Krieg im Jemen-Neue Artikel zum Nachlesen 103

Yemen Press Reader 103: Petitionen - Opferzahlen - Antiterrorkrieg und Völkerrecht - Saudische Warnung kein Freibrief - Analyse d. Krieges - Streubomben - Gesundheitsversorgung - UN-Statement

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Schwerpunkte / Key aspects

Klassifizierung / Classification

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

cp2 Allgemein / General

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage

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

cp 7 UNO / UN

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

cp9 USA

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

cp 13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

cp 13b Mercenaries / Söldner

cp 13c Flüchtlinge / Refugees

cp 13d Wirtschaft / Economy

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

cp15 Propaganda

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

cp 18 Saudi blockade

cp 19 Schöner Jemen / Beautiful Yemen

Klassifizierung / Classification

***

**

*

(Kein Stern / No star)

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

cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

2.2016 – Avaaz (*** A P)

[Petition gegen Waffenexporte an Saudi-Arabien]

Senden wir jetzt EU-Abgeordneten eine Nachricht um unsere Wirkung zu verdoppeln

https://secure.avaaz.org/de/no_more_saudi_arms_sam_de/?fpla

And another petition

Stand with @ChrisMurphyCT: End Aid to Saudi War in Yemen

Petition Background

Sen. Chris Murphy [D-CT] has called for the U.S. to end its military involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen. "I just don't see any evidence right now that the Saudis are conducting that military exercise in a way that's responsible. It's just feeding the humanitarian crisis inside Yemen," Senator Murphy said.

The Saudi war in Yemen has already killed thousands of civilians; the UN has said Saudi targeting of civilians in Yemen with air strikes may constitute crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch has called on the U.S. to halt all transfer of arms to Saudi Arabia that might be used in violations of international law.

Urge the Senate to stand with Senator Murphy in calling for the end of U.S. military involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stand-with-chrismurphyct?source=c.url&r_by=1135580

16.2.2016 – IRNA (*** B K)

Zarif: Yemen death toll higher than Syria

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday voiced concern about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, saying the death toll in Yemen is higher than that of Syria. The foreign minister made the remarks speaking during a meeting in Brussels with Chairman of Group of the European People's delegation for relations with Iran Janusz Lewandowski.

http://www.irna.ir/en/News/81965484/

Comment: This is so important not because of the Iranian foreign minister is telling something. Sometimes in December I had estimated about 80.000 people to have died in Yemen because of war and blockade. Later on I thought that my estimates for those who have died because of the blockade were somewhat to low and that certainly the figure could have reached 100.000 all together. Now, it is almost two month later. Thus, a very vague figure might be 120.000 for now. Thus, in this point Zarif certainly is wrong. That is still quite less than Syria, but much more than officially stated. – Just one thing more: I often wondered how quickly figures of the victims are reported. When searching for special reports and photos of singular raids, how often you can read there the words: “many still under the rubble”. What about them??

Comment by Judith Brown: I think that too. The amount of physical damage to property and housing does not correlate to the reported numbers of deaths.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154105356718641 You can read also the comments for Browns comment…

16.2.2016 – NZZ (** B P)

Dauerhafte Ausnahme
Das Kriegsvölkerrecht ist eigentlich nur auf kurze Dauer ausgerichtet, dabei werden die in Friedenszeiten geltenden Grundrechte bis zur Unkenntlichkeit zurückgesetzt.
Die Bedrohung durch den internationalen Terrorismus gilt als allgegenwärtig und zeitlos und begründe eine permanente «Schädigungsbefugnis» der Streitkräfte des Okzidents. So wären nicht mehr die Kriegszeiten, sondern die Friedenszeiten – sofern es sie noch geben sollte – die Ausnahme.
Denn während der Westen auf der einen Seite auf seine eindrückliche Menschenrechtsbilanz verweist und keine Gelegenheit auslässt, Sanktionen gegen in dieser Hinsicht rückständige Staaten zu verhängen, verweigert er sich andererseits einem humanistischen Fortschritt bei der Behandlung seiner – sich in der Tat um Humanismus keinen Deut scherenden – Gegner.
Hierbei wird insbesondere das gezielte Töten von Terrorverdächtigten als moderne und präzise Kriegsführung dargestellt. Dies droht uns im Kampf um die Beachtung universeller Menschenrechte jedoch in eine Zeit zurückzuwerfen, in der die Obrigkeit ohne rechtsstaatliches Verfahren nach Gutdünken über Leben und Tod waltete. Denn der Krieg gegen den Terror macht nicht nur kurzen Prozess mit seinen Gegnern, sondern terrorisiert selber ganze Landstriche, etwa in Somalia und Jemen, wo sich die westlichen Staaten offiziell nicht einmal im Krieg befinden
Die hieraus entstehende Lücke zwischen unserem Anspruch des wertegeleiteten Miteinanders und der gegenüber Terroristen und einer Vielzahl von Zivilisten an den Tag gelegten militärischen Kaltblütigkeit ist einer demokratisch-freiheitlichen Gesellschaft nicht würdig. Sie fügt der Glaubwürdigkeit der abendländischen Welt bleibenden Schaden zu und macht die Welt unsicherer – von Josef Alkatout

http://www.nzz.ch/meinung/kommentare/krieg-und-frieden-dauerhafte-ausnahme-ld.5356

Anmerkung unseres Lesers T.L.: Die Schere in den Köpfen der westlichen Welt wird sich immer weiter öffnen und destruktive Folgen haben, je länger wir diese unmenschlichen und dauerhaften „Ausnahmen“ weiter akzeptieren. Stichwort: Kognitive Dissonanz

http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=31317#h05

17.2.2016 – Human Rights Watch (** A P)

Yemen: Saudi Warnings No Free Pass to Attack

Coalition Should Assist, Not Threaten, Aid Agencies

Saudi Arabia’s warnings to aid organizations to leave possible battle areas in Yemen are not sufficient. The warnings don’t absolve the Saudi-led coalition from the legal obligation to protect humanitarian personnel and facilities from attack.

The Saudi embassy in London, in a February 5, 2016 letter, advised United Nations and other aid organizations to move their offices and staff away from “regions where the Houthi militias and their supporters are active and in areas where there are military operations” to “protect the international organizations and their employees.” Since the coalition began military operations against Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, on March 26, 2015, coalition airstrikes have unlawfully struck hospitals and other facilities run by aid organizations.

“A warning is no justification for an unlawful airstrike,” said James Ross, legal and policy director. “They can’t shift the blame for shirking their responsibility onto aid agencies that are struggling to address a deepening crisis.”

The UN and most independent aid organizations in Yemen have field operations in areas controlled by Houthi rebels and their allies, including the capital, Sanaa. During 10 months of armed conflict, they have been providing life-saving aid for millions of civilians. Close to 21.2 million people in Yemen – out of a population of 26 million – now require some form of aid to meet their basic needs, according to the UN.

On February 7, the UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien wrote to Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi, reminding him of Saudi obligations under international humanitarian law to facilitate humanitarian access and the “duty of care obligations under the conduct of military operations for all civilians, including humanitarian workers.”

Issuing warnings to a civilian population of impending attacks is in line with the obligation under the laws of war to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm, and in particular to provide “effective advance warning” of attacks that may affect the civilian population so long as circumstances permit. However, broad warnings unrelated to any imminent attack cannot be considered “effective,” and may instead improperly instill fear in the affected population.

Civilians who do not evacuate after a warning remain fully protected from attack by the laws of war. Warring parties cannot use warnings for forced displacement, threatening civilians with deliberate harm if they do not leave an area. Some civilians are unable to heed a warning to evacuate for reasons of health, fear, or lack of anyplace else to go. Even after giving warnings, attacking forces must still take all feasible precautions to avoid loss of civilian life and property. This includes canceling an attack when it becomes apparent that the target is civilian or that the civilian loss would be disproportionate to the expected military gain.

Aid personnel and humanitarian objects such as hospitals, clinics, and ambulances are specifically protected against attack under the laws of war, unless they are being used for military purposes. In addition, parties to a conflict have an obligation to facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid for civilians in need. Only in cases of imperative military necessity may assistance be temporarily restricted.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/17/yemen-saudi-warnings-no-free-pass-attack

See the Saudi letter in a photo:

16.2.2016 – Yemen Fights Back (A P)

Photo: This is that #Saudi document "advising" organizations and aid agencies to move from areas under #Houthi control

[see Yemen Press Reader 101]

https://twitter.com/YemenFightsBack/status/698963415335735297

15.2.2016 – Sway (** B H K)

(with photos; graphic!) YEMEN: THE ENDLESSLY FORGOTTEN WAR: Saudi-led Coalition Cluster Bombs

Cluster bombs are indiscriminate weapons that are imprecise at the time of use and leave behind submunitions that remain a threat for anyone in the area long after use. When the CBU-52B/Bs are used, it disintegrates in mid-air, depositing up to 220 bomblets at a time on an area roughly the size of a football field.

Since the beginning of the Saudi war on Yemen, Sheba Rights Coalition (SRC) has collected credible evidence that Saudi-led coalition used cluster bombs in air strikes on Yemen’s on 56 occasions.

https://www.facebook.com/yemen.crisis/posts/564941380338769

15.2.2016 – South Front (** B P)

Full-scale war in Yemen will resume soon

Classical military science warns against war on two fronts. But it is exactly that which Saudi Arabia (KSA) — one of the key countries of the Middle East region – is now engaged.

Its armies are the main military force of the “Arabic Coalition”, fighting in Yemen against the Houthis of the north of this country. Regarding Syria, the kingdom is at war there by “proxy”, using the forces of controllable militants from radical Islamic structures close to Al-Qaeda (in the ranks of which, by the way, there are Saudi retired reserves), in union with groups operated by Qatar and Turkey. In this regard, the pro-Qatar Islamic State, forbidden in Russia, which maintains close relations with the Turkish leadership contrary to all denials of Ankara, has its own aggressive plans concerning the KSA.

Limitation of the military resources of Riyadh, whose armed forces are equipped with modern weapons and equipment systems but are unable to master most of the equipment in their hands, forces the Saudis to proceed to creation of coalitions over and over. The pan-Arab forces, the “Arab Coalition”, and finally the announced “Islamic Coalition” are seen by political scientists and journalists as something like NATO (with all the unsteadiness of today’s North Atlantic Alliance and its inability to wage effective combat operations). Meanwhile, they are not and will hardly become a real military force. As underlies the KSA rapprochement with the leaders of such countries as Turkey and Pakistan, including through people with dubious reputation. We shall examine these processes, relying on materials from experts of the IBV, V.A. Vasilyev, P. P. Ryabov and Y.B. Shcheglovin.

Barricades on the road to peace

The Saudi military declared that they were able to bring down a “ballistic missile” (SA-2 or SKAD) which was aimed at an air force base on the Kingdom’s territories. It was specifically this type of rockets that the Yemeni Zaydis fired in the summer at the same base in Najran. At that time some aircraft and helicopters of the Royal Air Force were destroyed, and several high-ranking Saudi generals, including the commander of the Air Force of KSA, were killed. There was serious examination of the suppliers of ABM systems from Lockheed Corporation (USA). After Riyadh threatened to tear up all existing contracts with this firm, modernization of earlier equipped systems and ABM platforms was carried out in Najran province. But it has not yet been possible to intercept rockets of the Katyusha type. In this, the Americans accuse the Saudi military of bad qualifications in ABM operations, even though the supplier only guarantees an interception rate of 80 percent of the rockets launched against a target.

The attempts of coalition forces to spread out so as to minimize victims, have led to a loss of the rate of advance and leveled its advantage in heavy equipment

The mentioned attack on the Saudi Air Force base looks illogical, as it occurred at the height of peace talks supervised by Riyadh between the government of Yemen and Zaydis in Geneva. Recall, however, how on the eve of these consultations the Houthis (more precisely, the military loyal to former President A.A. Saleh) struck with the Tochka-U rocket the coalition forces camp run by the Saudis near Taiz. Losses were more than 100 people, including 83 Blackwater mercenaries, and several dozen Saudi, Bahraini, and Emirate military. During the same time, the commander of VS KSA special forces in Jizan was killed in an ambush. In response, the Royal Air Force for two days running bombed Zaydi targets in Saada and Sana’a.

As Saudi mass media have confirmed, the Houthi lost up to 200 officers of mid-range and top command leadership during the mentioned bombardments. So the attempt to use a rocket to attack a KSA Air Force base from which military aircraft fly for bombings was the classic answer from the side of the Zaydis. It indirectly confirms that the Houthis really did have serious losses as a result of the Saudi airstrikes. In this, during the entire period preceding the truce and consultations in Geneva, the parties at war in Yemen tried to cause each other the maximum loss and to establish (or at least to keep) control over the main strategic zones of the country. Hence, on December 21 troops loyal to president A.M. Hadi, tried to march to Sana’a from the Marib base.

The attacking forces were divided into three wedges, one of which was focused on Al-Hazm in the north of the country. The city was taken. The second group attacked the Nayhem region, through a direct route to Sana’a opens. Several strategic heights 40 kilometers from the Yemen capital were captured. According to some reports, a number of villages in the suburbs of Sana’a came under control of the local tribal militia, awaiting the arrival of coalition forces. The third wedge was directed against Havyan which it was not possible to capture, despite bombings and artillery strikes. The coalition aircraft strike civilian objects in the city and around it, attempting to intimidate the civilian population supporting Zaydis. In Sana’a the Houthis are preparing for defense, arranging mine traps, barricades, and bunkers in cellars of houses.

In all this, groups of the former Republican Guard, loyal to President Saleh, are not noticed in the city. Experts believe that they were withdrawn from the capital so as to minimize damage from possible air strikes, and deployed closer to the Saudi border and to the South — to Taiz, which Saleh has sworn to defend to the last bullet. In order to delay the Houthis from the direction of the capital, the Saudis and Moroccans from the base in Jizan performed two diversionary offensive operations, not going too deep into the internal regions of Yemen. And during the first of them – attacks on Harada – the commander of special forces of the armed forces of the KSA was killed. The second attack was directed on the city of Al-Buka. In these forays observers note military interaction of the Saudis with local tribal groups from the Islakh party.

In Maribe and Taiz, the Houthis withstood the attack of coalition forces, using ambushes and firing Tochka-U missile systems at the opponent. This had a serious constraining effect. Losses of coalition forces appeared very significant, and attempts to disperse them with small groups in the mountain district, while minimizing losses, led to losing the tempo of the attack and leveled the advantage of using heavy equipment. From this, experts drew the conclusion that Houthis kept considerable arsenals of heavy and rocket armament, despite the massed months-long bombings of their positions by coalition forces.

It is clear that Riyadh will from here do everything possible to resolve the Yemen problem, despite the fact that it takes away from the kingdom considerable financial and organizational resources, specifically on the combat path. The compromise presented to it in the Geneva format of negotiations in the person of U.N. intermediaries presumes the de facto legalization of Houthis in the north of Yemen, in Saudi Arabia’s “underbelly”. This does not sit well with Riyadh, despite all possible written or other guarantees of non-aggression against the Saudi territory from the Zaydis. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates agree with the actual division of Yemen on a North – South axis, as in this case they achieve their main task — renewal of control of the Emirates over ocean ports of the country. The presence of Houthis in the North and their communication with Iran does not bother the United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi prefers to negotiate with Tehran rather than with the Muslim Brotherhood. And the alternative to the Houthis in the north of Yemen are in the person of the Islakh party.

Hence, we ascertain a split in the ranks of the coalition concerning further tactics and strategy in Yemen. This, however, does not cancel rapid renewal in this country of full-scale operations, which are for the time being in smoldering mode, despite an officially declared truce with prisoner exchange. This is needed by the belligerent parties as a technical respite and has no presuppositions for development into long-term peace process, not to mention resolution of the Yemen crisis to the satisfaction if not everyone, then at least the main parties to the conflict.

A coalition in word only

As far as Syria, according to American analysts Saudi Arabia will increase its participation in the conflict. On the whole, it answers to the interests of the USA, which is trying to find a regional force to expand its ground operations. It is in this regard that Washington expressed support for Riyadh’s plans to create the Muslim coalition from 34 countries which the KSA Minister of Defense and son of King Mohammed Ben Salman announced. The speculations of the American analysts that such a coalition would legitimize the claims of the Arab monarchies (KSA and Qatar) and Turkey for a special role in the intra-Syrian conflict and legitimize this activity in the eyes of the Arab and Muslim countries, who suspect Ankara of neo-Ottomanism, suffer severe strain. These are attempts to match the desired with the actual.

[…]

Immersed in oil

In connection with everything stated above, it is difficult to expect any serious actions of the new Islamic coalition in Syria very soon. Opposition will continue on this line: Assad’s regime — Ahrar ash-Sham militants in Aleppo, and Kurds — IS and militants of pro-Saudi groups around Azaz and Raqqa. All the more that information on links between President of Turkey Erdogan and his clan with the Saudis who have been directly tied in with radical Islamic groups recognized around the world as terrorists is especially worth attention.

