishment of these forces, however, has encountered mixed results depending on local contexts. As seen in this piece, SBF, for instance, have gone rather unchallenged in Lahij, where they seem to enjoy considerable support from political elites and the population. In Abyan, the province of origin of President Hadi, they have, on the other hand, been faced with opposition by pro-Hadi forces. In Aden, they seem to have gained significant influence — they managed to overtake the city twice in the past two years — but this has been restrained by Riyadh, which cannot afford to see the Hadi government ousted from the country’s interim capital after it already lost Sana’a in 2014.
In Shabwah, if the Shabwani Elite Forces have managed to become primary actors of the governorate based on the fight against militant jihadi groups, underlying tensions with pro-Hadi forces led to outbreaks of violence in August 2019. These can arguably be explained by the economic significance of the governorate, which, in addition to housing its own oil and gas fields, also acts as a crucial gateway for the gas coming from neighboring Marib, delivered at the controversial Balhaf facility (L’Observatoire des armements, SumOfUs and Les Amis de la Terre France, 7 November 2019). Control over Shabwah therefore yields economic power.
On the other hand, clashes did not erupt in neighboring Hadramawt, where Hadrami Elite Forces (HEF) also established themselves as primary actors after ousting AQAP from its capital Mukalla in April 2015. Unlike in Shabwah, a tacit understanding seems to exist between pro-Hadi and HEF in Hadramawt. Despite recurrent calls from the STC leadership for the takeover of inland Hadramawt by the HEF, the latter remains focused on the coastal regions, while pro-Hadi forces operate mostly in Hadramawt Valley and the upper desert areas. Arguably, the strong subnational Hadrami identity also prevents a splitting up of the governorate.
In Socotra and Mahrah, the establishment of local pro-STC forces has been much less successful. Despite initial reports on the formation of ‘Socotri Elite Forces’, pro-STC forces on the island are now referred to as SBF. If their successes in establishing positions and gaining popularity is yet not entirely clear, a spike in protests calling for the dismissal of the local governor has been registered by ACLED since June 2019, coinciding with the arrival of SBF on the island. In Mahrah, initial reports of the formation of Mahri Elite Forces in February 2019 never materialized. All Saudi-led coalition activity in the governorate is being faced with strong popular opposition, which is likely, at least in part, instrumentalized by neighboring Oman. Former Deputy for Desert Affairs Ali Salim Al-Hurayzi, for instance, announced the creation of the Southern National Salvation Council in October 2019 as a rival to the STC, which he accuses of being a foreign agent in Yemen (Masa Press, 6 November 2019).
If similarities can be found across most governorates, the above shows that Southern Yemen cannot be addressed as a monolithic unit of study. Despite actors such as the STC claiming to be the sole representative of the Southern people, the specificities of each local context needs to be taken into account in any attempt at stabilizing Southern Yemen.
https://www.acleddata.com/2020/01/16/yemens-fractured-south-acleds-three-part-series/ = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-s-fractured-south-acled-s-three-part-series
(** B P)
Florian Zollmann über Auslandsberichterstattung: „Das führt zum Versagen der Demokratie“
Wie sieht es aus, wenn Medien mit zweierlei Maß messen? Darauf gibt der Journalismusforscher Florian Zollmann im NachDenkSeiten-Interview Antworten. Unter anderem anhand der Beispiele Afghanistan, Frankreich und Syrien zeigt Zollmann, der an der Newcastle University in England lehrt, wie Medien die Realität auf den Kopf stellen.
FZ: Die Medien berichten nicht objektiv und nicht ausgewogen über globale Ereignisse. Wie wir in unserem letzten Interview festgestellt haben, sind Nachrichten das Resultat einer vorherrschenden Ideologie und Kultur. Miteinander verbundene Interessen aus Politik und Wirtschaft beeinflussen die Medien in ihrer Eigenschaft als Quellen des „objektiven“ Journalismus. Aber auch Eigentumsstrukturen, Anteilseignung, Werbeabhängigkeit, Netzwerke und Lobbying spielen eine Rolle. Diese Faktoren führen zu einer allgemeinen ideologischen Stoßrichtung der Nachrichteninhalte: bestimmte Sachverhalte und Fakten werden hervorgehoben andere bagatellisiert.
In großen Teilen der deutschen Medienkultur gilt die Auffassung, dass der von den USA angeführte Westen beim „Krieg gegen den Terror“ in Afghanistan und anderen Ländern mit grundsätzlich „guten“ Absichten auftritt. Demnach ginge es bei dem Einsatz, an dem sich ja auch Deutschland seit Dezember 2001 beteiligt, darum, Terroristen zu bekämpfen und beispielsweise in Afghanistan für Frieden, Sicherheit und Stabilität zu sorgen. Auch konzentriert sich die Berichterstattung auf die Taliban, die in den Medien als „Killer“ und „Feinde der Menschlichkeit“ bezeichnet und daher, so wird es suggeriert, von unseren Soldaten bekämpft werden müssen. Es mag erstaunlich klingen: Die in der deutschen Medienberichterstattung über Afghanistan verwendeten ideologischen Erklärungsmuster ähneln zum Teil den Diskursen der sowjetischen Staatspresse. Das zeigt eine Studie des britischen Medienwachhundes Media Lens, die die sowjetische Medienberichterstattung über die sowjetische Intervention in Afghanistan in den 1980er Jahren mit der westlichen Medienberichterstattung der US-angeführten Intervention in Afghanistan in den 2000er Jahren vergleicht. 1979 marschierten sowjetische Truppen in Afghanistan ein, um einen Aufstand militanter Gruppen, der auch zukünftige Führer der Taliban miteinbezog, zu bekämpfen. Die auf den Einmarsch folgende Besatzung dauerte bis 1989 und hatte verheerende Folgen für das Land. Staatsgesteuerte sowjetische Presseorgane wie Krasnaya Zvezda oder Pravda bezeichneten die sowjetische Militärkampagne in Afghanistan als eine friedenssichernde Mission. Laut der Sowjetpresse sei es bei der Intervention darum gegangen, afghanische Zivilisten vor Jihadisten und Terroristen zu schützen und für Sicherheit in der Region und in der russischen Heimat zu sorgen. Über die enorme Zahl getöteter Afghanen, die auf 1.5 Millionen geschätzt wird, berichteten die Sowjetmedien kaum.
So ist es, aber auch bei uns werden solche Zahlen unter den Teppich gekehrt. Konservative Schätzungen gehen davon aus, dass seit Beginn des „Krieg gegen den Terror“ 480.000 Menschen durch direkte Gewalt in Afghanistan, Pakistan und Irak getötet wurden, wobei die Zahl der indirekten Todesfälle (durch Krankheit, Vertreibung und Zerstörung vitaler Infrastruktur) wohl im Millionenbereich liegt. Durch das von US-Präsident Barack Obama durchgeführte Drohnen-Programm wurden innerhalb von fünf Jahren 2.400 Menschen in Pakistan, Jemen und Somalia getötet, viele davon Zivilisten. Nach Angaben der New American Foundation handelte es sich nur bei etwa 3 Prozent (51 Personen) der getöteten in Pakistan um „Führer der Militanten“ von denen 30 Mitglieder von Al-Qaida waren.
Wie gehen Medien nun mit diesen Fakten um?
Sie spielen sie runter. Genauso wie die Frage, ob es sich beim „Krieg gegen den Terror“ um ein global-hegemoniales Projekt des Westens handeln könnte. Daten des Costs of War Projects zeigen: US-amerikanische „Antiterror“-Einheiten sind derzeit weltweit in 76 Ländern (39% des Erdballs) stationiert. Von dort aus werden Drohnen- und Luftschläge koordiniert und paramilitärische Milizen ausgebildet. Ein Netz von 700-800 US-Militärbasen dient der Projektion und Sicherung westlicher Macht. Und genau diese Politik erhöht die Wahrscheinlichkeit für Terroranschläge im Westen. Das belegt eine der wohl bisher umfangreichsten Studien über Selbstmordterroristen, durchgeführt von Robert A. Pape, Professor für Politikwissenschaft an der University of Chicago. Pape verweist auf eine eindeutige Beziehung zwischen westlichen Militärbesatzungen und Selbstmordterrorismus (Pape hat in seiner Studie 315 Selbstmordattentate zwischen 1980 und 2003 untersucht). Demnach sei das Hauptmotiv des Selbstmordterrorismus ein säkulares und strategisches Ziel: moderne Demokratien sollen gezwungen werden, ihre militärischen Kräfte von dem Hoheitsgebiet abzuziehen, das die Terroristen als ihr Heimatland ansehen. Dennoch hören wir in den Medien immer wieder, die westliche Staatengemeinschaft und insbesondere Deutschland müssten mehr Präsenz zeigen, um in anderen Ländern für Frieden und Stabilität zu sorgen.
In den Medien war immer wieder zu hören, der Westen habe nicht genug getan, um das Blutbad in Syrien zu stoppen.
Diese Sichtweise stellt die Realität auf den Kopf.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57678
(** B K P)
Tomgram: Allegra Harpootlian, Droning the World
“Be assured of one thing: whichever candidate you choose at the polls in November, you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief... In previous eras... presidents either stayed above the assassination fray or practiced a kind of plausible deniability about the acts. We are surely at a new stage in the history of the imperial presidency when a president (or his election team) assembles his aides, advisors, and associates to foster a story that’s meant to broadcast the group’s collective pride in the new position of assassin-in-chief.”
Note that I wrote that not last week when President Donald Trump ordered a CIA drone to take out Iranian Major General Qassem Suleimani, but in June 2012 after the New York Times published a reasonably glowing piece about President Barack Obama’s deep involvement in the process of “nominating” those to be killed by CIA drones halfway around the world.
How the President Became a Drone Operator
From Obama to Trump, the Escalation of Drone Warfare
When I first started writing this piece, I was simply reflecting on a decade of U.S. drone warfare and the problems it had spawned. But when this world-altering news broke, I immediately started thinking about how I got here, as well as how my country could continue to recklessly breed chaos and destruction throughout the Greater Middle East.
New decades afford us a chance to take a good, hard look at what transpired in the years past. Until that strike in Iraq occurred, it seemed like every time I opened Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram in the new year, I was inundated with sentimental reflections about how far we’ve come in the last 10 years and where we’re going next. And I get it. I really do. It’s the beginning of a new decade and nostalgia is in the air.
The “Precision” of Drone Warfare
In 2013, when discussing the high number of civilian casualties from drone strikes, the president defended them by claiming that “conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones and are likely to cause more civilian casualties and more local outrage.” That same year, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates declared, “You can far more easily limit collateral damage with a drone than you can with a bomb, even a precision-guided munition, off an airplane.” Or, as former CIA Director Leon Panetta put it, “I think this is one of the most precise weapons that we have in our arsenal.”
If it sounded too good to be true, that’s because it was and still is.
When political scientists Micah Zenko and Amelia Wolf did a careful analysis of this claim for the Council on Foreign Relations, they found that “the White House is deeply misleading about the precision of drone strikes. They are, in fact, roughly thirty times more likely to result in a civilian fatality than an airstrike by a manned aircraft.”
Drone War Escalates Under Trump
Almost as alarming as the rate of civilian casualties from drone and other air strikes in the Obama years was the lack of information provided about them.
Soon after President Trump took office, his administration began to quietly dismantle the safeguards Obama had just created. His administration would subsequently expand the battlefields on which drones would be used, ease combat rules in Somalia intended to protect civilians, rescind most aspects of Obama’s executive orders, and stop publishing civilian casualty data entirely, while telling the public even less about the program.
And as the new decade began, President Trump not only carried out a drone strike so drastic and rare that many experts believed it was a straightforward act of (and declaration of) war, but also threatened to bomb non-military targets (“cultural” sites), a move which is generally considered a war crime under international law.
In its recklessness and brutality, Trump’s escalating drone war should remind us all of just how dangerous it is when a president claims the legal authority to kill in secret and no one can stop him. Maybe this decade we’ll learn our lesson – By Allegra Harpootlian
https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176649/tomgram%3A_allegra_harpootlian%2C_droning_the_world/#more
cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics
(* B H)
Outbreak update – Cholera in Yemen, 17 November 2019
The Ministry of Public Health and Population of Yemen reported 11 531 suspected cases with four associated deaths during epidemiological week 46 (11 – 17 November) of 2019 with 11% of the cases reported as severe. The cumulative total number of suspected cholera cases from 1 January 2018 to 17 November 2019 is 1 165 823, with 1511 associated deaths (case-fatality rate of 0.13%). Children under five represent 26.1% of the total suspected cases during 2019. The outbreak has affected 22 of the 23 governorates and 311 of the 333 districts of Yemen.
Suspected cholera cases at the country level started to be increasingly reported from week eight of 2019 and the trend continued until week 14 when the number of cases reached more than 29 500, the highest number of cases reported so far in a single week. The number of suspected cases fluctuated over the following period with the trend now considered as stable during the past three weeks based on the average number of cases calculated between weeks 44 and 46.
(** B H)
Mindestens 78 Kinder sterben an Dengue-Fieber
Die Kinderrechtsorganisation Save the Children warnt vor einer Dengue-Epidemie im Jemen. Vergangenes Jahr starben mindestens 78 Kinder unter 16 Jahren an Dengue-Fieber
Die Kinderrechtsorganisation Save the Children warnt vor einer Dengue-Epidemie im Jemen. Im vergangenen Jahr starben mindestens 78 Kinder unter 16 Jahren in dem Bürgerkriegsland an Dengue-Fieber. Hinzu kommen nach Angaben des jemenitischen Gesundheitsministeriums mindestens 52.000 Verdachtsfälle. Die Virus-Infektion betrifft fast alle Gouvernorate des Jemen. Am stärksten betroffen sind Hodeidah und Aden, wo insgesamt 60 Prozent der landesweiten Todesfälle registriert wurden. Immer mehr Kinder und Erwachsene werden mit Symptomen von Dengue-Fieber in Kliniken eingeliefert.
„In den Krankenhäusern hört man Kinder vor Schmerzen weinen“, berichtet die Projektmitarbeiterin von Save the Children in Hodeidah, Mariam Aldogani. „Die Krankenhäuser sind voll, zum Teil müssen Patienten auf dem Boden liegen. Wir erhalten täglich Berichte über Todesfälle in abgelegenen Gebieten des Gouvernorats. Hodeidah hat die zweithöchste Todesrate mit insgesamt 62 Erwachsenen und Kindern. Wir haben sowas noch nicht erlebt. Mehr als 40 unserer Mitarbeiter und ihre Familien sind von dem Fieber betroffen“, sagt Aldogani, die selbst Dengue-Fieber hatte.
„Einige unserer Gesundheitszentren arbeiten rund um die Uhr. Letzte Woche wurden in einer einzigen Einrichtung 30 Fälle an einem Tag registriert, die meisten davon waren Kinder. Die Wirtschaftskrise verschärft die Lage. Viele Eltern können es sich nicht leisten, ihre Kinder ins Krankenhaus zu bringen oder Medikamente zu kaufen.“ Landesweit starben im vergangenen Jahr 192 Menschen an Dengue-Fieber.
Save the Children unterstützt derzeit 48 Gesundheitseinrichtungen in Hodeidah, die im vergangenen Jahr mehr als 6000 Verdachtsfälle von Dengue-Fieber verzeichneten. Die Kinderrechtsorganisation verteilt dort und in anderen Einsatzgebieten medizinische Hilfsgüter und sensibilisiert Pflegekräfte sowie freiwillige Helfer für den Umgang mit Dengue-Fieber und anderen hämorrhagischen Fiebern.
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/mindestens-78-kinder-sterben-an-dengue-fieber
und kürzer auch https://www.vaticannews.va/de/welt/news/2020-01/jemen-save-the-children-warnt-vor-dengue-epidemie.html
https://www.dw.com/de/viele-tote-durch-dengue-fieber-im-jemen/a-52027047
(** B H)
At least 78 children died of dengue related illness in Yemen
Save the children warns of an epidemic, as 52,000 suspected cases are recorded in the country.
Seventy-eight children under 16 have already died in the outbreak of Dengue related illness in Yemen[i], with more than 52,000 suspected cases being recorded across the country. Save the Children warned this could signal the start of an epidemic.
Heavy rainfall, coupled with the ongoing conflict, is disrupting clean water supplies. Because of the disruptions, people use water basins to collect rainwater and these uncovered water sources combined with the rain have contributed to the spread of mosquitoes in the affected areas, resulting in an upsurge in suspected dengue cases.
If measures are not urgently put in place to strengthen the health care system so that cases can be detected early, the death total which reached 192 people by the end of 2019, could increase sharply. Cases have been recorded in almost all governorates in Yemen with the most affected being Hodeidah and Aden which recorded more than 60% of the deaths in the country.
Save the Children Hodeidah Field Manager Mariam Aldogani, herself recovering from Dengue fever, said:
“Hodeidah has the second highest death rate in the country with 62 adult and children deaths in 2019. We have never seen anything like this before. More than 40 of our staff including their families have been affected by the fever. We are getting reports of deaths on a daily basis in remote areas of the governorate. Some of our health facilities are working 24 hours a day and last week one of our facilities recorded 30 cases in one day, most of which were children.
“The economic situation in the country has not made it any better for people. Parents cannot afford to bring their children to the hospital or to buy the medication. Hospitals are full, and some patients are kept in hospitals having to lay on the floor because of a bed shortage. It’s really bad. Children as young as eight months have not been spared by the dengue fever. In some of the hospitals all you can hear are children crying in pain. We are currently supporting 48 health facilities in Hodeidah which recorded more than 6000 Dengue fever suspected cases in 2019.”
Save the Children's health centres have been receiving many cases of children suffering from dengue, and its teams on the ground are diagnosing and treating patients whilst referring the most severe cases.
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/least-78-children-died-dengue-related-illness-yemen
cp1b Am wichtigsten: Kampf um Hodeidah / Most important: Hodeidah battle
(A K pH)
Saudi-Emirati Mercenaries Develop New Military Fortifications in Hodeidah
A military source confirmed that a military bulldozer that belongs to the coalition forces had developed new fortifications near kylo 16.
The source indicated that the coalition forces had also developed new military fortifications southwest Maghazi village in Hayis district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10794
(A K pS)
Video: Houthis create new outposts in Hodeidah
As part of its continuous escalation and violations, the Iran-backed Houthi coupist militia have created new military positions, tunnels and trenches in areas under direct supervision of the United Nations monitoring team in Kilo 16 area in the eastern side of Hodeidah.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17259
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m00D7sNy7M = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVgajpmrT0
(A K pH)
In Hodeidah setzen Aggressionkräfte die Verstöße fort
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3085015.htm
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Wednesday, January 15th, 2020
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10784
(A K pS)
Six children injured in Houthi mine blast on West Coast
Local sources said that the children were hit in the explosion of a landmine planted by the terrorist Houthi militia in front of their house in al-Safi village before the liberation of the region.
