Washington Post: Houthis no Iranian puppets - US ambassador in 2009: Houthis not armed by Iran - Saudi absurd: HRW never in Yemen - Detainees of the Houthis - Peace talks in deadlock - and more
Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Klassifizierung / Classification
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche/ UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp13b Nationalbank und Währung / National Bank and currency
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
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
16.5.2016 – Washington Post (** A K P)
No, Yemen’s Houthis actually aren’t Iranian puppets
The Saudis are not the only ones to label the Houthis puppets of Iran. Politicians and media in the West, in particular, also frequently describe them as Iranian proxies.
Yet as I argue in a recent article in the May 2016 issue of International Affairs, the Chatham House journal, Tehran’s support for the Houthis is limited, and its influence in Yemen is marginal. It is simply inaccurate to claim that the Houthis are Iranian proxies.
Instead, the war in Yemen is driven by local grievances and competition for power among Yemeni actors. The Houthis and Saleh want to overturn the political order that emerged after the uprisings of 2011: Saleh wants to return to power, having lost the presidency in the wake of popular protests, while the Houthis want a greater say in national affairs. In other words, the Houthis want in, Saleh wants back in, and the Hadi bloc wants to keep them both out.
According to a 2015 report to the U.N. Security Council Iran Sanctions Committee, Iran probably started providing small amounts of weapons to the Houthis in 2009 — five years after the first round of fighting between the Houthis and government forces. In 2011, U.S. officials — who until then had been dismissive of such accusations — started to acknowledge that Iran was likely responsible for the delivery of automatic rifles, grenade launchers and cash, probably in the millions of dollars.
The Houthi’s takeover of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, in September 2014 prompted Iran to increase its support. It now appears that small numbers — perhaps dozens — of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, with assistance from Lebanese Hezbollah, have set up a train and equip program for the Houthis. There have also been reports of intensifying shipping activity between Iran and Yemen.
This assistance, however, remains limited and far from sufficient to make more than a marginal difference to the balance of forces in Yemen, a country awash with weapons. There is therefore no supporting evidence to the claim that Iran has bought itself any significant measure of influence over Houthi decision-making.
Iran’s investment in Yemen has been limited; it has therefore brought only limited influence. Tehran does not have the ability to shape events in Yemen – by Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Comment: All that is nothing new. The Washington Post states it after 14 month of war and 14 month of Saudi and others’ arguing with exactly this “Iranian danger” in Yemen. 14 months of lies having caused thousands of killed. Now they need an assistant professor from Canada to explain them what really is going on.
On this subject, also see this US diplomatic cable from Wikileaks:
9.12.2009 – Wikileaks (** B K P)
WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS, PART TWO: HOW ARE THEY FIGHTING?
B. SANAA 2185 Classified By: Ambassador Stephen Seche for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 1. (S/NF) SUMMARY. Little is clear about the Houthi leadership, aside from the fact that Abdulmalik al-Houthi is the rebel group's current leader. Houthi field commanders do not seem to agree on key ideological and religious principles. The Houthis' numbers range from the hundreds to the thousands, though it is difficult to determine how many of these adhere to Houthi ideology and how many are tribesmen who have joined the Houthis' fight for other reasons. Numerous organizations have documented the Houthis' use of child soldiers, as well as violations of international humanitarian law such as looting, forced evacuations, and executions. Contrary to ROYG claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself. END SUMMARY.
LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATION
SYMPATHIZERS AND SUPPORTERS
HOUTHI GOVERNANCE
HOUTHI ABUSES: CHILD SOLDIERS AND ALLEGATIONS OF "SHIELDING"
TACTICS AND STRATEGY
WEAPONS SUPPLY -------------- 12. (S/NF) Contrary to ROYG claims that Iran is arming the Houthis, most local political analysts report that the Houthis obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market and even from the ROYG military itself. According to a British diplomat, there are numerous credible reports that ROYG military commanders were selling weapons to the Houthis in the run-up to the Sixth War. An ICG report on the Sa'ada conflict from May 2009 quoted NSB director Ali Mohammed al-Ansi saying, "Iranians are not arming the Houthis. The weapons they use are Yemeni. Most actually come from fighters who fought against the socialists during the 1994 war and then sold them." Mohammed Azzan, presidential advisor for Sa'ada affairs, told PolOff on August 16 that the Houthis easily obtain weapons inside Yemen, either from battlefield captures or by buying them from corrupt military commanders and soldiers. Azzan said that the military "covers up its failure" by saying the weapons come from Iran. According to Jamal Abdullah al-Shami of the Democracy School, there is little external oversight of the military's large and increasing budget, so it is easy for members of the military to illegally sell weapons. 13. (S/NF) ROYG officials assert that the Houthis' possession and use of Katyusha rockets is evidence of support from Iran and Hizballah, arguing that these rockets are not available in Yemeni arms markets nor ROYG stockpiles. (Comment: Given Yemen's robust arms markets, especially in Sa'ada, it is possible that Katyushas are available on the black market even if they are not in ROYG stockpiles. According to sensitive reporting, there is at least one instance of Somali extremists purchasing Katyusha rockets in Yemen in 2007. End Comment.) However, according to sensitive reporting, it may have been the ROYG military who aided the Houthis in obtaining a shipment of 200 Katyusha rockets in late November 2009 – by Stephen Seche, Ambassador
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09SANAA2186_a.html
Comment by Haykal Bafana: The US Government knows this, as its leaked diplomatic cable shows. Yet, Kerry hollers that Iran sends arms to Yemen.
So why is the US government lying about Iran arms to Yemen Houthis, when its own cables say otherwise? The USG serves Americans or Riyadh?
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/732728533987033088
Comment by Haykal Bafana: Fact : Not even one Iranian soldier, agent, militant, functionary has been killed r captured so far in the Saudi war on Yemen.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/732720653535744001
16.5.2016 – Human Rights Watch (** A K P)
Dispatches: Saudi Spokesman Denies Human Rights Watch’s Yemen Findings
“There is no team from Human Rights Watch on the ground,” Saudi military spokesman Gen. Ahmad al-Assiri told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview that aired this morning.
He was responding to a question about a March 15, 2016 airstrike on a market in the northern Yemeni town of Mastaba that killed at least 97 civilians. A colleague and I had visited the site in late March and found remnants of a United States-supplied 2,000 pound bomb, one of several used in the attack. We even shot a video in the demolished market. On camera I say, “I am standing here in the remains of Mastaba market….”