This information originates from western sources. According to the British and American intelligence services, one of the main intermediaries in the illicit trade of Iraqi and Syrian oil is the Saudi businessman Yassin al-Qadi, son-in-law of Sheikh Ahmed Salah Yamzhum, in the past a minister of the government of KSA, and personal friend of President Erdogan. The United Nations introduced sanctions against al-Qadi in 1999 and 2000 when UN Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1333 called him a suspect in communicating with Al-Qaeda. On October 12, 2001, the Office of Foreign Asset Control )OFAC) at the US Treasury Department issued an order to freeze his assets in the USA. Soon a similar trial took place in the European Union

[…] – by Evgeny Satanovsky, President of the Institute of the Middle East

http://southfront.org/full-scale-war-in-yemen-will-resume-soon/ = http://www.therussophile.org/full-scale-war-in-yemen-will-resume-soon.html/

15.2.2016 – Al Monitor (** A H)

As health system collapses, disease kills more Yemenis

The blockades imposed by the warring Saudi-led Arab coalition and Houthi rebels in Yemen have caused severe medicine shortages, which in turn led to the spread of diseases.

the swine flu virus (H1N1), which has been infecting residents of one of the poorest countries in the Middle East amid a devastating civil war that has attracted regional intervention and has been ongoing for 11 months. This new killer came on the scene in mid-January, and as of the beginning of February had killed 20 people and infected 26 others, according to statements Al-Monitor obtained from the Yemeni Ministry of Health.

Tamim al-Shami, spokesman for the Ministry of Health told Al-Monitor, “Sixteen people in the capital, Sanaa, have succumbed to the virus.” The first cases of people being infected with H1N1 were reported in 2009 in the United States and Mexico. At the time, the World Health Organization declared a state of emergency, fearing a global pandemic. Patients typically present with extremely high fevers and pneumonia.

By early February, local authorities in the oil-rich province of Hadramout, on the Arabian Sea nearly 500 miles from Sanaa, had recorded 30 cases of H1N1, four of them fatal. According to health officials, Seiyun General Hospital had treated 15 cases. The town of Seiyun lies in the middle of a desert valley some 223 miles from Hadramout's provincial capital. Authorities were asked to quickly provide treatments, protective wear and money for medical staff.

Last year, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that more than 15 million people needed lifesaving health assistance in Yemen. Medical services in the country had been deteriorating even before the outbreak of the current conflict. The civil war and a blockade by the intervening Saudi-led Arab coalition have greatly exacerbated the suffering.

The land, sea and air blockade by the Saudi coalition, which is fighting the Houthi rebel group Ansar Allah, has led to a shortage of more than 200 essential medicines, according to Shami. He said the essential medicines desperately needed by patients are “insulin for diabetes, pills for patients with heart and blood pressure disorders, cancer medications and kidney solutions.”

An administrative employee at the Pharmacare International Manufacturing Company in Sanaa told Al-Monitor, “The blockade on Yemen has prevented the importation of raw materials to make medicines. But this is not the only problem. Access to US dollars [to pay for the medicines] amid the current economic situation is extremely difficult.” The price of the US dollar on the black market in Sanaa has reached 250 Yemeni riyals, a record 35 riyals above the price set by Yemen's Central Bank, a sign of one of the main downsides of the tensions plaguing the country.

The same employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added, “All the parties deal with us cautiously because we import raw materials to make medicines, and we can turn these materials into explosives as well. To import these materials, we must obtain a license from the Yemeni National Security [Bureau] and seven government institutions, as well as communicate with the Arab coalition leadership. Due to these obstacles impeding their import, these materials are unavailable.”

Health care facilities in Yemen have also been affected, directly and indirectly, by coalition raids.

The persistence of this dangerous humanitarian situation, which the United Nations considers to be one of the worst, is heavily affecting poor Yemenis and will lead to further economic deterioration, which in turn will have negative repercussions on basic needs, such as health and food. The UN reported in December that some 21 million Yemenis, about 80% of the population, were in need of help – by Ahmed Alwly

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/yemen-worst-humanitarian-crisis-health.html

Comment by Judith Brown: This situation that is being allowed to continue in Yemen must have the consent of the world powers and the UN - which was designed to have no power - has proved it has none. He we have a report on the hospital facilities. Taiz by the way has very few people left 200,000 - most are displaced somewhere. If the original population of Taiz was 3 million it proves that there are far more than the two million displaced that the UN keeps quoting. I know people personally who are displaced from Taiz, Aden, Sanaa, and Saada. So the real figure must be much nearer to 5 million.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100786490073841

15.2.2016 – Shadow Proof (** A P)

US SHRUGS OFF YET ANOTHER REPORT OF CLUSTER BOMBS LAUNCHED BY SAUDIS IN YEMEN

Following a new report from Human Rights Watch on the use of banned cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the United States State Department has once again given a statement so the government may appear as if it is concerned. But there have been consistent cluster bomb reports since the U.S.-backed intervention was launched in March 2015, and each time business as usual has resumed with no regard for the civilians killed by these explosives.

On February 14, HRW reported, “Recently transferred U.S.-manufactured cluster munitions are being used in civilian areas contrary to U.S. export requirements and also appear to be failing to meet the reliability standard required for U.S. export of the weapons.”

According to field research by HRW, Amnesty International, and the United Nations, evidence has proven the Saudi-led coalition has used cluster munitions. The human rights groups have interviewed witnesses and victims of the cluster bombs.

In 2013, the U.S. government approved a deal to export $640 million worth of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia by the end of 2015. The contract was with Textron Systems Corporation.

HRW claimed CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons were used in the December 12 attack. The group raised two key issues: one, the Saudi coalition launched these weapons in populated areas, which U.S. export law is supposed to prohibit. Two, U.S. export law only allows for cluster bombs with a “failure rate of less than 1 percent.” These weapons are not functioning reliably when launched in Yemen.

More significant than the malfunction of the cluster bombs, however, is the fact that the U.S. even permits, endorses, and defends the use of these explosives at all.

The U.S. government refuses to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions and has actively pressured countries to not support the abolition of cluster bombs.

Diplomatic cables provided to WikiLeaks by U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning showed the lengths officials will go to fight bans against the weapons. For example, when Afghanistan was about to sign the treaty in 2011, U.S. diplomats argued destruction of stockpiles would “impede the ability of U.S. forces to defend” the country.

“We know from WikiLeaks and from U.S. officials that during the negotiating process that the U.S. contacted more than 100 countries to talk to them about the convention,” Steve Goose, who chairs the Cluster Munition Coalition, told The Washington Post. “The U.S. contact ranged from expressing concern to twisting arms not to be part of the process and not to sign—and they had a very concerted campaign to influence the language of the treaty.”

On January 7, State Department spokesperson John Kirby was pushed to answer whether the U.S. government would investigate the use of cluster bombs. Kirby tried to dodge the question, and then declared, “I know of no such investigation by the United States into the potential use of this particular weapon by the Saudi-led coalition.” That was not the question.

The use of cluster bombs was also referred to as the “alleged use,” even though it is abundantly clear the weapons have been used.

On December 29, 2015, State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said, “I don’t have anything here that conclusively points to or conclusively speaks to the use of cluster munitions. We have expressed these concerns, though, about their use in the past.”

A reporter pressed Kirby on September 9, 2015, on how cluster bombs were different than barrel bombs, because the U.S. government condemned the Syrian government for using barrel bombs that killed civilians.

QUESTION: Yeah, but in your description, it’s not really that much different than cluster bombs, which, let’s say, the Saudis are using in Yemen that are supplied by the United States.

MR. KIRBY: Well, there’s a huge difference, Said. I mean, cluster munitions are allowed legally when they are applied in a combat environment for discrete purposes. And when we transfer them or sell them, there is an end-use requirement there for how they’re used, and certainly, we have vehicles at our disposal should they not be used appropriately. That’s the big difference between the tactical, specific use of cluster munitions in accordance with international law and then dropping a barrel bomb out of an aircraft or a helicopter on a crowd of people. Big difference.

In other words, cluster bombs aren’t bad because we have given their use a veneer of adherence to the rule of law. No amount of brutality will convince us cluster bombs are intended to kill and maim like barrel bombs. Plus, we use them and we do not have evil objectives like Bashar al-Assad.

When acting deputy State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke was asked on May 4, 2015, “Would the U.S. bear any responsibility given that the alleged use of cluster munitions were supplied by the U.S.?”

“Well, we’re looking into the specific allegations, so I don’t have confirmation of those in the report,” Rathke replied.

Around eight months later, the State Department continues to act as if it is the sole responsibility of Saudi Arabia to account for the use of cluster bombs. But the U.S. cannot wash its hands of the blood being spilled as a result of deadly weapons exported to Saudi Arabia.

The State Department maintains the U.S. “spends more than any other country to eliminate the risk to civilians from land mines and all explosive remnants of war, including unexploded cluster munitions.” However, at no point has the State Department had anything to say about efforts to ensure Saudi Arabia cleans up unexploded cluster bombs. In fact, one can bet no such cleanup operations are underway as the carnage unfolds in Yemen.

Instead, the U.S. government clings to the notion that cluster bombs have some “military utility.”

“Their elimination from U.S. stockpiles would put the lives of its soldiers and those of its coalition partners at risk. Moreover, cluster munitions can often result in much less collateral damage than unitary weapons, such as a larger bomb or larger artillery shell would cause, if used for the same mission,” the State Department has claimed.

That basically translates to, be happy we are not defending the use of barrel bombs or other explosives more deadly than cluster bombs. Because we could be permitting the use of far worse weapons – by Kevin Gosztola

https://shadowproof.com/2016/02/15/u-s-shrugs-off-yet-another-report-of-cluster-bombs-launched-by-saudis-in-yemen/

16.2.2016 – TagesAnzeiger (** B K)

Kinderspital als Kollateralschaden

Spitäler geraten vermehrt unter Beschuss. Das ist eine fatale Entwicklung. Spitalbombardements drohen, normal zu werden. Im Jemen hat die von Saudiarabien geführte Koalition in den letzten drei Monaten drei Krankenhäuser beschossen. Zuletzt traf es eine Klinik in Razeh; sechs Menschen starben. Weil die britische Regierung die Saudis militärisch unterstützt, sah sich Aussenminister Philip Hammond zu einer Stellungnahme veranlasst. Er wiegelte ab. Ein «absichtliches» Verletzen humanitären Völkerrechts könne er nicht feststellen. Damit war die Sache für ihn erledigt. Ein Kollateralschaden.

Auch die USA sind verantwortlich für diese Entwicklung. Im afghanischen Kunduz zerbombte die US-Luftwaffe im Oktober ebenfalls ein Spital von Médecins sans Frontières. 42 Menschen starben – Patienten, Pflegende, Angehörige. Der eine Friedensnobelpreisträger, Oberbefehlshaber Barack Obama, beschoss den anderen; MSF erhielt die Auszeichnung 1999.

Unklar ist, weshalb. Entweder war der Angriff ein Versehen. Dann hätte die stärkste Kriegsmaschinerie der Welt bei der Aufklärung am Boden völlig versagt, was schwer vorstellbar ist, da das MSF-Spital sogar auf Google Maps verzeichnet war. Oder aber die USA nahmen Tote in Krankenhausbetten bewusst in Kauf. Nach dem Angriff hiess es aus Washington zunächst, im Spital hätten sich Terroristen versteckt.

Mit dieser Begründung aber darf niemand davonkommen. Die Genfer Konventionen regeln auch diesen Fall. Missbraucht eine Kriegspartei ein Spital als Deckung, so verliert es seinen geschützten Status, darf also angegriffen werden. Allerdings muss zuvor eine Warnung erfolgen, und die verschanzten Kämpfer müssen mehr tun, als nur anwesend zu sein. In Kunduz waren beide Bedingungen nicht erfüllt. Im November kam eine von den US-Streitkräften selbst durchgeführte Untersuchung zum Schluss, die Besatzung ihres Bombers habe das Spital schlicht mit einem Gebäude der Taliban verwechselt. Ein Versehen.

MSF-Präsidentin Joanne Liu nahm Barack Obamas Entschuldigung damals entgegen – aber nicht an. Sie stellte klar: Ein Versehen darf nicht als akzeptierte Erklärung dienen. Sie hat recht. Nur weil der versehentliche Abschuss eines Krankenhauses kein Kriegsverbrechen ist, darf er nicht in Kauf genommen werden. Ein zerbombtes Spital ist nicht der annehmbare Nebeneffekt eines völkerrechtskonform geführten Krieges. Es ist eine Schande und gehört geächtet – von David Hesse

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ausland/naher-osten-und-afrika/kinderspital-als-kollateralschaden/story/23853027

17.2.2016 – Sputnik News (** B P)

Fig Leaf of Legitimacy: West Giving Saudis 'Political Cover' in Yemen

The sale of western arms to Saudi Arabia has provided a "political cover" for Riyadh to continue its bombing operation in Yemen, campaigners have told Sputnik, which comes as the UN warned that a "humanitarian catastrophe" is unfolding in the country.

With the 11-month long Saudi aerial bombardment of Houthi rebel targets continuing, critics have accused western nations — principally the UK and US — of exacerbating the conflict and worsening the humanitarian situation through their continued sale of arms to the Gulf Kingdom.

"UK arms have been central to the bombing of Yemen — US arms as well," Andrew Smith, spokesperson for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), told Sputnik.

"The UK has provided fighter jets and bombs used in the campaign and it has created a humanitarian catastrophe. But this has also provided a political cover as well, as the bombs are coming down with the western endorsement. I think that helps the Saudis and gives them a fig leaf of legitimacy to the bombing campaign."

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160217/1034901533/yemen-humanitarian-crisis-un.html

Comment: That is a very important point to understand the political implications of western arms supply which is mostly neglected.

2.6.2015 – Joke Buringa (** B P)

Divide and Rule: Saudi Arabia, Oil and Yemen

Saudi Arabia does not want a strong, democratic country on the other side of the more than 1500 kilometer long border that separates both countries. It opposed the unification of former North- and South Yemen in 1990. It supported, together with Kuwait, the Southern separation movement during the Civil War of 1994 with billions of dollars. And it heavily influenced the outcome of the Yemeni transition process after 2011.

The energy sector is responsible for 90% of the export earnings and 45% of Saudi BNP. Regional security is therefore of crucial importance, In 2013 30% of all oil transported over sea (from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Iran) passed the Hormuz Strait, passing the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. 85% of this oil is intended for Asia. Gas too is an important export product, in particular for Qatar.

Fear of an Iranian blockade of the Hormuz Strait, and the possibly disastrous results for the global economy, has existed for years. The US therefore pressured the Gulf States to develop alternatives. In 2007 Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman and Yemen jointly launched the Trans-Arabia Oil Pipeline project. New pipelines were to be constructed from the Saudi Ras Tannurah on the Persian Gulf and the UAE to the Gulf of Oman (one to the Emirate of Fujairah and two lines to Oman) and the Gulf of Aden (two lines to Yemen). In addition Kuwait could be connected to this network. So far, only the connection between Abu Dhabi and Fujairah (both UAE) has been completed. It became operational in 2012.

Recent overtures between the US and Iran have led to heightened uncertainty among the Saudi’s about the Hormuz Strait. In 2014 Iran and Oman signed an agreement to construct a pipeline from Iran to Oman in order to export Iranian gas to Oman. Distrust about the intentions of Oman increased the attractiveness of the Hadramaut option in Yemen, a longstanding wish of Saudi Arabia.

However, former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (in function from 1978-2012) opposed the construction of a pipeline under Saudi control over Yemeni territory. For many years the Saudi’s invested in tribal leaders in the hope to execute this project under Saleh’s successor. The 2011 popular uprisings by demonstrators calling for democracy upset these plans.

When the situation really became untenable the Gulf States, under the watchful eyes of the US and the EU, convinced Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity. His Vice-President Hadi would take over the presidency until the planned presidential elections. De facto, the existing system was kept intact. The subsequent National Dialogue led to the decision to form a federal state with six countries. The governorates of Hadramaut, Shabwa and al Mahra were to come together in a new state called Hadramaut.

The governorate of Hadramaut is one of the few areas where the Saudi-led coalition did not conduct any airstrikes. The port and the international airport of Al Mukalla are in optimal shape and under the control of Al Qa’eda. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has been delivering arms to Al Qa’eda, who is expanding its sphere of influence.

Those pipelines to Mukalla will probably get there eventually – by Joke Buringa

http://web.archive.org/web/20150701113930/http:/www.jokeburinga.com/divide-and-rule-saudi-arabia-oil-and-yemen-3/ = https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100423616776795

[see Yemen Press Reader 101, cp 1 Most important, referring to this article]

cp2 Allgemein / General

Yemen Our Home from UNDP (** B H)

Our mission is accelerate the recovery and reconstruction of Yemen and improve the living conditions of affected-population. This will be achieved in partnership with the Yemeni Diaspora and all those who, like us, want to see a better country for its future generations.

Yemen Our Home is apolitical and non-religious. We select project according to the needs and feasibility only and work with trusted actors.

UNDP is building the resilience of crisis-affected populations in Yemen noting that the country’s reconstruction and recovery will require everyone who cares for a better and stronger Yemen working together. The Yemeni Diaspora is an important and untapped asset for this realization, and UNDP, through Yemen Our Home, seeks to engage them for the future of Yemen and to alleviate hardships of vulnerable communities.

Yemen Our Home will be articulated into three main campaigns to support the most urgent recovery needs such as rebuilding and rehabilitating public and socio-economic infrastructure, reviving businesses to fight unemployment and bring solutions to community challenges, and economically empowering women as agents of change and for the revitalization of the local economy. We care for a greener, more productive and inclusive Yemen, where generations can safely attain their dreams and potential.

http://yemenourhome.org/ and http://yemenourhome.org/Home/Compaignproj/1-33143/Green-Yemen

17.2.2016 – Esglobal (* B K P)

La olvidada Yemen: de la fallida primavera a la guerra

El país más pobre del golfo Pérsico se desangra bajo la sombra mediática y la creciente interferencia saudí.

