Allgemein
19.8.2015 – The National
Hadi thanks UAE for its help
http://www.pressreader.com/uae/the-national-news/20150819/281487865089100/TextView
19.8.2015 – Stratfor
In Yemen, Division Will Outlast the Conflict
The alliance that is gaining the upper hand in Yemen is unlikely to last beyond the current conflict.
After the conflict ends, the Southern Movement will likely use the political and military power it has gained over the past five months to renew its calls for independence.
Once peace is restored, Yemen's central government will still have to deal with political disputes while managing relations with tribal elements, the Houthi movement and the Southern Movement and keeping jihadist groups in check.
Even apart from these long-term concerns, Yemen's government still has much to do before it fully resolves the fighting. Hadi's government will be looking to reassert control over the country while negotiating with Houthi rebels over what levels of autonomy they will have and within which territory. Simultaneously, he will have to rebuild his own security forces, which have split into two blocs — those loyal to him and those loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Moreover, the crisis has sapped Hadi's security forces even as it has energized organizations such as the Southern Resistance and al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will likely play an important role in peace negotiations to re-establish the Yemeni government, but foreign powers will favor different factions, with Saudi Arabia supporting Hadi and the Islamist al-Islah party, while the United Arab Emirates supports the Southern Movement.
When the government is nominally in control of the country again, the Houthi movement will not simply disappear. The conflict may become dormant, but Houthis will be a political and demographic entity in Yemen and will continue to seek more autonomy.
Yemen's history shows that Houthi rebellions emerge and dissipate over time, and there is no reason to believe the current incarnation of this crisis will be the last. Yemen's central government will be forced to deal with the Houthi presence in the northern mountains. […]
To retain any semblance of stability, Hadi's government will have to depend completely on its foreign backers. Already, Hadi and his forces would not be participants in the Yemen crisis without the substantial support of Riyadh, which will likely be willing to counter any challenge from the Houthis but may be less inclined to defend Hadi from the Southern Movement, as it is less of a direct threat to the Saudis than the Houthis. Separately, the Southern Movement has also been working closely with Saudi Arabia, and perhaps even more so with the United Arab Emirates, and its value in the crisis may boost its perceived reliability in the eyes of the Gulf states.
The future of Yemen is, then, somewhat in the hands of the Gulf states — bad news for the Houthis and the jihadist groups that these Arab powers oppose. But Gulf interests in Yemen end there. While Yemen's government can rely on its Arab partners to help counter the Houthis and jihadists, Yemen will have to manage its other challenges alone.
https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/yemen-division-will-outlast-conflict
19.8.2015 – Albawaba
Yemeni government vows to retake Sanaa from Houthi militants
Yemeni government spokesman Rajeh Badi spoke to Anadolu Agency about the crisis in his country, saying that the national army and popular resistance committees had freed most provinces from the Houthis and are now looking to take back the cites of Sanaa, Amran and Saada.
"We call on the Houthis to understand the lesson after their defeat in most of Yemen’s cities," he told Anadolu Agency speaking from Doha, Qatar.
"We urge them to implement UN Security Council resolution 2216," adding that "any solution outisde the Security Council resolution is completely unacceptable."
http://muhitelyemen.net/en/news/19734.html
17.8.2015 – Benjamin Studebaker
Yemen: The American Catastrophe No One is Talking About
Yemen is in the grip of a civil war that has now killed over 4,300 people. It’s an omnishambles. Let me tell you the horrible story of how we turned this country into the war-torn dystopia it now most assuredly is. It all started back in the old Cold War days, when Yemen was divided between the capitalist north and a communist south. The capitalist/communist split also had a religious component–the north is mostly Shiite, while the south is mostly Sunni.
In 1978, Ali Abdullah Saleh became president of North Yemen. Saleh is a Shiite. Because North Yemen was capitalist and South Yemen was communist, the United States became a key ally of the Saleh regime. The US ignored Saleh’s harsh policies. Here are a handful that will give you a taste.
As usual, the US did not care because Saleh was anti-communist. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yemen was unified under Saleh. The south briefly tried to break away in 1994, but Saleh managed to crush the rebellion. The US backed off on its aid to Yemen once the Cold War was over, but after the September 11 attacks, Saleh offered to ally himself with the Bush administration in its war on terror, and the US began substantively increasing aid to Yemen.
Many Shiites resented Saleh’s decision to ally with the US rather than with Iran, and these Houthi rebels began a long campaign of insurrection against the Saleh regime in 2004 backed by the Iranian government. Saleh also had to deal with piracy and with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which continued to seize territory in the south. With US aid, Saleh was able to hold things together for years.