The Houthi laid-mine blew up while the children were playing. they were taken immediately to Mocha field hospital for medical treatment.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17257
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh017Si7Kdo
(A K pS)
Houthis continue to breach Hodeidah ceasefire
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17251
(A K pH)
Verstöße der Aggressionstruppen setzt in Hodeidah fort
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3084876.htm
(A K pH)
US-Saudi Aggression’s Daily Update for Monday, January 14th, 2020
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10769
cp2 Allgemein / General
(* A K P)
Interactive Map of Yemen War
(* A K)
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON JANUARY 16, 2020 (MAP UPDATE)
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-january-16-2020-map-update/
MILITARY SITUATION IN YEMEN ON JANUARY 15, 2020 (MAP UPDATE)
https://maps.southfront.org/military-situation-in-yemen-on-january-15-2020-map-update/
(* B K P)
Yemen in Focus: Cable damage wipes out 80% of country's internet connectivity
This week we focus on Yemen's days-long internet outage, another year of humanitarian catastrophe and more.
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
(A K P)
US-Saudi aggression continues to prevent 9 ships loaded with oil derivatives and food off Jizan port.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10784
(* A K P)
Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen Continues Due to Naval Blockade
In a continuous challenge to international conventions and norms, the US-Saudi aggression continues to prevent dozens of ships loaded with oil derivatives, food and medicine from entering the port of Hodeidah in western Yemen, which reflected on the lives of citizens, and increased their human suffering.
Despite the briefing of the UN envoy for Yemen to the Security Council in October that talked about the entry of oil ships to avoid a fuel crisis in the country, the aggression countries continue to tighten their blockade, through maritime piracy of a number of oil ships, and seize more than 231,000 tons of gasoline and diesel.
"There are food and wheat products that are held for different periods. The number of ships increases and decreases due to the arrival of ships to the area of detention and the release of some ships, but in general it can be said that not less than 10 or 12 ships are still detained and this number reaches 16 ships at times," Yahya Sharaf El-Din, Vice-Chairman of the Red Sea Ports Authority said.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10753
and what the Hadi government and Saudi media make of the fuel crisis:
(A E P)
Houthi Militias Trigger Gas Crisis to Revive Yemen’s Black Market
Houthi militias have created a new fuel crisis in areas under their control in a move that will not only increase the suffering of the population, but also reinvigorate the black market.
Gas stations in Sanaa and other areas have been shuttered for two days despite the legitimate government confirming that fuel stocks available in coup areas are sufficient until the middle of next March.
The economic committee at the internationally-recognized government accused Houthis of “creating a fuel crisis in areas under their control in order to boost black market transactions.”
and also https://al-masdaronline.net/national/253
and
(* A E P)
Yemen’s Economic Committee accuses Houthis of manufacturing a fuel crisis
The EC [Hadi gov. Economic Council] posted an infographic infographic claiming that 919,300 tons of fuel were imported to Houthi authorities from Oct. 1 to Jan. 10, which the committee said is enough fuel to cover civilian and humanitarian needs until mid-March. However, the United Nations Verification and Inspections Mechanism (UNVIM), which monitors all cargo entering Yemen’s Red Sea ports, shows that only 668,000 tons of fuel were imported to Houthi-controlled areas from Oct. 1 to Jan. 7. While the UN's estimate is considerably lower than the EC’s, it is still shows that fuel shipments since October have exceeded the average monthly commercial fuel imports to Houthi territory, which the UN estimates at about 160,000 tons per month. Houthi fuel imports fell below that threshold in January, April and September of 2019 (and several more times in 2018), leading the Houthis to accuse the Yemeni government of purposefully restricting the energy supplies.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37335
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
(* B H)
UN flags famine alarm signals in Yemen
A senior UN official warned Thursday that certain key factors that threatened to trigger famine last year in Yemen were once again looming large, including a plunge in the value of the national currency.
"With a rapidly depreciating rial and disrupted salary payments, we are again seeing some of the key conditions that brought Yemen to the brink of famine a year ago," Ramesh Rajasingham, who coordinates humanitarian aid in the war-torn country, told the UN Security Council.
"We must not let that happen again," he said during a video conference.
"The World Food Programme and its partners are providing food assistance to more than 12 million people every month across the country," he said.
"With support from humanitarian agencies, seven million people are able to access clean drinking water. Some 1.2 million medical consultations take place every month, and more than 2,000 health facilities are receiving support," he added.
He said that in 2020, Yemen "will remain the world's largest humanitarian crisis ... Altogether, we aim to assist 15.6 million people this year. That's about half the population."
The UN official also denounced obstruction of aid deliveries, citing bureaucratic hurdles, harassment of aid workers and violence against humanitarian agencies. "Access constraints are affecting 6.7 million people who need assistance across the country. This figure has never been so high," he said.
In the north of the country, where Huthi rebels are in control, Rajasingham said that "serious problems persist."
"Too many staff are harassed and threatened. Others are arbitrarily detained or unable to move freely, sometimes for extended periods. Humanitarian premises have been forcibly entered. Missions continue to be delayed or cancelled, which means people don't receive the help they need on time."
https://www.france24.com/en/20200116-un-flags-famine-alarm-signals-in-yemen
My remark: For the UN Security Council session in full, look at cp7.
(B H)
Film (Arabic): In response to the appeal of the people, the Emirati Red Crescent is running a mobile clinic to the two regions (Nuba Amer, Al-Kudhaha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTV9Nj6CT5c
(* B H)
'Mercy flights' offer hope to sick Yemenis as violence begins to wane
About 30 sick Yemenis are expected to leave the country's Houthi-held capital for treatment abroad within the coming weeks, in a sign of easing tensions in the drawn-out conflict.
Speaking at a Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said the war-torn country was experiencing one of the "quietest" periods in the war that erupted in late 2014, making the so-called "mercy flights" possible.
"These flights will transport patients who need medical attention unavailable in Yemen to agreed locations abroad," said Griffiths, who praised cooperation between the UN's World Health Organization (WHO), Yemen's government and its rebel Houthi adversaries.
"We are now very close to seeing the first flight move 30 patients who are waiting in Sanaa for their treatment. I really hope that by the time we meet next month we will have seen the first flight."
Civilians suffering from diabetes and other maladies have struggled to get treatment at Yemen's health centres for years.
Flights out of Houthi-held Sanaa have been blocked by the Saudi-led coalition that has waged a deadly air campaign to restore the country's ousted government.
The development comes amid a drawdown in the violence that has plagued Yemen since 2014 and some diplomatic gains in recent months between Riyadh, the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, Yemen's government and southern separatists.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yemen-mercy-flights-offer-hopes-conflict-drawdown
(B H)
Thalassemia Patients Association Launches Appeal to Save Lives of Thousands of Patients
The Thalassemia Patient Care Association and the Genetic Blood Center launched an urgent appeal to donate blood to save the lives of thousands of patients.
The Association confirmed in a statement today that the National Center for Blood Transfusion and Research suffers from scarcity in the blood supply and its derivatives, and the increasing demand for it in light of the current conditions the country is going through, which increases the center’s fears that it will not to be able to provide services to thousands of patients, especially thalassemia patients.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10767
(A H)
UNFPA Scales Up Lifesaving Services for Women and Girls in Yemen with Support from the United Arab Emirates
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund welcomed the generous contribution of US$25 million from the United Arab Emirates to scale up assistance to the most vulnerable women and girls with lifesaving reproductive health and protection services in Yemen.
The funding comes at a critical time as Yemen’s conflict has left the health, in particular reproductive health and protection systems on the verge of collapse with far reaching consequences on women and girls. Only one-third of the functioning health facilities provide reproductive health services; while the breakdown of protection systems has made women and girls more vulnerable to violence and abuse.
The funding enables UNFPA to improve access to reproductive health and protection services in the most vulnerable communities, helping to reach more than 2.5 million people within six months.
My comment: The UN is taking blood money, again and again.
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR Yemen Situation: 2020 Funding Update (as of 8 January 2020)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/unhcr-yemen-situation-2020-funding-update-8-january-2020
(* B H)
One of 3.65 Million Stories: A Yemeni Journey of Displacement
On returning from work one evening, my house was unusually quiet. Only my sister was home, and she was packing up a few things. I knew immediately my parents had taken the decision she and I had been resisting for weeks: we were leaving the home I had grown up in. Armed fighters on every street, especially those visible from our second-story windows on the roof of the house next door, made it unwise to stay any longer. It was March 2015, and the war clearly was coming our way.
I packed a few things, some clothes, my passport, university certificates, photographs, and headed through the darkness of a power outage to an empty flat my father had rented a few blocks away in my city of Taiz, the start of my journey as an “internally displaced person” – an IDP in humanitarian agency shorthand, a statistic in Yemen’s war.
Through nearly five years of conflict, an estimated 3.65 million Yemenis have been displaced.[1] Some, like me and my family, eventually joined the Yemeni diaspora, more than 375,000 people scattered in Ethiopia, Oman, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and elsewhere.[2] But poverty and the sheer difficulty of traveling out of the country has left far more people who are trying to escape active frontlines moving about inside Yemen, renting rooms and flats, moving in with relatives, filling IDP camps and shelters.
Conditions vary as much as individual stories do, but according to a recent report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, IDPs in rural Yemen tend to have fewer services and work opportunities, and are more reliant on humanitarian aid; those moving to Yemen’s cities generally do so for a better chance at finding work. Many IDPs, especially those from rural areas who owned land, said they hoped to return home; others are working to build new lives in new cities.[3]
Making Plans for a New Life, Away from Yemen
It was mid-May, and as I wrote on Twitter at the time, “things were on fire” in Taiz, and my parents decided returning had been a mistake. With no good options, we left again, passing cars that were lined up for a couple kilometers over the mountain waiting for petrol to arrive, and returned to the same hotel in Ibb. Soon after, my parents spotted several armed men in the hotel lobby. They were Houthi fighters meeting up with a senior officer to receive their salaries. We quickly packed up and left to find another hotel away from fighters or their camps. A couple days later, not finding a suitable place for a long stay, my brother called the hotel to ensure the fighters had left, and we returned.
We spent most of our time in our rooms, with only my older brother going out to buy food. We heard distant airstrikes, but there was no active fighting nearby. Several displaced families from Taiz had taken refuge in the hotel. It wasn’t long before a nearby camp came under heavy airstrikes and hotel staff guided us to the basement. About 20 women and children already were downstairs. I asked about their plans; everyone said their stay in Ibb was temporary, to wait for passports to be issued or to prepare to head for the border with Saudi Arabia to stay with family there. Others hoped to return to Taiz. Our plan was still developing.
My mother interrupted, the bombing had stopped and she told my sister and me it was time to leave this hotel. She had been walking around the farms the day before when she heard a rumor the coalition would bomb a camp near the hotel and also the hotel itself, which the woman who shared the rumor said was Houthi-owned. With the first part of the rumor proving true, we no longer felt safe and packed, again, unsure where we were going. As we drove through Ibb, my father settled on Sana’a, where my two other brothers were living. The 13 of us moved into the duplex their families shared. I focused on finding a way for us to leave Yemen, urging my family to make the journey through Al-Tuwal border crossing and into Saudi Arabia.
The area around Al-Tuwal, 275 kilometers northwest of Sana’a, was a frontline area on the Yemeni side of the border
https://sanaacenter.org/publications/analysis/8593
(B H)
UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Assisted Spontaneous Return (ASR) As of 9 January 2020
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-assisted-spontaneous-return-asr-9-january-2020
(* B H)
Displaced and scared: Yemenis still in limbo after almost five years of war
Widow Samirah Nasser and her eight children tried to return to their Yemeni village but were forced by relentless air strikes to return to the relative safety of a refugee camp.
Shivering through yet another camp winter, she is one of 3.6 million Yemenis - around 12% of the population - displaced during a nearly five-year war that has spawned what the United Nations says is the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis.
“When we returned (to our village), planes were in the sky. They hit the market full of kids,” Nasser said. “I banned the children from going to school, fearing the warplanes.”
The air strikes have deterred Nasser over the past three years from attempting another return to her native region of Saada, heartland of the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that has been battling a Saudi-led military coalition since March 2015.
“The war there does not stop. Our houses are destroyed, we don’t have anywhere to stay, nothing,” said Houriya Muhammad, a 40-year-old mother-of-three also unable to return to Saada, where she used to sell pots.
Both women now live in a refugee camp in Khamir, some 2.5 hours by road from the capital Sanaa. Life is very hard in the camps, where facilities are rudimentary.
“We are dying of the cold,” said Muhammad. “My kids and I sleep wedged together with three or four blankets on us.”
Children, with runny noses, warm themselves near open fires. Water leaks through holes in the makeshift tents.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKBN1ZE0RO?taid=5e1ee4b72f317700010a8736
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
(* A P)
Yemeni government meets to discuss plans for liberation of occupied East and South
Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtoor meets with governors and representatives
The Cabinet in its Wednesday meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, has discussed further mobilisation in order to resist the occupation in the occupied southern and eastern provinces.
In the presence of the Shura Council Speaker Mohammed al-Aidarous, Advisor to the Presidency Major General Khalid Barras, Advisor to the Supreme Political Council Major General Ahmed Ali Mohsen, members of the Shura and Parliament from the southern and eastern provinces, and governors of those provinces, the meeting reviewed the general scene in the provinces that are still under Saudi-Emirati occupation.
The meeting dealt with a draft national plan of political, social and media work for the coming period in the southern and eastern provinces, as well as aspects related to implementing projects in these provinces, in the framework of the national vision for building the Yemeni state.
My remark: Both Yemeni governments have appointed governors for all Yemeni provinces, those under the enemy’s control as well.
(* B K P)
Iran’s man in Yemen and the al Houthis
Shahlai is a deputy commander within the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force — Iran’s expeditionary force specialized in unconventional warfare. He provided support to Iraqi Shia extremist groups to attack US and coalition forces in Iraq in the 2000s and planned a Jaysh al Mahdi Special Groups attack against US forces in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five US soldiers in January 2007. Shahlai also coordinated and approved all Iran-based Lebanese Hezbollah training for Iraqi groups. He later coordinated and helped finance an IRGC Qods Force plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US in Washington, DC, in 2011. Discussions surrounding the 2011 assassination plot in Washington, DC, also mentioned attacking an embassy — presumably American — in Saudi Arabia. More recently, his name surfaced in Israeli reports on a Gaza-based smuggling ring moving weapons to Yemen in early 2017. A $15 million reward for information issued by the US State Department in December 2019 confirmed Shahlai’s presence in Yemen, where is probably the most senior Iranian official overseeing the IRGC Qods Force support to the al Houthi movement.
The presence of Abdul Reza Shahlai in the al Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sana’a — where the US tried and failed to take him out at the same time the Soleimani operation was going on — probably facilitates an IRGC Qods Force initiative to expand the al Houthis’ indigenous capabilities. Shahlai’s specialty is in external operations and cultivating that specific skillset within Iranian-backed groups. Some of the al Houthi attacks against Saudi and other regional targets are no doubt a result of his handiwork. His commitment to targeting US interests globally — from Iraq to Washington, DC — might also mean that Shahlai is actively seeking regional American targets of opportunity. He remains a senior commander within the IRGC Qods Force’s Unit 400 — a clandestine unit conducting missions against Western targets – by Katherine Zimmerman from AEI
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/irans-man-in-yemen-and-the-al-houthis/
My remark/comment: For the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), look https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute. For the AEI, US interest obviously is the center of the Universe.
(A K P)
A group of the Houthis affiliated gunmen and female militants stormed a house in Al-Safya quarter, in the center of Sana’a city and kidnapped the entire household members.
The Houthis claimed in their media outlets that the family members were abducted for honor charges.
The Houthis use the same accusation against male and female abductees when victims are suspected of being anti-Houthis activists.
Part of their recent abuses against civilians, the Houthis militants carried out massive arbitrary haircut of male teenagers on streets of Sana’a as an implementation to instructions made by the group’s leader, Abdulmalik Al-Houthi to spread “religious culture” in the community.
Social media users shared a video displaying Houthis militants detaining a group of adolescents and cutting their hair on the street.
The Houthis rebels imposed recently certain men’s haircuts on barbers and threatened imprisonment of anyone who follows western style men’s haircuts.
The action is part of instructions made by the Houthis’ leader to his militants to enforce “religious identity” in the society.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37347
Photo: https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1217502654856908802
My comment: The “Wahabization” of Houthis is continuing.
(A K P)
Yemen rejects new imperialist project along Red Sea
Further division of Islamic and Arab world condemnable act, Supreme Political Council says
The Supreme Political Council in its Wednesday meeting chaired by President Mahdi al-Mashat has confirmed its rejection of claims that Yemen has representation “in the so-called Council of Arab and African States Bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
The Supreme Political Council considered this council as “one of the aggression coalition’s tools to besiege the Yemeni people (…) after its failure and the disclosure of its pretexts for the aggression against Yemen in front of local and international public opinion.”
The Supreme Political Council affirmed its keenness on the security of navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, and said it will not be drawn into any new entities aimed solely at creating more division and fragmentation of the Arab and Islamic world.
https://www.uprising.today/yemen-rejects-new-imperialist-project-along-red-sea/
(* B P)
#Yemen data journalism network documented 10.099 abductions, including 7 foreigners, & 2.537 forced disappearances in Houthi-run regions in 2019. 283 women & 158 children were among the victims, it said, adding 48 detainees were killed & 719 others tortured inside Houthi prisons.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/1217583258189299712
(A P)
Journalists are disappearing in Houthi-controlled Yemen
As the conflict in Yemen between Houthi forces and the Saudi-Emirati coalition continues, rights groups call for an end to the abduction, torture, and trial of Yemeni journalists.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said today that Yemeni journalists are paying the price of the unfair conflict between the Houthi forces and the Saudi-Emirati coalition in Yemen, where both sides practice repression and carry out attacks against civilians, especially journalists. The latest example is the case of journalist Nabil Al-Sidawi, whose trial began yesterday after he had been subjected to enforced disappearance for about 5 years by Houthi rebels.