Sumida en una historia de constantes guerras, ora de secesión, ora tribales, la última arrancaba el pasado marzo con la ofensiva Operación Tormenta Definitiva, lanzada por la Coalición liderada por Arabia Saudí. Sumando así una capa más al complejo tablero yemení que arrastra conflictos sin resolver de carácter local, con trifulcas tribales; nacional, con dos presidentes enfrentados; regional, con la lucha retórica entre Irán y Arabia Saudí, e internacional, con un irresponsable apoyo occidental amparado en la lucha contra el terrorismo yihadista.

La asimétrica guerra que libran los poderosos ejércitos de la Coalición −Emiratos Árabes, Kuwait, Bahréin, Qatar, Sudán, Egipto, Jordania y Marruecos con apoyo logístico de Estados Unidos y Gran Bretaña− contra los rebeldes hutíes ha acabado por revertir las alianzas forjadas en la última década, a la par que destierra al olvido la marchita primavera yemení. Las tornas han cambiado desde que en 2004 el movimiento rebelde hutí Ansar Alá se levantara en armas durante seis guerras consecutivas contra el entonces presidente avalado por Riad, Alí Abdalá Saleh. Depuesto por las revueltas populares de 2011, el acérrimo enemigo de los hutíes se presenta hoy como aliado frente al ahora común enemigo saudí.

Al calor de las revueltas que sacudían Túnez, los yemeníes se lanzaron en 2011 a las calles exigiendo justicia y mayores servicios en un país en el que, ya entonces, el 54% de los 25 millones de habitantes hacían malabares sobre la línea que marca el umbral de la pobreza. Movimientos suníes como los Hermanos Musulmanes se aliaron a líderes tribales zaidíes, considerados chiíes a pesar de que comparten más con los suníes yemeníes que con los chiíes iraníes, en un llamamiento a poner fin a la corrupción y el desgobierno – por Natalia Sancha

http://www.esglobal.org/la-olvidada-yemen-de-la-fallida-primavera-a-la-guerra/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Comment: An excellent article on Yemen. It's in Spanish, hope you can google translate it. On the history of country, how things have developed since the 'Arab Spring' (Western name for something the West has never really understood) and -most important - how the press has fabricated the schism between Sunni and Shiite in a country where there is no such thing. Worth a read

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=971090082944022&id=961126490607048

17.2.2016 – American Herald Tribune (B P)

The annihilation of the Yemeni nation – Cluster bombs and rights violations – by Catherine Shakdam

http://ahtribune.com/human-rights/524-yemen-cluster-bombs.html

Comment: An opinion article, this on eis to much pathetic for my taste.

16.2.2016 – Middle East Eye (B P)

Let's not forget the Yemeni voices that oppose Houthi-Saleh forces

Opposition to the Houthis-Saleh alliance has been neglected in the coverage of the Yemen conflict, which tends to highlight Saudi's role – by Baraa Shiban

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/lets-not-forget-yemeni-voices-oppose-houthi-saleh-forces-1501954802 and also from the same author http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2016/2/17/yemen-marks-fifth-anniversary-of-incomplete-revolution

Comment: I heard this Yemeni writer at a conference in London and he was obviously a supporter of the Saudi coalition, sitting next to a Saudi speaker and backing most that he said. So his views are not surprising. Personally I don't support any of the militias that are fighting In Yemen, not the armies, nor the mercenary brigades, nor the aerial bombardment and there are many Yemenis who take the same view. I disagree strongly with Shiban's statement that the anti Houthi voices are not heard - many politicians and media outlets take the view that they are committing war crimes. But surely Shiban misses the point of the current debate. The reason why Saudi war crimes are being broadcast is because WE IN UK ARE SUPPLYING THEM WITH WEAPONS - we are definitely not supplying weapons to the Houthi militias. And those weapons dropped from the air are destroying even and Yemeni lives.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100857046733452

16.2.2016 – The American Conservative (** B P)

The War on Yemen Has Nothing to Do With Self-Defense

[In Wall Street Journal,] Kenneth Pollack and Barbara Walter make an especially absurd claim in an op-ed this morning:

This doesn’t mean that the Sunni Arab states, which are America’s traditional allies, like the Russian choice. But they understand it. What they don’t understand is the frightening strategy their longtime protector is pursuing. The result is that a traditional U.S. ally like Saudi Arabia has felt obliged to take risky actions in self-defense [bold mine-DL], such as executing a Shiite cleric last month, and intervening in Yemen’s civil war by backing the Sunni-led government against the Shiite Houthis favored by Tehran.

If there’s one thing that should be very clear by now, it is that Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and the execution of non-violent Shia dissidents have nothing to do with self-defense. The Saudis execute domestic critics because theirs is an oppressive and sectarian regime. The Saudis and their allies chose to take a side in Yemen’s civil war, and in so doing they ensured that the war would be far more destructive. They did this because they wanted to have a dependent government in Yemen aligned with them. Their security was not at risk, but out of an irrational fear of a supposed Iranian “takeover” they plunged into a war that they aren’t winning but won’t stop. The Saudi-led intervention is an aggressive and unjustifiable one, and it has provoked attacks on Saudi territory that would not have happened otherwise.

The greatest error that Obama made in the last year was not focusing on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. It was the disgraceful decision to back the Saudis’ appalling war on Yemen for the last ten months. The problem with Obama’s policies in the region isn’t that he has failed to indulge the Gulf states enough in their preoccupations, but that he has been far too concerned to “reassure” and support their destructive behavior. The best thing that the U.S. could do to help settle the conflict in Yemen is to stop lending support to the Saudi-led campaign and to use whatever influence Washington still has with them to pressure them to accept a compromise, but Pollack and Walter have nothing to say about that. As usual, the U.S. role in the war on Yemen remains goes unmentioned, and its part in helping to stoke the conflict receives no criticism – by Daniel Larison

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-war-on-yemen-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-defense/

16.2.2016 – Fars News (* B P)

Gap Widening between UAE, Saudi Arabia over Yemen, Emirati Jets Hit Pro-Saudi Camp in Lahij

The differences between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen have increased to such levels of graveness that Emirati fighter jets have targeted the positions of pro-Saudi camp in al-Hawtah city in Lahij province.

The UAE warplanes' raid on pro-Saudi militia targets in Lahij came just one day after Saudi fighter jets in a similar move pounded a UAE military convoy, killing two UAE military servicemen.

The differences between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen have heightened after the UAE replaced its soldiers with Blackwater mercenaries which faced the stern oppositions of the Riyadh government.

As a result, fugitive President Mansour Hadi and his Prime Minister Khaled Bahah have been running a feud for the past several months, and their differences grew noisy when a number of Saudi officials worked out a plan to replace the former president with his premier - who had both fled to Saudi Arabia then - in order to encourage the revolutionary forces back in Yemen to work with him and allow him to start a new government.

Political observers believe that the quarrel between Hadi and his prime minister derives from the underlying row between Saudi Arabia as supporter of Hadi and UAE as supporter of Bahah.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941127000512

Comment: Now this is one of the most interesting news items for some time on Yemen - Saudis killed Emirates yesterday, and emirates killed Saudis today. If it is true it is an escalation of the tensions between Saudi and UAE that have been widely reported. In Yemen itself and especially in the South UAE is held in far higher regard than Saudi Arabia.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100857386733418

15.2.2016 – World Food Programme (B H)

Yemen Access Constraints map as of 15 February 2016

http://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-access-constraints-map-15-february-2016 or http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yem_op_accessconstraints_a3l_20160215.pdf

15.2.2016 – Before its News

Yemen update 2/15/2016. U.S.-Backed Saudi War & Blockade Push Millions to Brink of Famine

Films, mainly military successes of the Houthi side; films on massacers (already longer ago; graphic), the text by Ben Norton from Salon already had been reported earlier

http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2016/02/yemen-update-2152016-u-s-backed-saudi-war-blockade-push-millions-to-brink-of-famine-2779100.html

15.2.2016 – Iran German Radio (B K)

Saudi-Arabien setzt Streubomben im Jemen ein

Saudi-Arabien setzt weiterhin seine Luftangriffe mit geächteten Streubomben gegen jemenitische Zivilisten ein.

Der Nachrichtensender "Al-Alam" strahlte Aufzeichnungen über den Einsatz von Streubomben in jemenitischen Gebieben aus und meldete, dass Saudi-Arabien und seine Verbündeten in einem neuen Bericht von Human Rights Watch (HRW) und 20 weiteren Berichten von internationalen Menschenrechtsorganisationen des Einsatzes von Streubomben beschuldigt werden.

In dem HRW-Bericht heißt es, mit dem Einsatz von Streubomben verstöße das von Saudi-Arabien geführte arabische Militärbündnis gegen das Völkerrecht.

Belkis Wille, HRW-Leiterin für den Nahen Osten, sagte, dass diese Streubomben in den Provinzen Saada und Haddscha sowie in der Stadt Imran in der Provinz Sanaa und in al-Hudaida eingesetzt worden seien.

http://german.irib.ir/nachrichten/nahost/item/297007-saudi-arabien-setzt-streubomben-im-jemen-ein und beim Schweizmagazin

Kommentar: Berichte auf Deutsch mal wieder mehr als knapp, wer mehr erfahren will, muss Englisch können.

15.2.2016 – RT (* A K P)

Hundreds of cluster-bomb attacks recorded in Syria, Libya, Yemen - HRW’s Mary Wareham

Human Rights Watch has released a report, saying the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has been using internationally banned cluster munitions.

RT spoke to a co-author of the report, Mary Wareham - who specialises in dealing with weapons that pose a danger to civilians in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsN70X3Lank

14.2.2016 – Middle East Eye (* B K)

Saudi-led coalition accused of using US-supplied cluster bombs in Yemen

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen is using internationally banned cluster bombs supplied by the US in military operations against Houthi rebels, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Sunday, amid reports of further civilian casualties caused by air strikes.

The international human rights organisation said that recently transferred US-manufactured munitions were being used in civilian areas contrary to US export requirements and also appeared to fail reliability standards required by the US for exported weapons.

"Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their US supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances," said HRW's arms director Steve Goose.

One type of air-dropped cluster munition used by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the US-manufactured CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon, had "harmed civilians in at least two attacks," Goose said.

"The evidence raises serious questions about compliance with US cluster munition policy and export rules," he said.

"The Saudi-led coalition should investigate evidence that civilians are being harmed in these attacks and immediately stop using them."

[on this topic see the HRW report at Yemen Pres Reader 102].

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-led-coalition-accused-using-us-supplied-cluster-bombs-yemen-1423834833

Comment: The last sentence is ridiculous. That would be the same as having the Mafia administrating the Palermo police department.

16.2.2016 – New Eastern Outlook (* B P)

Yemen: Who Is To Blame For The Tragedy

[Overview article, repeating arguments and facts already often reported] by Victor Mikhin

http://journal-neo.org/2016/02/16/yemen-who-is-to-blame-for-the-tragedy/

15.2.2016 – Press TV Iran (* B K)

Saudi Arabia, US guilty of war crimes in Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs (IGA) from Washington, on a long-awaited report by Human Rights Watch over the use of cluster bombs during the Saudi military aggression against Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The use of cluster munitions has been reported throughout Saudi Arabia’s onslaught on Yemen, why is Human Rights Watch choosing to report on it now?

Ahmed: Cluster bomb usage [was reported] before, a few months ago, and also Amnesty International did the same. The problem is that these are human rights organizations with no power. We were looking for some people in the UN Security Council or in the International Criminal Court. These are the important people who should come forward and put a stop to the use of cluster bombs and bring those responsible to account. Unfortunately, the international community, the Western governments who are supporting the Saudi war on the Yemeni people, [are] allowing the Saudi monarchy to commit war crimes. That goes without doubt.

Press TV: Right now, Mr. al-Ahmed, it’s not only just about those who are using these munitions, it’s also about those who are supplying these munitions, the US is aware of what is happening in Yemen, it’s even helping the Saudi forces in choosing its targets. So, the US is in the dark just as much as Saudi Arabia when it comes to these human rights violations.

Ahmed: It’s true that since day one, since before the war was launched, American forces, British officers and American officers, were part of the operation; they planned, they provided logistics, they provided satellite and drone footage and information to the bombing campaign and they provided rescue and other logistical support. So, they are involved and they do admit to that role.

Press TV: The use of these internationally banned weapons on the part of Saudi Arabia, do you think it’s an indication of its desperation to get this aggression at some point where Saudi Arabia can say it has actually achieved something?

Ahmed: Well absolutely, they are using everything they can and they are ignoring the supposed international law, but again the problem with international law, it’s only applied on the weak not those who are protected by major powers like the United States.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/02/15/450409/Saudi-Arabia-US-Yemen-War-Crimes-Ahmed

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

15.2.2016 – World Food Programme (A H)

WFP Yemen Situation Report #19, 15 February, 2016

Pipeline shortfalls mean that WFP will need to reduce individual entitlements for the months of January-March to 75 percent of the full entitlement.

WFP is scaling up its push to reach Taiz. A second convoy of WFP trucks in two months, carrying food for 3,000 families (18,000 people), reached Taiz city on 13 February.

In January, WFP reached 2,587,000 beneficiaries in 17 governorates, including in all ten IPC Level 4 “emergency” governorates. In February so far, WFP has reached 530,500 people in 12 governorates, with distributions ongoing.

The security situation throughout Yemen remains precarious, particularly in Aden, Taiz and areas surrounding Sana’a. In Aden, clashes are ongoing between coalition-supported pro-Government forces and militants of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), while pro-Government forces have taken control of areas south of Sana’a and are reportedly within 30-40 kilometres of the city’s outskirts.

Taiz continues to be one of the worst affected governorates in Yemen. On 15 February, WFP warned that the severe food insecurity situation in Taiz was approaching famine levels. A convoy of WFP trucks carrying food for 3,000 families, accompanied by a mission led by the WFP Representative in Yemen, arrived in Taiz city on 13 February.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/wfp-yemen-situation-report-19-15-february-2016in full http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WFP%20Yemen%20Situation%20Report%20%2319%2C%2015%20February%202016.pdf

15.2.2016 – Deutschlandfunk (A H)

UNO-Hilfskonvoi in Taiz eingetroffen

Wie das Welternährungsprogramm in Rom mitteilte, wurden Grundnahrungsmittel für rund 18.000 Menschen geliefert. Die Vorräte reichten etwa einen Monat lang. Es handelt sich um den zweiten UNO-Konvoi nach Taiz seit Jahresbeginn.

http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/jemen-uno-hilfskonvoi-in-taiz-eingetroffen.1947.de.html?drn:news_id=581341

Comment: There seems to be more reporting of problems in Taiz since aid has been delivered than there was when they didn't have any deliveries. And meanwhile, the rest of Yemen is suffering equallY and also needs publicity.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100846746734482

16.2.2016 – The National UAE (A H)

UAE flies relief aid into Socotra

Two more planes carrying relief aid, equipment and food have been sent to the Yemeni Island of Socotra by under the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa.

The first plane to arrive delivered electrical equipment and generators while the second shipped 15 tonnes of food.

The aid was in addition to the 100 tonnes of food sent by the foundation in December following cyclone Megh, which caused widespread destruction and resulted in 14 deaths in November.

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-flies-relief-aid-into-socotra

Comment: I'm glad someone is thinking of Soqatra.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100852633400560

cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage

15.2.2016 – Alalam (A K)

Yemeni Historic City Destroyed by Saudi Airstrike, 5 Civilians Killed, 10 Injured (with film)

Continuous Saudi air strike in historic city of Kewkaban turns the tourist spot to rubbles.

Last Saudi airstrikes in the historic city of Kawkaban (Kewkaban) was in early Sunday. The airstrikes left five dead and 10 injured, including one woman.

Kawkaban lies 50 kilometres north of the Yemeni capital Sanaa and is characterized by architecturally distinctive mud brick buildings.

Residents of the historic city were seen pushing their belongings in carts, walking and driving cars as they left the city to escape other possible airstrikes.

Kawkaban is a town in the northern-western part of Yemen, containing a fortified citadel about 2800 m above sea level. The city is built upon a precipitous hilltop, walled from the north and fortified naturally from the other directions.

It was a capital of Bani Sharaf Al-Deen in the 9th century AH (15th century CE). It was also home to a Jewish community, until its demise in the mid-20th century.

http://en.alalam.ir/news/1789627 and 40 photos: http://newsofyemen.net/2016/02/fresh-new-saudi-uae-co-strikes-on-kawkaban-historic-city-yemen-30-new-pics/

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

16.2.2016 – Janes (A T)

Anarchy across southern Yemen likely to facilitate AQAP's unopposed expansion into new areas, including the coast

Exploiting a persistent security vacuum and the absence of effective state institutions, AQAP is in the process of asserting itself as the dominant actor across much of southern Yemen.

The territory currently controlled by AQAP is larger than the area it held in 2011, when the group's area of control reached its peak during of the anti-Saleh popular uprising.

Although AQAP is likely to prioritise consolidating its position along the Zinjibar-al-Mukalla coastal road in order to smuggle fighters and weapons to and from the Horn of Africa, the group is likely to expand its territorial control in northern Hadramawt, al-Dali' and al-Bayda' in the six-month outlook – by Exploiting a persistent security vacuum and the absence of effective state institutions, AQAP is in the process of asserting itself as the dominant actor across much of southern Yemen.