Then the Arab Spring came. Inspired by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, the Yemeni people rose up in protest against Saleh, accusing his regime of corruption, economic inequality, and oppression. The Obama administration decided to dump Saleh to appease the mob, pressuring him into signing a power transfer deal that would install his vice president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, as the new president. […]
There are no good guys in this conflict. It’s just another round of the same old disputes between the north and the south, between the Shiites and the Sunnis, between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The US could and should withdraw support for the Saudi intervention and press for a quick solution to the conflict
http://benjaminstudebaker.com/2015/08/17/yemen-the-american-catastrophe-no-one-is-talking-about/
18.8.2015 – Yemen Post
Central bank of Yemen relocated, reopens in Aden
Nachtrag zur verfassungswidrigen Verlegung der Hauptstadt nach Aden
http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=8157&MainCat=3
17.8.2015 – Anti War
Governor: Aden to Be Yemen’s New Capital for Next Five Years
The governor of the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, currently occupied by the pro-Saudi forces of the “government-in-exile” of Yemen, will be declared the nation’s official capital city for the next five years, and will be the focus of all reconstruction in the country in that period.
http://news.antiwar.com/2015/08/17/governor-aden-to-be-yemens-new-capital-for-next-five-years/
17.8.2015 – Huffington Post
Yemen: A Tale of Western Hypocrisy With Dire Consequences
In short, the U.S. is contributing to the deaths of quite possibly millions of civilians in Yemen, including nearly a million children. And yet, one barely hears a peep from the mainstream media over this. And meanwhile, you have the curious figure of Samantha Power -- for me, the symbol of the U.S.'s moral hypocrisy -- who claims to be a warrior for human rights, at least when U.S. enemies are allegedly violating them, but who remains silent in the face of the U.S.'s role in gross human rights abuses.
As a human rights lawyer and instructor, I am deeply concerned about how human rights is increasingly being used by the West, and especially by the U.S., as a bludgeon to justify armed intervention against other nations (e.g., Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine) while these interventions generally result in a worse humanitarian situation than existed prior to the intervention, and while the human rights violations of countries like the U.S. are generally ignored if not outright tolerated. Yemen is a quintessential example of such a destructive "human rights" doctrine, and Samantha Power is the quintessential apologist and enabler of it – by Dan Kovalik
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/yemen--a-tale-of-western_b_8000634.html
17.8.2015 – Washington Post
In parts of Yemen, rebels have lost control. No one else has it yet.
Even as the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen has started to make rapid gains against rebel forces, lawlessness is plaguing newly liberated areas, and al-Qaeda militants are moving in to take advantage of the power vacuum, Yemeni residents and fighters say.
Factions within the coalition organized by the Saudis also have been turning against one another, sometimes with gunfire, as they pursue starkly different visions of Yemen’s future.
Analysts say that the radical group intends to eventually use captured territory to stage attacks against the West. The Saudi coalition does not appear to have attacked AQAP.
Within coalition ranks, tensions have erupted into full-blown clashes. In Aden last week, a military unit loyal to Hadi’s government attempted to take control of the presidential palace from a local militia. The militiamen responded with gunfire before surrounding the soldiers and forcing them to withdraw from the palace.
Just to the north of Aden, in the Lahij province, southern separatists are calling for independence from the north now that Houthi forces in the area have been defeated. They fly the flags of the formerly independent state of South Yemen, which united with the north in 1990. Across much of the newly liberated territory, those flags — not the flag of united Yemen — are an almost-ubiquitous sight on government buildings and captured military facilities.
“We are not concerned with Hadi, his government or whatever the Saudis want. Our demand is clear: We want separation from the north,” said Awwad Ahmed al-Shillin, a militia leader – by Ali al-Mujahed and Hugh Naylor
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-parts-of-yemen-rebels-have-lost-control-no-one-else-has-it-yet/2015/08/17/d3c2c7a6-4425-11e5-9f53-d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html = http://www.smh.com.au/world/alqaeda-and-lawlessness-move-into-liberated-areas-of-yemen-20150818-gj1j8b.html
Humanitäre Lage
19.8.2015 – UNICEF
Yemen Conflict: Over a thousand child casualties so far
An average of eight children are being killed or maimed every day in Yemen as a direct result of the conflict gripping the country, according to a report released by UNICEF.
Yemen: Childhood Under Threat says that nearly 400 children have been killed and over 600 others injured since the violence escalated some four months ago. Disrupted health services, increased levels of child malnutrition, closed schools and higher numbers of children recruited by fighting groups are among the effects of the conflict now ravaging the Arab world’s poorest country.
“This conflict is a particular tragedy for Yemeni children”, said UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Julien Harneis. “Children are being killed by bombs or bullets and those that survive face the growing threat of disease and malnutrition. This cannot be allowed to continue”, he added.
The report underlines that as devastating as the conflict is for the lives of children right now, it will have terrifying consequences for their future. Across the country, nearly 10 million children – 80 per cent of the country’s under-18 population – are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. More than 1.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_82940.html
Full report: Yemen – Childhood Under Threat: http://www.unicef.org/media/files/CHILD_ALERT_YEMEN-UNICEF_AUG_2015_ENG_FINAL(1).pdf
18.8.2015 Middle East Eye
Casualty of war: Child soldiers in Yemen
Many Houthi child fighters either return from the battlefield in bodybags or seriously wounded
According to UNICEF, children with the Houthis and other armed groups comprise up to one-third of all fighters in Yemen
In November 2012, the head of the Houthis, Abdulmalik Badr al-Deen al-Houthi, pledged to work toward stopping the use of child soldiers.
Naif Nor Addin, a sociologist based in Taiz, told MEE that it is not only the Houthis who recruit children, but all warring sides, because it is easy to pursuade children to fight.