Yesterday, Monday 13 January 2020, a Yemeni court in the city of Sanaa, which the Houthis took control of, held the second trial hearing against Al-Sadawi, who had been under enforced disappearance for five years (since 2015) in Houthi prisons – for allegedly forming an armed group (gang) in cooperation with the aggressor “the Saudi-Emirati coalition”, according to the indictment issued against him. Al- Sadawi, among other 13 defendants who were also abducted, had not been brought to trial until 6 December 2019 and his second trial session was convened yesterday (13 January 2020). The defendants appeared in court with signs of severe torture on their bodies, as reported by their lawyer Abdel-Hamid Sabra, who explained that their clients had suffered from medical neglect and torture. They were also prevented from receiving any visits from their families, who in turn were prevented from getting any information about their detained relatives.
Based on his testimony that is published on Facebook, the defendants’ lawyer (Abdel-Hamid Sabra) has announced that he received threats of arrest from the Houthi security and intelligence forces, while leaving the trial hearing in full view of a group of witnesses and his fellow lawyers.
https://www.anhri.info/?p=13832&lang=en = https://ifex.org/journalists-are-disappearing-in-houthi-controlled-yemen/
(* B K P)
During Yemen’s Annual Martyr Week, Anti-American Sentiment Prevails
As the ongoing war and blockade against their country enters its sixth year, Yemenis are commemorating the annual Martyr Week amid an increasing feeling of hatred and resentment towards the United States, a feeling never seen at this level in the war-torn country.
In Yemen, a country far from the prosperous and bustling United States, the size of cemeteries has increased dramatically in the past five years, with new burial sites springing up to house victims of the weapons supplied by western countries, particularly by the United States, as well as the blockade, hunger, and disease that have accompanied them.
The annual feast of the Martyr Week, an important occasion marking the beginning of December, kicked off in Yemen last Wednesday. It has become, for Fatimah and other Yemenis, a somber occasion amid a suffocating blockade, the threat of epidemics, rubble, tears, and the fear of the may lie ahead.
For eight consecutive days, residents in northern Yemen commemorate those that have been killed by the Saudi-led coalition. Program include held exhibitions, public festivals, and meetings where victim’s families discuss how they cope with the war.
To keep the history of the martyrs alive, officials visit the families of victims to show sympathy. Food and gifts are distributed in abundance to orphans and widows and groups of officials visit graveyards housing victims of the war. There are more than 480 such graveyards spread over several regions in Yemen according to Martyr’s Foundation in Sana’a.
At least 450 exhibitions have been opened in the country. Public streets, city walls, schools, and government buildings in all districts are flooded with millions of flyers and posters bearing the images of civilians and fighters alike that have fallen in the war. Faces stare down from billboards on every highway, and the radios play Zawamil — patriotic battle hymns — day and night. While national TV broadcasts songs that glorify their sacrifices and threaten revenge.
In Sadaa, which lies in Yemen’s north near the Saudi border, dozens of exhibitions and memorials symbolize society’s deep gratitude towards the country’s war heroes and martyrs. The ancient city, among the world’s oldest human-carved landscapes, has been devastated since Saudi Arabia declared it a military zone. Inside the city’s exhibition, visitors flow in an organized way to see more than 11,0000 photos of the fighters, women and children who lost their lives in the war
The United States claims that it does not make targeting decisions for the Saudi Coalition. But it does support Coalition operations through training, arms sales, the refueling of Saudi combat aircraft, and the sharing of intelligence. Those arms sales include precision-guided missiles as well as precision guidance parts used on the warplanes blamed for civilians casualties in the Saudi-UAE’s military campaign in Yemen.
Furthermore, as a result of the U.S. involvement in the war and the economic blockade against their country, Yemenis have been forced to reinforce their relationship with Iran, one of the only countries that has been consistently outspoken in its opposition to the war. Now, at the annual feasts of Martyr Week, photos of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were assassinated in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport on in a January 3, are proudly displayed.
Ten of thousands of Yemenis staged a symbolic funeral ceremony in the country’s cities including in Hodeida, Sana’a and Sadaa to commemorate Soleimani and Muhandis, chanting that their blood is neither is Iranian or Iraqi, but rather belongs to all freedom-loving nations targeted by the United States – von Ahmed Abdulkareem
https://www.mintpressnews.com/yemen-annual-martyr-week-anti-american-sentiment/264084/ = https://www.islamtimes.org/en/article/838373/during-yemen-s-annual-martyr-week-anti-american-sentiment-prevails
(B K P)
Where Should Yemen Be after Soleimani and Al-Muhandis Assassination?
Where will the next conflict be and where will Yemen’s position be?
The question was answered Wednesday by Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi in his speech. He declared that the Yemeni people would stand by Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and all countries that are subject to the American attack. He called the regimes to review their accounts, to wait, and not to hurry, as matters are in the interest of the free people of the nation.
These regimes are on which American bases reside, especially the Gulf states that will be the most affected in a situation targeted by Iran and the resistance factions present in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The fearful stance of these countries on the Iranian response has appeared since the first day of the assassination of Major General Soleimani, when they called for restraint, calm, non-escalation nor being drawn into war in the region.
(A P)
At Dhamar University, lecture halls named after national icons now commemorate Houthi fighters
The move has drawn widespread criticism on social media including accusations that the Houthis are intentionally effacing Yemen’s modern identity
Houthi authorities have renamed 33 lecture halls at Dhamar University after rebel fighters who died in the civil war, according to university documents circulating on social media.
The university’s president Talib Al-Nahari ordered the renaming of the classrooms, which have borne the names of renowned Yemeni scientists, poets and writers since it was established in 1996.
The move has drawn widespread criticism on social media including accusations that the Houthis are intentionally effacing Yemen’s modern identity as part of their war strategy by replacing popular cultural symbols that have emerged since the fall of the Zaidi Shia imamate in the 1962 republican revolution with Houthi symbols.
Critics noted that the overhaul carries a sectarian and dynastic character, as the far majority of the names now lining the university’s halls are Hashemite. During the imamate, Yemen’s rulers came exclusively from Hashemite families who traced their bloodline to the Prophet Mohammed. Many Yemenis fear that the Houthis, who have Hashimi roots, will revive the class-based system in which non-Hashemites, particularly tribes, were subjugated.
The names of two of Yemen’s most iconic artists, Ibn Al-Daiba and Lotfi Jaafar Aman, have been replaced with the names of Houthi Hashemites, who have been at the forefront of the war against Yemen’s Saudi-backed President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s government since March 2015.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/255
and also https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2081911/houthis-rebrand-facilities-thamar-university
cp6 Separatisten und Hadi-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Hadi government in Southern Yemen
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
President Hadi expected to appoint Aden governor and director of security within a week
Hadi's advisor Dr. Ahmed Obaid Bin Dagher announced the plans as part of the renewed push to implement the Riyadh agreement
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/261
(A E P)
Yemen's PM sidelines ex-central bank governor Hafiz Muayad and revives pre-war economic council
The revival of the Supreme Economic Council (and its control over oil revenues) is part of renewed efforts to implement the Riyadh agreement
A fierce conflict between two powerful leaders in Yemen’s internationally recognized government over control of the country’s economic levers has come to a head.
Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, who heads the Supreme Economic Council (SEC), which managed all of Yemen’s economic affairs before the war started in 2015, appears to have dealt a significant blow to Hafez Muayad, the former governor of the Central Bank of Yemen and current chairman of a wartime institution known as the Economic Committee (EC).
At a meeting on Tuesday in the interim capital Aden, Saeed transferred the EC’s technical team in charge of regulating the import and export of oil derivatives to the SEC.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/260
(A T)
Armed men stormed al-Thawra hospital in #Taiz governorate and killed a wounded man and abducted his companion
https://twitter.com/BelqeesRights/status/1217881389535764481
(* A P)
Concluding statement of STC National Assembly shows #RiyadhAgreement is failing. Recommends: -Implement it unilaterally -Liberate #Mahra, Wadi Hadramawt et al -Build up south's armed forces -Purify school curricula Refers to gov forces in south as evil, terrorist, corrupt
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1217772210292690945
(* A P)
Yemen separatist chief warns against collapse of power-sharing deal
The leader of Yemen's southern separatists has warned against the looming collapse of a power-sharing deal, saying the region is menaced by the twin threats of economic catastrophe and Islamist attacks.
The agreement to resolve a battle for control in the south, which was signed in Riyadh last November, was hailed as a step towards ending the wider conflict in Yemen that pits the government against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
However, analysts have said it is effectively defunct, having failed to meet deadlines for key measures including the formation of a new cabinet with equal representation for southerners, and the reorganisation of military forces.
In an interview with AFP, Aidarous Al-Zoubeidi, who heads the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC), said he was committed to the deal "under the leadership of Saudi Arabia" which leads a military coalition against the Huthis.
Zoubeidi said the agreement, which observers had welcomed as preventing the complete break-up of Yemen, united the south against the Huthis and recognised the STC as a legitimate party.
"We consider the Riyadh Agreement an important political step, because we gained regional and international recognition," he said as he sat behind his desk in the main southern city of Aden in front of the flag of the formerly independent south.
(A P)
Southern gunmen storm Sira district office in Aden
Gunmen affiliated to the separation rebels known as the Southern Transitional Council (STC) stormed on Tuesday office of Sira district in Aden and played with its contents.
Members of the district office have suspended work for one day in a protest against the action by the armed separatists.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37349
(A P)
STC National Assembly Concludes its 3rd Session
The National Assembly of the Southern Transitional Council held its concluding meeting on Wednesday in the capital Aden.
The third session of the National Assembly was held from the 13 to 15 January 2020 under the slogan (To Activly Apply the Terms of the Riyadh Agreement). Major General Aidroos Qassim al-Zubaidi, President of the Southern Transitional Council attended the session.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17252
(A P)
Sources confirm that a number of detainees will arrive to the capital Aden
Sources confirmed that a number of prisoners held in Shabwa governorate will arrive on Monday in the capital Aden.
The sources indicated that more than twenty detainees will return in the coming hours to the areas to which they belong, including leaders in the security of Lahj governorate.
https://en.smanews.org/sources-confirm-that-a-number-of-detainees-will-arrive-to-the-capital-aden
(B P)
Well done to the #women of #Mahra #Yemen on the 4th issue of their newspaper! Includes pieces on divorce, literacy, self-help, health, beauty & even #poetry. Plus a tragic story of celebratory gunfire. From @MahraYouth NGO. Read it all here (Arabic only): http://www.mahrango.com/women-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%a3%d9%87/
https://twitter.com/Dr_E_Kendall/status/1217418969252081665
(A)
Gunman kills worshipers at mosque in Abyan
An armed man killed five people and injured eight others on Tuesday at a mosque in Lowder district of Abyan governorate.
Local sources said that a villager who is believed to be a violent psychopath, opened fire at a mosque, targeting the worshipers while they were praying. The offender killed five people, including his father and injured eight others.
The victims were taken to the hospital in the area and sent later to Aden for advanced medical treatment.
The Security Belt forces managed to arrest the killer on the outskirts of Lowder district, a few hours after committing his massacre.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17249
and also https://al-masdaronline.net/local/258
(A P T)
In a second incident in the past three months, a patient was killed in the emergency room of @MSF -supported Al-Thawra General Hospital in #Taiz City yesterday evening. Armed men entered the ER of the hospital, shot and killed a patient.
Multiple armed intrusions have occurred in Al-Thawra Hospital over the past twelve months, ignoring repeated calls for humanitarian spaces to be respected. @MSF condemns this last attack on Al-Thawra Hospital and the killing of a patient inside.
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1217087197817511942
https://twitter.com/msf_yemen/status/1217089300862554113
(* A K P)
Separatists refuse to hand over heavy weapons
Southern Transitional Council rejects calls by Saudi Arabia to hand in heavy weapons in Aden
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has renewed its refusal to surrender its heavy weapons.
The move coincides with the Saudi military committee continuing to restrict weapons to its camps in Aden.
The chairman of the STC, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, said in a press statement that it does not have heavy weapons in Aden, and that all of its weapons are being used on the front-lines of the battle of Dhalea and the West Coast.
The STC has announced more than once that it refuses to hand over its weapons to Saudi military forces.
https://www.uprising.today/separatists-refuse-to-hand-over-heavy-weapons/
(* B K P)
Fears for southern Yemen as 'landmark' peace deal crumbles
A power-sharing agreement between the Yemeni government and southern separatists is effectively defunct more than two months after it was signed, increasing fears of renewed hostilities.
The deal set a timetable for the government's return to Aden, the appointment of a new head of security and a governor of the city, as well as the formation of a new 24-member cabinet with equal representation for southerners.
Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik returned to the city but the two sides have failed to meet the other deadlines which were all to be in place within a month of the signing.
Other parts of the agreement, including placing forces from both sides under the authority of the defence and interior ministries by January 5, have also not been fulfilled.
"The agreement had an extremely ambitious timetable," said Farea al-Muslimi, an associate fellow at London's Chatham House think tank.
As both sides look for an exit, they are trading accusations over who is responsible for the failure to enact the accord.
"The agreement has the same problem as any other Yemeni agreement... everyone wants to sign and no one wants to implement," Muslimi said.
For Elisabeth Kendall, Yemen expert and senior research fellow at Oxford University, the lack of confidence between the two sides is responsible for the failure to implement the agreement in good faith.
"The main challenge is that both sides appear to have entered the agreement grudgingly at the behest of their sponsors," she said.
They include Saudi Arabia, which supports the government, and the United Arab Emirates which has trained STC forces despite being part of the Saudi-led military coalition backing the government against the Huthi rebels.
"Other major challenges abound, including a total lack of trust between the two parties, impossible deadlines, and clashing interpretations," she said.
"The danger right now is that some kind of trigger event will lead to a renewed STC-government conflict," said Peter Salisbury, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Kendall said that security and stability in southern Yemen remains "highly precarious".
https://www.france24.com/en/20200114-fears-for-southern-yemen-as-landmark-peace-deal-crumbles = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-7886439/Fears-southern-Yemen-landmark-peace-deal-crumbles.html
and
(* B K P)
Op-Ed: Agreement between Saudis and Yemen separatists breaks down
However a secondary war within the war appears likely to break out again as a power-sharing agreement between the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) supported by the UAE and the Saudis supporting supporting the government of Mansur Hadi appears to have broken down.
The Hadi government is not in favor of sharing power with the separatists. The Hadi government wants a unified Yemen while the STC wants a separate independent South Yemen as had existed some time ago. Another part of the agreement would have placed forces from both sides under the authorities of the government defense and interior ministries by January 5 but that has not happened either.
An analyst indicates some of the problems with the agreement: "The agreement had an extremely ambitious timetable," said Farea al-Muslimi, an associate fellow at London's Chatham House think tank.As both sides look for an exit, they are trading accusations over who is responsible for the failure to enact the accord."The agreement has the same problem as any other Yemeni agreement... everyone wants to sign and no one wants to implement," Muslimi said."
While there are efforts to keep talks going and avoid renewed fighting in the war within the war again, the failure of the agreement probably will lead to the STC supported by the UAE to attempt to regain power in Aden and adjacent areas as the situation was before the agreement.
The Saudis no doubt wish to settle the disagreement with the STC and the UAE and demand that the Hadi government either agree to share power with the STC or lose Saudi support. The Saudis and the UAE could even decide to settle issues with the Houthis.
(* A K P)
Saudi-led committee strikes deal between government and separatists in Yemen
A Saudi-led military committee tasked with enforcing the arrangements of the Riyadh Agreement made a significant breakthrough on Monday, convincing Yemeni military commanders to reposition their forces in the south of Yemen, officials said on Tuesday.
The committee visited military bases in Aden, Lahi and Abyan, meeting with commanders from both the government and the separatists to discuss accelerating the redeployment of forces.
A senior government official — who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity — said that two government military brigades that took part in fighting against forces loyal to the separatist Southern Transitional Council last year would be deployed in the Thubab area near the Red Sea and Abyan’s Lawder district, while separatists agreed to withdraw some forces from Aden.
“Under the arrangements approved yesterday, the Presidential Protection Forces will enter Aden and will be assigned to protect the presidential palace,” the official said. “Al Zamik’s brigade will go to Thubab and Al Subaihi’s will be deployed in Lawder,”
The two brigades will reinforce government forces battling Houthis in Baydha, Hodeida and Taiz. The separatist Southern Transitional Council, the official said, will send back soldiers that came to Aden in August to their bases in Lahj’s Radfan district.
“They will start implementing arrangements for Aden and Abyan. All heavy weapons — including tanks, anti-aircraft guns and artillery — will be collected in one place,” the official said, adding that pro-government Abu Misha’al Al Zamiki, Abyan’s chief of security, will return to the town of Zinjibar to replace the separatist’s own security measures in the near future.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1613176/middle-east
(A K P)
Yemen’s government forces withdraw from Abyan as Saudis inspect STC camps in Aden
The developments are part of a renewed push to implement the Riyadh agreement after two months without progress
Army forces in Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Tuesday moved from Shaqra district in southern Abyan governorate to Ataq city, the capital of Shabwa governorate, according to a military official in Shabwa.
The official told Almasdar Online that army military vehicles in the 3rd and 7th Military Regions arrived in Ataq, while other units headed for Shabwa’s Al-Bayhan district and Marib governorate, in accordance with the military annex of the Saudi-brokered political deal known as the Riyadh Agreement.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/257
and
(* A K P)
Yemeni warring sides begin troops redeployment
Yemen's government and the opposition Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Tuesday began repositioning their troops stationed in the country's southern provinces, according to a Saudi-brokered deal signed in Riyadh last November.
An official of Yemen's government told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that "the army forces backed by several armored vehicles began a gradual withdrawal from the southern province of Abyan."
"All the army units that were attempting to enter Aden left their sites and immediately came back to the previous positions in the northern Marib province," the source said.
Under the supervision of a Saudi military committee, the STC's military units that were mobilized to confront the government forces also started a gradual withdrawal from Abyan province.
A source of the Aden-based STC confirmed to Xinhua that "Saudi commanders held a series of meetings with the local leaders of the military units in Abyan and succeeded in convincing them to begin redeployment of forces."
He said that "a number of military units linked to the STC left their bases in Abyan and headed directly to the country's western coast areas to confront Houthis there."
According to the arrangements of the Riyadh deal, both forces loyal to Yemen's government and the STC would be deployed in areas that are witnessing confrontation with the Houthi rebels.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/15/c_138707336.htm
and
(* A K P)
Yemeni gov't, separatist council start troops pullout
Troops withdrawal comes within deal which allows return of Yemeni government to Aden
A military source confirmed to Anadolu Agency that on Tuesday both parties started withdrawals under the supervision of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition in Yemen.