The territory currently controlled by AQAP is larger than the area it held in 2011, when the group's area of control reached its peak during of the anti-Saleh popular uprising.

Although AQAP is likely to prioritise consolidating its position along the Zinjibar-al-Mukalla coastal road in order to smuggle fighters and weapons to and from the Horn of Africa, the group is likely to expand its territorial control in northern Hadramawt, al-Dali' and al-Bayda' in the six-month outlook – by Ludovico Carlino

http://www.janes.com/article/58047/anarchy-across-southern-yemen-likely-to-facilitate-aqap-s-unopposed-expansion-into-new-areas-including-the-coast

16.2.2016 – Al Araby (A P)

Yemeni university reopens under 'pressure' from al-Qaeda

A Yemeni university has announced the resumption of studies after months of suspension amid claims that al-Qaeda pressured it to reopen.

The Hadramaut University in the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla announced that it would reopen its doors on 28 February after being closed for months due to the city's security situation and a university financial crisis.

The university's administration said in a statement that it will resume its operations with the financial and academic resources at its disposal, and encouraged students to return to their classes.

While some students welcomed the opportunity to continue their studies, local activists raised questions about the timing of the announcement since Mukalla has been relatively stable for months.

A source within the university told The New Arab that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had pressured the university to reopen in a bid to portray life in the al-Qaeda controlled city as normal.

The source said that the militant group offered the cash-strapped university money to overcome its crisis in return for a resumption of university life, which the university allegedly accepted.

Hadramaut University has 15,000 students from the governorates of Hadramaut, Shabwa and al-Mahrah.

http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/society/2016/2/16/yemeni-university-reopens-under-pressure-from-al-qaeda

17.2.2016 – T-Online (A T)

Islamischer Staat tötet 14 Soldaten bei Anschlag im Jemen

Bei einem Selbstmordanschlag im Jemen sind mindestens 14 Soldaten getötet worden. Laut Militärangaben sprengte sich ein Attentäter am Mittwoch in einem Militärstützpunkt in Aden inmitten von Soldaten in die Luft. Zu dem Anschlag bekannte sich die Dschihadistenmiliz Islamischer Staat (IS). Der Anschlag erfolgte während eines militärischen Trainings in dem Militärlager Ras Abbas im Westen von Aden. Das Militärcamp wird von der arabischen Militärkoalition überwacht, die angeführt von Saudi-Arabien im Jemen die Regierung im Kampf gegen die schiitischen Huthi-Rebellen unterstützt. Die Soldaten trainierten mit Ausbildern aus dem Sudan. Das Land ist ebenfalls an der Allianz beteiligt.

http://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/id_75384912/islamischer-staat-toetet-14-soldaten-bei-anschlag-im-jemen.html

17.2.2016 – Nachrichten.at

Neun Tote bei Selbstmordanschlag in Jemen

ADEN. Ein Selbstmordattentäter hat im Süden des Jemen ein Militärcamp angegriffen und mindestens neun Soldaten getötet.

Der jemenitischen Armee sowie Ärzten zufolge zündete der Attentäter seine Sprengstoffweste am Mittwoch in dem Camp Ras Abbas inmitten von Soldaten, die gerade an einer Ausbildungseinheit teilnahmen. Es gebe bisher neun tote Soldaten und "mehrere Verletzte", teilten Ärzte in Aden mit.

Das Militärcamp wird von der arabischen Militärkoalition überwacht, die angeführt von Saudi-Arabien im Jemen die Regierung im Kampf gegen die schiitischen Houthi-Rebellen unterstützt. Die Soldaten trainierten mit Ausbildern aus dem Sudan. Das Land ist ebenfalls an der Allianz beteiligt.

Aden ist die provisorische Hauptstadt der sunnitischen Regierung. Dort konnten zuletzt islamistische Milizen verstärkt Fuß fassen. In dem Konflikt im Jemen wurden seit März 2015 rund 6000 Menschen getötet.

http://www.nachrichten.at/nachrichten/weltspiegel/Neun-Tote-bei-Selbstmordanschlag-in-Jemen;art17,2153377

17.2.2016 – Reuters (A T)

Suicide bomber kills at least 13 recruits at Yemen army camp

A suicide bomber killed at least 13 recruits at a Yemeni army camp run by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, medical sources and a security official said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of bombings rattling the city since Saudi-backed forces captured Yemen's second-largest city from the Iran-allied Houthis in July last year.

At least 60 people were also wounded in the attack targeting hundreds of new recruits at the Ras Abbas camp in Aden's Buraiqa district. It was recently set up by Hadi's government to absorb new conscripts being trained to fight the Houthis.

The official said the bomber was disguised in military uniform used by the new recruits, enabling him to penetrate the crowd undetected inside the camp.

Medics at the nearby Masafi hospital said they had received the bodies of 13 people, while at least 60 wounded people were taken to hospitals in Aden.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0VQ0Y0 and from AP: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-bomber-strikes-army-camp-yemen-killing-9-110752665.html

Additional information:

17.2.2016 – Wall Street Journal (A T)

Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Yemen Suicide Bombing

Thirteen people killed and dozens more injured at a military camp near port city of Aden

A Yemeni fighter carried out the attack at the Ras Abbas government camp, according to an Islamic State statement translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist activity. An official in Aden said a person wearing a belt laden with explosives detonated himself among a group of newly-recruited soldiers.

Islamic State said it had killed almost 20 soldiers and wounded 60 other people. Its claims couldn’t be corroborated.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-for-yemen-suicide-bombing-1455717760

16.2.2016 – Reuters (A T)

Top officials escape assassination attempt in Yemen's Aden: security source

The governor and security director of the southern Yemeni city of Aden escaped a gun attack on their convoy on Tuesday, a security official said, the latest in a string of militant attacks on the government.

Three of the gunmen were killed in an exchange of fire, while two bodyguards and two civilians walking by were wounded, the official said. But Governor Aidarus al-Zubaidi and Brigadier General Shalal Ali Shayyeh were unhurt.

Both men have survived attacks before. Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants have taken advantage of 10 months of civil war in Yemen to expand their presence in Aden, where the embattled government is based.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0VP0S2 and from Deutsche Welle: http://www.dw.com/en/governor-escapes-al-qaeda-gun-attack-in-yemen/a-19051380

13.2.2016 – Shafaqna (*B K P T)

Aden falls prey to chaos while under de facto military occupation

Since the Yemeni southern seaport city of Aden fell to the control of the Saudi-led coalition, under the supervision of the UAE, al-Qaeda militants have managed to encroach themselves further onto the region, de facto turning Aden into their new headquarters – an interesting development in the light of Riyadh’s claims it wants to spearhead a counter-terror effort in Yemen, and topple the Houthis.

In a report Reuters earlier this week writes, “The recapture of Aden by Gulf Arab coalition troops last summer has failed to provide any respite from Yemen’s civil war, with residents facing a wave of bomb and gun attacks that is crippling efforts to stabilize the city.”

Only there was never a civil war in Yemen – just like Syria never witnessed a Revolution. Violence in Yemen has been engineered and played up by infiltrated foreign agents, to serve foreign agendas: namely the overthrow of any real popularly-back government in favour of Wahhabists rule.

The grand Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is actively working to carve a Wahhabi empire at the heart of the Greater Middle East and non seems the wiser …

Seven months after the Houthis were forced to give up their positions into Aden, al-Qaeda militants and other terror outfits have turned the city into a radical hub. Still Reuters abide by the agreed-propaganda.

It writes: “rebel fighters from the Iranian-allied Houthi militia were driven out of the strategic southern port, there are almost daily assassinations of judges, security officials and police.” Only the Houthis are no rebels … they are the Resistance, and they are certainly NOT working for Iran or receiving help from Iran. Those are the lies Riyadh has spun to legitimize its own military intervention, and occupation.

Yemen is fighting a war of independence, a war of liberation and political emancipation from under the imperial boot of both the West and Saudi Arabia.

Since July 2015, the Gulf coalition and local security forces aka Wahhabist militants dressed as moderates, “have struggled to impose order in Aden” writes Reuters, thus opening the way for Daesh, al Qaeda and other armed groups to operate there with impunity.

Only there was no struggle, only engineered chaos …

Life in Aden has become a struggle – a painful reminder that foreign occupation rhymes with oppression and repression. A city gripped by insecurity and fear, Aden has become yet another city awaiting for the Black Flag to be risen over its skyline.

Countless witnesses have described tense scenes and gun battles in between rival gangs, and Salafi militias as they clashed against a new budding popular resistance.

Wahhabi militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have mounted operations in southern Yemen, including Aden, for years. Since the Saudi coalition took control of the city, radicals have more or less had a free hand – forever expanded their influence.

While Western capitals continue to assign blame on the Houthis, arguing it is them who have played violence to assert their rule, truths are slowly shaping up as Riyadh’s terror agenda is becoming an only too unbearable reality.

Under siege by Wahhabism, Yemen truly stands to disappear to the Black Flag monster – the world community would do well to understand that Yemen’s fall will prompt a chain reaction across several continents which would have catastrophic reverberations – by Catherine Shakdam

http://en.shafaqna.com/news/28211

Comment: Another Catherine Shakdam article - but she is right - Aden is another battleground, this time between AQAP and Hadi's government. The only good thing is that KSA Is letting food and diesel in through the port now, which it didn't do when the Houthi-Saleh alliance was fighting, which means that although there is a ground war again, at least there is electricity and no starvation in Aden. Obviously KSA doesn't mind about AQ getting food and diesel for its militias.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100602570092233

cp7 UNO / UN

17.2.2016 – NZZ von AP (A H)

Schwierige Versorgung der notleidenden Bevölkerung: Humanitäre Katastrophe entfaltet sich in Jemen

In Jemen entfaltet sich nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen eine humanitäre Katastrophe. Uno-Nothilfekoordinator Stephen O'Brien sagte am Dienstag, die Situation verschlimmere sich zusehends durch gesteigerte Schwierigkeiten bei dem Versuch, die notleidende Bevölkerung zu versorgen.

O'Brien zeichnete ein düsteres Bild von dem bitterarmen und konfliktgebeutelten Land. Auf Anfrage Russlands informierte O'Brien am Dienstag den Uno-Sicherheitsrat über die Lage im Jemen.

http://www.nzz.ch/international/humanitaere-katastrophe-entfaltet-sich-im-jemen-1.18696629

Auf Englisch mal wieder wesentlich mehr:

17.2.2016 – China.org (B K P)

A senior UN official on Tuesday called for more international efforts to end "human catastrophe" in Yemen, saying that the UN Security Council and the international community must urge the parties to the conflict to ensure unconditional and sustained humanitarian access to all parts of the Middle East country.

In a briefing to the 15-nation council, Stephen O'Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, cited the extraordinarily difficult and dangerous circumstances across the country in delivering assistance to millions of people in need.

Just this past Saturday, he added, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a building 200 metres away from a facility that accommodates UN and diplomatic personnel.

http://china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2016-02/17/content_37802939.htm

In full here:

16.2.2016 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (** B K P)

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien Statement to the Security Council on Yemen, New York, 16 February 2016

Mr. President,

The conflict in Yemen continues to kill and maim civilians, causing immeasurable suffering, while destroying livelihoods, homes, communities and essential civilian infrastructure. Much of this is the result of indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the parties. Since March 2015, more than 35,000 casualties, including over 6,000 deaths, have been reported by health facilities across the country. The United Nations has confirmed that at least 2,997 of those killed and 5,659 of those injured are civilians. Conservative estimates suggest that well over 700 children have been killed and over 1,000 more injured. There are reports that as many as 720 children have been forcibly recruited by the parties.

The conflict is exacting a terrible humanitarian toll. Some 2.7 million people have had to flee their homes. At least 7.6 million people are severely food insecure. Some two million acutely malnourished children and pregnant or lactating women need urgent treatment.

Chronic drug shortages, unpaid salaries, and conflict related destruction means that around 14 million Yemenis do not have sufficient access to healthcare services. Since March last year, nearly 600 health facilities closed due to damage, shortages of critical supplies or lack of health workers. Nearly 220 of these facilities used to provide treatment for acute malnutrition. In January alone, at least three health facilities were damaged - one hospital in Sa'ada Governorate and two facilities in Nahim district of Sana’a Governorate.

More than 1.8 million children have been out of school since mid-March 2015, bringing the total number of children out of school to more than 3.4 million when combined with pre-crisis figures. Over 1,170 schools are now unfit for use due to conflict-related damage, presence of displaced people, or occupation by armed groups.

Water infrastructure serving at least 900,000 people has been either damaged or destroyed by airstrikes, artillery and rockets. For instance last week, the water reservoir serving 40,000 people was completely destroyed, reportedly by an airstrike, in the capital, Sana’a City.

Mr. President,

UN agencies and their NGO partners are delivering assistance under extraordinarily difficult and dangerous circumstances across the country. For example, just this last Sunday, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a building 200 metres away from the Diplomatic Transit Facility, accommodating UN and diplomatic personnel.

During January the humanitarian community provided regular monthly food rations to approximately 2.6 million people; direct water deliveries to over 234,000 people; and supplied fuel to water pumping stations for more than 3 million people. Health facilities reached over 102,000 people; around 36,000 children were screened for acute malnutrition and 3,700 malnourished children under five years were admitted to feeding programmes.
Other relief items were provided to over 42,700 people.

Mr. President,

Despite these commendable and brave efforts, I am extremely concerned about the increasingly restricted humanitarian space we face to respond to the staggering needs of Yemeni men, women and children.

In addition to an already dangerous environment, parties to the conflict are contributing to the reduction of humanitarian access. The al-Houthis and allied groups remain inconsistent in allowing access and movement of humanitarian goods and personnel.
Over the past week, while some UN agencies were given approvals, several others were denied for joint inter-agency missions to Ibb, Taizz and Sa’ada.

While humanitarian deliveries are ongoing in areas where Al Qaida in the Arab Peninsula is present, international humanitarian movement to these areas is extremely challenging and dangerous. This includes locations in the Hadramaut governorate, but also in Aden where severe insecurity prevails.

Humanitarian assistance reached the Taizz city enclave following a high level mission led by the Humanitarian Coordinator on 22 January. The area faces severe access restrictions by al-Houthis, and is home to over 200,000 people. Deliveries included food for around 18,000 people, non-food items for approximately 1,250 families; and medical supplies – including 170 oxygen cylinders and 30,000 units of dialysis sessions. Over the weekend, additional assistance has reached the enclave, including food for a further 18,000 people, cancer treatment drugs, surgical items, intravenous fluids and anaesthetic supplies, as well as HIV antiretroviral treatments. These are positive developments, and I note Al Houthi commitments on access to Taizz City made during talks in Biel and reaffirmed to the Special Envoy in his last visit to Yemen. Humanitarian deliveries into the enclave often require long and protracted negotiations with parties on the ground, however. Efforts are ongoing to establish a monitoring mechanism that will enable predictable access, as opposed to ad hoc ‘one-time’ deliveries.

Access to northern Governorates where needs are among the most severe in the country also continue to be challenging due to relentless conflict, including airstrikes – in particular to communities along the border with Saudi Arabia where conflict is intense.

Humanitarian agencies and partners are committed to implement an operational to deliver food, health and sanitation supplies to some 350,000 people in Sa’ada Governorate. This past month more than 276,000 people were provided food in the Governorate.

Recent communication received from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding the safety of humanitarian workers in al-Houthi controlled areas has impacted the humanitarian community’s planning, causing delays to important missions over the past two weeks. This follows the denial of entry to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 17 January of the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator. On 11 February one of WFP’s charter vessels, the MV Mainport Cedar, carrying humanitarian supplies and traveling from Djibouti with a scheduled and approved stop in the Yemen port of Hodeidah, was diverted by Coalition forces to the Saudi Arabian port of Jizan.

Mr. President,

The parties to the conflict have a duty of care in the conduct of military operations to protect all civilian persons and objects - including humanitarian and health care workers and facilities - against attack. The parties should also refrain from using explosive weapons in populated areas; these cause unacceptable harm by killing large numbers of civilians, destroying homes, severely hindering critical services over the immediate and longer term, and leaving behind explosive remnants of war. I remind all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law to facilitate humanitarian access to all areas of Yemen.

UN agencies and their partners will continue to deliver impartial and neutral assistance across Yemen according to need, using the established de-confliction mechanism in Riyadh with the Coalition for humanitarian staff and supply movements, including those to and from sub-national offices in Sa’ada, Hodeidah, Ibb and Aden.

Mr. President,

Humanitarian assistance must be complemented by efforts to revive the economy and flow of much-needed commercial goods, which has been severely impeded by the ongoing conflict. Given the heavy dependence of Yemen on imported food and fuel, it will be critical to ensure inspections in line with Security Council resolution 2216, they they do not adversely impact the flow of commercial shipping into Yemen of basic items that Yemeni civilians rely on to survive.

I am pleased to report that the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) has now been formally launched. The mechanism must now contribute towards continued improvements in the levels of commercial imports into Yemeni ports outside the control of the Government of Yemen and which is not channeled through a UN agency or recognized international humanitarian organization.

The Secretary-General has formally requested the Government of Yemen and the Saudi-led Coalition to appoint representatives to sit on the Steering Committee by 22 February. All United Nations Member States have been informed. The mechanism will operate for an initial six months out of Djibouti, and will move to Aden and/or Sana’a when the security situation permits. UNVIM monitors will also be based in Dubai, Jeddah and Salalah to work with the relevant authorities.