Inside the capital city, several children stand at Houthi checkpoints. Many are also seen in Houthi military vehicles – by Nasser Al-Sakkaf
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/casualty-war-child-soldiers-yemen-1775188735
Kommentar: Im Text geht es vor allem um die Kindersoldaten der Huthis, das Fotos zeigt freilich Kindersoldaten der südlichen Separatisten
18.8.2015 – Morgenweb
Hunger als Kriegswaffe – Jemen droht humanitäre Katastrophe
Bis zu Beginn dieses Krieges der reichsten arabischen Länder gegen das ärmste Land in ihren Reihen importierte der Jemen 90 Prozent seines Nahrungsmittelbedarfs. Auf diese Achillesferse zielt jetzt die von Saudi-Arabien geführte arabische Koalition seit fünf Monaten. Es ist ihre tödlichste Waffe, die sie nun, seit sie Ende Juli die wichtige Hafenstadt Aden eroberte, weit wirkungsvoller einsetzen kann und dies offensichtlich auch will.
Die blutige Geschichte des Jemen lehrt, ein Landkrieg in diesem unwegsamen, teils gebirgigen Terrain gegen einen waffenstrotzenden Feind wurde äußeren Mächten noch stets zum Verhängnis. Deshalb wählte Saudi-Arabien als Hauptstrategie, Sanaa auszuhungern, um die Huthis und Saleh zur Kapitulation zu zwingen. "Die Wirtschaftsblockade ist unter den jemenitischen Verhältnissen weit gefährlicher als ein Krieg" mit Waffen, erläutert Ahmed Said Shammkh, Ökonom der jemenitischen Zentralbank. Und die ersten Anzeichen dafür lösen Panik in der Hauptstadt aus.
So hat Hadi die Arbeit der Regierungsangestellten in allen Häfen, ausgenommen Aden, gestoppt. Nur Privathändler können in anderen Häfen des Landes, insbesondere in Hodeida, andocken. Doch auch diese werden von der Koalition weitgehend blockiert. Zugleich leitet die Exil-Regierung den gesamten Zivilluftverkehr von Sanaa zum Flughafen in Aden um und verstärkt damit die Wirtschaftsblockade drastisch – von Birgit Cerha
18.8.2015 – Amnesty International
Yemen: Bloody trail of civilian death and destruction paved with evidence of war crimes
Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes and attacks by pro and anti-Huthi armed groups in Ta’iz and Aden in Yemen have killed scores of civilians - including dozens of children – and could amount to war crimes, Amnesty International has revealed in a new briefing published today.
‘Nowhere safe for civilians’: Airstrikes and ground attacks in Yemen highlights the impact of unlawful coalition airstrikes in densely populated residential neighbourhoods, and attacks by Huthi loyalists and anti-Huthi armed groups operating on the ground, who have carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in civilian areas.
“Civilians in southern Yemen have found themselves trapped in a deadly crossfire between Huthi loyalists and anti-Huthi groups on the ground, while facing the persistent threat of coalition airstrikes from the sky. All the parties to this conflict have displayed a ruthless and wanton disregard for the safety of civilians,” said Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Response Advisor at Amnesty International.
“The report depicts in harrowing detail the gruesome and bloody trail of death and destruction in Ta’iz and Aden from unlawful attacks, which may amount to war crimes, by all parties.”
Amnesty International has investigated eight airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition which killed at least 141 civilians and injured 101 others, mostly women and children, during a research mission to Yemen in June and July 2015. The evidence gathered reveals a pattern of strikes targeting heavily populated areas including civilian homes, a school, a market and a mosque. In the majority of cases no military target could be located nearby.
“Coalition forces have blatantly failed to take necessary precautions to minimize civilian casualties, an obligation under international humanitarian law. Indiscriminate attacks that result in death or injury to civilians amount to war crimes,” said Donatella Rovera.
Amnesty International also investigated 30 attacks in Aden and Ta’iz by the Huthi armed group, supported by armed and security forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and anti-Huthi armed groups battling each other on the ground, killing at least 68 civilians and injured 99 others.
Fighters from both parties routinely used imprecise weapons including Grad-type rockets, mortars and artillery fire in densely populated residential areas, displacing utter disregard for the safety of civilians. Such indiscriminate attacks may amount to war crimes
“The utter failure of all parties to the conflict to minimize the risk to civilians during fighting has had truly devastating consequences for civilians. The gruesome nature of the casualties exposes the true horror and reality of war and the deadly and long-lasting impact of such attacks on civilians,” said Donatella Rovera.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/yemen-bloody-trail-of-civilian-death-and-destruction-paved-with-evidence-of-war-crimes/ = http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/nowhere-safe-civilians-airstrikes-and-ground-attacks-yemen?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Global+Crisis+Management+Community short overview at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33966542 see also http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/amnesty-marks-world-humanitarian-day-with-disturbing-report-into-cost-of-air-strikes-in-yemen/story-fni0xs63-1227489991529
Full report / Vollständiger Bericht. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde31/2291/2015/en/
17.8.2015 – CARE
Sleepless nights in Yemen
Driving through the streets of Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, my heart is heavy and burdened. It was my first time returning to Yemen since the airstrikes began in March, and it is not the same country. It is now a war zone. Before I could even leave the airport, a car with security staff had to risk their lives to travel ahead of us to find a safe route to the CARE office in Sanaa
Seeing the resilience and optimism Yemenis have in spite of their current horror is inspiring and gives me hope for this country. But for this horror to end, the only solution is a political solution – by Daw Mohammed
http://www.careinternational.org.uk/stories/sleepless-nights-yemen
17.8.2015 – WFP
Working In The Midst Of Conflict: Life As A Country Director In Yemen
Dr.Purnima Kashyap is WFP’s Country Director in Yemen, where she ensures that WFP reaches conflict-affected communities with food. She gives an insight into her life in a country where it isn’t even safe to walk down the street.