On Monday, a Saudi committee arrived in the coastal city of Shakra in Abyan to resolve any obstacles that could occur while implementing the agreement.
On Thursday, Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the STC agreed on implementing the second phase of the Riyadh Agreement which includes the withdrawal of forces to its formal locations.
The source confirmed that the withdrawal will last for one week, and the forces of both parties will be positioned in place for confrontation with the Houthi rebel group.
The agreement stresses on the return of the Yemeni government to the temporary capital of Aden and merging all military groups under the Ministries of Defense and Interior.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/yemeni-govt-separatist-council-start-troops-pullout/1702575
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17253
https://thearabweekly.com/yemen-troops-start-withdrawing-abyan-province
and
(A K P)
Saudi officers meet Yemeni army commanders on Abyan
The military brass discussed plans to implement the next phase of the Riyadh agreement
A committee of Saudi officers met with military leaders in Yemen’s internationally recognized government in the coastal town of Shaqra in southern Abyan governorate on Monday to discuss the redeployment of government forces in accordance with the military annex of the Riyadh Agreement.
Both sides in the Monday meeting agreed that the Special Security Forces, regular police and military police would take over security in Abyan’s capital city Zanjibar from the UAE-backed Security Belt forces. They also agreed that police stations in the rest of the governorate would start operating again.
The defense official said the Saudi officers also held an unannounced meeting with the leaders of the UAE-backed STC prior to arriving in Shaqra to negotiate the movement of the 1st Presidential Protection Brigade to Aden, where they will be in charge of protecting officials in the reconstituted government.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/254
(A K P)
Southern forces pull out of Abyan in response to Riyadh Agreement
The southern forces of the 9th brigade withdrew on Tuesday from their positions in Abyan governorate in accordance with the terms of the second phase of the Riyadh Agreement.
In contrast, the militias of the Muslim Brotherhood (Islah Party) within the Yemeni government are supposed to pull out from Shuqra and Qarn al-Kalassy cities to their previous locations in Marib governorate.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/17244
(A K P)
Arab Coalition air forces monitor the military deployment in Abyan and Shabwa
The Arab Coalition air forces circled over the governorates of Abyan and Shabwa according to witnesses who said that the Arab Coalition air forces flew continuously on Abyan, and reached Shabwa.
Observers believe that these intensive air forces flights on Abyan and Shabwa coincided with the signing of the implementation plan for the second phase of the Riyadh Agreement, which aims to monitor the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood’s militia affiliated to the two provinces.
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
(* A P)
Film: Special Envoy for Yemen on the situation in the region - Media Stakeout (16 January 2020)
Informal comments to the media by Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, on the situation in Yemen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHpofNfDbvI
(* A P)
Security Council: Yemen
Briefings
MARTIN GRIFFITHS, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, said that, while the region has been in crisis, no major acts of military provocation have been seen in the country, with this week being the quietest since the war began. “I hope it is not premature to say that Yemen has emerged at this moment unscathed,” he said, attributing this to leaders in Yemen and the region, who have deliberately exercised restraint. He also offered his condolences concerning the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman, who was a leader in the field of peace and reconciliation.
Regarding the de-escalation of military operations, he said that the aerial war was reduced by 80 per cent in November 2019 and that, for nine days in January, there were no air strikes at all, which is “no small thing”. Noting that experience shows that military de-escalation cannot be sustained without political progress, he said that daily detailed negotiations can lead to key appointments in Aden in the coming days in line with the Riyadh Agreement, representing a starting point to open a new page to reach a political solution. Regarding the Hudaydah Agreement signed in Stockholm in 2018, no one should be satisfied with the record of its implementation. Although violence continues in southern districts, relative calm on the frontlines of the city demonstrate that de-escalation measures are working, with the Redeployment Coordination Committee engaged in discussions on opening humanitarian corridors.
Despite these achievements, he remained concerned about persistent restrictions on the freedom of movement of personnel of the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA), calling for the immediate resumption of Mission patrols of the city and ports. Citing a range of gains, from the entry of fuel ships to the collection of revenues, he said that further confidence-building measures include the proposed “mercy flights”, a World Health Organization (WHO) project resulting from negotiations between the Government and Ansar Allah, which will transport patients in need of care. More evidence of good will between parties occurred with the 1 January release of six Saudi detainees by Ansar Allah, he said, adding that he will convene a prisoners’ exchange committee, as outlined in the Hudaydah Agreement.
All these initiatives support the urgent search for a political solution and the end of the conflict,
RAMESH RAJASINGHAM, Director, Coordination Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, speaking via video conference from Geneva, said that, on the whole, Yemen is less dangerous for civilians than it was before the Stockholm Agreement was created one year ago, with casualties in 2019 about 35 per cent lower than 2018 and fatalities down by almost half. Nonetheless, hostilities are flaring again along several front lines, particularly in Al Dhale’e, Hudaydah and Shabwah, and while mostly contained, mass casualty incidents persist across the country amid daily reports of civilians killed or injured when shells land on their homes, snipers fire on their communities or landmines explode. “It is unacceptable that civilians should do disproportionately bear the brunt of this conflict,” he said, urging parties to uphold their international humanitarian law obligations and to move as quickly as possible to a nationwide ceasefire.
On humanitarian access, he said that access constraints affect 6.7 million people in need of assistance, a figure that has never been so high amid harassment and violence against humanitarian agencies in northern Yemen. Staff are harassed and arbitrarily detained — sometimes for extended periods — while missions are delayed or cancelled. His Office engages continuously with the Ansar Allah authorities about such concerns and was encouraged that its officials had agreed, without conditions, to the assessment of the SAFER oil tanker decaying off the Hudaydah coast and at risk of rupturing. The Office was later disappointed when other officials reversed that position and it is now following up with authorities to confirm how to proceed. In the south, constraints against humanitarian agencies have intensified. Clashes in Shabwah have prevented aid convoys from travelling along the southern coast and humanitarians have also been directly targeted, notably in Al Dhale’e, where four international humanitarian groups were attacked.
Indeed, with a rapidly depreciating rial and disrupted salary payments, conditions are emerging that brought Yemen to the brink of famine a year ago, he said. “We must not let that happen,” he stressed, calling for a regular programme of foreign exchange injections that would help lower the exchange rate, and by extension, make it easier for people to afford what they need to survive.
[and bla bla by the various delegates, and propaganda by the Hadi government delagate]
https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sc14082.doc.htm
and more abridged: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1055442
and briefings in full:
Film: Griffiths‘ briefing (2 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJVk9KWvz-w
and statement by the US delegate: https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-for-the-united-nations-security-council-briefing-on-yemen/
by the UK delegate: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/bringing-the-political-process-forward-in-yemen
(A K P)
Brigadegeneral Saree: Eskalation der Aggression widerspricht den Aussagen des UN-Beauftragten
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3085076.htm
(* B K P)
Motives, challenges and implications in ending the war in Yemen
It was no surprise when King Salman stressed the need for a political resolution to the conflict several months ago.
The flurry of diplomatic activity in the final weeks of 2019 and early days of 2020 indicates that the major players in the war in Yemen are interested in, or at least open to, an agreement to end the conflict. The efforts to end war are not motivated by opportunities to achieve strategic goals, but primarily by the desire to mitigate the potential costs of continued conflict. Yet, the challenges of reaching and maintaining an agreement to end the war and unify the country remain considerable.
Thus, it was no surprise when King Salman stressed the need for a political resolution to the conflict several months ago. In addition, because the internationally recognized government of Yemen led by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi is dependent on Saudi Arabia (where President Hadi resides in exile), its willingness to reach an agreement with the Houthis and the southern separatists appears to have increased in accordance with that of Riyadh.
The Houthi rebels are similarly motivated by a sense that continued fighting poses more hazards than opportunities
South Yemen separatists represented by the Southern Transitional Council (STC) also face considerable challenges in light of the fact that their Emirati backers withdrew, a challenger for the mantle of the Southern movement emerged, and they were excluded from Riyadh-Houthi discussions on Yemen’s future. These three recent developments may explain why the STC was willing to make a deal with the central government, known as the Riyadh Agreement,
Despite the general consensus among key players in Yemen that their interests would be served by ending the war, they will not necessarily be able to agree on a configuration that should arise in the conflict’s stead. Presumably, a comprehensive peace agreement would require a power-sharing arrangement that reflects the reality on the ground: formidable regional or provincial bodies and a weak central government.
With the Riyadh Agreement’s future already in doubt, it would be extremely challenging to design a deal acceptable to the Saudi- and Emirati-backed forces in which the two parties allow their authority and resources to be diluted further by including the comparatively poor but militarily powerful Houthis of North Yemen.
My remark: From Israel.
(A P)
Griffiths Holds Several Meetings in Washington Before Delivering UN Briefing
(A P)
Griffiths new briefing on Yemen to UNSC on Thursday
Martin Griffith, the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, are to brief the Security Council on Thursday on developments in Yemen.
Last Thursday, Griffiths began a new round in the region, which he launched from the Sultanate of Oman in the context of his endeavor to revive the stalled peace efforts he is leading between the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi group (Ansar Allah).
https://debriefer.net/en/news-14237.html
(A P)
Griffiths Meets Hadi to Revive Stalled Peace Talks With Houthis
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi stressed Monday that the legitimate government is committed to cooperating with UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, in implementing the provisions of the Hodeidah Agreement despite the repeated foot-dragging tactics of the Houthi coup militia.
Hadi held a meeting with Griffiths in Riyadh, in the presence of Vice President Ali Mohsen Saleh.
The UN envoy resumed lately a new round of regional talks, which he kicked off in Oman, to revive stalled peace talks between the legitimate government and Houthi militias.
and also https://twitter.com/OSE_Yemen/status/1216758245655826432
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
(* B K P)
US-Iran conflict: Why Saudi Arabia should not jump into the fray
Saudi Arabia remains vulnerable, and a US war with Iran would only increase this vulnerability
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been consumed by two Arab hornets' nests, the first in Yemen and the second in Iraq.
Neither can get out without losing substantial power and undermining the very foundation of their legitimacy. At the same time, both face a rising tide of protest against their hegemony in the two countries, which have a long history of resisting occupiers.
The entanglement of the US in both conflicts - supporting the Saudi onslaught in Yemen and enabling Iranian influence in Iraq - implicates it in regional conflicts that are beyond its control. The US can neither solve these urgent regional conflicts, nor even manage them.
Amid recent escalation and the threat of war between the US and Iran, Saudi Arabia thus far remains hesitant, likely daunted by the prospect of being drawn unprepared into a new Gulf war on its doorstep.
While Riyadh might have secretly rejoiced over the US assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and the increasingly confrontational rhetoric between the US and Iran, it must worry about a new war that would reach its own oilfields and beyond - all while the kingdom still has unfinished business in Yemen.
While a low-intensity war between the US and Iran seems imminent on Iraqi soil, Saudi Arabia’s entanglement in Yemen is yet to be resolved in favour of Saudi interests.
The Saudi leadership will have to declare its total support for US President Donald Trump, should he foolishly continue escalation with Iran. In the case of a war, Riyadh would inevitably be one of Trump’s launching pads and the prime financier of his adventure, at a time when the kingdom's own dwindling oil wealth remains subject to fluctuations in market prices.
Depleted resources
Should Trump succeed in toppling the Iranian regime - though this is unlikely - he would emerge as a hero in the eyes of his supporters and go down in history as the US leader who dismantled the Islamic Republic regime. But what would happen to Saudi Arabia in such an unlikely scenario?
Riyadh would not be secure, even if the Iranian regime were to fall at the hands of Trump. Given the latter’s erratic foreign policy, Saudi Arabia might be the next target. Having taken every dollar that he could from them, Trump would have no real love left for the Saudi regime, whose main value to him is its wealth - and even now, that is quickly being eroded by ambitious economic plans that have yet to yield substantial output.
No doubt, the Saudi regime would be abandoned as Trump has done with other close allies (such as the Kurds) if he successfully toppled the Iranian regime. Then, Riyadh would have to deal with securing its regime under new circumstances, without the US cover that it has enjoyed since the Second World War.
Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy should worry Saudi Arabia and dampen any enthusiasm it might have entertained after the assassination of Soleimani. The unintended consequences of regime change in Iran could result in disaster for the Saudi regime – by Madawi al-Rasheed
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/us-iran-conflict-why-riyadh-should-not-jump-fray
(? B P)
URLAUB IN SAUDI-ARABIEN: Ein falsches Foto – und plötzlich droht Haft
Unmittelbar nach Bekanntgabe der Tourismus-Offensive veröffentlichte das saudische Innenministerium einen “Anstandskatalog“ für Urlauber. Die Sanktionsliste umfasst 19 Punkte. Darunter die Zurschaustellung gegenseitiger Zuneigung, Spucken, Vordrängeln und Müll-auf-die-Straße-Werfen. Das Tragen „unangemessener Kleidung“ soll ebenso sanktioniert werden. Das Auswärtige Amt warnt: „Vermeiden Sie auffällige Kleidung und Zurschaustellung oder gar Verteilung christlich-religiöser Symbole.“ (Bezahlschranke)
(* B P)
Big story brewing next to @NEOM, the #Saudi #MBS mega project. An entire #Arab tribe is being forcibly kicked out from its ancestors lands. Int investors beware, you will be libel if you get inThe press should talk to @Aliaa_Abutayah, a member of the tribe & an int star already
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1217173556372672513
cp9 USA
Siehe / Look at cp1, cp9a1, cp9a2
(* B K P)
Film: Dr. Daniele Ganser zum chronischen Bruch des Völkerrechts durch die USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWRVZa6l50
(A P)
The GOP has officially launched a challenger to Ilhan Omar in Minnesota. Dalia Al-Aqidi was a columnist for the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya News Network (image)
https://twitter.com/yasmineelsabawi/status/1217845502848503808
(B E P)
US Says Its Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai Sponsored by UAE
The United States said its participation at this year's World's Fair in Dubai is being made possible by “the generosity of the Emirati government.”
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday Emirati sponsorship of America's pavilion, estimated to be at least $60 million, was made “in recognition of the strong partnership between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.”
The UAE's sponsorship raises a number of questions, such as why American businesses are not paying directly to participate under the umbrella of the U.S. pavilion. Some leading U.S.-based brands could choose to participate independent of the U.S. pavilion.
Official statement:
U.S. Participation in Expo 2020 Dubai
The Department of State is pleased to announce the participation of the United States in Expo 2020 Dubai, the next World’s Fair and the first in the Middle East and Africa.
The U.S. pavilion is made possible by the generosity of the Emirati government in recognition of the strong partnership between the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
https://www.state.gov/u-s-participation-in-expo-2020-dubai/
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Trump is slammed for 'selling troops' after revealing Saudi Arabia has already deposited $1billion in the bank to have U.S. soldiers stationed in the kingdom
President Trump made the claim during interview Friday on Fox News
Trump said Saudi Arabia has paid the U.S. $1billion to have soldiers in kingdom
House Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan slammed president for 'selling troops'
Amash left Republican Party after coming out against Trump
U.S. deployed thousands of soldiers to Saudi Arabia as tensions with Iran rose
and
(* A K P)
Trump: Saudi Arabia paid the US $1 billion for more troops. Pentagon: Eh, not quite.
Trump seemingly announced a major deal during his latest Fox News interview, but officials are walking it back.
During an interview on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show Friday night, President Donald Trump made a stunning announcement: Saudi Arabia was paying the US $1 billion to send US troops to defend it from Iran.
“We’re sending more [troops] to Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is paying us for it,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you have to pay us.’ They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.”
Critics, including Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), slammed the move, accusing Trump of using American troops as “paid mercenaries.” “He sells troops,” Amash tweeted.
On MSNBC, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) raised the possibility that Trump deposited the Saudi money in a personal bank account and said the president is “selling our soldiers as mercenaries to foreign governments.”
“It’s outrageous,” Lee added. “He does not deserve to be the commander in chief of the United States of America.”
https://www.vox.com/2020/1/14/21065432/trump-laura-ingraham-interview-saudi-arabia-troops
and
(* A K P)
Despite Trump's claims, Saudi Arabia does not appear to have paid $1 billion to house US troops
Saudi Arabia does not appear to have paid the $1 billion that President Donald Trump said it has paid to house a deployment of US troops to the kingdom, according to the Pentagon.
Trump had previously touted Saudi Arabia's financial contribution, telling Fox News last week, "I said, listen, you're a very rich country. You want more troops? I'm going to send them to you, but you've got to pay us. They're paying us. They've already deposited $1 billion in the bank."
But the Pentagon says discussions about how Saudi Arabia can help pay for the cost of the US military deployment there are ongoing.
"The Saudi government has agreed to contribute to the costs of these activities, and discussions are ongoing to formalize these contributions. Contributions of this nature do not lead to the deployment of additional U.S. forces, and they do not drive DOD to take on new missions or responsibilities," Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich told CNN in a statement.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/14/politics/us-troops-saudi-arabia/index.html
and also http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52843.htm
(* A P)
Senator Predicts a Dozen GOPers Might Break with Trump over Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s briefing to legislators last week went so badly that it may have galvanized Republican support to restrain President Trump from war with Iran, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.
Kaine, who will soon introduce a resolution to require Congress’ approval before any such escalation of hostilities, now believes there are as many as a dozen potential GOP votes in the Senate—far more than expected, and also far more Republicans than were willing to vote on a similar initiative to get the U.S. out of the Saudi-led war in Yemen in 2018.
“I wish I could say that the getting sponsors has been because I'm so persuasive,” Kaine told The Daily Beast.
https://news.yahoo.com/senator-predicts-dozen-gopers-might-175045838.html?guccounter=1
(A K P)
Sanders confuses Trump with Bush in debate response on Yemen war measure
In response to a question early in Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., confused President Trump with former President George W. Bush as he spoke about a resolution against the war in Yemen.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sanders-confuses-trump-bush-debate-response-yemen-war
cp9a1 USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf: deutsch / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf: German
(* A B K P)
Trump wollte Europäer im Iran-Konflikt mit Autozöllen erpressen
US-Präsident Donald Trump hat versucht, die EU zu erpressen: Drastische Autozölle oder ein härterer Kurs gegenüber dem Iran.
Die USA haben Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien im Streit um das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran mit Strafzöllen auf Autos gedroht. "Die Drohung stand im Raum", bestätigte Bundesverteidigungsministerin Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) am Donnerstag in London. Dass die drei Länder einen im Atomabkommen vorgesehenen Streitschlichtungsmechanismus auslösten, sei aber keine Reaktion darauf gewesen. Der Iran warf den EU-Ländern indes vor, die "Reste" des Atomabkommens ihren Wirtschaftsinteressen geopfert zu haben; Präsident Hassan Ruhani betonte aber, ein Dialog sei weiter möglich.