Human Rights Watch published a report on our findings, calling on the Saudis to investigate the apparently unlawful attack – a possible war crime. It was one of the deadliest single attacks in the campaign by the Saudi-led coalition to oust northern Houthi rebels and their allies from the capital, Sanaa, and other areas. At least 3,000 civilians have died over the past year, most from airstrikes.
NPR host Mary Louise Kelly pressed the general on Human Rights Watch’s findings: “They went, they saw it.”
“No,” al-Assiri responded. “No one get[s] to Yemen without permission of the coalition.” He added that he hopes “Human Right Watch and the other NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] come to the coalition for permission. We will send them down to investigate.”
In fact, this two-week trip was the fourth I had made to Yemen since the beginning of the war in March 2015. Given what I go through to get into Yemen, al-Assiri’s statement was laughable. Since the war started, all Yemenia Airway flights to Sanaa touch down in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi immigration officers board the plane, search the baggage, and selectively question passengers. Each time, I was one of the only passengers to have my passport confiscated for the layover, without a word of explanation. The Saudis know every time I visit Yemen.
But there’s nothing laughable about the situation in Yemen. Over the course of my trips, I’ve investigated dozens of airstrikes by the coalition that have killed at least 670 civilians, as well as other serious abuses by all the parties to the conflict. We and other human rights groups have been on the ground investigating them. Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have an obligation under the laws of war to investigate alleged violations by their forces – but there’s no indication they’ve done so.
General al-Assiri has been in Washington, DC this month, no doubt to drum up support for resupplying the bombs dropped on Mastaba and elsewhere, and other weapons. There’s no reason to believe that what he says about alleged coalition atrocities is any more accurate than his portrayal of Human Rights Watch investigations. US lawmakers genuinely concerned about the well-being of the Yemeni people, and how they view the United States, might want to keep this in mind – by Belkis Wille
Comment: More on the Asiri interview in cp15, propaganda. That is the level Saudi propaganda – and Asiri in special – permanently are arguing at: HRW was not in Yemen, because we are those who must permit anybody to get to Yemen and they did not come to us to ask for permission.
16.5.2016 – The American Conservative (** A K P)
Saudi Lies and the War on Yemen
In fact, Human Rights Watch is one of several organizations that documented likely war crimes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. It is true that the Saudis make it very difficult for outside groups and journalists to gain access to the country because they don’t want this to be known, and they deliberately stymied an independent investigation into war crimes in Yemen at the U.N. with U.S. and allied acquiescence. Nonetheless, HRW and others have investigated the effects of the coalition’s indiscriminate bombing campaign along with the crimes committed by all parties to the conflict. They have ample proof that the Saudi-led coalition has carried out numerous strikes on civilian areas in violation of international law.
The Saudis have moved from brazenly denying that civilians were killed by their attacks to feigning concern for the victims, but it doesn’t change that they have been working overtime to avoid accountability for their crimes over the last year. Unfortunately, they were able to use this interview to do the same thing.
The other troubling thing about this interview is that the Saudi spokesman isn’t pressed on any of his statements, and he is asked the softest, least challenging questions imaginable under the circumstances. When he claims that his government views Yemenis as neighbors, an appropriate response might have been: “So why have you been starving your neighbors with a blockade for the last thirteen months?” Regrettably, the coalition’s blockade and its effects are never mentioned in the interview. The interviewer also asks whether the “Saudi intervention has improved things,” but that is the wrong question to ask. The spokesman should have been forced to defend the enormous harm that the intervention has plainly done and the yawning gap between the coalition’s stated goals and what it has done. The interviewer mentions that thousands of those killed since last March have been civilians, but neglects to inform the audience that most of these have been killed by coalition bombs – by Daniel Larison
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/saudi-lies-and-the-war-on-yemen/ on this subject, see also http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2016/may/yemen-saudi-war-crimes.htm
16.5.2016 – London School of Economics (** A P)
Beyond the North/South narrative: Conflict and federalism in Eastern Yemen
Mainstream representations are accustomed to viewing Yemen either as a country fragmented along the North/South or as a nation divided into two principal religious group, Sunni and Shi’a. Although salient, these cleavages cannot fully explain the complexity of the Yemeni scenario. For instance, the South is not a homogenous actor because there are regional and tribal identities to feed local agendas. In Yemen, the Civil War in 1994 and then the 2011 Arab uprising have exacerbated the dynamic yet convoluted conflict, which has compelled several Yemenis to call for regional autonomy. This complicated situation is particularly evident in south-eastern, Sunni-populated governorates of Hadhramaut and Al-Mahra.
Yemen’s ‘far East’ has always been marginalised by the central, northern-driven elite, especially on issues concerning revenue redistribution, economic opportunities, and political representation. At the same time, Hadhrami and Mahri clans use to nurture a proud sense of distinctiveness from the rest of Yemen.
Tribes seem to be firmly against this federal draft [proposed in 2014 as part of a new Yemeni constitution; a political solution the Hadi government and the GCC still want to go on with].
According to a 2013 survey by Elisabeth Kendall, an Oxford-based leading scholar on Eastern Yemen, 99% of 34,000 respondents rejected the proposal to merge with Hadhramaut, while 86% of Mahris wanted to be ruled by a cross-tribal council, opposing both the ˊunited Yemenˋ and the ˊSouth Yemenˋ hypothesis.
Therefore, the implementation of the suggested federal text would likely fuel additional tribal animosity toward Sana’a, thus increasing the security vacuum in the South. In such a scenario, jihadi groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) could easily capitalise on local resentment and anti-northern prejudice.
The stability of southeastern Yemen is vital for the Gulf’s security too. Including the control of coastal Hadhramaut .
Yemen’s political unity remains highly uncertain, but the federal solution appears to be the only prudent solution to the impasse – by Eleonora Ardemagni
Comment: the situation in the neglected South East: one more argument against a Hadi government continuing it’s 2014 federal reform project, as in this form it also did not confirm to the wishes of the Yemeni South East. A completely new solution is necessary, which can be only a federal one off course.
18.5.2016 – Amnesty International (** B H P)
Yemen: Spree of arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture by Huthi forces
The Huthi armed group, supported by state security forces, has carried out a wave of arrests of its opponents, arbitrarily seizing critics at gunpoint and subjecting some to enforced disappearance as part of a chilling campaign to quash dissent in areas of Yemen under its control, said Amnesty International in a new report published today.
Where is my father? Detention and disappearance in Huthi-controlled Yemen, which is based on 60 cases of detention examined in detail by the organization, reveals a pattern of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances in Sana’a, Ibb, Ta’iz and Hodeidah between December 2014 and March 2016. Those targeted include political opposition figures, human rights defenders, journalists, academics and others. Many have been held incommunicado for prolonged periods, suffered torture and other ill-treatment and been denied access to a lawyer or their family.