In a country where almost half of the population does not know where the next meal is coming from, WFP is providing life-saving assistance to millions of people – children, women, conflict-affected families – in need. We cannot reach everyone but without WFP’s assistance, more people would go to bed hungry, more families would be desperate in their efforts to feed children and more lives would be severely affected by the ongoing conflict.
Of course, working here can be tough. There are constant airstrikes where we live and work. Sometimes the impact of accompanying explosions are so big that the buildings shake and we have to go into bunkers. We have to exercise caution at all times by avoiding open areas and staying indoors when the situation is particularly bad.
One of the scariest moments was in March, when the airstrikes started and we had to evacuate over 400 staff from the country immediately.
Witnessing the devastating impact of war on a daily basis is tough. But I love my job and knowing that we are helping to alleviate people’s suffering keeps me going. There is no greater feeling than seeing a smiling child who has been supported through our school feeding programme, or a grateful mother whose malnourished child starts to show the first signs of recovery.” – by Alexandra Murdoch
http://www.wfp.org/stories/working-midst-conflict-life-country-director-yemen
17.8.2015 – Vice News
Seeking Refuge in Djibouti: Escape From Yemen (Film)
According to UN estimates, nearly 100,000 people have fled Yemen since violence erupted there in March. Of those escaping the conflict, over 20,000 have sought refuge in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti, an authoritarian state located between Eritrea and Somalia seen as a beacon of stability in the region, largely due to its hosting of a US military base.
The Markazi refugee camp, located in the arid and dusty Obock region, plays host to many of those fleeing Yemen. Refugees can live in the tented camp, where the average June temperature varied between 111 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit (44 - 50 degrees Celsius). Otherwise they can pay cripplingly high rental costs for substandard living conditions in Djibouti City.
Following on from our coverage of the conflict in Aden, VICE News travels to Djibouti to discover the effects of the war on those forced to flee their homes and start anew.
https://news.vice.com/video/seeking-refuge-in-djibouti-escape-from-yemen
Kriegsverlauf
19.8.2015 – Al-Manar News
Saudi Military Posts Falling apart on Borders with Yemen
The Yemen army and Popular Committees forces have achieved a qualitative progress on the border with Saudi Arabia and seized control over new sites oversees the kingdom's territory. Army and Committees sources confirmed to AL-Manar TV that the national military has fully controlled the Al-Shurfa area on the border with Saudi province of Najran after storming the military post in the region and its checkpoint.
The sources added that Al-Shurfa is a strategic site overlooking the Najran province, which allows the Yemeni fighters to establish control over it using medium weapons.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=226786&cid=23&fromval=1
Kommentar: Huthi-freundliche Seite, daher anderer Sprachgebrauch als man aus den meisten Medien gewohnt ist. Popular Committees: Das sind die Huthis; die jemenitische Armee sind die Einheiten, die auf Seiten der Huthis kämpfen. In Meldungen von anti-Huthi-Medien sind die „jemenitische Armee“ die jemenitischen Einheiten, die, von den Saudis ausgebildet, nun gegen die Huthis kämpfen. Jede Seite beansprucht die „jemenitische Armee“ – und damit die Legitimität, die mit der Armee verbunden ist – für sich. Sprache und Wortweahl sind ein Mittel der Propaganda – auf beiden Seiten.
19.8.2015 – Channel News Asia
Saudi-led alliance wins Yemen battles, but peace remains elusive
Emirati tanks heave across southern Yemen's stony wastes and Apache helicopters from a Saudi-led coalition, dubbed "black genies" by local media, rule its skies, helping fighters loyal to the exiled government win the initiative against an Iran-allied militia.
Some Yemenis now fear that the coalition's desire for a knock-out blow on the battlefield may trump chances of a compromise that could piece back together the shattered state and spare the ancient capital Sanaa from a devastating showdown.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/saudi-led-alliance-wins-y/2061600.html
19.8.2015 – IRIN
In Yemen’s civil war, the Houthi rebela are on the BACK FOOT: They retreat, they leave death traps in theirt wake
As the Houthi fighters, along with renegade military units loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have retreated, they are accused of leaving a deadly trail of mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and booby-traps in their wake.
Staff of the Mine Action Programme Centre in Aden - just one of four storage facilities for unearthed mines in the three provinces of Aden, Abyan and Lahij - collected 1,170 mines between 13 July and 10 August, uncovering as many as 120 in a single day in one western suburb of the city.
Given the number of devices already discovered, those involved in their removal estimate that around 150,000 mines have been laid in the three provinces alone. At the current rate, with depleted, ill-equipped and underfunded demining teams it will take between five and eight years to clear all the devices.
Since health officials started counting in mid-July, 98 people have been killed and 332 injured in Aden, Abyan and Lahij because of mines – by Iona Craig
http://newirin.irinnews.org/yemen-houthi-aden-mines-war-crimes-iona-craig/
19.8.2015 – Daily Star
UN aid chief slams 'unacceptable' Saudi bombing of Yemen port
The United Nations top aid official on Wednesday strongly criticised the Saudi-led coalition for bombing the Yemen port of Hodeida, a lifeline for imports of food, medicine and fuel. "These attacks are in clear contravention of international humanitarian law and are unacceptable," Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council.