Die "Washington Post" hatte am Mittwoch zuerst berichtet, die USA hätten die Europäer mit den angedrohten Autozöllen zur Aktivierung des Streitschlichtungsverfahrens des Atomabkommens drängen wollen. Angedroht wurden demnach Strafzölle von 25 Prozent auf Autoimporte.
und
(* A B K P)
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: Deutschland nicht Teil der US-Kampagne gegen Iran
Die Europäer erhöhen im Streit über das Atomabkommen den Druck auf den Iran. Tun sie das, weil sie selbst von den USA unter Druck gesetzt werden? Kramp-Karrenbauer hat dazu keine ganz klare Antwort parat.
erkärt die Hintergründe für das hier:
(** B P)
„Schlichtungsmechanismus“ im Atomabkommen mit Iran – Warum die EU damit den Vertrag zerstört
In nächster Zeit wird das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran wieder in die Schlagzeilen zurückkehren, weil nun die EU-Vertragsstaaten den Schlichtungsmechanismus starten wollen, der im Abkommen enthalten ist. Was bedeutet das tatsächlich?
Die EU hat zwar Instex gegründet, eine Art Tauschbörse, bei der der Handel zwischen der EU und dem Iran verrechnet werden soll. Experten haben von Anfang an gesagt, dass das nicht funktionieren kann und bis heute ist noch keine Transaktion darüber gelaufen.
Die Aussagen europäischer Politiker, sie täten alles, um das Abkommen zu retten, sind also nicht einmal Lippenbekenntnisse. Es sind glatte Lügen für das dumme Volk.
Zum Jahrestag des US-Vertragsbruchs im Mai 2019 hat der Iran dann angekündigt, er werde seine Verpflichtungen nun schrittweise auch nicht mehr erfüllen. Er hat der EU aber noch einmal eine Frist von 60 Tagen eingeräumt, damit sie endlich ihre Verpflichtungen erfüllt. Die europäischen Politiker redeten daraufhin davon, der Iran mache Druck und die Medien haben das gerne aufgegriffen und es so dargestellt, als verlange der Iran etwas Unanständiges von der EU und stelle unverschämte Forderungen.
Wichtig dabei ist Artikel 26 des Atomabkommens. Dort ist geregelt, dass der Iran, wenn ein Vertragspartner ungerechtfertigte Sanktionen einführt, seine Verpflichtungen ganz oder teilweise aussetzen darf. Der Iran hat damit also keineswegs gegen das Abkommen verstoßen, denn er hat auf die ungerechtfertigten Sanktionen der USA reagiert.
Wenn nun die Medien mitteilen, dass die EU den „Schlichtungsmechanismus“ starten will, klingt das auch sehr gut für die Leser. Die EU tut angeblich etwas. Das stimmt, sie tut auch etwas, aber das Gegenteil von dem, was den Lesern suggeriert wird.
Der Schlichtungsmechanismus sieht vor, dass der Streit binnen 15 Tagen ausgeräumt werden muss. Es gibt da noch Möglichkeiten einer Fristverlängerung und einer Schiedskommission, aber das ist Augenwischerei, denn Einigkeit wird nicht erzielt werden. Hätte die EU den Mut dazu, dann hätte sie sich schon vor einem Jahr gegen die USA gestellt. Es wird also darauf hinauslaufen, dass der Streit nicht ausgeräumt wird.
Danach kann jeder Beteiligte die Frage vor den UNO-Sicherheitsrat bringen. Der hat dann 30 Tage Zeit, eine Resolution zu beschließen. Das wird aber nicht geschehen, weil mindestens die USA jedem Vorschlag, der das Abkommen rettet, mit ihrem Veto verhindern werden. Russland und China wiederum werden jede Resolution verhindern, die dem Iran die Schuld an dem Desaster gibt, die der Iran ja auch ganz objektiv nicht trägt.
Sollte es nach 30 Tagen zu keiner gemeinsamen Resolution kommen, treten die alten, weltweiten Sanktionen automatisch wieder in Kraft. Die USA, die seit ihrem Vertragsbruch im Mai 2018 von der EU fordern, sich ihr anzuschließen, hätten ihr Ziel erreicht: Das Atomabkommen mit dem Iran wäre tot.
Was die EU also tut, wenn sie den „Schlichtungsmechanismus“ anstößt, ist, dass sie das Atomabkommen durch die Hintertür zerstört und dann für die dumme Öffentlichkeit die Betroffene zu spielen, die ja alles getan habe, um das Abkommen zu retten. Mehr Doppelzüngigkeit ist kaum denkbar.
Und die Medien spielen das Spiel mit.
Alle Welt weiß, was das Schlichtungsverfahren bedeutet, nur in der EU stellen sich Politik und Medien dumm. In den nächsten Wochen werden wir eine Show um die Schlichtung erleben und dann die betretenen Gesichter der EU-Politiker, die mit Bedauern erklären werden, dass es keinen anderen Weg gab und der Iran selbst Schuld ist – von Thomas Röper
und auch
(* B K P)
Bei der Auslegung des Völkerrechts gelten zweierlei Massstäbe
Zweierlei Massstäbe bei der Auslegung des Völkerrechts ist auch ein Grund für das Scheitern der EU im eskalierenden Konflikt zwischen den USA und Iran. Hinzu kommt die fehlende Glaubwürdigkeit der EU vor allem in Teheran. Von den seit Sommer 2018 von Brüssel angekündigten Massnahmen, um Iran trotz der US-Sanktionen den weiteren Verkauf von Öl sowie den Import dringend benötigter ziviler Güter zu ermöglichen, wurde bis heute keine einzige umgesetzt.
https://www.infosperber.ch/Artikel/Politik/Qasem-Soleimani-USA-Iran-UNO-EU-Reaktionen
(** B K P)
Sanktionen – Trumps unbeachteter Krieg gegen Iran
Eine Eskalation der Gewalt im Mittleren Osten sei vorerst abgewendet. So lautet derzeit der Tenor in vielen Medien. Doch der Krieg der USA gegen den Iran ist längst in vollem Gange. Ohne Bomben und ohne Öffentlichkeit. Der Wirtschaftskrieg mit seinen Sanktionen, den die USA gegen den Iran führen, fordert ebenfalls Todesopfer und verstößt zudem gegen das Völkerrecht, wie Fabian Goldmann in seinem Artikel für die NachDenkSeiten analysiert.
Bis heute vergeht kaum eine Woche, in der amerikanische Behörden ihre Strafmaßnahmen nicht auf immer neue iranische Lebensbereiche ausweiten. Heute ist es iranischen Unternehmen in allen Wirtschaftsbereichen nur noch unter großem Aufwand möglich, Waren zu importieren oder zu exportieren.
Nur mit Verordnungen schaffen es die USA, ein ganzes Land auszuhungern
Die Konsequenzen dieser Politik bekam die iranische Bevölkerung umgehend zu spüren: Innerhalb weniger Wochen beendeten große ausländische Unternehmen wie Peugeot, Daimler, Total oder das chinesische Erdölunternehmen CNPC ihre Irangeschäfte. Im Oktober 2018 berichteten iranische Medien, dass sich der Preis für Babywindeln verdoppelt habe, nachdem Fabriken wegen Rohstoffmangel die Produktion einstellen mussten. Einen Monat später folgten Nachrichten über ausbleibende Lieferungen von Nahrungsmitteln und Agrargütern. Ausländische Unternehmen konnten aufgrund der amerikanischen Finanzsanktionen die Bezahlung der Güter nicht mehr abwickeln.
Wie schwer die iranische Wirtschaft unter der amerikanischen Politik leidet, lässt sich auch in Zahlen ausdrücken: Infolge der US-Sanktionen sank das iranische Wirtschaftswachstum von +12 Prozent im Jahr 2016 auf -10 Prozent im Jahr 2019. Innerhalb nur eines Jahres verlor die iranische Währung mehr als 80 Prozent ihres Wertes. Von einer jährlichen Preissteigerungsrate von 52 Prozent für Verbrauchsgüter berichtet die Weltbank. Viele Menschen, die vor zwei Jahren noch zur Mittelschicht gehörten, leben heute infolge der amerikanischen Sanktionen in Armut. Wo früher Belagerungswaffen und Kriegsschiffe für Blockaden nötig waren, schaffen es die USA heute, ein Land auszuhungern, ohne einen Schuss abzugeben.
Trumps Ziel ist es, die iranischen Ölexporte auf Null zu bringen
Die Radikalität amerikanischer Sanktionspolitik zeigt sich besonders deutlich beim Ölhandel. Heute verbieten die USA nicht nur heimischen Unternehmen den Handel mit Iran, sondern der ganzen Welt. Seit Juni 2019 verhängen die USA Sanktionen weltweit gegen jedes Unternehmen, das am Handel mit iranischem Öl beteiligt ist.
Kritische Einordnungen der Politik der USA suchte man in den deutschen Medien auch damals weitgehend vergeblich. Stattdessen fokussierten sich Medien im Falle der „Grace 1“ in ihrer Berichterstattung auf die vermeintlich völkerrechtswidrigen iranischen Öllieferungen an Syrien. Eine Einschätzung, der unter anderem der wissenschaftliche Dienst des Bundestages widersprach.
Human Rights Watch warnt vor „verheerenden Folgen für Millionen von Patienten“
Vieles deutet darauf hin, dass die USA dieses Klima der Angst bewusst schüren, um die Wirkung ihrer Sanktionen noch über die ökonomische Wirkung hinaus auszuweiten. Mit Einschüchterungen und der eigenen Unberechenbarkeit verhindern die USA so auch den iranischen Import von Waren, die nach internationalem Recht eigentlich nicht von Sanktionen betroffen sein dürfen, wie Lebensmittel, Medikamente und Hilfsgüter.
Dass diese Politik nicht mit internationalen Gesetzen in Einklang zu bringen ist, urteilte auch der Internationale Gerichtshof. Am 3. Oktober 2018 forderte dieser die USA unter anderem dazu auf, sämtliche Maßnahmen zurückzunehmen, die die Versorgung mit „Medizin, medizinischem Gerät, Nahrungsmitteln und Agrargütern“ verhindern. Die USA reagierten auf gewohnte Weise: Sie traten noch am selben Tag aus dem zugrundeliegenden Vertrag aus.
Wirtschaftskrieg, der gegen Menschenrechte und Völkerrecht verstößt
Um die Frage, wer das Ziel dieser Politik ist, haben die USA im Übrigen nie einen Hehl gemacht: die Zivilbevölkerung. Mehrmals erklärten US-Politiker in den vergangenen Jahren, ihr Ziel sei es, die wirtschaftliche Not so weit zu treiben, bis die iranische Bevölkerung sich gegen ihre eigene Führung auflehne. Im Februar 2019 formulierte US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo beispielsweise eine Art Erfolgsbilanz der amerikanischen Sanktionspolitik: „Für das iranische Volk ist die Situation heute viel schlimmer und wir sind überzeugt, dass das dazu führen wird, dass sich das Volk erheben und das Verhalten des Regimes verändern wird“, sagte Pompeo, bevor er weitere Sanktionen gegen den Iran ankündigte.
Auch nach der jüngsten Gewalt zwischen USA und dem Iran im Januar 2020 hat Donald Trump die Sanktionen gegen das Land erneut verschärft. Kritik an dieser Politik gab es von westlichen Medien auch diesmal kaum.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57651
(* A K P)
Newsblog zum Iran-Konflikt
Elf Soldaten bei iranischem Angriff vergangene Woche im Irak verletzt
US-Truppen nehmen Einsätze mit irakischer Armee offenbar wieder auf
Iran lehnt "Trump-Deal" in Atomstreit ab
(* B K P)
Krieg, Bürgerkrieg oder Militärdiktatur
Die Entwicklung des US-Iran-Konflikts nach der Ermordung von Ghassem Soleimani.
Die Ermordung von Ghassem Soleimani auf Befehl von Donald Trump war eine offene Kriegserklärung der USA an Iran. Diesen von vielen Kommentatoren geteilten Einschätzung kann man ohne Wenn und Aber zustimmen. Mit der Ermordung des hochrangigen iranischen Generals verfolgen Kriegstreiber und Hegemonialkräfte der USA weiterhin, ihr Projekt des amerikanischen Jahrhunderts voranzubringen. Dazu gehört das Ziel, die vollständige Kontrolle über den Mittleren Osten und dessen für die US-Hegemonie existenzielle Ölressourcen niemals aus der Hand geben zu wollen. Dass die Ermordung des iranischen Generals eine völkerrechtswidrige und menschenrechtsverletzende Handlung war, steht außer Zweifel. Von Mohssen Massarrat.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57741
(* B P)
Regime Change – die USA spielen in Iran einmal mehr mit dem Feuer
Glaubt man Donald Trumps privatem „Mann für alle Fälle“, sind die Proteste, die Iran seit über einem Jahr erlebt, keine „spontane“ Entwicklung, sondern das Ergebnis der externen Einflussnahme der USA mit dem Ziel, einen Regime Change zu orchestrieren. Auch wenn man es nicht mit Sicherheit sagen kann, liegt die Vermutung nahe, dass Rudy Giuliani mit seiner Aussage Recht haben könnte. Trump selbst bestreitet zwar, dass die USA einen Regime Change in Iran anstreben, aber welchen Zweck sollen das von ihm angeordnete Attentat auf General Suleimani und die harsche Sanktionspolitik sonst verfolgen? Auf jeden Fall birgt die aggressive US-Politik unkalkulierbare Risiken und könnte einen weiteren Flächenbrand auslösen.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57729
(* B K P)
Völkerrechtliche Aspekte des Konflikts zwischen Iran und den USA
Nach den Einlassungen der US-Administration ist nicht deutlich erkennbar, warum die Tötung Soleimanis im Irak unbedingt notwendig gewesen sein soll, um eine akute Gefahr für das Leben von US-Amerikanern ultima ratio abzuwehren. Die gezielte Tötung Soleimanis erfüllt offensichtlich nicht die Kriterien eines „finalen Rettungsschusses“ und erscheint insoweit als Verstoß gegen das Recht auf Leben aus Art. 6 VN-Zivilpakt.
Im Hinblick auf den US-Drohneneinsatz vom 3. Januar lässt sich das Vorliegen einer Selbstverteidigungslage i.S.v. Art. 51 VN-Charta stark bezweifeln. Gemessen an den Kriterien des sog. „Caroline-Falls“, wonach ein Staat, der sich auf Selbstverteidigung beruft, nachweisen muss, dass der Angriff „unmittelbar bevorstand, überwältigend war und keine Wahl der Mittel und keine Zeit für weitere Beratungen ließ, hat die US-Administration die Voraussetzungen für eine völkerrechtskonforme Selbstverteidigung nicht substantiiert dargelegt.
(* B K P)
Film: M. Bröckers zu den anhaltenden Versuchen der USA dem Iran einen Krieg aufzuzwingen
Was haben der Putsch im Iran 1953 durch die CIA und die aktuelle Ermordung des iranischen Generals Qassem Soleimani bei einem offiziellen Staatsbesuch miteinander gemeinsam? Immer sind es die USA, die versuchen, das politische Personal der Perser zu bestimmen und wenn es ihnen nicht (mehr) gefällt, ggf. dieses Personal auch wieder beseitigen. Politischer Mord gehört zum Tagesgeschäft jener Nation, die dem Rest der Welt suggerieren möchte, sie wäre als Weltpolizist vor allem nötig um internationales Recht zu wahren und durchzusetzen.
Das genaue Gegenteil ist der Fall. Die USA haben sich zum brutalsten Schläger auf dem Planeten entwickelt. Ihr Politikstil entspricht dem der Mafia. Man verstößt chronisch gegen geltendes Recht, erpresst seine Nachbarn und ermordet jeden, der nicht umgehend spurt. Diese Form amerikanischer Außenpolitik hat große Teile des Nahen Ostens in eine Trümmerlandschaft verwandelt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFmfLxM5U3w
Mein Kommentar: Die Rolle des petrodollar wird hier überbetont, dazu s. auch https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=44020.
(* B K P)
Film: Aufstehen im Gespräch: Oskar Lafontaine über die Eskalation zwischen den #USA und dem #Iran
Die Blutspur des US-Imperialismus
Die aktuellen Ereignisse im Iran lehren uns, dass die Konzentration von wirtschaftlicher Macht im Imperialismus mündet, also in kriegerischen Eroberungen von Rohstoffen und Absatzmärkten. In nur 16 ihrer 244 Jahre langen Geschichte haben die USA keinen Krieg geführt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNFxuUWw7_Y
(B K P)
Film: USA verteidigen rechtswidrige Tötung Soleimanis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRc1hwO5HiI
(* B K P)
Ein Zwischenruf von Willy Wimmer
In den letzten zwei Wochen wurde die Welt durch die Ermordung des iranischen Generals Suleimani an den Rand eines globalen Krieges geführt. Schnell war klar, dass ein sich daraus ergebender Krieg nicht nur die Region am Persischen Golf in Stücke reißen würde.
Seit dem völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg 1999 gegen Jugoslawien ist alles unternommen worden, die Charta der Vereinten Nationen und die Ächtung des Krieges zu beseitigen. Der Durchmarsch der eigenen Nation, die glaubte, den „Kalten Krieg“ gewonnen zu haben zwecks Erlangung der Weltherrschaft, war das Ziel.
Diese Politik hat uns an den Abgrund geführt, wie die Ermordung von General Suleimani und der Abschuss der ukrainischen Maschine bei Teheran zeigte.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57695
(A K P)
Ruhani droht auch Europas Soldaten in der Region
(B K P)
Nein zum Krieg gegen Iran!
https://diefreiheitsliebe.de/politik/meinungsstark-politik/nein-zum-krieg-gegen-iran/
(B K P)
Iran: "Das Regime ist nicht überlebensfähig"
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Das-Regime-ist-nicht-ueberlebensfaehig-4637675.html
(A K P)
Irans Präsident fordert Politikwandel in seinem Land
https://www.arte.tv/de/afp/neuigkeiten/irans-praesident-fordert-politikwandel-seinem-land
(* B K P)
US-Druck auf China: “Kauft kein iranisches Öl, oder es folgen weitere Sanktionen”
Washington hat es geschafft, den Iran von “wahrscheinlich über 95 Prozent der Öleinnahmen” abzuschneiden, so US-Finanzminister Steven Mnuchin.