“Huthi forces have presided over a brutal and deliberate campaign targeting their political opponents and other critics since December 2014. Hundreds of people have been rounded up and held without charge or trial, and in some cases they have been forcibly disappeared in flagrant violation of international law,” said James Lynch, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
“Enforced disappearance is an abhorrent crime and cannot be justified under any circumstances. Instead of incarcerating opponents for weeks or months on end, the Huthi armed group should release anyone who has been arbitrarily detained, implement safeguards to ensure detainees are treated humanely and issue clear instructions that anyone under their command committing abuses will be held accountable.”
In the vast majority of cases those detained were given no reason for their arrest. Some prisoners have been held for up to 17 months without being brought before a prosecutor or a judge. None of the detainees featured in the report were ever officially charged or given an opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. Huthi officials told Amnesty International in May 2016 that those in detention were being held “because they gave GPS coordinates to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition”.
Amnesty International has obtained documents which show that prosecuting authorities in Sana’a have found the detention of dozens of political activists, journalists and others to be without legal basis and have ordered their release, apparently to no effect.
Many detainees have been held in secret, makeshift detention centres, including private homes and have been transferred multiple times between different locations. Eighteen individuals whose cases are featured in Amnesty International’s report are still being held. The whereabouts of three of them are unknown.
The report includes distressing accounts from former detainees, and from family members of detainees, who described to Amnesty International the use of torture and other ill-treatment in detention.
One former detainee, who was among 25 men including journalists, activists and human rights defenders who were arbitrarily arrested from the Ibb Garden Hotel in October 2015, described to Amnesty International how his interrogators tortured him for 90 minutes. He was blindfolded with his hands tied together and beaten all over his body with a stick. The interrogators also gave him electric shocks to the chest, neck, forearms and groin.
The majority of those targeted are activists, journalists or other figures affiliated with al-Islah, a Sunni Islamist political party which opposed the Huthi takeover of power and announced its support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in April 2015. However, in some cases those detained had no known political affiliation or history that could explain why they were targeted. At least 11 journalists are among those who have been arbitrarily detained.
“Depriving anyone of their liberty at random – without any legal basis for their arrest – is an unconscionable violation of their rights,” said James Lynch.
“It also has heart-breaking consequences for the family members left behind. They can spend months trying to find out the fates of their missing loved ones, or struggling to secure their release when there is not even any firm accusation against them.”
The Ministry of Human Rights in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, which is under Huthi control, told Amnesty International in a 16 May memorandum that accusations of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture were “baseless” and that those who criticise the authorities in Sana’a have “not been subjected to any repressive measures”, as “Yemen and its authorities firmly believe in freedom of expression”.
A special committee for prisoners and detainees has been created during peace talks on Yemen which are currently taking place in Kuwait. Amnesty International is calling on parties to the talks, as well as international actors facilitating or supporting the process, to ensure that the rights of those detained arbitrarily in areas under Huthi control and their families are prioritised during the negotiations.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/yemen-spree-of-arbitrary-arrests-disappearances-and-torture-by-huthi-forces-to-persecute-opponents/ and full report: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde31/4006/2016/en/ and in short by BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36315761 and by AFP: http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/yemen-rebels-accused-of-chilling-campaign-to-quash-dissent (ofcourse, the perfect democrats at the Gulf pick up this story)
cp2 Allgemein / General
17.5.2016 – Critical Threats (* A K P)
2016 Yemen Crisis Situation Report: May 17
The Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) is actively targeting Yemeni security forces in al Mukalla, Hadramawt, which coalition-backed forces recently secured. The ISIS attacks will likely drive insecurity in a city that had been operating well under al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) administration.
ISIS Wilayat Hadramawt began an explosives attack campaign against Yemeni security forces and new recruits in al Mukalla, Hadramawt
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) preserved its force strength and capabilities by withdrawing from territory in Abyan and Hadramawt. AQAP senior leader Khaled Batarfi warnedthat the group would fight on its terms and claimed two attempted assassinations of high-ranking Yemeni officials in Aden and Hadramawt. Batarfi accused the United States of imposing a “new reality” in Yemen, likely a reference to the ongoing international pressure on a negotiated settlement to Yemen’s civil war.
The U.S. and members of the Saudi-led coalition are pressuring the Hadi government to participate in the UN-led Kuwait talks in good faith. The delegations have not made significant progress in the peace talks. It is likely that the establishment of issue-focused committees was an effort to negotiate tactical issues, such as prisoner exchanges, within the Kuwait framework. U.S. President Barack Obama cited the actions and policies of certain members of Hadi’s government as threatening Yemen’s peace and security, and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir signaled a reversal in Saudi priorities in Yemen, emphasizing the fight against al Qaeda and ISIS and expressing openness to negotiation with the al Houthis on May 12.
Clashes continue along established frontlines with minor advances by al Houthi-Saleh forces on the southern front and pro-government gains in central Taiz city.
Southern Yemeni leaders within Hadi’s government may enjoy a level of autonomy in pursuing lines of effort that serve the Southern Movement’s interest. Aden police and security forces cracked down on alleged violations of Aden’s residency laws, arresting and deporting hundreds of northern Yemeni immigrants. President Hadi and Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghr called for Aden Governor Aydarus al Zubaidi and security chief Shalal Ali Shaye’a to exert control over their forces, but deportations continued. Governor Zubaidi expressed support for the operation.
Al Houthi-Saleh ground advances will likely feed AQAP’s narrative that the coalition-backed forces and international community is seeking a “Houthified” Yemen, which could drive support to the group. Both ISIS and AQAP attacks have the potential to disrupt the coalition and Hadi government’s progress in re-establishing stability in southern and eastern Yemen – by Katherine Zimmerman
http://www.criticalthreats.org/yemen/yemen-crisis-situation-reports-may-17-2016
17.5.2016 – Euronews (* B H K)
Film: Jemen: Die Opfer des vergessenen Krieges
Wir sind erneut in das Kriegsgebiet im Jemen gereist. Wir besuchen das historische Dorf Attan Fort. Es gehört zu den ältesten Siedlungen des Landes. Das Dorf liegt am Berg Attan Faj. Von hier aus kann man die Hauptstadt Sanaa gut überblicken.