19.8.2015 – Oxfam
Bombing of Yemen port is a condemnable attack on a civilian target
In response to the bombing of Hodeidah port in Yemen, Oxfam’s country director, Philippe Clerc, said:
“The coalition airstrikes of Hodeidah’s port is yet another example of an attack on a civilian target. We utterly condemn it - and all actions taken by any party to the conflict that harms civilians or civilian infrastructure. These airstrikes follow the ports closure to vessels carrying vital commercial supplies for nearly a fortnight. Resuming supplies coming through Hodeidah, like other Yemeni ports, is essential. In Yemen, over 21 million people need aid; 13 million people don’t have enough food to eat. Such attacks need to end immediately. We need to find a permanent end to the fighting and a negotiated peace.”
https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/reactions/bombing-yemen-port-condemnable-attack-civilian-target
18.8.2015 – Fox News
Yemen officials say rebels ambush advancing government forces, killing scores
Yemeni rebels ambushed pro-government forces in the south on Tuesday, setting off a major battle that killed 65 anti-rebel forces and handed them their first serious setback following a series of recent advances, officials said.
The officials said 15 Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, were killed in the fighting near the Aqaba Tharaa area, where anti-rebel forces were advancing from Abyan into Bayda province. The officials, who hailed from both sides of the conflict, said the rebels destroyed at least eight armored vehicles and four tanks, which were left burning.
18.8.2015 – Reuters
Saudi-led warplanes wreak havoc on Yemen aid port Hodeida
Warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition hit the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeida on Tuesday, destroying cranes and warehouses in the main entry point for aid supplies to Yemen's north.
Hodeida, lying about 150 km (95 miles) due west of Sanaa, has become a focal point of Yemen's humanitarian crisis, which the International Committee of the Red Cross said last week was critical.
Officials said the latest raids destroyed the port's four cranes and also hit warehouses, bringing work to a halt. There was no information on what was in the warehouses.
Aid groups have previously complained that a coalition naval blockade has stopped relief supplies entering Yemen.
http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-led-coalition-bombs-yemen-aid-port-hodeida-063500135.html = http://www.trust.org/item/20150818070753-phlb1/?source=fiHeadlineStory
18.8.2015 – Alternative Nachrichten
Saudi-Arabien verschärft Angriffe auf Lebensmittel- und Medikamentenlager im Jemen
Nach den Angriffen der saudischen Kampfjets auf den Hafen al-Hudaida am heutigen Dienstag wurden ein Schiff mit Waren an Bord und mehrere Lebensmittellager angegriffen. Der Webseite al-Motamar.net zufolge sind örtlichen Quellen zufolge über die möglichen durch diesen Angriffen zugefügten Schäden keine Einzelheiten mitgeteilt worden Al-Hudaida gehört zu den wichtigsten Häfen im Jemen, wo die Schiffe mit Lebensmitteln, Medikamenten und Erdölprodukten an Bord anlegen.
Politik der USA
19.8.2015 – Antiwar
Sollen die Menschen im Jemen ausgehungert werden?
Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika senden mehr Berater und Munition für den Krieg der Saudis gegen den Jemen
Als humanitäre Katastrophe, die Tausende getötet und Millionen an den Rand des Verhungerns gebracht hat, wurde der Krieg der Saudis gegen den Jemen und die Blockade dieses Landes regelmäßig von Menschenrechtsgruppen kritisiert. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika haben den Krieg unterstützt, aber über ihre Beteiligung wird in der Öffentlichkeit nicht viel geredet.
Die Beteiligung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika nimmt weiterhin zu, wobei die Anzahl der nach Saudiarabien geschickten Berater aus dem Pentagon jetzt auf 45 mehr als verdoppelt wurde und die regelmäßige Lieferungen von Munition und In-der-Luft-Betankung von Bombern die wichtigsten Beiträge der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zu dem Krieg gegen die jemenitischen Schiiten bilden.
Regierungsvertreter sagen, dass die Beratungstätigkeit unter anderem darin besteht, den Saudis bei der Auswahl der Angriffsziele zu helfen - ein besonders vernichtendes Eingeständnis angesichts der enormen Zahl von Toten in der Zivilbevölkerung, die durch die saudischen Luftangriffe gegen Wohngebiete im ganzen Land verursacht werden.
In einer Erklärung stellt das Pentagon fest, dass es für irgendwelche speziellen Angriffe, die im Jemen stattfinden, nicht „verantwortlich” ist, es also für diese Toten keinerlei irgendwie geartete Verantwortung trägt, auch wenn es die Bomben zur Verfügung gestellt, die Flugzeuge aufgetankt und die Ziele ausgesucht hat – von Jason Ditz
http://antikrieg.com/aktuell/2015_08_19_dievereinigten.htm
19.8.2015 – US News
U.S. Official: Saudis Have Used Cluster Bombs in Yemen
Deployment of the weapons comes as the U.S. has taken a more hands-off approach to conflicts in the region.
The U.S. knows the Saudi government has employed cluster bombs in its ongoing war against Shiite Muslim rebels in neighboring Yemen, but has done little if anything to stop the use of the indiscriminate and deadly weapons during what has become a human rights catastrophe in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.
With watchdog groups warning of war crimes and attacks striking civilians in Yemen, the Pentagon declined to comment publicly on whether it has discussed cluster bombs with Saudi Arabia or encouraged its military to cease using them, deferring all such questions to the State Department. But a Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells U.S. News "the U.S. is aware that Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in Yemen."