Gegenüber Fox News sagte Mnuchin, dass US-Beamte nun mit China an dem Thema arbeiten, da ein erheblicher Teil der verbleibenden Ölexporte des Iran in dieses Land geht
(* B K P)
“Ende der USA in unserer Region hat begonnen” – Der Soleimani-Mord und seine Folgen
(…) Langfristig könnten die Folgen des Soleimani-Mords für die USA aber schmerzhafter sein als für den Iran.
(…) Die Welt wird sich ändern
“11. September 2001 = 3. Januar 2020. So wie die Welt sich seitdem geändert hat, so wird sich die Welt von nun an ändern. Für Deine Seele, Märtyrer Qassem Soleimani.”
Das war am vergangenen Freitag in einem syrischen Facebook-Beitrag zu lesen. Der 3. Januar ist der Tag der Ermordung des iranischen Generalmajors Qassem Soleimani, des Kommandeurs der al-Quds-Einheit der Iranischen Revolutionsgarde.
(…) Ein neues Vietnam für die USA
Die Region werde ein “neues Vietnam für die USA werden”, sollten sie die Region nicht verlassen, erklärte Ali Akbar Velayati, Berater des obersten Revolutionsführer Ajatollah Ali Chamenei… Die Antworten des Iran auf die Ermordung General Soleimanis würden nur “militärische Einrichtungen” der USA treffen, erklärte der militärische Berater Chameneis, der frühere Verteidigungsminister Hossein Dehghan, dem US-Sender CNN: “Mit Sicherheit wird die Antwort militärisch und gegen militärische Ziele sein.” Keine amerikanischen Militärangehörigen, keine amerikanischen politischen (Entscheidungs-)Zentren, keine amerikanische Militärbasis, kein amerikanisches Schiff werden sicher sein, so Dehghan. “Wir können alle erreichen.”
(…) Anfang vom Ende der USA und des Westens in der Region Westasien
Das irakische Parlament verabschiedete mehrheitlich eine Resolution, wonach die irakische Regierung beauftragt und ermächtigt wird, alle ausländischen Truppen außer Landes zu weisen, die der US-geführten “Anti-IS-Allianz” angehören. Ausländische Truppen sollen den irakischen Luftraum nicht mehr nutzen dürfen – von Karin Leukefeld
https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/96689-eskalation-westlicher-staaten-und-medien/
(* A K P)
Newsblog zum Iran-Konflikt
Trump nennt getöteten iranischen General "Hurensohn"
Ukrainisches Flugzeug wurde offenbar von zwei iranischen Raketen getroffen
USA unterstützen europäisches Vorgehen bei Atomabkommen mit Iran
Iran nennt Schlichtung zum Atomabkommen "strategischen Fehler"
Erneuter Raketenangriff auf US-Militärcamp bei Bagdad
(* B K P)
Iran-Rückblick: Wie es beinahe zu einem großen Krieg gekommen ist
Die dramatische Kriegsgefahr im Iran ist vorbei, aber die nun ans Licht kommenden Informationen über die Entwicklungen nach der Ermordung des iranischen Generals in Bagdad geben trotzdem gewissen Einblicke in die Entscheidungsfindung in Washington.
https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2020/iran-rueckblick-wie-es-beinahe-zu-einem-grossen-krieg-gekommen-ist/
(A P)
Key moments in the unraveling of Iran’s nuclear deal
https://apnews.com/fb526a8312649c155968ad76437318f0
(A P)
EU pressures Iran on atom deal in last-ditch bid to save it
https://apnews.com/76ef3722e781efed91a832a44d25917d
(* A K P)
Newsblog zum Iran-Konflikt: Erneute Raketenangriffe auf US-Militärcamp bei Bagdad
(A K P)
Iran verkündet Festnahmen nach Abschuss von Flugzeug
(* B K P)
"Regime Change liegt in der Luft"
Washington setzt auf die Demonstranten im Iran, noch gibt es Zweifel, ob ausschließlich menschlicher Irrtum die Ursache des Abschusses der ukrainischen Passagiermaschine war
In den USA wittern die Hardliner, die neben Venezuela auf einen Regime Change im Iran setzen, dass die Proteste gegen die Regierung, die schon vor dem aktuellen Showdown mit den USA aufflammten, jetzt nach dem angeblich versehentlichen Abschuss der ukrainischen Passagiermaschine durch die Revolutionsgarden an Momentum gewinnen. Der ehemalige Sicherheitsberater von Trump, John Bolton, der hinter der Iran-Politik Trumps und dem Ausstieg aus dem Atomabkommen stand, wittert den lange ersehnten Regierungssturz
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Regime-Change-liegt-in-der-Luft-4634349.html
(* B K P)
Die Hinrichtung
Die Tötung von Kassem Soleimani durch die USA war völkerrechtswidrig.
Die meisten Medien sind sich wieder einmal einig: Die USA haben sich legitimerweise eines gefährlichen Terroristen entledigt. Dem muss vehement widersprochen werden: Die Ermordung des iranischen Generals Kassem Soleimani und des irakischen Milizenführers Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi sowie von weiteren, namentlich nicht bekannten Personen waren illegale, völkerrechtswidrige Hinrichtungen. Der Drohnenangriff war zugleich eine kriegerische Aktion sowohl gegen den Iran als auch gegen den Irak, dessen Souveränität durch den Angriff verletzt wurde. Die Bundesregierung als treuer Vasall lässt die USA gewähren, obwohl deren Präsident Trump offen weitere Kriegsverbrechen ankündigte. Sie drängt nicht einmal auf die Einhaltung ethischer und völkerrechtlicher Mindeststandards bei der Nutzung der Airbase Ramstein auf deutschem Boden.
https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/die-hinrichtung
(* B K P)
Nach dem Flugzeugabschuss in Teheran braucht es Deeskalation – auch zwischen dem Westen und Russland
Der versehentliche Abschuss des ukrainischen Passierflugzeugs über Teheran eignet sich nicht zur geopolitischen Instrumentalisierung. Er zeigt vielmehr exemplarisch, welche Katastrophen zu Spannungszeiten unter extremem Zeitdruck immer wahrscheinlicher werden.
(? B K P)
Film: Der lange Arm der Mullahs: Die Macht der Revolutionsgarden
https://www.zdf.de/politik/auslandsjournal/der-lange-arm-der-mullahs-100.html
(B K P)
Teherans Milizen: hörig oder autonom?
https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/teherans-milizen-hoerig-oder-autonom_id_11559709.html
(* B P)
Wikipedia: Qasem Soleimani
Amerikanische und britische Militärs bezeichneten ihn als „iranischen Rommel“, im Sinne eines gefürchteten, aber geachteten Gegners.[71][72] Der ehemalige US-Army-General und frühere JSOC- sowie ISAF-Kommandeur Stanley A. McChrystal beschrieb Soleimani 2019 als „Irans tödlichen Puppenspieler“ und verglich dessen „schattenhaften Einfluss“ im Iran mit jenem J. Edgar Hoovers in den Vereinigten Staaten.[73]
Im Jahr 2017 stand Soleimani auf der TIME-Liste der 100 einflussreichsten Persönlichkeiten in der Welt. Damals schrieb der CIA-Experte Kenneth Pollack über Soleimani: "Für Schiiten im Nahen Osten ist er James Bond, Erwin Rommel und Lady Gaga im einem". Soleimani unterhielt einen sehr populären Account beim Onlinedienst Instagram und in einer Umfrage von 2018 erhielt er 83 % Zustimmung – mehr als Präsident Ruhani und Außenminister Sarif. Soleimani wurde als möglicher Kandidat für das Präsidentenamt 2021 gehandelt
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani
cp9a2 USA-Iran Krise: Wachsende Spannungen am Golf: Englisch / US-Iran crisis: Mounting tensions at the Gulf: English
(** B K P)
Trump’s Schizophrenic and Opaque Foreign Policy
Attempting to crack the code of what President Trump is doing on the international stage is perplexing…at its best.
Where the sanctions were divisive Soleimani’s death unified the country and shifted the Iranian rabble’s attention from misery to patriotism. What followed in quick succession was Iranian citizens and their government ratcheting up the anti-American rhetoric.
While most Americans, including the Commander in Chief, have called for an end to “endless wars” the U.S. remains knee-deep in military actions around the globe. Legal wrangling and wordplay aside, Soleimani’s assassination has moved America closer to a full-blown war, another one.
Both in American and around the world, governments and citizens have been left wondering exactly what another military campaign would accomplish for America or its allies.
The American exhaustion that surrounds our military actions over the past 20 years makes this march towards war odd. Even more peculiar is the president’s tone deafness around that exhaustion and the Republican party’s blinders around the topic of war(s) and their capitulation towards this particular attack.
However, with that being said, it would be dangerous to ignore two monolithic hurdles the president is currently facing.
President Trump faces re-election this year.
Trump is facing a post-impeachment Senate trial to remove him from office (of which he is expected to be acquitted by his republican brethren).
THE WHY
Eschewing the attacks on the embassy as motivation for the targeted bombing, the Pentagon went political. To protect their boss, the Pentagon first claimed that Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Neither the U.S. military nor President Trump’s administration has provided evidence to substantiate plots for future attacks by Iran or Soleimani. They have also not presented any verifiable imminent threat and in fact have found difficulty rationalizing the drone attack.
GEOPOLITICAL
Whatever his political motivation may or may not be, it’s impossible to ignore how important and relevant the attack is geopolitically. To ignore President Trump’s admiration of Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman is to discount the connection that exists between America, Saudi Arabia and the ongoing war in Yemen.
On the world stage, the Middle East and most of Europe may be chagrined by President Trump’s actions and words; however, there is a group of individuals and organizations that are excited by the prospect of more military dust-ups — the defense industry.
THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Many of the President’s most steadfast private sector supporters have been on American television supporting President Trump’s military moves. While their motivation may seem supportive, perhaps even patriotic, it can’t be ignored that these supporters and pundits have direct ties to the defense industry.
Since Soleimani’s assassination, the stock prices for all major defense contractors have risen considerably.
ALL THE NEWS
With all that said, the one thing that is without question is that for a few days, the American news cycle, and the world’s, moved away from Trump’s impeachment.
Whatever his motivations and ambitions may be, President Donald Trump continues to prove himself a political enigma both in America and around the world – by Keith R. Higgons
https://medium.com/discourse/trumps-schizophrenic-and-opaque-foreign-policy-f070f98ad766
(** B K P)
The Donald’s Assassination of General Soleimani—As Stupid As It Gets
During more than a half-century of Washington watching we have seen stupidity rise from one height to yet another. But nothing—just plain nothing—compares to the the blithering stupidity of the Donald’s Iran “policy”, culminating in the mindless assassination of its top military leader and hero of the so-called Islamic Revolution, Major General Qassem Soleimani.
To be sure, we don’t give a flying f*ck about the dead man himself. Like most generals of whatever army (including the US army), he was a cold-blooded, professional killer.
And in this day and age of urban and irregular warfare and drone-based annihilation delivered by remote joy-stick, generals tend to kill more civilians than combatants.
The only reason these years of combat are described in the mainstream media as evidence of Iranian terrorism propagated by its Quds forces is that the neocons have declared it so. That is, by Washington’s lights Iran is not allowed to have a foreign policy and its alliances with mainly Shiite co-religionists in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are alleged per se to be schemes of aggression and terror, warranting any and all retaliations including assassination of its highest officials.
But that’s just colossal nonsense and imperialistic arrogance. The Assad government in Syria, the largest political party in Lebanon (Hezbollah), the dominant population of northern Yemen (Houthis) and a significant portion of the Iraqi armed forces represented by the Shiite militias (the PMF or Popular Mobilization Forces) are no less civilized and no more prone to sectarian violence than anybody else in this woebegone region. And the real head-choppers of ISIS and its imitators and rivals have all been Sunni jihadist insurrectionists, not Shiite-based governments and political parties.
But that’s just colossal nonsense and imperialistic arrogance. The Assad government in Syria, the largest political party in Lebanon (Hezbollah), the dominant population of northern Yemen (Houthis) and a significant portion of the Iraqi armed forces represented by the Shiite militias (the PMF or Popular Mobilization Forces) are no less civilized and no more prone to sectarian violence than anybody else in this woebegone region. And the real head-choppers of ISIS and its imitators and rivals have all been Sunni jihadist insurrectionists, not Shiite-based governments and political parties.
So we needs be direct. The aggression in the Persian Gulf region during the last three decades has originated in the Washington DC nest of neocon vipers and among Bibi Netanyahu’s proxies, collaborators and assigns who rule the roost in the Imperial City and among both political parties. And the motivating force has all along been the malicious quest for regime change – first in Iraq and then in Syria and Iran.
Needless to say, Washington instigated “regime change” tends to provoke a determined self-defense and a usually violent counter-reaction among the changees. So the truth is, the so-called Shiite crescent is not an alliance of terrorists inflicting wanton violence on the region; it’s a league of regime-change resisters and armed combatants who have elected to say “no” to Washington’s imperial schemes for remaking the middle eastern maps.
So in taking out Soleimani, the usually befuddled and increasingly belligerent occupant of the Oval Office was not striking a blow against “terrorism”.
The larger point here is that Imperial Washington and its mainstream media megaphones have so egregiously and relentlessly vilified Iran and falsified the middle east narrative that the Iranian side of the story has been completely lost – literally airbrushed right off the pages of contemporary history in Stalineseque fashion.
Not that the benighted, mullah-controlled Iranian regime is comprised of anything which resembles white hats. One of the great misfortunes of the last four decades is that the long-suffering people of Iran have not been able to throw-off the cultural and religious shackles imposed by this theocratic regime or escape the economic backwardness and incompetence of what is essentially rule by authoritarian clerics.
But that’s exactly the crime of Washington’s neocon-inspired hostility and threats to the Iranian regime. It merely rekindles Iranian nationalism and causes the public to rally to the support of the regime, as is so evident at the current moment.
Worse still, the underlying patriotic foundation of this pro-regime sentiment is completely lost on Imperial Washington owing to its false narrative about post-1979 history – by David Stockman
(* B K P)
Soleimani killing — how the most ‘perilous chapter’ in Donald Trump’s presidency unfolded
In a detailed account, The New York Times has reported particulars of the plan to assassinate Iranian General Soleimani, and its aftermath for the US.
The first week of January 2020 and the months preceding that mark the most “perilous chapter” of US President Donald Trump’s presidency, The New York Times has said in a report that details the plan and aftermath of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
With the help of interviews with diplomats, military officers and analysts in Trump’s office, the NYT in its report last week sought to explain the US’ motivation. It also reported how Washington and Tehran stepped back from the precipice of war, including Trump’s attempts “through allies and a back channel to keep the ensuing crisis from mushrooming out of control”.
On 27 December, an Iranian attack on a military base near Kirkuk killed an American civilian contractor. Four days later, pro-Iranian protesters broke into the US embassy compound in Baghdad, agitating US president Donald Trump.
Around then, the NYT report said, a top secret memo signed by the President’s national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien started circulating. General Qassem Soleimani was among the listed potential targets.
Soleimani was seen by US officials as responsible “for more instability and death in the Middle East than almost anyone”. As the head of the elite Quds Force, Soleimani had a hand in “managing proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen”. Over the last few years, he had also carved out an international profile due to his war with the Islamic State.
The NYT report said officials claimed there had been discussions over targeting Soleimani for the previous 18 months. They “contemplated going after him during one of his frequent visits to Syria or Iran” because it would be difficult to get to him in Iran.
By September 2019, the United States Central Command and Joint Special Operations Command were brought in to plan a possible operation.
Quoting officials, the NYT report said there was “no single definitive piece of intelligence” on Qassem Soleimani’s whereabouts. Instead, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers spoke of a possible “mosaic effect” — there were multiple pieces of intelligence that indicated that Soleimani was organising “proxy forces” in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq to attack US embassies.
While US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later described threats to embassies as “imminent”, the officials told NYT that there wasn’t enough concrete information for such an assertion. However, they saw a worrying pattern.
CIA Director Gina Haspel was convinced of an impending attack and argued for striking Soleimani instead of waiting. She also predicted that Iran’s most likely response would be an “ineffectual” missile strike on Iraqi bases where US troops were stationed.
While there was “little dissent” over killing Soleimani among Trump’s advisers, some Pentagon officials were “shocked that the president picked what they considered the most extreme option and some intelligence officials worried that the possible long-term ramifications were not adequately considered…”
(* B K P)
CALLING IRAN A TERRORIST NATION IS A DANGEROUS JUSTIFICATION
Employing the tactics of oppressive regimes, such as those of Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Egypt, the United States government is once again using its "war on terror" as a catch-all legitimizer to justify its recent assassination of an Iranian general and potential initiation of a major international conflict.
There are many ways the United States could address Iran—as a counterpart, an opponent or even an enemy. The current administration, however, is characterizing the entire nation-state as a terrorist organization.
Iran, President Donald Trump told the American public last week, is the world's "leading sponsor of terrorism," and the late General Qassem Soleimani, an official of the Iranian government, was "the world's top terrorist."
"The civilized world," Trump continued, "must send a clear and unified message to the Iranian regime: Your campaign of terror, murder, mayhem will not be tolerated any longer."
By using such dangerous rhetoric—and in some cases even comparing a potential war with Iran to the fight against ISIS or Al-Qaeda—this administration, along with certain Western media outlets, is treading close to the line of diplomatic fascism. It is attempting to delegitimize Iran through inflammatory labels that marginalize, demonize and limit its power, as a way to falsely portray the disproportionate attack of January 3 as a necessary action to address "imminent" threats.
https://www.newsweek.com/calling-iran-terrorist-nation-dangerous-justification-opinion-1481890
(A P)
Today in Isfahan security forces organized funeral ceremonies for victims of Ukrainian airline & asked the crowd to chant “Death to America”. But people chanting “Death to Dictator”. They beat up families critical with baton & “shocker” & forcefully put IRI flags on coffins.
https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1217840197309796361
More footage on Iranian protests: https://twitter.com/CSHRIran/status/1217838236590071808
https://twitter.com/AlinejadMasih/status/1217790570149576706
https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1217642708317147137
(A K P)
US forces to suffer heavy defeat if they refuse to leave Iraq: Hashd Sha'abi group
(A K P)
US threats over Baghdad’s S-400 procurement detached from reality: Iraqi MP
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/16/616345/US-threats-over-Baghdad&
(* A B P)
Germany confirms Trump made trade threat to Europe over Iran policy
Defence minister says Trump threatened to impose 25% tariff on European cars
The US threatened to impose 25% tariffs on cars to push Europeans to initiate proceedings against Iran for violating the nuclear deal, the German defence minister has confirmed.