Seit über einem Jahr herrscht Krieg im Jemen: auf der einen Seite die von Saudi-Arabien angeführten Koalition zur Unterstützung des vertriebenen Präsidenten Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi und auf der anderen Seite die Huthi-Rebellen. Nach UN-Angaben wurden in dem Konflikt seit März vergangenen Jahres mehr als 6.000 Menschen getötet, fast die Hälfte der Opfer waren Zivilisten. Das Dorf geriet ins Visier der Luftschläge, weil hier Waffenlager vermutet wurden.
“Die Menschen in diesem Dorf leiden sehr stark. Sie sind Opfer dieses Krieges, eingeklemmt zwischen beiden Seiten. Keine Hilfsorganisation war jemals hier. Auch die Medien berichten kaum, so dass kaum jemand weiß, was dieser Krieg mit uns hier macht. Dieses Dorf war das erste, das zerstört wurde, als der Krieg begann“, sagt ein Bewohner von Attan. “Die Bomben sind regelrecht auf das Dorf herabgeregnet“, erinnert sich ein anderer Bewohner des Dorfes. „Steine und Splitter sind herumgeflogen. Mein Bein wurde verletzt, genau wie meine Hand und mein Kopf. Die Hälfte meiner Freunde wurde auch verletzt.”
http://de.euronews.com/2016/05/17/jemen-die-opfer-des-vergessenen-krieges/ and film in youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQS0FIOkHOs
17.5.2016 – Euronews (* B H K)
Film: The village turned to rubble in Yemen’s “forgotten war”
As part of the mission covering the war in Yemen, Euronews correspondent Mohammed Shaikhibrahim visited the historic village of Attan Fort. It was built by the ancient Yemenis or people who are known as “the Montagnards” in Yemen.
It is located above Attan Faj mountain, overlooking the Yemeni capital Sanaa and has had few visits from the media.
The historic houses have not been spared from the war which has been raging in Yemen for more than a year and a half with houses inhabited by women and helpless children being bombed.
Attan Fort was one of the first villages to be destroyed in this war; the area witnessed intensive airstrikes by the Allied Forces because it was claimed it contains weapon stores that belong to the Yemeni Army.
Many of the houses in the village have been turned into dust, dozens of men women and children have been critically injured by shrapnel, bombs and rocks that came at them from each and every direction.
“Bombs were showering the village, rocks and shrapnel were falling over us, my leg was injured and so was my hand and head, also half of my friends – children – were injured,” said one villager.
The people in this village are just a few of the millions of poor Yemenis, victims of this forgotten war that has turned their daily lives from poverty to hunger. As a result of the complete collapse of the economy and the infrastructure, and also the land,air and sea blockade their lives have turned into a living hell.
http://www.euronews.com/2016/05/17/an-exclusive-report-from-the-village-of-attan-fort-near-the-yemen-capital-sanaa/ and film in youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__xe7nrj6GU
15.5.2016 – RT (* A K P)
Film: We’re At War In Yemen & It’s Under Media BLACKOUT
Yemen is in the midst of a tragic civil war. And guess what? The US is making it way worse by selling tens of billions of dollars of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, who is indiscriminately bombing the hell out the country, including mass civilian casualties. This seems to be a theme of what America does - We arm the world to the teeth and then wonder why endless war encompasses all. Redacted Tonight correspondent John F. O’Donnell breaks it down. This and more on Redacted Tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gpOS87zYzo
17.5.2016 – Euronews (B K)
Reportage über die Huthi-Rebellen im Jemen
Die USA und Israel, das sind die Erzfeinde der Huthi-Bewegung Ansar Allah. Der schiitische Volksstamm der Huthis ist vor allem im Norden des Jemens angesiedelt. Im September 2014 gewinnt er an Einfluss. Die Huthis nehmen die Hauptstadt Sanaa ein. Der militärische Erfolg währt jedoch nicht lange. Ein Bündnis aus arabischen Ländern unter Führung Saudi-Arabiens bombardiert Stellungen der Rebellen. Derzeit kontrollieren sie noch die Hauptstadt und den Norden des Landes.
http://de.euronews.com/2016/05/16/exklusiv-reportage-ueber-die-huthi-rebellen-im-jemen/
15.5.2016 – Katehon (* B K)
MUDDY POLITICAL WATERS - WHERE DID YEMEN’S WAR GO WRONG?
While war broke out in late March 2o15, its fires were lit up long before that … You witnessed its first spark in 2011, when on the wake of Egypt’s revolution, Yemen dreamt itself free from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Actually this is not exactly how Yemen’s walked itself to political freedom – this is how you were TOLD Yemen walked itself to democracy. If Egyptians chanted for the departure of their despot: President Husne Mubarak, Yemenis only ever called for reforms … at least in the beginning, when the “revolutionary movement” was still organic and truly popular in its nature.
It was foreign powers which engineered popular anger into a political weapon, so that Saleh’s regime would fall. President Saleh you see had outlived its sell-by date and had become somewhat irrelevant. When I say Saleh’s regime, I mean the entirety of his regime – including the so-called Opposition.
Allow me to elaborate – bear in mind that I will cut corners to summarize Yemen’s political set up. Many books could be written on Yemen politicking!
So … back in 2011 Yemen’s political, military and tribal political structure was divided in between two juggernauts: the General People’s Congress (al-Motamar aka President Saleh’s political faction) and al-Islah which acted an umbrella for various right-wing Islamic groups: including the now notorious Muslim Brotherhood, and tribal leaders close to Riyadh’s Wahhabi clergy.
I you recall I previously explained how al-Islah’s rise to power correspond almost exactly to the Houthis state-organized persecution, and Yemen’s Secession war in 1994. While the Houthis did not yet represent a military threat in that they were just a tribe of northern Yemen, it is their Zaidism, their determination to remain true to Yemen’s religious tradition and their rejection of Wahhabism which prompted Riyadh’s wrath.
Al-Islah was always meant as a buffer against both President Saleh’s power and Zaidism.
Headed by al-Ahmar’s tribe, al-Islah became an extension of Riyadh’s power in Yemen, the contender in many ways to President Saleh’s own tribe, and own family. While Saleh appointed his own family members to Yemen’s key military and political positions, he still had to accommodate al-Islah and offer its leadership a share of the political pie. As the decades rolled in, Yemen came to be governed by both al-Ahmar, and the Saleh. Smack down in the middle was Yemen.
Yemen 2011 uprising came to upset this balance of power. Yemen uprising was engineered to upset this balance of power, so that a new one could rise. If Yemen’s political awakening came as a surprise to both the Saudis and the Americans, it also offered an opportunity neither could pass on. It is often from chaos that new order can be shaped and moulded to existence. 2011 was meant to introduce a new order to Southern Arabia … If not for the arrival of the Houthis, Riyadh would have succeeded in bringing Yemen to kneel to its imperial will.