Mr. President,

In two days’ time, the 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan will be launched in Geneva. This plan asks for US$ 1.8 billion to address the most critical and prioritized needs across all governorates in the country, including food assistance for nearly 9 million people; water and sanitation support for 7.4 million people; urgent health support for 10.6 million people; and emergency interventions to mitigate growing and severe malnutrition rates. I cannot overstate the importance of donor support for this endeavour, nor the urgency we face in responding to humanitarian needs that only deepen as the conflict intensifies.

Nearly one year into the conflict, it is now more important than ever that we address the human catastrophe unfolding in Yemen. I again underscore the urgent need for this Council and the international community more broadly, to impress upon the parties to this conflict their obligations to facilitate unconditional and sustained access to all parts of Yemen, and to take greater measures to protect civilians. I also reiterate the urgent request that this Council press the parties to resume peace talks and agree to a ceasefire.

The Yemeni people are suffering. They do need you to act now.

Thank you.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-coordinator-stephen-4 = http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/USG%20Stephen%20O%27Brien%20Statement%20to%20SecurityCouncil%20on%20Yemen%20CAD%2016Feb2016.pdf and a shorter article by Aljazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/catastrophe-unfolding-yemen-160217054116797.html and somewhat longer by the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-says-a-humanitarian-catastrophe-is-unfolding-in-yemen/2016/02/16/7f3bde46-d50e-11e5-a65b-587e721fb231_story.html and by UN News Center: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53244#.VsTeqfnhCUl

Comment: And what will happen now? Nothing. The Security Council is dominated by those who for a great part are responsible for that.

VOA stressing a special point:

17.2.2016 – Voice of America – (A P)

UN Launching $1.8 Billion Campaign for Urgent Aid in Yemen

The United Nations is preparing to ask international donors for $1.8 billion to pay for humanitarian aid to millions of people in Yemen this year.

U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council the appeal will be launched on Thursday. He laid out the effects of the devastation Yemen has experienced in the past 12 months, and said the money would pay for food, water, sanitation and urgent healthcare for up to 10.6 million people.

http://www.voanews.com/content/un-launching-campaign-for-urgent-aid-in-yemen/3194367.html

Comment by Judith Brown: This is crazy. Saudi Arabia alone is paying out two hundred million a day to destroy Yemen. This ask for aid is far below what is needed to put Yemen back together again. This is just to feed people who otherwise would have been feeding themselves.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1101626303323193

cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia

16.2.2016 – Defense One (** A P)

Start Preparing for the Collapse of the Saudi Kingdom

Saudi Arabia is no state at all. It's an unstable business so corrupt to resemble a criminal organization and the U.S. should get ready for the day after.

For half a century, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the linchpin of U.S. Mideast policy. A guaranteed supply of oil has bought a guaranteed supply of security. Ignoring autocratic practices and the export of Wahhabi extremism, Washington stubbornly dubs its ally “moderate.” So tight is the trust thatU.S. special operators dip into Saudi petrodollars as a counterterrorism slush fund without a second thought. In a sea of chaos, goes the refrain, the kingdom is one state that’s stable.

But is it?

In fact, Saudi Arabia is no state at all. There are two ways to describe it: as a political enterprise with a clever but ultimately unsustainable business model, or so corrupt as to resemble in its functioning a vertically and horizontally integrated criminal organization. Either way, it can’t last. It’s past time U.S.decision-makers began planning for the collapse of the Saudi kingdom.

In recent conversations with military and other government personnel, we were startled at how startled they seemed at this prospect. Here’s the analysis they should be working through.

Understood one way, the Saudi king isCEO of a family business that converts oil into payoffs that buy political loyalty. They take two forms: cash handouts or commercial concessions for the increasingly numerous scions of the royal clan, and a modicum of public goods and employment opportunities for commoners. The coercive “stick” is supplied by brutal internal security services lavishly equipped with American equipment.

The Saudi ruling elite is operating something like a sophisticated criminal enterprise, when populations everywhere are making insistent demands for government accountability. With its political and business elites interwoven in a monopolistic network, quantities of unaccountable cash leaving the country for private investments and lavish purchases abroad, and state functions bent to serve these objectives, Saudi Arabia might be compared to such kleptocracies as Viktor Yanukovich’s Ukraine.

For decades, Riyadh has eased pressure by exporting its dissenters—like Osama bin Laden—fomenting extremism across the Muslim world. But that strategy can backfire: bin Laden’s critique of Saudi corruption has been taken up by others and resonates among many Arabs – by Sarah Chayes and Alex de Waal

http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/02/de-waal-and-chayes-saudi-arabia/125953/?oref=d-topstory?oref=DefenseOneTCO = http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/saudi-arabia-collapse/463212/

Comment: If you have the time, please read in full at the original site. Worth it.

16.2.2016 – Sputnik News (A P)

Riad erwägt Lieferung von effektiveren Waffen an syrische Opposition

Saudi-Arabien könnte beginnen, die syrische so genannte „moderate“ Opposition mit effektiveren, moderneren Waffen zu versorgen, teilte der Berater des saudischen Verteidigungsministers, Ahmed Asiri, der Agentur Sputnik telefonisch mit.

Asiri zufolge koordiniert das Königreich seine Hilfe für die moderaten Gruppierungen mit anderen Ländern, die die syrische Opposition ebenfalls unterstützen, über ein gemeinsames Control Center in Saudi-Arabien.

Weiterlesen: http://de.sputniknews.com/militar/20160216/307896933/riad-will-effektivere-waffen-an-opposition-liefern.html

Kommentar: Saudis und der Westen in trauter Zweisamkeit beim Anheizen von Krieg, Mord und Totschlag.

16.2.2016 – Linke Zeitung (* B P)

Kriege und sinkender Ölpreis verstärken die Krise der saudischen Monarchie

Das saudische Königshaus will der Arbeiterklasse sämtliche Kosten der Ölpolitik aufzwingen, die im Januar zu einem Rückgang der Rohölpreise auf unter 30 Dollar pro Barrel geführt hat, sowie die Kosten für seine katastrophale Militärintervention im Jemen und die verdeckten Kriege im Irak und Syrien zur Unterstützung islamistischer Extremisten.

Es schürt religiöse Spannungen gegen die schiitische Bevölkerungsminderheit, um den Widerstand der Bevölkerung von der korrupten und verknöcherten Monarchie abzulenken und ihren wichtigsten Rivalen in der Region, den Iran, zu isolieren.

Das alles hat zu einem zunehmend angespannten Verhältnis zu den USA geführt, von denen die Monarchie abhängig ist.

Der Absturz der Ölpreise macht sich zunehmend in der saudischen Wirtschaft bemerkbar. Saudi-Arabiens Entscheidung gegen eine Verringerung der Ölförderung, die auch von Washington unterstützt wird, zielt darauf ab, seinen Marktanteil zu schützen und die Wirtschaft Russlands und des Iran zu schädigen, die das syrische Regime unterstützen.

Letztes Jahr verzeichnete Saudi-Arabien mit fast 100 Milliarden Dollar (fünfzehn Prozent des BIP) sein höchstes Haushaltsdefizit seit dem Golfkrieg. Das Haushaltsdefizit für 2016 wird vermutlich noch höher liegen.

Im Etat für 2016 wurden die staatlichen Ausgaben um fünfundzwanzig Prozent gekürzt. Betroffen davon waren u.a. die Energiesubventionen, was den Gaspreis um 50 Prozent erhöhen wird. Zudem sollen die Steuereinnahmen durch die erstmalige Einführung einer fünfprozentigen Mehrwertsteuer für saudische Staatsbürger und die Privatisierung von staatlichen Unternehmen wie Aramco erhöht werden. Auf diese Weise soll verhindert werden, dass das Haushaltsdefizit von 98 Milliarden Dollar im Jahr 2015 auf 140 Milliarden Dollar steigt und das Land auf seine Reserven in Höhe von 600 Milliarden Dollar zurückgreifen muss.

Diese Schritte sind eine Abkehr von der lange Zeit gewahrten Grundlage der saudischen Herrschaft: ein bisschen Sozialstaat, Subventionen für Krankenversicherung und Wohnung, billiges Benzin und kostenlose Bildung, während das Königshaus ohne den Anschein parlamentarischer Demokratie den Löwenanteil am immensen Ölreichtum des Landes für sich beansprucht. Da fast 60 Prozent der Bevölkerung jünger als 30 Jahre, und 28,3 Prozent der Jugendlichen (unter jungen Frauen ist diese Quote sogar noch höher) arbeitslos sind, würde die Abschaffung solcher Leistungen notwendigerweise sozialen und politischen Widerstand provozieren.

Es existieren nur wenige zuverlässige Zahlen über die Armut in Saudi-Arabien.

Im Vorfeld der neuen Haushaltsmaßnahmen wurden im August zwei Anleiheserien ausgegeben, im Oktober wurden die Staatsausgaben gekürzt und zeitlich auf die Hinrichtung von 47 Gefangenen abgestimmt – von Jean Shaoul

http://linkezeitung.de/2016/02/16/kriege-und-sinkender-oelpreis-verstaerken-die-krise-der-saudischen-monarchie/

in English:

15.2.2016 – World Socialist Web (* B P)

Regional tensions and falling oil prices deepen crisis of Saudi monarchy

The House of Saud is seeking to impose onto the working class the full cost of its oil policies that led to crude prices sinking to below $30 a barrel in January, its disastrous military intervention in Yemen, and covert wars in Iraq and Syria in support of Islamist extremists.

It is stoking sectarian tensions against its minority Shi’ite population, concentrated in the oil-producing Eastern Province, as a means of dividing and deflecting popular opposition away from the venal and sclerotic monarchy and isolating Iran, its main rival in the region.

All this has resulted in increasingly tense relations with the United States, on whom the monarchy depends.

The plummeting of oil prices, a product of the decision, backed by Washington, to reject any reduction in output in order to protect its market share and undermine the economies of Russia and Iran that have backed the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has since taken its toll on the Saudi economy.

Despite this, the 2016 budget cut public spending by 25 percent, slashing energy subsidies, with gas prices set to increase by 50 percent. It will also raise revenues by introducing a tax on Saudi nationals for the first time—a 5 percent value added tax—and privatising government-owned companies, including Aramco, in a bid to prevent the budget deficit soaring from $98 billion in 2015 to $140 billion and limit the need to rely on its approximately $600 billion reserves.

It marks a departure from the long running basis of Saudi rule: a modicum of welfare, subsidies for health and housing, cheap gasoline and free education while the House of Saud creams off the country’s vast oil wealth without the veneer of parliamentary democracy – by Jean Shaoul

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/15/saud-f15.html

16.2.2016 – The Daily Beast (*A P)

Saudi Troops to Syria? Whoa. Bad Idea!

If Riyadh and its partners actually intend to send troops to Syria, it will be an incredibly risky move that will prolong the civil war.

By simply offering to fight ISIS directly—even if they never actually send troops—the Saudis can claim they are trying to be part of the solution. This, they hope, will overshadow the fact that they are indeed part of the problem, pouring gasoline on Syria’s fire by sending weapons and money to radical groups.

Saudi Arabia is badly bogged down, far from the Syrian front, in Yemen. Despite making some progress against the Houthis, the Saudis have no exit strategy to speak of, have been unable to convince their long-time military ally Pakistan to contribute troops (surely a blow to King Salman’s ego), and are spending a fortune on the war.

The United States must be careful when deciding whether to accept Saudi Arabia’s offer. Washington has far different objectives and goals than Riyadh does, and if it is not careful, the Saudis could pull it into fighting their battle with Iran for them. This would be extremely costly for the United States and would by no means end the war any sooner. Instead, it could make the conflict far more complicated and far more difficult to resolve – by Alexander Decina

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/16/saudi-troops-to-syria-whoa-bad-idea.html

16.2.2016 – Telepolis (** B P)

Saudi-Arabien sieht sich führend im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus

Im Schatten des im Westen wieder aufgeblühten Gut-und-Böse-Dualismus gegen Russland baut die fundamentalistische Monarchie eine eigene Antiterror-Koalition auf und führt einen grausamen Krieg im Jemen

Das ist erfreulich zu hören. Saudi-Arabien, das Land, das den Salafismus weltweit fördert, der dem fundamentalistischen sunnitischen Islamismus und Terrorismus zugrundeliegt, betont, an der Spitze im Kampf gegen die Terrorgruppe Islamischer Staat zu stehen.

Man wird sich erinnern, dass Saudi-Arabien in Kooperation mit der CIA und dem pakistanischen Geheimdienst Bin Ladens al-Qaida mit aufbaute sowie die Taliban finanziell und ideologisch-religiös förderte. Das Islamische Emirat Afghanistan, also der Taliban-Staat, wurde von Saudi-Arabien offiziell diplomatisch anerkannt, zusammen mit Pakistan und den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten.

Sollten die Russen für die Angriffe auf Krankenhäuser und Schulen verantwortlich sein, die 50 Menschen getötet haben, dann ist dies ebenso ein Kriegsverbrechen wie die Bombardierung von Krankenhäusern durch Saudi-Arabien im Jemen (Über 23.000 US-Bomben in 6 muslimischen Ländern in 2015) oder des MSF-Krankenhauses in Kundus durch die US-Streitkräfte (Krankenhaus Kunduz: Töten auf Zuruf). Aber da ist die Aufregung, wenn überhaupt vorhanden, doch geringer.

Die einfache Logik ist bekannt: Der Feind des Feindes wird zum Freund, zumindest zum Alliierten.

Saudi-Arabien also, die fundamentalislamische Monarchie, die wie der Islamische Staat köpft und kreuzigt, Islamisten wie in Syrien Ahrar al-Scham, die Islamische Front oder die mit al-Nusra kooperierende Dschaisch-al-Fatah unterstützt, solange sie dem Regime und dessen archaischem Islam nutzen, stellt sich an die Spitze des Kampfs gegen den Islamischen Staat.

Wenn man wissen will, wie Propaganda funktioniert, kann man auch einen Blick auf den Alliierten der USA und EU werfen. Die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur stellt über Zeitungsbeiträge heraus, dass die saudische Monarchie alle diplomatischen, sicherheitspolitischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Anstrengungen anführt, die Krisen in der Region zu lösen. Man sei auch die "wichtigste regional einflussreiche Partei bei der Heilung der Spannungen innerhalb von Syrien und dem Jemen". Zudem wird eine Verbindung mit dem bislang größten Manöver, an dem 20 islamische Staaten teilnehmen, und der Absicht der "militärischen Intervention zur Bekämpfung der IS-Organisation" hergestellt.

Die seit Sonntag stattfindenden Raad Al-Shamal-Manöver (Donner des Nordens) mit Boden-, Luft- und Seestreitkräften im Nordosten des Landes würden die "klare Botschaft" aussenden, dass Saudi-Arabien mit seinen sunnitischen Alliierten - der neuen "Antiterrorismus-Koalition" - gemeinsam für Frieden und Stabilität eintreten. Die Demonstration der militärischen Geschlossenheit der 5 Länder des Golf-Kooperationsrats sowie Tschad, Sudan, Ägypten, Jordanien, Malaysia, Marokko, Pakistan, Senegal, Tunesien und kleinere Länder wie Mauritius erfolgt gegen die konkurrierenden Regionalmacht Iran, aber auch gegen deren Verbündete Syrien, Irak und Russland – von Florian Rötzer

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/47/47425/1.html

15.2.2016 – RT (A K P)

„Northern Thunder“ - Saudi-Arabien lädt Militärs aus 20 Ländern zu Großmanöver ein

Die Anzeichen für ein Eingreifen Saudi-Arabiens und seiner Verbündeten in den syrischen Bürgerkrieg mehren sich. So werden in Kürze Soldaten aus 20 Ländern in der Golfmonarchie eintreffen, um Militärübungen abzuhalten, die 18 Tage andauern sollen. Dies teilte die offizielle Nachrichtenagentur SPA mit. Gleichzeitig hat Riad via US-Medien dem syrischen Präsidenten Bashar al-Assad offen mit einem "gewaltsamen Sturz" gedroht.

In der am Sonntag veröffentlichten Presseerklärung hieß es, die teilnehmenden Truppen würden „in den nächsten Stunden“ eintreffen. Das wichtige Ölexportland spricht von den „größten und wichtigsten“ Militärübungen in der Geschichte der Region.

Die Übung mit dem Namen „Northern Thunder“ wird im Norden des Landes stattfinden und Luft-, See- und Landstreitkräfte umfassen. SPA zufolge soll die Übung zeigen, dass Riad und seine Verbündeten „vereint stehen in der Konfrontation aller Herausforderungen und in der Erhaltung von Frieden und Stabilität in der Region“. Zu dem Manöver eingeladen sind arabische und afrikanische Länder. Die USA oder andere westliche Länder werden nicht dran teilnehmen.

Die Ankündigung der Saudis kommt nur kurze Zeit nachdem das Land, das Teil der US-geführten Koalition gegen die Terrormiliz Daesh (IS) ist, Militärjets und Personal auf die türkische Luftwaffenbasis İncirlik verlegt hatte.