“This threat exists,” said the German defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, at a press conference in London.
She was asked about an article in the Washington Post that claimed Trump had secretly warned France, Germany and the UK that the US would impose a “25% tariffs on European cars” if they did not activate the mechanism for the settlement of disputes (MRD) of the Iranian international nuclear agreement reached in Vienna in 2015.
(B K P)
Film: Michael Holmes @tparsi on latest #Trump tweets, #Iraq parlt vote to kick the US out, and how it’s difficult to swallow administration claims Americans are “safer” after the #Soleimani killing.
https://twitter.com/holmescnn/status/1214058815227924480
(B K P)
Against War on Iran: The Role of the Anti-War Movemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg_8zjXRhXU
(* B K P)
Film: Why Trump’s Iran Conflict Cannot Be Stopped Or Unwound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EVL7SGbO8
(* B K P)
Film: Ex-US intel officer: Pompeo ‘lying through his teeth’ on Iran
Pushback with Aaron Maté
The Trump administration is imposing new sanctions on Iran and defying Iraq’s call for a US troop withdrawal. This comes as the stated rationale for the US assassination of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is being undermined by its top officials’ own statements. Scott Ritter, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer, analyzes the increased White House coercion efforts and collapsing intelligence claims.
Guest: Scott Ritter — former UN Weapons Inspector, former Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, and author of “Dealbreaker: Donald Trump and the Unmaking of the Iran Nuclear Deal.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9X36QbLulg
(* B K P)
Film: Tulsi Gabbard Talks About The Reality Of IRAN
Mehr dazu. https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57723
(* B K P)
Film: Who Profits when Iran and America Fight?
We spoke to Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin after Thursday’s War Powers resolution vote. Whose interests are driving the narrative around conflict with Iran?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNyEcVTDwI0
Mehr dazu: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=57723
(A P)
Iran’s president says ‘no limit’ to nuclear enrichment
https://apnews.com/24f808ecec37af07a3a7537a4ff86db8
(A P)
Iran’s FM Rejects UK PM’s Proposal for New ’Trump Deal’ to Replace JCPOA
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10786
(A P)
Only Trump, Pompeo, Daesh Celebrating Gen. Soleimani Assassination: Iran’s Zarif
(A P)
Scale of Enemy’s Plan against Iran Exposed by British Ambassador’s participation
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10782
(* B K P)
Video: 20 seconds of terror between missiles in Iran crash
https://apnews.com/12f79660172bc1ba81bf032e78152acd
(A K P)
Rouhani: Withdrawal from region serves US own interests, restores regional security
(* B K P)
Terrorist or ally? Soleimani saved the lives of Americans 3 times
Both against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and against ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, Gen. Soleimani and the Quds Force constantly fought the same Sunni Islamic Wahhabi fundamentalist forces that targeted U.S. forces throughout the Middle East and the world and swore to destroy the West and America with terrorist acts.
(A K P)
Iran's President Rouhani calls for special court to hear plane tragedy cases
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/14/616153/Iran&
(A K P)
Mahathir Likens U.S. Killing of Iran General to Khashoggi Murder
and also https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/mahathir-slams-soleimani-murder-reminds-us-of-vietnam/1702488
(* B K P)
A look at Europe’s Mideast presence after Iran’s warning
Iran’s president said Wednesday that European troops in the Middle East “could be in danger” if their nations join the United States’ maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic that had led to a military confrontation earlier this month.
https://apnews.com/4d85713032d59eb9ccb67a09b0b1976e
and
(* A K P)
Iran warns Europe as diplomat says officials ‘lied’ on crash
https://apnews.com/12f79660172bc1ba81bf032e78152acd
(A K P)
After Assassination of Soleimani, US Deflates Balad Base in Iraq
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10763
(* A K P)
Canada's Trudeau: Iran plane victims would be alive had there been no regional tensions
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the victims of the Ukrainian airliner shot down in Iran would still be alive if the recent escalation of tensions in the region had not happened, according to a transcript of an interview with Global News TV.
“I think if there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” Trudeau said in the interview.
Trudeau said Canada did not receive a heads up before the United States killed Soleimani, and that he “obviously” would have preferred one.
“The U.S. makes its determinations. We attempt to work as an international community on big issues. But sometimes countries take actions without informing their allies,” he said.
(A K P)
No security in West Asia as long as US terrorist forces stay: Iran's Shamkhani
http://www.iran-daily.com/News/264317.html
(* B K P)
Report: Damage from Iran strikes 'much greater' than US admits
A report by a correspondent for Danish TV 2 who has interviewed Danish soldiers positioned at Iraq’s Ain al-Assad airbase, which was the target of a retaliatory attack from Iran against US forces, shows that the damage done to the base has been “much greater” than the US officials acknowledge.
The report cites Danish sergeant John and other Danish soldiers as making the comment in an interview after the US military base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar was targeted by Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/13/616119/Danish-soldiers-Ain-Assad
(A P)
Iranian President Signs Law Blacklisting Pentagon, Subsidiaries
(* B K P)
US officials cite deterrence to defend lethal drone strike
For all of the Trump administration’s insistence that the threat of an “imminent” attack led to the American drone strike on Iran’s top general, U.S. officials behind the scenes say the strike was motivated as much, if not more, by a broader effort to rein in a dangerously emboldened Iran.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr gave voice to the broader rationale on Monday, saying deterrence was a key component of the strike. But they, like other U.S. officials interviewed by The Associated Press, stopped short of saying definitively that no specific plot was broken up.
Still, the shifting rationale has raised questions about the nature and credibility of the threat posed by Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
https://apnews.com/b988f53c4b6a4520abd8773aa6e08879
(* A P)
Iran announces arrests over downing of plane that killed 176
https://apnews.com/40f1b9bd475d23bd5d2977ff2e473d7b
(A P)
Iraqis worry US-Iran tensions are eclipsing their protests
https://apnews.com/fec28e93e72e020ed11394d49937c76c
(* B P)
India cannot afford to take sides in US-Iran tensions. But New Delhi must activate its regional diplomacy
India cannot afford to take sides. Energy supplies and the safety and security of its vast diaspora in the Gulf are of utmost importance. India has a substantial Shia population too, with sympathy for Iran.
(A P)
China Regrets Britain, France, Germany’s Decision to Trigger Iran Deal Dispute Mechanism
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-01/15/c_138707323.htm
(A P)
Bringing nuclear deal into dispute rooted in weakness: Iran’s Foreign Ministry
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/14/616180/Iran-nuclear-Britain-France-Germany
(A P)
EU launches Iran nuclear deal dispute action
https://apnews.com/76ef3722e781efed91a832a44d25917d
(* B K P)
As Iran missiles battered Iraq base, US lost eyes in sky
Moments after volleys of Iranian missiles began to batter Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase, US soldiers at the desert facility lost contact with their ultra-powerful -- and expensive -- eyes in the sky.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1836219/as-iran-missiles-battered-iraq-base-us-lost-eyes-in-sky = https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7893435/US-military-lost-contact-drones-overhead-Iranian-ballistic-missile-strike.html
Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPzzLNLRQA
(A K P)
US imitating Daesh in threatening Iran's cultural sites: Zarif
(* B K P)
Wikipedia: Qasem Soleimani
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani
(* B P)
Balance of Identity and Balance of Power: The Case of Conflict Dynamics between Saudi Arabia and Iran (MA diss., Charles University, 2019)
This thesis applies the concept of religious (national) identity to the cases of Saudi Arabia, Iran and their proxy allies-state and non-state actors-in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The aim was to show that in the Middle East, Sunni and Shiite affiliations matter in the relationship between the regional powers and respective proxies, as opposing to realist statement that alliances, conflicts and political developments are only governed by pragmatic power interests. Additionally, the work examines whether religious national identities have impact on the dynamics of proxy conflicts. Overall, the objective was to establish comprehensive image of how ideational/constructivist and pragmatic/realist factors work in combination to influence alliances, enmities and conflicts in the Middle East. Using qualitative methods of research, religious (national) identities of Saudi Arabia, Iran and their allies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were constructed so as to create ideational and realist points of departure, and then interlinked to show how convergence of religious identities helps in creating durable alliances if used in targeted manner as a strategic tool which can help safeguard national interests. The work shows notable differences in the use of this tool between Saudi Arabia and Iran, suggesting that it may influence foreign policy successes and failures. Additionally, support of religious convergence between Saudi Arabia, Iran and their respective proxies has direct impact on the dynamic of conflicts and political developments, as "sectarianization" affects formerly secular causes.
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
Medien: Siehe cp1 / Media: Look at cp1
(A K P)
Film: Außenamt will Aussagen von Heiko Maas zur Rolle Ramsteins bei Tötung von Soleimani nicht bestätigen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6XNKueLr9A
(A K P)
Film: BPK zur US-Entscheidung, gegen Willen des Irak Truppen im Land zu belassen: “Widdewiddewitt …”
Die Weigerung der USA, ihre Truppen entgegen der Entscheidung der irakischen Regierung im Land zu belassen, gilt allgemein als völkerrechtswidrig. Doch auf der Bundespressekonferenz versuchte das Auswärtige Amt alles, um einer Bewertung des US-Agierens auszuweichen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwTvpSIAuWw
(A P)
Ohne gültige Papiere unterwegs
Ohne gültige Papiere wurde ein 21-jähriger Staatsangehöriger aus Jemen durch Beamte der Grenzpolizei Pfronten kontrolliert
https://polizei.bayern.de/schwaben_sw/news/presse/aktuell/index.html/308417
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
(* A K P)
Greek Patriots to be deployed in Saudi Arabia
Athens and Riyadh have reportedly agreed on the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles of the Hellenic Air Force in Saudi Arabia.
Technical details relating to the transportation of the missiles, their deployment, cost and operational responsibility remain to be ironed out for the agreement’s conclusion.
According to sources, the deal follows the agreement of the foreign ministries of Greece and Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago to boost the latter’s air defense in light of the recent strikes against the facilities of the state-owned Aramco oil company.
It is also seen as a result of Washington’s pressure on Athens for a Greek presence in the Persian Gulf. Greece had twice responded negatively to previous American requests to send a frigate to join a naval force in the region under US leadership.
Greek authorities note that the agreement between Athens and Riyadh predates the crisis between Washington and Tehran over the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani by the US military.
Comment: #Saudi Monarchy is now seeking protection from #Greece in a clear sign of how #MBSWay is bearing fruit and like AmbDennisRoss said #MBS is leading a revolution. My foot!
https://twitter.com/AliAlAhmed_en/status/1217883420279394305
cp12b Sudan
(* A K P)
Sudan reduces forces deployed in Yemen to 'minor' group
Forces have been reduced to 675 from 5,000, says military spokesman
Sudanese military on Tuesday announced reducing the number of its troops deployed in Yemen.
Brig. Gen. Jamal Adam, a spokesman for the Rapid Support Forces, told Anadolu Agency that a "minor" group of 657 Sudanese military personnel remained in Yemen.
He pointed out that "even the command of the Sudanese forces [in Yemen] returned to Khartoum."
"The Sudanese forces present in Yemen were operating within two sections, the [United Arab] Emirates sector inside Aden, and the Saudi sector that extends on the Saudi-Yemeni border," the spokesman said.
Adam stressed that the Sudanese forces in Yemen had a defensive role in the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen.
On Dec. 8, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced that the number of Sudanese forces was reduced to 5,000 from 15,000 in the past few months.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/sudan-reduces-forces-deployed-in-yemen-to-minor-group/1702419
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms Trade
(A K P)
Canada exported another $260m worth of LAVs to Saudi in Nov 2019. I want to believe that most Canadians are unaware of the level of death and destruction our government is complicit in. Others, incl @JustinTrudeau cannot plead ignorance.
https://twitter.com/_SimonBlack/status/1216910628780154882
cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner
(* A B K P)
Saudi-backed Salafi commander survives mutiny on Yemen's border
Hundreds of soldiers in the Al-Fatah Brigade in Sa'ada revolted against Major General Radad Al-Hashimi, blaming him for the Houthi ambush in August
Violent clashes erupted between rank-and-file soldiers and the leadership of a Saudi-backed military brigade stationed in Yemen’s northern Sa’ada governorate in recent days.
Nearly 300 soldiers in the Al-Fatah Brigade were arrested and transferred to prisons inside Saudi Arabia after revolting against their commander, Major General Radad Al-Hashimi, on charges of corruption and incompetence, according to a military official in the army’s Fifth Military Region on the Red Sea coast.
The Al-Fatah brigade is a relatively newly-formed fighting force made up of thousands of Yemen soldiers mostly from Taiz and Ibb, established under Saudi sponsorship in 2016 to help contain the Houthis along the Kitaf-Najran border area. The Yemeni military officially recognizes it as a brigade within the Kitaf Military Axis of the Fifth Military Region, but in reality has no influence over it.
On Saturday, the protesters accused Al Hashimi, a Salafi sheikh who is also the commander of the Kitaf Military Axis, of looting the soldiers’ salaries, failing to pay the dues of soldiers killed in battle and confiscating military supplies.
The official estimated nearly 600 soldiers participated in the protests, traveling from Taiz, Ibb and Aden to demand the removal of Al-Hashimi and those responsible for the brigade's humiliating defeat by the Houthis in late August and early September.
An officer in the Al-Fatah Brigade who spoke on condition of anonymity told Almasdar Online that Al-Hashimi described the protesters as rebels, saboteurs, and reformers, belonging to Yemen’s Islamist Islah party and ordered to suppress the revolt. Dozens were injured and seven soldiers died in the ensuing clashes.
The officer, who witnessed the ongoing clashes, said that the violence continued until a Saudi committee intervened.
https://al-masdaronline.net/national/259
and by a pro-Houthi news site:
(* A B K)
Mercenaries rebel against Saudi commanders
Al-Fateh Brigade decimated by internal conflict
Dozens of recruits from the mercenary al-Fateh brigade, which are stationed on the Yemeni-Saudi border, have been killed and wounded in internal clashes over the past three days inside a camp led by Radad al-Hashemi.
Informed sources said that soldiers led a military rebellion to protest against the practices of the Saudi officers and military personnel.
The sources added that the clashes resulted in the killing of 7 soldiers and the wounding of dozens, in addition to the arrest of hundreds on charges of rebellion and sedition. The sources continued by stating that some of the detainees were transferred to prisons belonging to Saudi intelligence.
The leadership of the al-Fateh Brigade, consisting of Yemeni mercenary fighters, issued a statement that it said had “eliminated a conspiracy orchestrated at night.”
Rebellions have escalated recently in camps set up by Saudi Arabia to protect its borders. It is reported that tensions are high between Saudi commanders and their Yemeni and foreign mercenary forces, many of whom feel that they’re being used as little more than cannon fodder.
https://www.uprising.today/mercenaries-rebel-against-saudi-commanders/
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
(* B E P)
Developing Human Capital
Executive Summary:
This policy brief summarizes discussions regarding Yemen’s human capital at a “Rethinking Yemen’s Economy” workshop held in Amman, Jordan, on August 24-25, 2019. The workshop participants agreed that Yemen’s human capital accumulation has almost certainly regressed since the current conflict began. However, there is a dearth of reliable data to assess the scope and nature of this regression and thus how to best direct responses. There was also a consensus that many of the obstacles to improving Yemen’s human capital were present prior to the current conflict. In line with these findings, this brief recommends: countrywide population surveys; more funding of development projects over emergency humanitarian assistance; education reforms; and the targeting of sectors with high human capital returns. Crucially, policymakers should not wait for the end of the conflict to implement these recommendations. Investment in Yemen’s human capital now, specifically in geographic areas away from frontline fighting, should hasten the speed of the post-conflict economic recovery and lay the foundations for the sustainable development of the economy beyond the war.
From the Introduction
While workshop participants agreed that the current conflict has likely precipitated a regression in Yemen’s human capital accumulation, much of this decline can be attributed to a magnification of pre-existing problems. For decades, rather than investing in human capital, the Yemeni government pursued a narrow economic vision based on Yemen’s depleting oil reserves. Acknowledgment of the historically entrenched, structural constraints that have hindered human capital development in Yemen fed into discussions on how best to reverse this trend in the short, medium and long term. Participants sought to identify opportunities to instigate change in spite of the ongoing conflict, with the ideal (but not easily achievable) goal of identifying measures that would not only provide immediate relief but also endure beyond the conflict.
Amid weakened state governance in Yemen since the outbreak of the current conflict, there is scope for greater private sector investment in human capital. The state still has a lead role to play in terms of oversight and policy formation, but the private sector is in a stronger, more flexible position to assist with the implementation of certain policies designed to strengthen Yemen’s human capital development. Participants stressed the need for greater coordination between the public and private sectors concerning Yemen’s education system and the provision of knowledge and skills that will better prepare Yemenis for the domestic and foreign job markets. Participants added that donors could also provide financial and technical assistance by placing greater emphasis on development aid, as opposed to focusing primarily on emergency humanitarian relief.
https://sanaacenter.org/publications/main-publications/8634
(A E P)
Film: Armed conflicts cause the Rial fall to its lowest level yet
The Yemeni Rial has fallen again against various foreign currencies after a relative stability over the past few months, prompting exchange shops to buy and sell hard currency due to this significant decline. Economists warned of a further decline in the Rial against other currencies if the armed crisis in Yemen continues, thus affecting the national economy as a whole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZcUs0U1BQ
(B E)
Risk Factors Influencing the Construction Projects in Yemen from Expert's Perspective
This purpose of this study is to validate the important risk factors influencing the construction projects in a developing country of Yemen by using experts' evaluations and literature review. These factors influence the project's quality, time and cost. The semi-structured interviews were employed through online means using thirteen experts to achieve the set objective. Depending on the expert's overviews, out of 56 considered factors, 42 factors were assigned as the most related risk factors influencing the construction projects in Yemen. The obtained outcomes from this study can serve as the risk factors for building blocks in establishing a conceptual model to manage risks of the construction projects in Yemen.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/712/1/012007/meta
full study: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/712/1/012007/pdf
(* B H E)
REACH Initiative: Secondary Desk Review of Cash and Markets Data for Yemen - November 2019
The ongoing conflict in Yemen has led to a severe and protracted humanitarian crisis, with over 24 million Yemenis in need of some form of humanitarian assistance in 2019.1 The economy of Yemen has been hit drastically, and the resulting higher prices and decreased purchasing power have contributed to increased food insecurity and an increased use of negative coping strategies by large portions of the population. In order to address the basic needs of vulnerable groups across Yemen, humanitarian actors are employing an increasing number of cash and voucher-based programs.