But why would Riyadh want President Saleh gone when its officials did everything they could to protect him? Good question! Did they though …. Who did they protect? The man, or the power he represented? You see while Riyadh might have cared little for Saleh’s life, he was still the guardian of a legitimacy the kingdom could not accept to see threaten. More importantly President Saleh had been earmarked to transition Yemen into Riyadh’s hands – Saudi Arabia understood only too well how quickly Yemen could have fallen into real chaos if not for a strong hand to hold it together. Chaos was only allowed if directed properly.
While I will not claim to have been privy to Riyadh’s political whispers, I will venture a theory on why Riyadh wanted to see Saleh gone. It wasn’t so much President Saleh who represented a threat but his appointed successor: General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh - the president’s eldest son and head of the now-debunked Republican Guards. A central military figure, Gen. Ahmed Saleh was … and still is, a well-loved figure. Not only that but the man stands for a Yemen, millions would like to see manifest.
If the general is very much his father’s son in that he understands the inner and outer politics of Yemen, he is also a modern educated man who wants to see his country reclaim its leading position in Southern Arabia. Where President Saleh was in many ways a tribesman turned president, Gen. Ahmed Saleh is a military man ambitioning to turn Yemen into Arabia’s first functioning republic by taming both tribalism and Wahhabism. Needless to say that the kingdom had an issue with that. Not only does Riyadh want to perpetuate Yemen’s tribalism, since it allows for greater control, but it also wants to see Wahhabism becomes Yemen’s state religion.
The general’s accession to the presidency would make all the above impossible – hence his fall from political and military grace. General Saleh is now under house arrest in the UAE … Remember that detail because it is awfully important – by Catherine Shakdam
http://katehon.com/article/muddy-political-waters-where-did-yemens-war-go-wrong
Comment: Shakdam’s articles sometimes are a mixture of intelligent analysis and pathetic pro-Houthi propaganda. In this article, she also almost propagates former president Saleh’s son as future president of Yemen. Well, it seems doubtful whether a Saleh offspring really could keep up the unity of Northern and Southern Yemen, could comfort Islah party followers and southern separatists. And, something like a dynastic successorship in presidency hardly is democratic – especially if the father is somebody like former president Saleh, having ruled the country for 35 years and gripped about up to 1 billion Dollars each year of his presidency-
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
18.5.2016 – Zeit Online (* A H K)
UN warnen vor Hungersnot im Jemen
13 Millionen Jemeniten sind durch den Krieg auf Unterstützung angewiesen, viele hungern oder fliehen. Die Staaten haben erst ein Sechstel der benötigten Hilfe finanziert.
Die Krise im Jemen verschärfe sich, "aber sie erhält nicht die Aufmerksamkeit, die sie verdient", beklagte der Manager der UN-Nothilfebehörde, John Ging, am Dienstag in New York. "In den vergangenen Monaten hat sich die Zahl der Spender für die humanitäre Hilfe für die Menschen im Jemen schockierend verringert." Die Staaten hätten erst ein Sechstel der benötigten 1,8 Milliarden Dollar (1,6 Milliarden Euro) eingezahlt.
Während unter anderem die USA, Großbritannien, die Europäische Union und Japan schon Geld überwiesen hätten, sei beispielsweise vom Nachbarland Saudi-Arabien in diesem Jahr noch nichts gekommen. In dem seit 2014 vom Bürgerkrieg zerrütteten Land sei jeder zweite Bürger etwa 13 Millionen Menschen auf Hilfsleistungen angewiesen und 2,5 Millionen seien zu Flüchtlingen geworden. 7,6 Millionen Menschen hätten bei weitem nicht genug zu essen und seien nur noch "einen Schritt" von einer Hungersnot entfernt, sagte Ging nach seiner Reise in das Bürgerkriegsland.
17.5.2016 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (* B H)
OCHA Operations Director warns of consequences of shockingly low funding for Yemen humanitarian crisis, which demands urgent international attention
After a three-day joint visit to Yemen by OCHA, WHO and WFP, John Ging, Director of Operations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, today drew urgent attention to the desperate humanitarian situation in Yemen, which continues to deteriorate more than a year after the conflict escalated.
Since mid-March 2015, the conflict has prompted a widening protection crisis, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation brought on by years of poverty, poor governance and instability, leaving more than 13 million Yemenis in need of immediate, life-saving humanitarian assistance.
“Millions of people in Yemen are in increasingly dire need of assistance,” warned Mr. Ging, pointing out that food and nutrition, insecurity and access to healthcare are among the most critical areas of need. “People are dying of preventable illnesses because of the limited availability of even the most basic medical supplies.” Over 7.6 million people are severely food insecure, and 2.5 million people have been displaced by violent conflict since January 2014. “The continued conflict, months of limited imports of essential supplies, and rapidly deteriorating basic services are deepening humanitarian needs,” Mr. Ging told media in New York.
Last year the humanitarian community delivered vital assistance to 8.8 million women, children and men across the country despite severe restrictions on humanitarian movement and on-going conflict, making all humanitarian support, including the transportation of goods, difficult and often dangerous.
During the visit, Mr. Ging, with the Emergency Director of WHO, Rick Brennan, and the Deputy Emergency Director of WFP, Gian Carlo Cirri, visited a food distribution site in Amran, a small city in western central Yemen where a high number of internally displaced people are living in very difficult conditions as a result of the crisis. “Seeing the plight of the Yemeni people first hand reinforces the need for national and international humanitarian actors to scale up their response to protect and support the population,” he said.
Commending national and international humanitarian organizations for their exhaustive and brave work under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator, Jamie McGoldrick, John Ging noted that, “Yemen is one of the most acute humanitarian crises in the world, and the courageous and impressive work of the humanitarian staff is truly inspiring.”
Mr. Ging made a crucial appeal to the parties of the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians and civilian needs, and to swiftly enable unhindered humanitarian access so that humanitarian actors have sustained, unhindered and safe access to all people in need, particularly in the governorates of Taizz, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Aden and Al Jawf. “The people of Yemen must be at the centre of this response, and our collective duty is to protect them and provide them with food, health, shelter and other vital support,” said Mr. Ging.