Die Basis wird bereits von der US Air Force als Ausgangspunkt für Einsätze in Syrien verwendet.

https://deutsch.rt.com/der-nahe-osten/36804-saudi-arabien-ladt-militars-aus/

Kommentar: Die Politik des Westens begleitet die saudischen Aktionen mit Wohlwollen. Damit spielt sie wissentlich mit der Gefahr eines kriegerischen Flächenbrandes, bei dem sich Russland und der Westen gegenüberstehen. Wahnsinn mit Methode.

cp9 USA

Siehe auch “Am wichtigsten / See also “Most important”

17.2.2016 – Alternet (** B K)

Meet the American Firm Whose Internationally Banned Cluster Bombs Are Killing Civilians in Yemen

The use of the bombs also violates American export law, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

Textron’s website advertises the CBU-105 as “One Weapon. Multiple Targets. Combat Proven.” A separate informational sheet states, “BLU-108 contains four smart Skeet warheads that feature two built-in redundant self-destruct logic modes. Additionally, a timed self-deactivation mode renders any unexploded warhead harmless within second after delivery, leaving a clean battlefield."

The HRW report tells a different story. “[P]hotographs taken by Human Rights Watch field investigators at one location and photographs received from another location show BLU-108 from separate attacks with their ‘skeets’ or submunitions still attached,” the investigation states. “This shows a failure to function as intended as the submunitions failed to disperse from the canister, or were dispersed but did not explode.”

Such failure, warns HRW, violates American export laws.

“First, U.S. export law prohibits recipients of cluster munitions from using them in populated areas, as the Saudi coalition has clearly been doing,” the report charges. “Second, U.S. export law only allows the transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of less than 1 percent. But it appears that Sensor Fuzed Weapons used in Yemen are not functioning in ways that meet that reliability standard.”

Textron representatives could not be immediately reached for comment.

In 2013, Textron struck a $641 million U.S. Air Force contract to manufacture 1,300 CBU-105 bombs for Saudi Arabia. Beyond cluster munitions, the United States is the top supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia, including massive weapons shipments since the coalition airstrikes on Yemen began – by Sarah Lazare

http://www.alternet.org/world/meet-american-firm-whose-internationally-banned-cluster-bombs-are-killing-civilians-yemen

Comment: the rest of this article deals with cluster bombs and the HRW report generally – we had linked several articles on that subject here and in earlier Yemen Press Readers.

17.2.2016 – Reason (* B P)

The U.S. Should Stop Supporting the War in Yemen

The problem is that Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen compromises both U.S. interests and its moral standing. Our interests are harmed because undermining the Houthis and contributing to the power vacuum in the country has benefitted the position of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which happens to share Saudi distaste for the Houthis.

The Saudis succeed in garnering U.S. support in part by characterizing the war as a fight against terrorism. But the Saudis and al-Qaeda are actually in an awkward alliance in this fight, making U.S. help even more misguided.

As for our moral standing, by supporting Saudi Arabia's military action, we are a party to serious war crimes and are indirectly at fault for the devastating humanitarian crisis the people of Yemen now face.

The Saudi intervention clearly violates the just war tenet of jus ad bellum. That tenet dictates that nations not only have a just cause for going to war but also resort to military force only after all other options have been exhausted. Despite Saudi claims to the contrary, the intervention is clearly not a case of self-defense. The notion that Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East (kept afloat primarily by Saudi funds), represents a military threat to Saudi Arabia is absurd. And to argue Saudi bombs are justified to prevent future terrorist attacks is to argue for preventive war, which violates just war theory and the UN Charter.

The Saudis insist that their actions are legal because the legitimate Yemeni government invited military intervention. But the Hadi government hardly deserves the label legitimate. Hadi was elevated to the presidency after serving in Saleh's autocratic regime as vice president. Once president, Hadi used his position to consolidate power against the Houthis and Saleh loyalists all whilemisappropriating billions of dollars. A better description would be to call the Hadi government a tool of Saudi Arabia, since Saudi Arabia not only brokered the deal that allowed him to replace Saleh but also enabled him to return to Yemen after the Houthis drove him from the country. Arguing that the Saudis are responding to a call for help is essentially to argue that the Saudis asked themselves to intervene in Yemen.

So, if Saudi Arabia's argument for intervention is weak, what's the U.S.'s excuse? Any claim that this is a part and parcel of the war on terror is dubious, considering the bombing of Yemen is, if anything, bolstering Islamic extremists. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia itself is a major exporter of the kind of jihadist ideology that drives groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Even if it were about countering terrorist groups, if the threat to Saudi Arabia from Yemen is remote, the threat to the United States is certainly too small to justify violating the rules of war, international moral norms, and common decency.

Beyond placating overexcited Saudi fears of a U.S. strategic tilt towards Iran, there simply is no moral, legal, or strategic justification for what the U.S. is doing in Yemen – by A. Trevor Thrall and John Glaser

http://reason.com/archives/2016/02/17/the-us-should-stop-supporting-the-war-in = http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/us-should-stop-supporting-war-yemen and comment by Daniel Larison: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/end-u-s-support-for-the-indefensible-war-on-yemen/

16.2.2016 – AFP / JIJI (A K)

Drone attack targeting al-Qaida in Yemen kills three

A drone attack on two public buildings controlled by al-Qaida militants in south Yemen killed three people on Monday, a local official said.

The dawn attack also badly damaged the offices of public water and telecommunications utilities in Huta, capital of Lahij province, the official added.

No details about the three victims were immediately available.

Witnesses said two drones overflew Huta both before and after the attack.

The drone strike came a day after a soldier and a civilian were killed in a suicide car bombing in Huta that a Yemeni military source said targeted an armored vehicle of the Emirati armed forces.

Lahij is one of five provinces retaken from Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels last summer by pro-government forces, but security problems persist.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/02/16/world/drone-attack-targeting-al-qaida-yemen-kills-three/#.VsK69PnhCUk

15.2.2016 – Kayhan (B K)

Targeting Everything and Everyone in Yemen

Though Washington has publicly endorsed the unprovoked war on Syria and continues to play a destructive role in it, it insists it has growing "concerns” about the civilian toll!
This sudden "concern” comes despite the fact that it is the United States that is helping the Saudi-led forces kill large numbers of civilians by launching coordinated airstrikes on residential areas. This concern does not come with any prospect of the US ending its own direct involvement in the war either.
Instead of calling for an immediate ceasefire and encouraging peace talks, for instance, the hypocrites in Washington say Secretary of State John Kerry will soon visit Riyadh to discuss "new strategies” in the open-ended conflict. Clearly, the unnecessary bloodshed has been an economic windfall for the Industrial-Military Complex contractors, who wipe away crocodile tears with one hand and sign weapons contracts with the other.
So far the air strikes have failed to force Yemen into submission. The country is facing a humanitarian disaster. Aid agencies say the air and sea blockade is preventing the country from importing food on which it is wholly reliant. Hospitals are closing because they have no medicine and no fuel for generators.
As a consequence, Yemen has joined countries like Syria, Iraq and Libya that are paralyzed by Saudi-backed terrorism and violence, while the blockade means conditions are worst in the poorest nation in the Middle East.
For all the American diplomatic posturing, the death and destruction rained from above is state-sponsored murder in its most perfect form. Under international law, the Saudi-led psychopaths have no right to drop bombs over Yemen. The air strikes are lawless and unaccountable to the United Nations. Worse yet, the war is compounding rather than diminishing the threat of regional and international terrorism.
Some might say one sure way of addressing this threat is adopting policies that won’t benefit the terrorist groups, or not turning a blind eye to alleged "allies” who aid them. This might sound like common sense, but in practice, Washington’s policies have been something else. They have actually aided and abetted the terrorist groups.

http://kayhan.ir/en/news/23918

cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain

17.2.2016 – Shafaqna (A P)

“Justice will be served says,” International League For Yemen War Crimes

This Friday, the International League For Yemen War Crimes headed by Kim Sharif, a UK-based lawyer will kick-start its legal campaign against all, and each individuals, organizations or powers which have played a hand in the destruction of both Yemen and its people.

Kim Sharif who is a long-standing advocate for justice and democracy in Yemen, has put together a team of legal and rights experts who will challenge the United Nations this February, and demand accountability.

“We need to make clear that war crimes and crimes against humanity will not brushed aside … A grave injustice was committed, and still continues to be committed against the Yemeni people and we will work to bring all criminals to justice. Unless powers are held accountable to the letter of the law justice will remain an elusive and empty concept. Yemen deserves to be seen … Yemen has suffered an unbearable burden,” said Kim Sharif in exclusive comments to Shafaqna.

http://en.shafaqna.com/news/28504

16.2.2016 – They work for you (A P)

MPs ask members of the government

Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, Labour

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the response made by human rights groups to figures released by the UK that it sold Saudi Arabia over £1 billion of weapons and air-to-air missiles between July and September 2015.

Lord Maude of Horsham, The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent export control regimes in the world. No licence would be issued if to do so would contravene the UK's strict export control criteria. In this case a single licence accounted for 90% of the total value of potential exports authorised by the licences. This was for a long-term contract for the delivery of a new air-to-air munitions capability over a number of years [and is unconnected to current operations by the Royal Saudi Air Force in Yemen.

Licences granted in a given period do not equate to goods shipped The Department for Business (BIS) export licensing statistics only indicate the number and value of licences granted in a specified period, not the value of actual exports. Licences are usually valid for up to two years and the value of the licence therefore represents an estimate of future export value. As such, the value of licences granted in any one quarter will generally not be the same as the value of goods actually exported and does not provide an indication of goods shipped

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2016-01-21.HL5340.h

Comment: Always the same answers, the same stories. Several people already had voted “No” to “Does this answer the above question?“ So did I.

15.2.2016 – Global Research (* A P)

Health, Tax, Yemen: Three UK Ministers, A Rudderless Boat, No Paddle.

It has been a bad week for Prime Minister David Cameron’s decimation-bent government at home and abroad.

The UK has admitted to training Saudi pilots involved in the air strikes, has military “advisors” in Saudi control rooms and has granted arms export licenses totally near £3 Billion in the last six months alone. Arms sales of £5.6 Billion since 2010 include seventy two Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft worth a further £4.5 Billion on completion, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

Now, in addition to the UK Parliament’s influential International Development Committee also having called on the Cameron government to suspend arms sales to Saudi (7) the European Union has also weighed in with criticism over the arms sales.

On 25th February there will be a vote in the EU Parliament on an EU-wide embargo on arms sales to Saudi which will be “specifically” critical of the UK. (8)

‘The European parliament’s resolution condemning Britain’s involvement … states that the parliament “strongly criticises the intensive arms trade of EU member states with various countries in the region, as in the case of the UK, Spain, France and Germany; calls for an immediate suspension of arms transfers and military support to Saudi Arabia and to its coalition partners.” ‘

It adds: “Saudi Arabia is the UK’s largest customer for weapons and the UK is the biggest supplier of weapons to Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”

The UK government has to date, ignored all calls for the halt of arms to Saudi Arabia, despite the country’s appalling human rights record and illegal onslaught on Yemen.

However Alyn Smith, a Scottish National Party Member of the European Parliament says if there are no hitches and the vote goes ahead, it will “certainly” be passed. “We are determined to drag this issue kicking and screaming into the daylight”, he vowed. And with it Cameron and his Ministerial and other arms dealers, many near and far will be fervently hoping.

7. http://www.globalresearch.ca/yemen-uk-parliamentary-committee-calls-for-halt-to-arms-sales-moots-international-inquiry-into-alleged-international-law-abuses/5505983

8. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/eu-criticises-british-arms-sales-saudi-arabia – by Felix Arbuthnot

http://www.globalresearch.ca/health-tax-yemen-three-uk-ministers-a-rudderless-boat-no-paddle/5507983

20.1.2016 – Channel 4 News (* A P)

UK businesses and Saudi Arabia

"Saudi Arabia recently executed 47 people in a day. Does that make you think this is a country we can no longer do business with?”

The chairman of BAE Systems, Sir Roger Carr, says his business only makes and sells equipment to allies that the United Kingdom government says it should deal with.

https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153467145386939/

Comment: Here is a clear answer that shows the British government's involvement in the Saudi massacre of Yemen. The chairman of BAE Systems, Sir Roger Carr, says his business only makes and sells equipment to allies that the United Kingdom government says it should deal with.

https://www.facebook.com/yemen.crisis/posts/564833330349574

cp11 Deutschland / Germany

2.2016 – Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (A P)

Welcome to the FES Yemen Office

FES Yemen is one of more than 100 offices worldwide comprising FES’ extensive network. We commenced our work in Yemen in 1999. Our office is located in the Old City of Sana’a.

"Call for Applications - ToT on Conflict Resolution"

This Project (TOT on Conflict Resolution ) aims to train 12 Young People on conflict resolution and training skills which will be held on Tuesday 01st of MAR. The 12 participants after this training program Should develop and conduct volunteering training courses on conflict resolution for their own community.

http://www.fesyemen.org/pages/english/home.php

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

17.2.2016 – Jerusalem Post (A P)

Nasrallah letter reveals Hezbollah's involvement in Yemen

Nasrallah's letter is proven evidence of Iran's involvement in the Yemeni civil war, since it shows that Hezbollah, which is financed by Iran, is taking part in the fighting in Yemen.

Yemeni President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi revealed Tuesday evening that the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, had sent him a letter explaining Hezbollah's role in the fighting in Yemen, Yemeni media reported on Wednesday.

Speaking in a press conference that was conducted on Tuesday in Ankara following his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hadi said that Nasrallah wrote him:

"Our fighters arrived in Yemen to teach the Yemeni people the essence of governing."

Nasrallah's letter is proven evidence of Iran's involvement in the Yemeni civil war, since it shows that Hezbollah, which is financed by Iran, is taking part in the fighting in Yemen.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran/Nasrallah-letter-reveals-Hezbollahs-involvement-in-Yemen-445209 see also http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/02/17/Hadi-reveals-evidence-on-Hezbollah-s-involvement-in-Yemen.html

Comment: “Teach the essence of governing” does mean “taking part in the fighting”??? That is nice propaganda anyway.

16.2.2016 – President Erdogan of Turkey (A P)

“Yemen has a special place in Turkish people’s heart”

Holding a joint press conference with President Mansour Hadi of Yemen at the Presidential Complex, President Erdoğan said: “With Yemen, we share a brotherhood and history that date back centuries. Turkey has never been indifferent to the troubles and sufferings of Yemen and its Yemeni brothers and sisters.”

Expressing his pleasure over President Hadi’s visit, President Erdoğan wished that this visit may lead to further strengthening of the long-established friendship and solidarity between Turkey and Yemen.

“Yemen has such a special place in Turkish people’s heart that it has inspired our songs and proverbs. With Yemen, we share a brotherhood and history that date back centuries,” President Erdoğan said and he added: “Turkey has never been indifferent to the troubles and sufferings of Yemen and its Yemeni brothers and sisters. It has always been like this in history and it continues to be the same.”

Drawing attention to the troubled days Yemen had been having recently, President Erdoğan said: “Just like in many other countries in the region, they are trying to suppress our Yemeni brothers and sisters’ demand for democracy, freedom, rights and justice. The country was dragged to the verge of devastation through instigation of sectarian differences.

http://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/39839/yemen-has-a-special-place-in-turkish-peoples-heart.html

Comment: A niece piece of propaganda. Erdogan speaking of those who are trying to “demand for democracy, freedom, rights and justice”. What is he doing in Turkey?

16.2.2016 – ORF (A P)

Neuer Vorwurf wegen Exports von Granaten in Emirate

Österreich hat im Juli des Vorjahres den Export von 150.000 Splittergranaten in die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate genehmigt, obwohl der Golf-Staat zu dem Zeitpunkt im Jemen Krieg führte. Der Grünen-Abgeordnete Peter Pilz warf den zuständigen Ministerien - Inneres, Äußeres und Verteidigung - darum bei einer Pressekonferenz heute in Wien einen Gesetzesverstoß vor.

Nach Angaben von Pilz, die vom Innenministerium bestätigt wurden, genehmigten die drei Ministerien am 8. Juli den Export von 150.000 Splittergranaten der Firma RWM Arges, einer Tochterfirma des deutschen Rüstungskonzerns Rheinmetall. Die Genehmigung wurde drei Monate später widerrufen - „nachdem sich die Situation dann verändert hat“, wie Innenministeriumssprecher Karl-Heinz Grundböck sagte.

Aus Sicht von Pilz handelt es sich bei der im Juli 2015 erteilten Exportgenehmigung um einen Verstoß gegen das Kriegsmaterialgesetz. In diesem wird der Waffenhandel mit kriegsführenden Staaten verboten. Im Innenministerium hieß es dazu: „Im Juli ist man in einer gemeinsamen Betrachtung der drei Ministerien zur Ansicht gekommen, dass die Endverwendung im Konfliktgebiet nicht anzunehmen ist.“ – Überall dasselbe Spiel. Die Moral des Westens.

http://orf.at/stories/2325225/ siehe auch http://kurier.at/politik/inland/gesetzesbruch-150-000-granaten-nach-abu-dhabi/181.553.655

Kommentar: Die Verlautbarung des Innenministeriums: „Im Juli ist man in einer gemeinsamen Betrachtung der drei Ministerien zur Ansicht gekommen, dass die Endverwendung im Konfliktgebiet nicht anzunehmen ist.“ hat schon etwas von dummdreist. Da war der Jemenkrieg schon 3 Monate im Gange, immer wieder war über eine Landung der Saudis im Südjemen und damit ein Eingreifen zu Land spekuliert worden, im Juli war es dann soweit: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/warfare/2015/07/23/saudi-yemen-land-forces-coalition-aden/30570663/ „dass die Endverwendung im Konfliktgebiet nicht anzunehmen ist“ Wer ist die Geistesgröße, die das „angenommen“ hat?– Und „Endverwendung“, wenn nicht in einem bewaffneten Konflikt, wie da gerade einer am Laufen war, wo denn dann? Vielleicht zum Wüste umgraben? Wie für dumm kann man die Öffentlichkeit verkaufen??