Reports Saudi Arabia targeted and destroyed the Houthi group's symbolic shrine also contribute to concerns its air campaign is designed to punish the Yemenis, Schmitz says, not simply to operate militarily against them. – by Paul D. Shinkman
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/19/us-official-saudis-have-used-cluster-bombs-in-yemen
18.8.2015 – Foreign Policy
U.S. Expands Support to saudi Intervention in Yemen
The United States has doubled the number of its support staff to 45 people advising the Saudi intervention in Yemen, as anti-Houthi forces have pushed north from Aden to Taiz. U.S. advisors are “providing intelligence, munitions and midair refueling to coalition aircraft, and U.S. warships have helped enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Aden and southern Arabian Sea intended to prevent weapons shipments from Iran to the Houthis,” reports the Los Angeles Times. While the United States is continuing to target al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s operations, AQAP is apparently filling some of the vacuum left by retreating Houthi forces – by J. Dana Stuster
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/18/u-s-expands-support-to-saudi-intervention-in-yemen/
19.8.2015 – Press TV Iran
Press TV has interviewed Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs, in Washington, to discuss the Saudi military campaign against Yemen
This war will continue until the international community led by the United States and the United Kingdom realize that they are participating in war crimes by supporting the Saudi monarchy and its dictatorial allies in bombing the Yemeni people.
The United Nations and the Security Council in particular, also must come to their senses and realize what they have done and endorsed is a crime against humanity because, this is a war that was not supposed to happen; it is an illegal and criminal war.
Right now the international community has given the aggressor the legal ground to attack Yemen in terms of pure legal… in the international law this is illegal but because, like everything else, the international community does not respect anything but power and without power and pressure on the UN Security Council and the governments of the US and the UK from the people of these countries and other political groups, the world will not see this war as illegal.
Even Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch has not really yet come against this war. They talk about crimes by they did not talk about the exact nature and the legal status of this war which is very clearly illegal.
Honestly, the international media has been lying and covering up the crimes of the Saudi monarchy and its allies in Yemen.
The United States and the United Kingdom are a part of this war against the Yemeni people, like the Los Angeles Times published yesterday, the US is increasing its support to the Saudi monarchy bombing and that is why we see escalation, and the massacres of Yemeni civilians increasing everyday.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/08/19/425381/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-US-UK-Ali-alAhmed
17.8.2015 – Press TV Iran
US spends $255 billion per year to protect Saudi Arabia, tyrannical monarchies: Scholar
The US government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually to defend Saudi Arabia and other “tyrannical monarchies” in the Persian Gulf region, a Saudi scholar in Washington says
“The United States has been spending $255 billion a year since the 1970s, an average of $255 billion a year to protect the [Persian] Gulf monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain,” said Ali al-Ahmed, a critic of the Saudi monarchy.
“This amount of money makes up 40 percent of the annual American defense budget and it’s greater than the combined budgets of the states of California and Florida,” said al-Ahmed, the founder and director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs, an independent think tank in Washington, DC.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/08/17/425155/US-protests-Saudi-Arabia-tyrannical-monarchies-
17.8.2015 – Telepolis
Pentagon will den Einsatz von Drohnen auch in der Ukraine ausbauen
Wie WSJ berichtet, sollen sukzessive die Zahl der täglichen Flüge erhöht und die Möglichkeiten der Kampfeinsätze erweitert werden
Tausende von Menschen, darunter zahlreiche Zivilisten, sind durch den amerikanischen Drohnenkrieg bislang getötet worden (Die mörderischste Terror-Kampagne der Gegenwart). Mit dem nach 9/11 erklärten weltweiten Krieg gegen den Terror (GWOT) konnte dieser parallel zur Verschleppung von Menschen, Folter und der Erklärung der neu geschaffenen Kategorie von "feindlichen Kämpfern" als rechtlos eingeführt werden. Nach den Schwierigkeiten mit Guantanamo und anderen Gefängnissen in Übersee verlegte sich die US-Führung vor allem unter US-Präsident Obama auf die Strategie, lieber Verdächtige durch Kampfdrohnen und Spezialeinsätze gezielt zu töten, als lebendig gefangen zu nehmen – von Florian Rötzer
http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/45/45728/1.html
17.8.2015 – AFP
US-Militär will Nutzung von Drohnen ausweiten
Das US-Militär will die Nutzung von Drohnen in Kriegs- und Krisengebieten in den kommenden vier Jahren einem Medienbericht zufolge deutlich ausweiten. Das Verteidigungsministerium plane, die Zahl der Flüge von täglich 61 auf 90 im Jahr 2019 zu erhöhen, sagte ein ranghoher Mitarbeiter des Pentagons dem "Wall Street Journal".
Die Armee wolle damit ihre Aufklärungs- und Angriffsfähigkeiten in Ländern wie der Ukraine, dem Irak oder Syrien sowie in Regionen wie dem südchinesischen Meer und Nordafrika verbessern. Die Luftwaffe, die derzeit für den Großteil der Drohneneinsätze zuständig ist, solle künftig verstärkt vom Heer, dem US-Kommando für Spezialoperationen und Dienstleistern im Auftrag der Regierung unterstützt werden.
http://www.afp.com/de/nachrichten/us-militar-will-nutzung-von-drohnen-ausweiten = http://derstandard.at/2000020819442/Bericht-US-Militaer-will-Nutzung-von-Drohnen-ausweiten
17.8.2015 – Los Angeles Times
U.S. boosts support role in Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen
The role of about 45 U.S. advisors, up from 20, at joint military operations centers in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain has been vastly overshadowed by the far larger U.S.-led air war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. So has Yemen's toll of civilian casualties and refugees.