With this increased use of cash programming in Yemen, it is critical to have reliable, relevant, and accessible data sources that can inform the design and implementation of cash-based programs. Additionally, since the volatile context can cause the economic situation and needs of the population to change rapidly, access to up-to-date information is crucial for humanitarian actors to plan their interventions appropriately. However, publicly available data sources related to cash in Yemen are limited
The SDR aims to achieve this objective through:
Cataloging existing relevant data and analysis that is publicly available on cash and markets in Yemen;
Identifying global guidelines for data and information that are critical for organizations to make informed decisions about cash and markets programs, and comparing these standards to available data in Yemen in order to highlight possible evidence gaps;
Identifying key areas where CMWG data collection and analysis processes could be streamlined and/or harmonized.
http://www.cashlearning.org/resources/library/1487-secondary-desk-review-of-cash-and-markets-data-for-yemen = https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/secondary-desk-review-cash-and-markets-data-yemen-november-2019
(A E P)
Economic experts warn against ban of newly -printed banknotes circulation
A volunteer economic workforce has warned against consequences of the Houthis’ ban on circulation of the newly-printed banknotes on citizens and the national economy.
In a paper, the workforce said that the ban of the newly-printed cash notes circulation will result in bad economic, humanitarian and political consequences.
The economy will keep shrining, citizens’ suffering will worsen, and the private sector will sustain great losses.
It said that dispute between the dual management of the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) in Aden and Sana’a is to be partially blamed for the devaluation of the Yemeni national currency.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37365
and
(A E P)
[Aden branch] CBY governor: International community must force Houthis to halt ban of new banknotes circulation
Ahmed Al-Fadhli, governor of the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) said that the international community must do its responsibility towards forcing the Houthis to halt ban of the newly-printed banknotes circulation.
The Houthis banned last mid-December circulation of the newly-printed banknotes in their held areas and threatened cash confiscation and one-year imprisonment against anyone found using the new cash notes.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37336
and
(A E P)
Protest in Ibb against ban of newly-printed banknotes circulation
Scores of citizens in the Houthis-held Ibb city staged a sit-in in front of the governor’ office protesting against the Houthis-ban on circulation of the newly-printed banknotes.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37367
(* A E)
Yemen displays first “made in Yemen” tractors
The General Corporation for the Development and Production of Grain displayed a number of new made in Yemen tractors in the 70th square in Sana’a last Tuesday.
Under the auspices of the Supreme Agricultural and Fish Committee, and within the framework of implementing the national vision, the national program for economic recovery and reconstruction, the first phase 2020, the General Corporation for the Development and Production of Grain launched its projects for the current year in the seventy square in the capital, Sanaa, by displaying models of agricultural equipment and tractors and some of the agricultural machines that were produced locally with the support from the corporation to the Engineering College of Sanaa University and some technical institutes, said a statement issued by the General Corporation for the Development and Production of Grain.
https://newyemenen.com/yemen-displays-first-made-in-yemen-tractors/
(* A E P)
Zerstörtes Seekabel schränkt Internet am Roten Meer ein
Das Seekabel Falcon wurde in der vergangenen Woche durchtrennt. Das spüren viele Staaten, am stärksten jedoch der Jemen, wo es weitaus größere Probleme als MBit/s gibt.
Ein zerstörtes Seekabel hat die Internetversorgung in Jemen und umliegenden Staaten unterbrochen oder eingeschränkt. Wie die jemenitische Nachrichtenagentur (Saba) berichtet, habe wohl ein Anker das Seekabel Falcon zerstört. In der vergangenen Woche fiel das Internet in Jemen aus und ist bis heute noch immer nicht voll wiederhergestellt.
Der Betreiber Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) gab bekannt, dass vor der Küste von Port Suez zwei größere Kabeldurchtrennungen für die Probleme verantwortlich sind.
(* A E P)
What, no connection? Internet outage further darkens life in Yemen
On Jan. 9, an official at the Ministry of Telecommunications told the Houthi-run state news agency Saba that a large number of the internet correspondence connections went out of service when a submarine cable was cut off in Suez.
The Public Telecommunication Corporation and Yemen International Telecommunications (TeleYemen) announced that more than 80% of the international internet capacities was now down. Saba quoted an unnamed official as saying that efforts to follow up the cable repair were underway, and they hoped for a return of normal service soon.
Almost simultaneously, Yemen Mobile, which is run by the ministry, sent clients text messages notifying them that “more than 80% of the international internet capacity” was down. Ironically, due to the poor connection, many of the clients did not receive it until the next day, which only added to their frustration and anger.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/01/internet-victim-of-yemeni-civil-war.html
(A E P)
African countries affected by FALCON undersea cable cut
Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania continue to be affected by the cable cuts to the FLAG Alcatel-Lucent Optical Network (FALCON) undersea cable off Yemen understood to have occurred on 9 Jan 2020.
The FALCON cable is managed by Global Cloud Xchange (GCX).
In a statement, GCX said it suffered two major cable cuts to off-shore Port Suez impacting the FALCON route between Muscat and Suez, and that of FEA between Mumbai and Suez.
The entire Gulf region and a number of African countries were affected, but Yemen has been the worst hit with 80% of internet connections in the country cut. This is because of the country's reliance on the cable and the non-existence of other major means of connectivity.
(A E P)
Yemeni Government in Sana’a: US-Saudi Aggression Responsible for Interruption of Internet Services
The Minister of Communications, Engineer Musfer Al-Numair, holds the US-Saudi aggression responsible for the internet services interruption in Yemen. The aggression has banned the installation of cables that were recently subscribed to. It has, as well, prevented importing any communications equipment and international data connections.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10765
(A E P)
GCX Inhaber der beiden Seekabel Falcon und Via bestätigt die Fortsetzung des Reparaturprozesses
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3084754.htm
(A E P)
Internet cable company promised to repair Yemen internet connection as soon as possible
Internet outage possibly caused by merchant vessel anchor
The Global Cloud Xchange internet cable supply company has refuted all allegations and claims about the reasons for 80% of internet capacity in Yemen having been lost.
On Thursday, 9 January 2020, GCX suffered two major cable cuts off-shore Port Suez, the Global Cloud Xchange said in a statement published on its website.
According to GCX , the cable routes impacted include FALCON between Muscat and Suez and FEA between Mumbai and Suez.
Initial findings indicate that probable cause was an anchor drag by a large merchant vessel in the immediate area, the statement read.
cp15 Propaganda
(A P)
Houthis recognize plundering YR70 billion a month from Internet revenues
Statements by the Houthis-run Yemeni Public Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) on its financial loss caused by the four-day Internet outage suggest that the Houthis group loot around YR70 billion ($120million) a month.
Sources of the PTC quoted by media outlets in the Houthis-held Sana’a said that the PTC lost around YR four billion ($6.8million) during the past four-day Internet cut.
This means that the PTC generates YR70 billion ($120million) a month, which is sufficient to pay monthly salaries of all the public employees who have been unpaid for the fourth year in a row.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-37366
(A P)
Iran, Soleimani and the Regime's vendetta
If history is any indicator, Iran’s revenge will likely be much like General Soleimani himself — cold, calculated, methodical and operated from the shadows.
Unfortunately, the inability to hold Iran accountable for its destruction in the Middle East has been part of the problem that has emboldened Iran to act violently against whatever it perceives as a threat, whether from the U.S. or from its own citizens. This does not mean that the U.S. should maintain its confrontation with Iran and abandon diplomatic pursuits for de-escalation, instead, it should attempt to put together a bipartisan plan that would allow it to respond immediately should the Islamic regime decide to escalate, as it most definitely will.
https://www.egic.info/iran-soleimani-and-the-regime-vende
(A P)
Soleimani Was More Than An “Imminent Threat”
In their rush to lambaste Trump, Democrats overlooked his related comments on Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s efforts to increase its hegemonic influence in the Middle East, especially in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Yemen.
Trump correctly reminded his accusers that Soleimani was killed not so much because he was plotting further attacks against U.S. facilities and allies in the Middle East, but because he had amassed such a terrible track record since his appointment in 1998 as head of the Quds Force, the long, aggressive arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Whether such Iranian operations were “imminent” is besides the point, said Trump, pointing to Soleimani’s “horrible past.” Given his malign activities, Soleimani should have been taken out 20 years ago, he added.
Trump’s argument is valid.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/soleimani-was-more-than-an-imminent-threat/
(A P)
Mastermind is dead, but Iran’s use of proxies far from over
The US government says it killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent an “imminent threat” of Iran-orchestrated attacks. Regardless of the truth of the supposed threat, US military forces, their allies and civilians in the region were, and remain, in danger of facing attacks by Iranian proxies.
Ultimately, the value of using proxies outweighs the costs. And even though one of the most intense episodes of US-Iran tension has abated, and Iran’s longtime strategic warfare planner is gone, Tehran will continue to use its allied proxies in pursuit of its long-term goals. Iran is playing a long game to build influence in the region, to erode America’s presence there and to preserve its own survival. And that is why Iran needs its regional allies.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2020/01/opinion/mastermind-is-dead-but-irans-use-of-proxies-far-from-over/
(A P)
KSA is at Top of Donors for Humanitarian Response Plan in Yemen 2019
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been at top of supporters and funders of the humanitarian response plan in Yemen 2019 which is estimated to be USD 4.19 Billion, According to a report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The total funding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is USD 968,4 million, representing 28% of humanitarian response plan in Yemen 2019.
https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&newsid=2022642
(A K P)
Soleimani’s man: Abdul Reza Shahlai, Iran’s most senior commander in Yemen
Abdul Reza Shahlai, who was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt by US forces last week, is Iran’s most senior commander in Yemen and has a track record of assassination plots and killings.
Before taking up his role as Iran’s military commander in Yemen, Shahlai was reportedly involved in attacks on US forces in Iraq in the 1990s and also plotted to kill the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, when he was ambassador to the United States in 2011.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/01/11/Profile-Iran-s-military-commander-in-Yemen.html
(A K P)
REP. RIGGLEMAN: Killing Soleimani Made Us All Safer — Take It From This Veteran
Since President Trump took decisive action to eliminate Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Democrats in Congress have reacted predictably by deriding President Trump. They attack our president for defending national security simply because they are a one-note band eager to detract from their impeachment charade.
They are wrong.
The hypocrisy of the Democratic position is easy to see when President Trump’s actions are compared with former President Barack Obama.
Soleimani killed Americans and was the leader of proxy forces that killed Americans and allies until Jan. 3 of this year.
He was a terrorist.
He was a target.
Our response was not provocative and disproportionate. It was “necessary and proportionate.”
https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/14/riggleman-killing-soleimani/
(A K P)
Yemen Perspectives on International Cooperation in the Field of Emergency Humanitarian Response Stability
UN Reports on the humanitarian situation in Yemen (the latest of which WFP report and the report of the Panel of Experts on Yemen) clearly mentioned and condemned the violation committed by Houthi Militia; including obstructing humanitarian access, manipulating lists of beneficiaries, looting of aid, and harassing and threatening international humanitarian staff. Amid all of these violations, UN officials continue to send vague messages to address Houtis' violations. The Ministry is surprised by such policy of the UN and warns that such unclear language further emboldens the Houthi Militia. It is time for the international community and the UN to expose the violations by militia, and pinpoint the party that employs relief to finance the war machine against Yemeni people and stands behind the Humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.
The Ministry warns that Stockholm Agreement is in danger of collapse, and the self-restraint so far maintained by the Yemeni Government will not last endlessly, as the Houthi Militia continues to send reinforcements and buildups in the city of Hodeidah – by [Hadi gov.] Ambassador of the Republic of Yemen to Russia
(A P)
Auslösung des Streitschlichtungsmechanismus ist richtig
Iran muss sein destabilisierendes Verhalten einstellen und zur Vertragstreue zurückkehren
(A P)
Nahost-Experten und die nach oben offene Eskalationsspirale
Die Ereignisse um den Tod des iranischen Generals Soleimani zeigen einmal mehr: Vielen Journalisten fehlt es an Hintergrundwissen über die Lage im Iran. Dennoch äußern sie sich mitunter gedankenlos in Kommentaren
(A P)
Why Iran’s Cruise Missiles Are a Serious Threat
While the Iranian regime insists that its efforts to wreak “revenge” for Suleimani’s death have been achieved, that may not actually be the case. A follow-on Iranian attack could come—and may be very different.
Next time, Iran could use its combat-tested and -capable cruise missiles.
Iran has the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East. It has diversified its missile force beyond ballistic missiles to include land attack cruise missiles (LACMs) and anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) that can be launched from the land, sea, or air.
Just last year, Iran reportedly introduced at least two new ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) and one sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM), pushing its cruise missile inventory to at least 10 different models.
It’s also reasonable to argue that Iranian cruise missiles, like its ballistic missiles and armed drones, are an important element of Iran’s effort to enhance its military might, power projection, and geopolitical influence.
As such, important steps are needed to blunt Iran’s growing cruise missile prowess, including limiting funding for its program through economic sanctions, developing counter-cruise missile capabilities, and continuing the U.N.’s ban on transferring arms to Iran.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/01/13/why-irans-cruise-missiles-are-a-serious-threat/
My comment: A threat to whom? Obviously not tot he US which is 7,000 miles away from Iran. And the US in the Middle East are firing with candies, I guess.
(A K P)
Soleimani’s death will put Iran’s proxy network to the test
Soleimani epitomized the most successful aspect of Iran’s foreign policy – the development of proxy forces – and defined extremism long before al-Qaeda became a force to be reckoned with. The question now is whether his demise means the beginning of the end of the Iranian model of extremism he lead, or whether it can live beyond him.
Since September 11, 2001, the Western press has been far more concerned with the extremism embraced by al-Qaeda and affiliates, as well as offshoots like ISIS and al-Shabab. But the essence of terrorism and the use of asymmetrical proxy forces today stems from Iran and the system that Soleimani perfected.
(A K P)
Is this the end of US passivity in the face of Iranian terrorism?
Washington has spent more than two decades fighting a global war against extremists, but has been remarkably passive in response to terrorist attacks conducted by Iran’s theocratic regime and its network of Shia proxy forces. But that may all have changed last week, when US President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC - Quds Force and the butcher of Syria.
If the US now has the will to confront the extremist regime in Iran, a new era may begin, in which Tehran’s agents no longer enjoy an invisible shield that protects them from the force that may contain and weaken the Shia terrorist movements that have ravaged the Middle East for far too long.
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A K)
heavy bombardment by #Saudi led coalition on #Ketaf area, Saada governorate.
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1217860830848602118
(A K pH)
Ein Kind getötet, ein weiteres verwundet in Saada
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3085015.htm
(A K pH)
In Sa'adah, A child was killed and another one was injured with Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Razih district.
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10784
(A K pH)
Im Gouvernement Saada berichtete die Quelle, dass auf besiedelten Dörfern des Grenzbezirks Razeh und auf dem Eigentum von Bürgern und ihren Farmen des Grenzbezirks Baqim Raketen- und Artilleriegeschosse von Saudi-Arabien abgefeuert wurden.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3084876.htm
(A K pH)
In Sa'adah, Saudi missiles and artillery shells targeted populated villages in Razih district
https://english.almasirah.net/details.php?es_id=10769
(A K pH)
Armee schießt in Dschisan ein Spionageflugzeug ab
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3084872.htm
(A K pH)
Army shoots down Saudi aggression spy aircraft in Jizan
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3084842.htm
(A K pS)
One resident was killed and two others wounded in a #landmine explosion that was laid by #Houthi rebels in the northern province of Al Jawf.
https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1217024506558062592
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
(* B H P)
Intolerable Choices: Women Caught Between Violent Marriages and Divorces
Divorce remains one of the pressures that patriarchal societies use against women. When women refuse to continue with marriages that cause them to suffer, they think twice before resorting to divorce due to the social consequences that threaten their chances of a dignified life afterwards. Though it should be a right, ideally enshrined in law, divorce comes with a high price that traps women between impossible options, where they have to choose between their mental/physical health or attempting to co-exist with a society that strips them of their basic rights. Consequently, many women end up living in silence while suffering from life with a violent partner so that they do not suffer from the socially inflicted stigma that comes with the ‘divorced’ title. Many women experience verbal, emotional and physical violence from their husbands. However, they end up staying in these violent marriages out of fear of their limited options, and suffering further after getting a divorce.
Women are afraid of losing custody of their children and they fear deprivation of basic financial rights under unjust legislation. Additionally, many women fear the stigma attached to divorced women, which also triggers fear of loneliness and reduces their chances of living with dignity with a future partner. Some women hesitate when it comes to getting a divorce because they do not have anywhere else to go, especially when they are not economically independent.
Many Yemeni families force their daughters to stay with abusive husbands. This happens especially in tribal rural areas where a woman’s divorce is considered a shameful stigma.
Some women keep silent for a very long time while experiencing violence and abuse. They try to find distractions from a violent husband and society in their daily duties. Family counselor, Altaf al-Ahdal, the head of the social work department at the Taiz office of the Ministry of Social Affairs, says that women keep silent out of fear and lack of economic independence. Depriving girls of education adds another layer to the problem.
Unfair legislation plays a significant role in standing between women and their rights in a divorce. I
Raghda al-Maqtari, a lawyer and a member of the attorneys union in Taiz, says that women are forced to live with violent men because of traditions that support men and look down on divorced women. Legislation does not protect women and their children either.
In a society that does not acknowledge women’s rights, whether married or divorced, social and legal constraints continue to hinder women’s chances in choosing their fate freely. If they survive the divorce battle with husbands, another battle begins afterwards for their rights. Even if they manage to acquire their rights after a divorce, the hardest battle of all awaits with the society that stigmatizes them – by Rania Abdullah
https://almadaniyamag.com/2019/12/10/yemen-women-marriages-divorces/
(A P)
Thwarting smuggling of tigers from Yemen to Saudi Arabia
Smugglers used a trick to smuggle tigers from Yemen to Saudi Arabia.
The security forces arrested a number of unidentified smugglers, east of Jizan region in the south of the kingdom, who tried to smuggle a number of Chetta tigers through rugged areas coming from Yemen on foot.
The Saudi newspaper, Al-Madina, said that the security forces found the tigers, who were hidden in bags, with the smugglers in their possession.
https://debriefer.net/en/news-14261.html
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-615-yemen-war-mosaic-615
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-615 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-615:
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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