To the donor community, Mr. Ging appealed for an urgent increase in attention and support for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires US$1.8 billion to reach over 13 million people this year, but remains shockingly underfunded at only 16 per cent.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/ocha-operations-director-warns-consequences-shockingly-low-funding-yemen-humanitarian and as PDF: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/OCHA%20Press%20Release_John%20Ging%20on%20Yemen_17May2016.pdf and press conference, film: http://webtv.un.org/media/watch/john-ging-ocha-on-his-recent-trip-to-yemen-press-conference/4898055042001
Comment by Dr. Karim: In which US, UK backed Saudi-led co war and blockade played a crucial role...
https://twitter.com/StopDestroyYem/status/732876699893895168
17.5.2016 – MONA Relief (* A H)
Yemen Ramadan Appeal: An Open Letter from 'Mona Relief Organization'
To Whom it may concern,
Dear Sir or Madam,
I trust this message finds you well. I am writing to you on behalf of the Mona Relief Organization, whose interests my office represents.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the work the Mona Relief Organization (www.monarelief.org) has carried out in Yemen.
A Yemen-based NGO, the Mona Relief Organization has, for the past year, run against Saudi Arabia’s blockade, determined to bring hope and humanitarian aid, to those brave souls who have withstood Riyadh’s aggression.
I don’t need to tell you of the horrors and infamies the kingdom perpetrated against Yemen in the name of control, and imperialism. But beyond this neo-imperial war lies an agenda few have dared speak of: religious genocide. Northern Yemen has been targeted for its religious tradition: Zaidism, has stood in opposition of Wahhabism.
Under Riyadh’s orders Yemen has been blockaded, and isolated – its people have been made to starve under the patronage of the United Nations, and Western powers, so that the Resistance, led by AnsarAllah could be destroyed.
Yemen faces a genocide because millions of its people have remained true to the oath of allegiance, they long ago gave to our Imam Ali. It is because Yemen has walked in the footsteps of our beloved Imams that the House of Saud is attempting today to annihilate an entire people. Today I seek help where I know it will be offered.
While Yemenis are strong, and resilient, they cannot possibly defeat this evil alone. They should not have to either.
The Mona Relief Organization has worked tirelessly to bring humanitarian aid to those areas most affected by war. Its volunteers have defied air raids, Saudi-bought mercenaries, and al-Qaeda militants to reach cut off communities and stand true to their duty of care.
Because the Mona Relief Organization has time and time again refused foreign patronage, foreign funding and foreign infiltration, the organization has solely relied on outside donations.
My office, Veritas-Consulting has campaigned and raised funds so that Yemenis could get the help they so deserve.
I will kindly ask you today to consider allowing us to run an advert on your website so that people will learn of Yemen’s plight.
Press TV has already stood by Yemen by allowing for the truth to shine forth. I am asking you today to call on your viewers and your readers to donate to the Mona Relief Organization.
We are looking for powerful, and generous sponsors, we need your support.
I would ask you as well to consider allowing a short video appeal to be aired on your network ahead of Ramadan.
I understand that my request is rather unconventional, but we are not living conventional times. We are living unjust times, and our faith is being targeted. It is in such times of hardship that we ought to draw closer together, and stand for, and by each other. I understand the extent of my request, but Yemen requires drastic actions on our parts.
Before you answer I beg you to consider the millions of lives which quite literally are dependent on your help.
Feel free to get in touch with whatever questions you may have.
Sincerely, Catherine Shakdam
Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, Director and Founder of Veritas-Consulting
Political analyst & Commentator for the Middle East
http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-east-west-asia/archive/2016/05/17/754786/story.html and https://www.gofundme.com/savealifeinyemen
17.5.2016 – AP / USA Today (** B H)
The ‘untouchables’ of Yemen caught in crossfire of war
They are Yemen’s untouchables.
They call themselves the “Muhammasheen,” or “the Marginalized,” a dark-skinned ethnic group that for centuries has been consigned to the bottom of Yemen’s social scale
In a country where belonging to a tribe is vital to guaranteeing protection, status and livelihood, their community — which some estimates say numbers nearly 3 million people — is without a tribe and ignored by the government.
As a result, they have been hit particularly hard in Yemen’s civil war.
Their neighborhoods have been pounded both by coalition airstrikes and Houthi shelling, shattering their makeshift homes cobbled together from sheets of metal, cardboard and blankets.
Many have been thrown into a state of constant displacement, with no one to take them in. Some tell of fleeing from strikes by one side, only to be hit again by another of the many factions and combatants in the conflict. Yemeni groups distributing humanitarian aid ignore them, they say.
In 2014, UNICEF conducted a survey of more than 9,000 Marginalized families in the city of Taiz, site of one of their largest communities. It found high levels of poverty and low levels of education, all far worse than national averages. Only half the children were in school, 80 percent of the adults and nearly 52 percent of 10-14-year-olds were illiterate. More than half the children under 1 year old had not been immunized.
Buthaina al-Iryani, social protection specialist at UNICEF, said that the agency distributes cash to the families of the Marginalized in Sanaa and Taiz due to their urgent needs. But she acknowledged, “This is a drop in the ocean.”
Now after a year of war, they have completely fallen off the social hierarchy.
More than ever, begging has become their only source of revenue. Barefoot children with matted hair, faces covered in dust, are seen sleeping on streets while their mothers cloaked in black extend their hands to pedestrians, begging for money.
“The humanitarian situation is miserable,” said Noaman al-Houzifi, the head of the National Union of the Marginalized. While others have tribes or wealthy relatives to help or host them if they have to flee their homes, “for the Marginalized, they have nothing.”
He and other Marginalized activists say local operators distributing humanitarian aid pass them over.
At hospitals, Marginalized wounded in fighting are often not given beds or treatment and are left to die, she said. “As if they are animals. Even animals have rights.” – by Ahmed Al-Haj and Maggie Michael, AP http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/05/17/untouchables-yemen-caught-crossfire-war/84478382/
16.5.2016 – Reuters (* B H)
Pregnant in a war zone: What are your choices?
In Yemen women give birth in caves to avoid air strikes, in war-torn Syria child marriages are increasing, while in eastern Ukraine, where conflict has been raging for two years, domestic violence is rising, aid agencies have been reporting.
Even though these scenarios are typical of the hardships faced by women in conflict zones or disasters, too little is being done to address their needs beyond providing them with the most basic humanitarian aid.
Numerous studies have shown women in need of aid because of conflict or disaster are more vulnerable to sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, he said.
An UNFPA report last December said more than 500 women a day die from complications arising from pregnancy and child birth in countries facing conflict or disaster.