The turmoil has benefited Al Qaeda's powerful local franchise, which remains resilient and continues to seize territory. Fighters loyal to the extremist group captured three towns in southern Yemen this month, adding to their control of Mukalla, a provincial capital and port where they patrol in looted military vehicles and run roadside checkpoints.
Until it was pulled out in March as the Houthis advanced, a U.S. special operations team was deployed at Al Anad to gather intelligence and launch drone strikes against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the Obama administration considers the terrorist network's most dangerous branch because of its repeated attempts to attack American targets.
U.S. officials said last week they will not send the counter-terrorism team back to Yemen until the ousted president, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, is restored to power in Sana.
The Obama administration is providing intelligence, munitions and midair refueling to coalition aircraft, and U.S. warships have helped enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Aden and southern Arabian Sea intended to prevent weapons shipments from Iran to the Houthis. The coalition includes five Persian Gulf Arab states plus Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan.
The White House has made it clear it will provide strong support for the Saudis and their Sunni Arab coalition.
Pentagon officials say 45 U.S. military and intelligence personnel help the coalition evaluate potential bombing targets and calculate blast areas of missiles and bombs in an effort to prevent civilian casualties. U.S. spy satellites and reconnaissance drones relay live video before and after the bombs hit.
But Pentagon officials stressed the team is not responsible for individual operations.
"We are confident that the intelligence and advice we pass on to Saudi Arabia and other coalition members is sound, giving them the best options for military success consistent with international norms and mitigating the potential for civilian casualties," said Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a U.S. military spokesman in Bahrain. "The final decisions on the conduct of operations in the campaign are made by the members of the Saudi-led coalition, not the United States." – by W. J. Hennigan, Laura King and Zaid al-Alayaa
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-us-yemen-20150817-story.html
13.8.2015 – Oped News
Boyle: New Pentagon War Manual Reduces Us To "Level of Nazis"
The Pentagon's new Law of War Manual(LOWM) sanctioning nuclear attacks and the killing of civilians, "reads like it was written by Hitler's Ministry of War," says international law authority Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois at Champaign.
"Historically, this is a terrible development," he added in an exclusive interview with this reporter. "We are reducing ourselves to the level of the Nazis."
The grim, 1,165-page-long document, issued in June by the Defense Department's Office of the General Counsel, also sanctions the use of napalm, herbicides, depleted uranium, and drone missile strikes, among other barbarities.
The new document seeks to distinguish between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" acts of military violence against civilian targets, using the criterion of military necessity," points out Peter Martin of the World Socialist Website.
"Thus, acts of mass slaughter of civilians could be justified if sufficient military advantages were gained by the operations."
The bulk of the document, Martin continues, "amounts to a green light for military atrocities, including mass killings."
Martin said the most comprehensive previous such document, the 1956 Pentagon field manual, did not state that civilians, unlike military personnel, should be spared "unnecessary suffering" because it assumed... "that any deliberate targeting of civilians was illegal and a war crime."
Among the flagrant violations of international law sanctioned by the Pentagon's new LOWM, Martin writes, are:
# Legitimizing the use of nuclear weapons. LOWM states, "There is no general prohibition in treaty or customary international law on the use of nuclear weapons."
This flies in the face of a number of existing international covenants. Under the UN Charter as interpreted by the World Court in its Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, even threatening to use nuclear weapons, as the U.S. and Israel have threatened Iran, is illegal and thus a war crime.
# Authorizing the use of banned incendiary weapons such as napalm, herbicides (as Agent Orange in Viet Nam), depleted uranium munitions (as used in Iraq). Napalm, for example, is banned under Protocol III of the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
# Authorizing the use of cluster munitions, mines and booby-traps, the LOWM rationalizes that "the United States is not a Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions." (That's a disgrace, of course, when the overwhelming majority of nations have signed it.)
# Defends drone missile attacks, both by the Pentagon and intelligence outfits such as the Central Intelligence Agency, declaring flatly: "There is no prohibition in the law of war on the use of remotely piloted aircraft"" To the contrary, targeted killing off the battlefield is prohibited.
# Authorizes the use of exploding hollow-point bullets, stating the U.S. is not a party to the 1868 St. Petersburg declaration banning their use. (At this writing, the U.S. is only 147 years late.)
In sum, the move by the Pentagon to supplant the 1956 manual with the LOWM represents an effort to justify the excesses of its trillion dollar-a-year war machine, one that is as large as the next dozen nations combined.
The Pentagon today operates some 900 military bases globally, allegedly for "defense," yet engages in warfare in a dozen foreign countries. The new Pentagon manual illuminates in bold print the downward drift of the U.S. from a democratic to a totalitarian society.
LOWM has received no play in a media "following orders to conceal from the American people"the Pentagon's preparations for new and more massive war crimes, along with the destruction of democratic rights spelled out in the U.S. Constitution," Martin says – by Sherwood Ross
Politik von Saudi-Arabien
17.8.2015 – Syrian Free Press
Saudi Arabia builds up naval base on Yemen’s occupied island of Socotra
Saudi Arabia has invaded and occupied Yemen’s strategic Island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean and is now building up its biggest naval base there, media reports said.