Es kommt aber noch besser:

17.2.2016 – Die Presse (AP)

Österreichische Waffen für Bürgerkrieg im Jemen?

Abu-Dhabi-Connection. Die Exportgenehmigung für 150.000 Granaten im Juli 2015 sei illegal, meint Peter Pilz (Grüne). Denn die Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten hätten die Waffen im benachbarten Jemen eingesetzt.

drei Monate nach dem Beschluss revidieren die Ministerien ihren Beschluss wieder. Entscheidend dafür sei die Kenntnis über den Einsatz von Bodentruppen der VAE im Jemen gewesen, sagte der Sprecher des Außenamtes, Thomas Schnöll, der „Presse“. Noch im Juli habe man nichts von einer Bodenoffensive gewusst und daher keine rechtlichen Bedenken gehabt, meint Karl-Heinz Grundböck vom Innenministerium. Man sei damals nicht von einer „Endverwendung im Konfliktgebiet“ ausgegangen. Dabei hat es schon vor ihrem offiziellen Einrücken Medienberichte über den Einsatz von Golf-Streitkräften im Jemen gegeben.

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/4927976/Osterreichische-Waffen-fur-Burgerkrieg-im-Jemen?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/index.do

Kommentar: Vorgetäuschte Ahnungslosigkeit, um noch schön Kohle mit Waffen machen zu können. Moral des Westens.

16.2.2016 – Die Presse (A P)

Pilz: Kriegsgerät aus Österreich im Jemen-Krieg

Der Grünen-Abgeordnete Peter Pilz hat für Mittwoch Enthüllungen zu Waffenlieferungen aus Österreich in das Bürgerkriegsland Jemen angekündigt. Auf Twitter postete Pilz am Mittwoch Bilder, die saudi-arabische Soldaten mit Steyr-AUG-Sturmgewehren beim Einsatz im Jemen zeigen sollen." Gleichzeitig mehr als 100.000 Granaten aus Österreich - mit Bewilligung BMI (Bundesministerium für Inneres)", schrieb Pilz darunter. Er werde dazu am Mittwochvormittag Dokumente vorlegen. Für 17 Uhr hat Pilz nach eigenen Angaben den Sicherheitsrat einberufen.

Der Waffenexport in kriegsführende Staaten und Staaten, in denen Waffen menschenrechtswidrig verwendet werden kann, ist laut Gesetz verboten. Solche Ausfuhren müssen daher vom Innenministerium in Absprache mit Verteidigungs- und Außenministerium genehmigt werden.

Das Innenministerium erklärte der Austria Presse Agentur (APA), man habe von solchen Waffenlieferungen keine Kenntnis.

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/4927195/Pilz_Kriegsgeraet-aus-Osterreich-im-JemenKrieg?_vl_backlink=/home/index.do

Kommentar: Zum letzten Satz: Ach nee. Also liegt ja wohl eindeutig eine Straftat seitens des Exporteurs Steyr AUG vor. Wird das jetzt verfolgt? Gibt es für den Vorstand Knast für so etwas? Oder passiert wieder gar nichts, weil solche Leute praktisch nie belangt werden??

16.2.2016 – SRF (A P)

Waffenexport in den Nahen Osten bringt Bundesrat unter Druck

Die Sicherheitspolitische Kommission des Nationalrats will Rüstungsexporte in Staaten, die in den Jemen-Konflikt verwickelt sind, nicht verbieten. Während die Linke vor Waffenexporten warnt, verweisen wirtschaftsnahe Kreise auf die Interessen der Rüstungsindustrie. Der Bundesrat ist gefordert.

Rüstungslieferungen an Staaten, die am Krieg im Jemen beteiligt sind, sollen per Verordnung verboten werden. So verlangen es Sozialdemokraten und Grüne. Konkret geht es um Länder wie Saudi-Arabien und Katar. In der Sicherheitspolitischen Kommission des Nationalrates SiK hat die Linke mit diesem Anliegen aber keine Mehrheit gefunden.

Gleichzeitig steigt der Druck auf den Bundesrat, auch neue Rüstungsgeschäfte zu genehmigen. Dem Vernehmen nach geht es etwa um die Lieferung von Schützenpanzern an arabische Golfstaaten. Wirtschaftsverbände wie Swissmem oder der Gewerbeverband betonen in einem offenen Brief, wie bedeutend solche Rüstungsgeschäfte sind.

Unterstützung für diese Position kommt auch von Corina Eichenberger, FDP-Nationalrätin und Präsidentin der Sicherheitspolitischen Kommission. «Es geht ja auch um Arbeitsplätze in der Schweiz», sagt sie. Und es gehe um den Erhalt von Know-how bei der Herstellung von Rüstungsgütern in der Schweiz – von Elmar Plozza

http://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/waffenexport-in-den-nahen-osten-bringt-bundesrat-unter-druck

Überall dasselbe: Die Argumentation mit Arbeitsplätzen und Know-how zynisch zu nennen, wäre noch eine nette Untertreibung. das mit den Arbeitsplätzen könnte man auch anders regeln, Know how wäre dann kein Thema mehr: Gebt euren Schweizer Arbeitern Keulen und Stangen und lasst sie Frauen und Kinder im Jemen persönlich erschlagen. Auch das sichert ihre Arbeitsplätze.

16.2.2016 – Oped News (B P)

Will Oman Ever Get Saudi Arabia (Kicking and Crying) out of its Yemeni Quagmire?

Until recently, Oman had been considered the staunchest USA supporter in the region, but in the past year, Omani tastes for the USA military overreach in the Gulf has led to a cooling.

Oman has often been quietly active in negotiations with other warring states and peoples in the past. The Sultan of Oman spearheaded the idea of regional police and military force cooperation in the Arabian Peninsula over a quarter of a century ago. However, Oman refused in 2015 to join its warring neighbors--including the other 5 members of the Gulf Cooperation Council-- in Yemen and has, instead, offered primarily only humanitarian relief to the many Yemeni victims of war.

In contrast to Saudi Arabia's bellicose approaches in Syria and Yemen over the past, most Arabs view Oman's policies as much more mature and in line with everyone's long term interests. Al Monitor writes, "Oman's mature and far-sighted response to the Houthi takeover of Sanaa underscored Muscat's understanding of Yemeni history, where no fighting force has ever been able to seize control of the entire nation. Conflict resolution in Yemen will require a power-sharing agreement in which all sides have a voice at the table, rather than a military campaign aimed at crushing the Houthi rebel movement.

To this end, Muscat has maintained its neutrality throughout the conflict and has been committed to advancing peace talks.

In short, "[A]lthough Oman's independent foreign policy, which has operated outside the framework of the GCC, has been an irritant for the Saudis on past occasions, officials in Riyadh may come to be grateful for the Omani wisdom that led Muscat to avoid joining Operation Decisive Storm. That Saudi Arabia, the wealthiest Arab country and the world's top arms importer, cannot defeat an insurgency from the most underserved region of the poorest Arab country is a source of humiliation." Al Monitor concludes by stating, "The Saudis would be wise to take advantage of the diplomatic avenue that Oman offers Riyadh at this difficult juncture. Surely, continuation of this conflict will not benefit the long-term interests of the Saudis, Yemenis or Omanis."

Sadly, wisdom in Saudi Arabia is still lacking as bombings of Sana'a and other parts of Yemen continue to destroy the lives of thousands and millions – by Kevin Anthony Stoda

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Will-Oman-Ever-Get-Saudi-by-Kevin-Anthony-Stod-Arab_Children_Community_Conflict-160216-601.html

Comment: Mainly based on an older article in Al Monitor, which also had been presented earlier in Yemen Press Reader.

Comment by Judith Brown: Well this is a serious question - Saudi is trapped in a quagmire of its own choosing but if it leaves without defeating the Houthis then it will be humiliated for taking on the Middle East's poorest country and losing - so it pushes on, winning some battles, losing others, trying to put a gloss on the chaos on the ground, and meanwhile Yemenis are killed or have their lives destroyed, their homes turned to dust, and the world looses the treasures that Yemen has held in safe custody for millennia. And Saudi is weakened more and more by the cost of war.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154105422238641

16.2.2016 – The Star (A P)

Hisham: Malaysia army not being sent to fight in Yemen

Malaysian troops have not been deployed to Yemen to fight, and are instead participating in a long-standing military exercise in Saudi Arabia, says Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

In a statement, the Defence Minister said that the so-called "Thunder of the North" multi-national military exercise had been taking place for more than 15 years, long before the start of any Saudi-led military operation in Yemen.

"The exercise involves ground, air and naval forces from 20 countries, including Malaysia.

"It takes place from Feb 16 till March 4 at the Hafar al Batin training ground in northern Saudi Arabia, while the nation's border with Yemen is in the south.

"Therefore, this exercise has nothing to do with the military campaign against Yemen," he said.

However, Hishammuddin added that Malaysia supported efforts to combat militant activities.

He also said Malaysia accepted the invitation from Saudi Arabia to participate in the exercise as they would gain valuable experience from training in a different environment.

"This is the first time the army has participated in this exercise and it will surely be beneficial to them.” – by Nadirah H. Rodzi

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/02/16/hisham-malaysia-army-not-being-sent-to-fight-in-yemen/ see also http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/wn/newsworld.php?id=1216124

and see an older Saudi propaganda on Malaysians fighting for them in Yemen: http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/744906

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

Siehe / See cp 9, 10, 12

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

16.2.2016 – Almasdar News (A K PH)

Blackwater Group abandons Taiz front in west Yemen: reports

The U.S. based Blackwater Group has reportedly abandoned the Ta’iz front in western Yemen after suffering heavy casualties over the last two months while fighting alongside the Saudi-led Coalition forces and the Hadi loyalists. Local activists have reported this news after they intercepted a communication between Blackwater officers and members of the Saudi-led Coalition in the coastal province of Ta’iz. In a matter of two months, the Blackwater Group has lost well over 100 casualties at the volatile Ta’iz front, including operatives from a dozen countries around the world.

Most of the Blackwater operatives killed in Yemen were believed to be from Colombia and Argentina; however, there were also casualties from the United States (U.S.), Australia, and France – by Leith Fadel

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/blackwater-group-abandons-taiz-front-in-west-yemen/ = http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-mercenaries-in-yemen-blackwater-group-abandons-taiz-war-front-in-west-yemen/5508342

cp13c Flüchtlinge / Refugees

12.2.2016 – Al Monitor (B H)

Displaced Yemenis suffer in silence in Egypt

The Yemenis in Egypt maintain a low profile. They mingle quietly with Egyptian society, hoping that one day they will be able to go back to their own country.

There are few Yemenis in Egypt — an estimated 5,000. Many are concentrated in the Dokki and Agouza districts of Cairo. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Cairo does not have any information about Yemenis in Egypt. According to some in the Yemeni community, the UNHCR has been of little help to them. Many Yemenis do not even bother to visit the UNHCR and are not applying for refugee status.

In mid-2015, Yemenis who came to Egypt for medical reasons were unable to go back to their country. Khaled al-Shayba, an official at the Yemeni Consulate in Cairo, said by phone that the consulate took care of those who were stranded as well as it could, but with few resources.

Egypt is one of the few countries that allow Yemenis in. It has changed its visa policies toward Yemenis, allowing those who are above 45 or below 18 to enter without a visa. Among those in the age group of 18-45, only a few wealthy Yemenis are able to enter. With the current economic situation in Egypt, Yemenis who do enter also struggle to find jobs.

Al-Monitor met with three Yemenis who are living in different areas of Cairo and come from different backgrounds – by Omnia Al Desoukie

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/egypt-yemen-displaced-war-refugees-cairo.html

Comment: Wars side-effects always stretch beyond borders.
With other sad, miserable, desperate stories.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=971086702944360&id=961126490607048

cp13d Wirtschaft /Economy

No date – Country Meters (A E)

Yemen Gdp and National debt

$9 600 096 695

GDP this year (PPP)

$361

GDP this year per capita (annual $2 790)

$87 811 763

GDP today

$3

GDP today per capita

$36 362 962 559

Total National Debt (Public Debt Clock)

$1 369

Total National Debt per capita

$432 613 199

National Debt this year

$1.01315

National Debt today

The clock is running – this are the figures 17–02–2016 10:24

http://countrymeters.info/en/Yemen/economy

11.2.2016 – Yemen government (B E)

Despite the vital role of the private sector in economic activity (contributing over 50% of the GDP) and orientation of the government policies to encourage the private sector to lead the economic growth, some obstacles and challenges prevented the private sector from performing the expected role, including the political and security instability, fragile infrastructure, and weak rule of law.
In light of the ongoing conflict, the private sector has undergone painful shocks that went beyond the energy crisis, financial losses and business closure to cause physical damage on over quarter of the private sector enterprises. Thus, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and source of income.

In brief, recovering the private sector, reconstructing its businesses, paving a way for local investments and attracting foreign investments is not a choice for the government, but a necessity to achieve sustainable development, reduce poverty and build a new Yemen.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Maitami Minister of Planning and International Cooperation

This edition highlights the war repercussions on the private sector in Yemen as follows

War Implications on the Private Sector:

Closure of 26% of businesses in the most conflict-affected areas, and 42% of the women owned enterprises by September 2015.

By September 2015, 95% of the closed enterprises sustained partial or total physical damage.

Enterprises operating in the most affected areas have lost over 70% of their clientele on average by September 2015.

Working hours in enterprises have been reduced by 50.6% from 13.5 hours / day before March 2015 to 6.7 hours / day after that period.

By October 2015, 41% of enterprises laid of 55% of their workforce.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-socio-economic-update-no-11-feb-2016 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yseu11_english_final.pdf

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

17.2.2016 – Critical Threats (** A T)

AQAP Expanding behind Yemen's Frontlines

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has rapidly expanded its footprint in Yemen since February 1, behind the frontlines of Yemen’s civil war. Produced by James Towey.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is well on its way to reconstituting the emirate it held in 2011 and 2012 almost unnoticed by the outside world. It has expanded across southern Yemen rapidly while the civil war’s frontlines remain effectively stalemated. It seized control of five cities in the past two weeks and gained control of two additional provincial capitals in the past two months. U.S. airstrikes have had no effect at all on this expansion and have not significantly degraded the group’s ability to target the United States. AQAP is becoming an ever-more serious threat to American national security, and no one is doing much about it.

None of the forces fighting on the ground are contesting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s expansion. Airstrikes continue to target AQAP’s leadership, but the group draws on a depth of experience among veteran al Qaeda operatives and has proven to be resilient.

AQAP’s February gains secure its access to the key route linking its al Mukalla stronghold to Ja’ar. Its rapid expansion may mark the start of an effort to consolidate control over a contiguous area in south Yemen that it could really govern.

Local resistance to AQAP is minimal at best.

The Saudi-led coalition’s primary efforts have aimed at combatting the al Houthi-Saleh forces.

American actions to counter AQAP will not halt AQAP’s advance, let alone roll back its gains. U.S. officials have indicated that American actions will remain limited to targeted airstrikes until there is a legitimate, sovereign government with which to partner against the group.

AQAP leadership has most likely decided not to operationalize attacks against the U.S. at this time so that American policymakers’ attention remains fixated on the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS).

American policy-makers’ single-minded focus on the threat node ignores the step-change in capabilities that AQAP made this year. AQAP is thriving on governance gaps created by the civil war.

AQAP, like all al Qaeda groups, is prosecuting a long-term strategy to destroy the West. We must not be lulled into complacency as AQAP focuses on its local presence. Instead, AQAP’s expansion over the past two weeks should be seen as a call-to-action for the U.S. to drive efforts to fill the governance and security gaps in Yemen that AQAP has exploited and to facilitate meaningful political dialogue on multiple levels—especially at the regional and local level—to de-escalate the war. AQAP’s future threat to the U.S. is growing. We must recognize this now – by Katherine Zimmerman

http://www.criticalthreats.org/yemen/zimmerman-aqap-expanding-behind-yemens-frontlines-february-17-2016

Comment: More US interference as requested here certainly will be no solution.

16.2.2016 – Yemen News Today (A T)

Photos. Damage to shrines in Hadramaut by AQAP and ISIS. Have they no,pride in their Yemeni heritage?

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100858173400006

cp15 Propaganda

17.2.2016 – Gulf News (A P)

Official force needed to protect Yemen from future chaos: former minister

Yassin says Yemen should be integrated into the GCC to prevent any future attempts to hijack the country

Yemen should be integrated into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Yemen’s former Foreign Minister said Wednesday night in Abu Dhabi.

“Yemen should enter into a sustainable integration with the Gulf Cooperation Council through an out-of-the-box initiative,” said Riyad Yassin, Yemen’s Foreign Minister from mid-March to December last year.

Yassin told the audience at a lecture organised by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research such unity should be protected by a force that should not allow anybody to hijack Yemen or the Yemeni people in future.

“An out-of-the-box Gulf initiative to unite Yemen and GCC should be buttressed by a force capable of deterring any expansionist faction or party immediately. Any rebels should not be allowed in the future to repeat what the Al Houthis did to Yemeni cities,” Yassin, also headed the Yemeni Legitimacy delegation at the first Geneva Consultations in mid-June last year.