"Even in peaceful times, it can be difficult to become a mother. But in a war zone, on a boat with smugglers, or in a refugee camp, being pregnant is truly daunting," Osotimehin, a physician and former Nigerian minister of health, said.
n Yemen, where war has been raging for more than a year, Medecins Sans Frontiers said in February that pregnant women had been seeking shelter in caves to give birth rather than risk going to a hospital – by Astrid Zweynert
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-conflict-idUSKCN0Y719K
15.5.2016 – World Food Programme (A H)
Yemen Market Situation Update - April 2016
In April 2016, further deterioration of availability of basic food commodities were reported from several governorates mainly due to scarcity of fuel that affected transportation of goods and movements of traders. The level of food and fuel imports in March 2016 was the lowest since October 2015. Governorates including Taiz, Sa'ada, Hajja, Shabwa, Marib, Al Jawf, Sana'a and Al Bayda were among the most affected in terms of poor supply of commodities in local markets.
• The national average price of wheat flour was 12% higher than the pre-crisis period (ranging from 4% in Amran to 70% in Taiz). Average price of red beans were 30% higher than pre-crisis (ranging from 12% in Hajja to 99% in Shabwa). Prices of other food items were also more than the pre-crisis levels in most of the governorates.
• The national average price of fuel remained to be over 50% higher than pre-crisis period - during the reporting period, average price of diesel increased by 35%, price of petrol rose by 55% and that of cooking gas by 65% compared to the pre-crisis levels. The prices of fuel in Taiz continued to be the highest due to the ongoing active conflict while lowest prices recorded in Al Mahra.
• The poor supply of essential food and non-food commodities coupled with severely reduced income levels due to disruption of livelihoods during the conflict as well as the impact of the devaluation of Yemeni Riyal against US Dollar are expected to worsen the precarious food security situation of millions of vulnerable population in Yemen
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-market-situation-update-april-2016 and in full: http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yemen_market_situation_update_-_april_2016.pdf
15.5.2016 – World Food Programme etc. (A H)
Yemen - Emergency Food Assistance: Total number of Beneficiaries Targeted/Reached by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Partners - April 2016
Total Number of Beneficiaries in need of Emergency Food Assistance 7.6 M
Total Number of Beneficiaries Reached 3.6 M
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yem_fsc_foodcv_gap_april2016_a3l.pdf
15.5.2016 – World Food Programme etc. (A H)
Yemen - Emergency Livelihood (Agriculture Livelihood) Assistance: Total number of Beneficiaries Targeted/Reached by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Partners - April 2016
Total Number of Beneficiaries in need of Emergency Livelihoods Assistance 700,000
Total Number of Beneficiaries Reached 107,774
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yem_fsc_op_liveliagrigap_april2016.pdf
15.5.2016 – World Food Programme etc. (A H)
Yemen - Livelihood Restoration (Agriculture Livelihood) Assistance: Total number of Beneficiaries Targeted/Reached by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster Partners - April 2016
Total Number of Beneficiaries in need of Livelihoods Restoration Assistance 500,000 M - Total Number of Beneficiaries Reached 0
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/yem_fsc_opliveliresgap_april2016.pdf
15.5.2016 – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (A H)
Infographic: Yemen, Sa'ada: 3W Humanitarian Presence (as of 21 April 2016)
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/3w_saada_april_2016_v2.pdf
cp4 Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
1982 – Archnet (* B)
Earthquakes: The Vulnerability of Traditional Buildings in the Yemen
The recent earthquake has shown the vulnerability of the traditional buildings and has raised questions concerning the future of building in the Yemen. This paper describes the alien influences arriving after the revolution of 1962. It compares the traditional buildings with thick walls and roofs, suited to the climate, with the imported thin-walled versions. The philosophy of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at that time is stated, and the efforts of the UNDP personnel assigned to the Ministry of Public Works to adopt a more sympathetic approach is described. The earthquake disaster is bringing in bilateral aid, but if the wrong types of rapid-aid programmes are introduced, it could be the end of the Yemeni traditions. This paper suggests criteria for taking account of the climate and the traditional patterns in building new structures, for allowing public participation and for encouraging self-reliance. The longer-term aim must be in the improvement of traditional techniques together with the application of appropriate technology. Only in this way will the Yemeni tradition survive – by Derek Matthews
http://archnet.org/system/publications/contents/3611/original/DPC0191.pdf?1384775752
Comment: In 1982 Yemen experienced an earthquake of 6.0 Richter scale magnitude with epicentre in Dhamar. In the light of the tremors of today, we want to share this important document on 'The Vulnerability of Traditional Buildings in the Yemen' written in the 80s soon after the earthquake. It unfortunately well applies also in consideration of the continuous bombings on our land.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1026771157375914&id=961126490607048
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
16.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A E)
No one is willing to admit corruption of some Houthi backed sharks feeding off misery of the ppl..and making millions.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732180986713247744
15.5.2016 – Nasser Arrabyee (A P)
Yemen acting President Houthi chaired today in Sanaa a meeting with the cabinet4discussing national urgent issues
https://twitter.com/narrabyee/status/731910986815406087
Comment: Just to see that the Houthis have formed their own government.
cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government
17.5.2016 – Reuters (A T)
Al Qaeda says targeted senior Yemeni army commander: recording
Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last week that killed eight people and wounded a senior army commander in the eastern part of the country in an internet posting on Tuesday.
Khaled Batarfi, an al Qaeda leader who was freed from prison last year when Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seized Mukalla, also criticized the United Arab Emirates over its role in freeing the Hadramout provincial capital from the militants.
General Abdul-Rahman al-Halili, commander of Yemen's First Military Region which has its headquarters in the city of Seyoun, was wounded last week when a suicide bomber targeted his convoy while he was on a trip to inspect his forces in the Wad Hadramout area.
Batarfi, speaking in an audio recording about a campaign that forced al Qaeda from Mukalla last month, said his group had chosen "to fight the enemy as we want, not as he wants".
"As such, God has facilitated for us to target the commander of the First Military Region in Hadramout and to target Zubaidi and Shalal in Aden," Batarfi said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-alqaeda-idUSKCN0Y81T9
16.5.2016 – Al Arabiya (A P)
Why target Yemen's Mukalla?
The legitimate Yemeni government considers Mukalla a very important city. Oil and gas pipelines are connected to it from the regions of Marib and Jawf. It has experts in trade and export operations.
Above all, it is distant from Houthi influence and that of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, unlike Aden which suffers more problems.
For all these reasons, Mukalla can be a practical ‘capital’ of the legitimate Yemeni government. It generates the money required to manage internal affairs, to work in commerce, and to establish a political and civil basis that tempts Yemenis to follow suit within the context of legitimacy – by Mshari Al Thaydi
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/05/16/Why-target-Mukalla-.html
16.5.2016 – Reuters (A T)
Story on bombing in Yemen's Mukalla on Monday withdrawn
The Reuters story at 1046 GMT on a suicide bombing in the Yemeni city of Mukalla on Monday is withdrawn. The local military command says no such attack took place, and residents have retracted their account.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-blast-idUSKCN0Y713D
Comment: The following links report this bombing. Really strange.