“Hundreds of workers from Asian countries have been deployed by the Saudi navy to construct the kingdom’s naval base on the island,” Arabic-language Al-Ittihad news website quoted informed sources as saying on Sunday – by Cem Ertür
https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/saudi-base-on-yemen/
2012 – Mustafa Hameed
Why I am Boycotting the Hajj
For me the Hajj has always symbolised the transcending of racial, class and gender barriers. It is one of the most powerful expressions of social equality one will ever witness. Both King and pauper stand side by side becoming equals as they bow their heads in humility acknowledging a power greater than themselves as they cast their ego aside.
This month it was brought to our attention that eight Bangladeshi migrant workers were publically executed under the barbaric Saudi penal code. The Saudi government has a warped and archaic interpretation of Islam which in turn justifies such horrific punishments. It is an interpretation which ensures that the monopoly of power and wealth remain in the hands of a few self-appointed leaders (who are mostly related) and guarantees that the less vulnerable remain vulnerable.
Furthermore, funded by the petrol dollar, Saudi Arabia has managed to spread its malevolent interpretation of Islam to all four corners of the globe through the dissemination of their religious literature which feeds the mind of many impressionable young Muslims teaching them a very rigid interpretation of the faith. Paradoxically, as reported by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, the kingdom also uses draconian laws to arrest people without trial under the guise of its anti-terror laws. In some cases individuals have completely disappeared and in others reappeared after a long period of unlawful detention.
I would argue that by boycotting the Hajj we have a chance to deliver a two-fold blow to the Saudi regime. The first will be an economic one since Hajj generates billions of dollars of revenue for the Saudi government. But it is the second form of protest which would have greater repercussions because of its symbolically powerful nature. In boycotting the Hajj, Muslims will be protesting against the barbaric interpretation of Islam preached by the Saudis – by Mustafa Hameed
https://mustafahameed.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/why-i-am-boycotting-the-hajj/
Botschaftsbesetzung in Sanaa
19.8.2015 – United Nations
Security Council Press Statement on Seizure of United Arab Emirates Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President U. Joy Ogwu (Nigeria):
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest term the storming and seizure of the United Arab Emirates embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, by the Houthis on 17 August 2015. The members of the Security Council demanded an immediate withdrawal of all Houthi elements from the premises. The members of the Security Council condemned all the acts of violence against diplomatic premises.
The members of the Security Council recalled the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises, and the obligations on host Governments, including under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to take all appropriate steps to protect diplomatic and consular premises against any intrusion or damage, and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of these missions or impairment of their dignity, and to prevent any attack on diplomatic agents and consular officers.
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12015.doc.htm
Kommentar: Zum Luftkrieg der Saudis gegen den Jemen, zur Zerstörung der Infrastruktur eines ganzen Landes, zu dem Versuch, Millionen Menschen auszuhungern, zu tausenden Toten, hat der Sicherheitsrat sich nicht geäußert.
17.8.2015 – Gulf News
Houthis storm UAE embassy in Sana’a
UAE strongly condemns act, says militia practices ‘law of jungle’
UAE strongly condemned the storming of the Emirati embassy by the Al Houthi militia in Sana'a late on Monday. The foreign ministry demanded that Al Houthis vacate the embassy immediately and return it to its staff, and announced that the UAE reserves its right to bring perpetrators of the act to justice and accountability.
“This act is yet another proof that the Al Houthi group does not take into consideration or respect international conventions and diplomatic norms, but practices the law of jungle,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The UAE emphasised that the occupation of its embassy and evicting it of its staff will not dissuade it from its positions and supportive stand for the restoring of stability in Yemen.
“This criminal act is a flagrant violation of the norms of international law and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 that foreign embassies enjoy full diplomatic immunity.
"The storming of the UAE embassy is yet a violation of the General Assembly resolution 96/121 on consideration of effective measures to enhance the protection, security and safety of diplomatic and consular missions as well as diplomats and consuls which was endorsed by the General Assembly in 2014,” the statement said.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/al-houthis-storm-uae-embassy-in-sana-a-1.1568547
Kommentar: Hier ist ein gutes Stück Heuchelei mit ihm Spiel, führen doch die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate seit ihrem Eingreifen im Südjemen einen handfesten Krieg gegen die Huthis. Da die VAR die von den Huthis gebildete Regierung in Sanaa freilich nicht als Regierung anerkennt, gab es auch keine formelle „Kriegserklärung“, und die VAR verkauft ihr Eingreifen als „Wiederherstellung der Stabilität im Jemen“. Die Huthis müssen freilich ihrerseits ja keineswegs sich so verhalten, als würden sie die von ihnen selbst gebildete Regierung nicht für legitim halten. Im Kriegsfall werden in der Regel die diplomatischen Beziehungen abgebrochen und die Botschaften im jeweiligen Feindesland geschlossen. Und einen Krieg führen die VAR gegen die Huthis nun einmal unzweifelhaft. Freilich verstößt das Vorgehen der Huthis in diesem fall in der Tat gegen § 45 der Wiener Konvention von 1961. Die VAR täte freilich gut daran, ihren Protest hier etwas tiefer zu hängen.
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