Yassin, however, did not suggest Yemen’s membership in the GCC, apparently because “the country has been a failing state for more than 30 years now,” he said.

“Yemenis cannot sit together and reach a settlement on their own. It is also important that Al Houthi militants and (ousted Yemeni president) Ali Abdullah Saleh’s militias must not be rewarded for their terror in any future settlement,” Yassin said.

Yassin suggested that Yemen should not build a large army similar to that of Saleh. “A gigantic army like that of Saleh would void 40 per cent of the Yemeni budget,” he said.

He said the focus should be on building civil institutions and stressed that Aden is an important springboard from which to find a workable solution to the Yemeni crisis.

“A civil state will need to be built in the light of addressing unresolved issues: the Southern Issue; the need to eliminate factors that fuel terrorism, and drafting a development plan that maximises Yemen’s capabilities,” Yassin said.

He also condemned Iran as “the sole country in the world that openly backs terrorists. No other country can openly support terror,” Yassin said.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/official-force-needed-to-protect-yemen-from-future-chaos-former-minister-1.1675025

16.2.2016 – Al Arabiya (A P)

Why Yemen is more than a war project

Ten months ago, three gangs took over Yemen – the Houthi militia, which is linked to Iran, forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted during the Arab Spring, and Al-Qaeda, which quickly expanded in the vacuum. As a result, Yemen became like Syria where there is fighting between the majority of the Syrian people, who have revolted against the Assad regime which is allied with Iran, and the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) organization.

The crisis in Yemen, and the regional strife on multiple fronts with Iran, in general, are being managed for the first time without the American ally and without huge oil revenues. This is both an analysis of the situation from afar and also within the context of the very dangerous geopolitical transformations.

With Iran’s support, the Houthis and Saleh resorted to military power to impose their conditions and later went as far as seizing entire Yemen. It became clear for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that Iran has decided to expand its areas of influence and that after Yemen it will its head to Bahrain, maybe to South Iraq and expand towards the west.

The challenge for Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries was the prospect of Iran succeeding at getting its proxy to govern the capital Sana’a through the power of arms. The superpower, i.e. the United States, which had controlled Gulf affairs for more than half a century, disappeared from the scene. The U.S. chose to leave the arena to conflicting parties as it opened the doors to Iran for negotiations on its nuclear program. This increased the Iranian command’s appetite to expand and threaten regional stability.

Amid these unusual circumstances, Saudi Arabia decided to build a military alliance and intervene in Yemen in order to support the legitimate Yemeni president and government which the U.N. recognizes. Any expert on Middle East affairs would describe the Saudi intervention as a desperate and late measure and insist that there can only be a political solution in Yemen.

But a political solution would have gifted Yemen to Saleh and the Houthis. The Iranians would then have seized Yemen for a cheap price and the Gulf region would have been besieged by Iran from the north, east and south.

In less than a year, we can see that the rising power in Yemen today is the legitimate government as it is supported by the majority of Yemen’s political and tribal components, by the GCC and by an Arab alliance which is the first of its kind.

The Yemeni model, i.e. changing the status quo by force and organized political work and insisting on reaching the target despite the challenges, is not a good option and cannot be repeated at every occasion. However, it was necessary to protect the map as we know it today.

This model will influence the concept of the geopolitical struggle of the entire region as regional players and others must take into account the regional countries’ willingness and capability to engage in a confrontation.

The war in Yemen is important because it is linked to the wars in Syria, Iraq and even Libya. Amid the chaos Iran, Al-Qaeda and the ISIS are trying to take over these countries in a race which the region has never known –by Abdulrahman al-Rashed, former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/02/16/Why-Yemen-is-more-than-a-war-project.html

Comment: The eternal repeating of the same few Saudi-UAE-Hadi propaganda items. New aspects: That the USA “disappeared from the scene”, what just not is true at all, the Saudis getting a lot of support from the USA; “a political solution would have gifted Yemen to Saleh and the Houthis” shows that the Saudi side never was interested in any political solution and peace talks, spoofing the UN and its negotiators all the time.

16.2.2016 – Gatestone Institute – (A P)

Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Politicized UN

The UN's assertion that the Saudi-led coalition has committed war crimes in Yemen is unlikely to be true. UN experts have not been to Yemen, depending instead on hearsay evidence and analysis of photographs.

UN has a pattern of unsubstantiated allegations of war crimes against the armed forces of sovereign states. any military expertise, and never having visited Gaza, a UN commission convicted the Israel Defense Force of deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians in the 2014 conflict. It was an assessment roundly rejected by America's most senior military officer, General Martin Dempsey, and an independent commission.

The Houthis have learned many lessons from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, groups also supported by Iran. Those lessons include the falsification of civilian casualty figures and their causes. The UN swallowed the fake Gaza figures hook, line and sinker, and are now making the same error in Yemen.

The Houthis exploit gullible or compliant reporters and human rights groups to facilitate their propaganda, including false testimony and fabrication of imagery.

Forensic analysis shows that rather than deliberately targeting civilians, the Saudis and their allies have taken remarkable steps to minimize civilian casualties – by Richard Kemp and Jasper Reid

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7434/saudi-arabia-yemen-un

Comment: No Saudi war crimes, a real strange argumentation why not. And the Houthis then must have a very good team of performers of all ages to represent dead and injured and of makeup artists to prepare them – and a good team of construction workers as well, who prepare the building for the films and photos by dissipating them. These authors seem to argue even more stupid then the Saudis themselves.

Comment: We invite you to read this article. Totally misleading, inaccurate and injurious. We ask the Yemeni citizens, NGOs, human rights activists to bring their own evidence. The almost 10.000 civilians killed are not a falsification of the reality on the ground, and so is not the use of cluster bombs and chemical bombs of many kinds.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=970329206353443&id=961126490607048

Comment by Judith Brown: Well, if you want to feel your blood boiling with anger read this. The most blatant disregard for Yemeni and Palestinian life that I have ever read. Do they not listen to western people who have been to Yemen and seen with their own eyes the suffering? MSF, Saferworld, Oxfam, Save the Children, UNICEF, HRW, Amnesty, have feet on the ground, to name but a few. Then there are the independent reporters who have been there, and the BBC team that did a report. I had to stop reading half way down the page because I was so angry.

https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154105493848641

cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids

02.2016 - Legeal Center for Rights and development

Alle saudischen Luftangriffe / All Saudi air raids

13. Feb.:

https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/590764177740618/?type=3&theater

14. Feb.:

https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/591154824368220/?type=3&theater

15. Feb.:

https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/591487324334970/?type=3&theater

16. Feb.:

https://www.facebook.com/551288185021551/photos/a.551858951631141.1073741828.551288185021551/591879127629123/?type=3&theater

17.2.2016 – Middle East Press (A K PH)

Saudis Fresh Aerial Assaults Kill 24 Civilians In Yemen

Saudi Arabia has conducted fresh airstrikes across Yemen on Wednesday morning in which at least 24 civilians were killed and more than a dozen others sustained injuries, local media reported.

At least 13 people were killed after Saudi warplanes carried out aerial assaults against residential buildings in al-Mahjar Village, which lies on the outskirts of the capital, Sana’a while three others were also killed when Saudi jets targeted their vehicle as it was traveling along Bani Hajil highway in the Nihm district.

Additionally, a civilian and his wife were also killed when Saudi jets pounded the Kharab al-Marashi district of the northern Yemeni province of Jawf.

Saudi jets also bombarded the Hayfan district in the same Yemeni province on Wednesday, wounding four civilians and seriously damaging a telecommunications tower and a mosque in the area.

Elsewhere, two civilians were killed and five others wounded in a Saudi airstrike in the Monabbih district of Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada.

http://middleeastpress.com/english/saudis-fresh-aerial-assaults-kill-24-civilians-in-yemen/

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

16.2.2016 – Press TV Iran (A K PH)

Yemeni forces retake key military camp outside capital

The Yemeni army and allies forces have retaken a strategic military camp outside Sana’a four days after it fell to Saudi-backed mercenaries, a Press TV correspondent in the capital reports.

Our correspondent Mohammed al-Attab said the Yemeni forces on Monday won back the Fardhat Nahm military camp, located 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Sana’a, repelling an attempt by the Saudi-led forces to advance into the capital.

Sources have told him that some 250 militants were killed in the clashes, he said.

Saudi-led forces seized the camp, located on one of the defense lines for the capital, on Thursday under the cover of the kingdom's airstrikes.

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/02/16/450596/Yemen-Saudi-Airstrikes-Saada-Amran and as a proof, this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5zsPLtPMGU

cp 18 Saudi Blockade

16.2.2016 – Reuters (* A P)

Saudi Arabia stops Yemen-bound ship carrying communications equipment

The World Food Programme (WFP) says communications equipment that Saudi Arabia stopped from entering Yemen on one of its chartered ships last week, fearing it was meant for the Houthi militia, belonged to the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval blockade to stop weapons being imported and was reported in Arab media on Monday as saying the communications equipment had been meant for the Houthis.

The Mainport Cedar, which the U.N. humanitarian organisation said was carrying a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies bound for the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, was diverted by the coalition to the Saudi port of Jizan on Feb. 11.

Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, the coalition's spokesman, said the communications equipment was similar to that used by the Houthis, had been discovered on the ship during an inspection and had not been declared by the WFP.

"It sustains the militias in their combat. Why did they not declare it? We ask them please 'review your procedures, review your personnel' to make sure this does not happen again," he said by phone.

The vessel was carrying a container of medical supplies from the Netherlands and two containers of food from Iran, and had originated its journey in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, Asseri said.

"WFP has been asked by the coalition forces to resubmit the paperwork regarding the humanitarian IT equipment," Abeer Etefa, senior spokesman for the WFP said by email.

The equipment included computers, satellite dishes, solar panels, encryption systems, individual communication devices and other material often used for military purposes and found by Saudi forces in Houthi bases on the Saudi border, Asseri said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-yemen-security-ship-idUSKCN0VP2DZ = http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/881656

16.2.2016 – Xinhua (A K P)

Saudi-led coalition seizes ship carrying banned items aboard

A Saudi-led coalition fighting the the Houthi rebels inYemen said Tuesday that a UN ship that was coming from Djibouti and seized in the Yemeni port of Al Hudaydah was carrying banned items on board, Al Arabiya News reported.

The forces diverted the route of the ship that belonged to the UN Food and Medicine Program to the port of the Saudi border city of Jazan for inspection, the coalition's spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Al Asiri said.

The military officer did not reveal the type of the banned items, accusing staff of the program of being involved in a smuggling operation under the guise of humanitarian aid delivered by the UN to the Yemenis.

The UN will be contacted to avoid the exploitation of the humanitarian aid transferring efforts, he said.

The coalition has been supervising the transfer of UN reliefs to the Yemeni people over claims that Iran is supplying weapons and ammunitions to Houthis in Yemen.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-02/16/c_135104021.htm

Comment: Here they sabot is communications equipment that has been seized. Those delivering humanitarian aid in a war zone have a desperate need to communicate with each other. This makes my blood boil. Why divert the vessel, why not just seize the goods they want to examine further?

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1100853916733765

Comment: The items described by Aseri also are necessary for civilian use. If following his argumentation, it would be possible to declare everything as “material often used for military purposes “, even food and medicals (fighters also need to eat and they need medical treatment). And who tells the world what “banned items” are and takes himself the right to block the UN?? There you can see how ruthless the Saudi blockade is. And how propaganda works: This ship had been declared to to bring weapons or military equipment to the Houthis (see Yemen Press Reader 102).

Comment: Now this is a fine piece of propaganda. Reuters said that the ship contained communications equipment for humanitarian aid agencies. They need to communicate and coordinate when sending aid to 14 million people spread over Yemen in the midst of war. The Saudinspokesperson said that it was suspicious because they had not declared it. The Houthis - yes I guess all, sides are liking each other in this brutal war. The Houthi-Saleh side always point to casualties on the Saudi-side and vice versa. If only they would be as energetic in talking peace as they are in talking war.

https://www.facebook.com/yemennewstodayenglish/posts/1101208890031601

The German version I first had posted here in cp 17 see here:

16.2.2016 – NCR Iran (A K PS)

Eine Waffenladung aus dem Iran, die für den Jemen bestimmt war, wurde aufgehalten

Die Arabische Koalition, die gegen Gruppen kämpft, die von dem Teheraner Regime unterstützt werden, hat ein Schiff aufgebracht, das mit dem Ziel des Jemen von Djibouti kam und militärisches Gerät,

getarnt als medizinischer Vorrat, geladen hatte.

Die Quellen der Koalition berichteten den „Sky New Arabia“ am Sonntag, bei der Durchsuchung des Schiffes, das unter der Flagge der Marshall-Inseln lief, sei getarntes Gerät für die Weitergabe militärischer Nachrichten und andere militärische hardware gefunden worden; die fraglichen Gegenstände befanden sich in Behältern, die aus Bandar Abbas, im Süden des Iran, stammten.

Nach dem Ablegen in dem iranischen Hafen Bandar Abbas hatte sich das Schiff, das den Namen „Menburt Cedar“ trägt, in einem Dock in Djibouti aufgehalten. Es wurde von Truppen der von den Saudis angeführten Koalition aufgebracht, noch bevor es seinen Bestimmungsort, den jemenitischen Hafen Hodeidah erreicht hatte.

Den Quellen zufolge wurde das Schiff in den saudi-arabischen Hafen Jizan gebracht. Dort wurde es in Gegenwart internationaler Beobachter inspiziert, die den gesamten Prozeß dokumentierten.

http://www.ncr-iran.org/de/terrorregime/8034-eine-waffenladung-aus-dem-iran-die-fuer-den-jemen-bestimmt-war-wurde-aufgehalten.html

And still more information on this ship, making things not easier to understand.

17.2.2016 – AFP (A P)

The vessel carried four declared containers of humanitarian aid but coalition inspectors also found "military communications equipment" elsewhere in the ship, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP.

"There is some equipment that wasn't declared," he said, adding the satellite dishes, solar power units and "crypto systems" are the type of gear used by Yemen's Huthi rebels.

"Now we are working with the United Nations programmes to find out what is the malfunction of the procedure and to fix it, and to make sure that it doesn't happen again," Assiri said.

He added the some of the aid was food from Iran but "we don't know" where the communication equipment came from.

"WFP is still in communication with the coalition forces regarding the circumstances of the ship's diversion to Jazan port," the agency's senior regional spokeswoman, Abeer Etefa, told AFP from Cairo.

"On behalf of the Yemen humanitarian community, the vessel was transporting commodities including canned tuna, medical supplies for delivery to Hodeida Port and United Nations emergency telecommunications cluster IT equipment for delivery to the Port of Aden."

WFP has resubmitted documents for the "humanitarian IT equipment" as requested by the coalition, Etefa added.

http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/un-yemen-aid-ship-stuck-saudi-over-undeclared-cargo

17.2.2016 – Asharq Al-Awsat (Saudi site, A P)

U.N. Scandal Renouncing Attempt on Military Equipment in Yemen

Brig. Gen. Assiri: People in Yemen need food not cipher machines

Abeer Etefa, Middle East Spokeswoman for the WFP (U.N. World Food Programme), told Asharq Al-Awsat that the hired ship belonging to the WFP had set sail from Djibouti to Hudaydah port carrying humanitarian relief support.

The U.N. made calls to the coalition’s forces, after the ship was blocked from its course, for identifying the causes behind the confinement. The ship’s course was later altered towards Jizan port.

Etefa averred that the U.N. had confirmed its full awareness of the presence of the communication devices which belong to the U.N. mission team abroad the ship in Yemen. She clarified that the gadgets are validated for WFP use by the U.N.

Communication devices found on the ship are specified to connect U.N. relief organizations working in Yemen, Etefa explained.

http://english.aawsat.com/2016/02/article55347652/u-n-scandal-renouncing-attempt-on-military-equipment-in-yemen

Comment:Talking nonsense and not even realising it: People in Yemen need food not bombs

16.2.2016 – The Irish Times (A P)

Irish-owned ship held by Arab coalition forces in Saudi Arabia

Cork ship carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen for World Food Programme

An Irish-owned ship which was carrying humanitarian supplies to Yemen has been detained by Arab coalition forces on suspicion of arms smuggling. The 54m vessel MV Mainport Cedar was en route to the Yemeni port of Hodeidah from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, when it was apprehended late last week.

A spokesman for Mainport said the ship had been on regular charter trips for the World Food Programme (WFP) and was carrying a cargo of tuna, medical supplies and telecommunications equipment to Yemen when it was escorted to Saudi Arabia for inspection.

It is understood the telecommunications equipment had been on board since a previous trip to Aden and there was a “misunderstanding “over paperwork as a result. Ms Howard said the coalition forces had asked the World Food Programme to resubmit paperwork and she hoped the vessel would depart shortly.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-owned-ship-held-by-arab-coalition-forces-in-saudi-arabia-1.2537080

cp19 Schöner Jemen / Beautiful Yemen

15.2.2016 – Streamway

Film: DOKU Terra X 51 Die Weihrauch Connection Expeditionen im Jemen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jipbk_lElN8

Vorige / Previous:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/krieg-im-jemen-neue-artikel-zum-nachlesen-102

Neue Artikel zum Nachlesen 1-102: / Yemen Press Reader 1-102:

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or

http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm

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

Dietrich Klose

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

Dietrich Klose

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