16.5.2016 – NWZ (A T)
Terrorgruppen nutzen Machtvakuum
Am Montag habe sich ein Attentäter auf einem Motorrad vor einem Armeekontrollpunkt ebenfalls in Mukalla in die Luft gesprengt, teilten Augenzeugen und Sicherheitsquellen mit. Demnach starben dabei fünf Soldaten, vier weitere wurden verletzt.
http://www.nwzonline.de/politik/terrorgruppen-nutzen-machtvakuum_a_31,0,351935762.html
Kommentar: nach Reuters (s. o.) Falschmeldung.
16.5.2016 – Reuters (A T)
Suicide bombing hits southern Yemen city of Mukalla: residents
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a security headquarters in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Monday, residents said, killing and wounding several people a day after an Islamic State suicide bombing killed 25 police recruits there.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-blast-idUSKCN0Y713D
16.5.2016 – Al Araby (A P)
Yemen city bans Qat five days a week
Authorities in Aden have limited the trading in the mild psychotropic plant to two days a week, citing security and social concerns.
Security authorities in Aden, south Yemen, have issued a decision to ban the entry and selling of the Qat plant into the city for five days a week.
The plant is commonly chewed and is said to produce a feeling of mild euphoria. It is a popular drug in Yemen, with some estimating that 40 percent of the country's water supply goes towards irrigating the plant.
According to a circulated document issued by security forces in the city, the entry and trade of Qat in Aden will be outlawed, except for Thursdays and Fridays.
The document said that the move was due to the damage to health and society caused by the chewing of the plant, and the move was being made in the interest of Aden's "security and stability".
It also said that the selling of qat caused traffic congestion and prevented security forces from carrying out their duties.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/5/16/yemen-city-bans-qat-five-days-a-week
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
17.5.2016 – UN Envoy to Yemen (A P)
I reiterate that all parties fully recognize United Nations Security Council resolution 2216 (2015) and the issue of legitimacy.
https://twitter.com/OSESGY/status/732654204037300226
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Can't say I envy UN Envoy every night tweeting to correct/clarify inflammatory tweets by delegates during day
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732663044086566912
Comment by Haykal Bafana: Political legitimacy in law comes from elections, not approval by Western & regional powers. Yemen needs elections.
https://twitter.com/BaFana3/status/732655107997831168
Comment by Ibrahim: Legitimacy is such a fluffy and double edged term. Ali Saleh was the legitimate president when so called revolution happened.
https://twitter.com/Doc_Yemen/status/732787306910781440
Comment by me: Dear UN envoy, this is the most effective way to kill the peace talks (see also below).
17.5.2016 – NZZ von dpa (A P)
Regierungsdelegation bricht Friedensverhandlungen ab
Die jemenitische Regierungsdelegation hat die Friedensgespräche für das Bürgerkriegsland unterbrochen. Die Regierungsvertreter hätten eine Sitzung mit Vertretern der verfeindeten Huthi-Rebellen und dem Uno-Vermittler Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed verlassen, hiess es am Dienstag in Kuwait-Stadt aus Delegationskreisen.
Demnach begründeten die Regierungsvertreter ihren Schritt damit, dass die Huthi-Rebellen aus ihrer Sicht die Grundlagen der Verhandlungen nicht akzeptierten. Einer Uno-Resolution zufolge müssten die Huthis sich aus allen eroberten Gebieten zurückziehen.
Kommentar: So etwas war zu erwarten. Die Hadi-Seite bekommt ihre Forderungen nicht erfüllt und bricht ab. Daran werden die Verhandlungen auch endgültig scheitern. Die Hadi-Regierung besteht auf ihrem Alleinvertretungsanspruch als einzige „legitime“ Regierung. Die Möglichkeit dazu haben ihm die bestimmenden Mächte im UN-Sicherheitsrat mit der UN Resolution 2216 gegeben. Diese fordert die de facto-Kapitulation der Houthis. Selbstmord kann für diese freilich keine Lösung sein. So wird der Konflikt weiter gehen – weil der „Westen“ mit dieser Resolution eine Ungleichheit der Kriegsparteien im Jemen vorgegeben hat, die ein Ende des Konflikts in Form einer friedlichen Regelung nicht zulässt.
18.5.2016 – Zeit Online (* A P)
Die von der UN vermittelten Friedensgespräche zwischen Jemens Regierung und den Huthi-Rebellen wurden unterdessen ausgesetzt. Jemens Außenminister Abdulmalek al-Michlafi forderte die Rebellen am Dienstag zur Unterzeichnung eines Dokuments auf, ohne das die Regierung nicht weiterverhandeln werde. Darin sollen sich die Rebellen zur Umsetzung der Resolution 2216 des UN-Sicherheitsrats bekennen, die die Rebellen zum Rückzug aus eroberten Gebieten auffordert.
Die Huthis weigerten sich, Präsident Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi anzuerkennen, und verlangten die Bildung einer neuen Regierung unter ihrer Beteiligung. Zuletzt hatte sich UN-Vermittler Ould Cheikh Ahmedverhalten optimistisch gezeigt. "Wir machen Fortschritte, aber sehr langsam", sagte er am Samstag.
"Wenn die Rebellen nicht unterzeichnen, sind die Verhandlungen reine Zeitverschwendung", sagte Außenminister Michlafi. Nach fast vier Wochen Gesprächen seien "keine Fortschritte" zu verzeichnen; im Gegenteil: Die Rebellen benutzten die Verhandlungen bloß dazu, ihre Kräfte zu ordnen und sich Waffen zu beschaffen. Seine Delegation werde noch bis Samstag am Verhandlungsort in Kuwait-Stadt bleiben und dann über eine Abreise entscheiden. Er appellierte an die internationale Gemeinschaft, die Gespräche wieder in Gang zu bringen.
Ein Huthi-Sprecher wies die Vorwürfe des Außenministers zurück. Präsident Hadi sei für die Lage im Jemen verantwortlich, sagte Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnomi.
Kommentar: Hier noch mehr Details. Es geht darum, von den Huthis ultimativ die Kapitulation zu verlangen. Das ist es, was sich die Hadi-Regierung in aller Naivität von den Friedensgesprächen erhofft hat. Daran scheitern sie jetzt. Hauptschuld tragen die UN und der „Westen“, der die unsägliche einseitige Resolution 2216 durchgedrückt hat und immer noch nicht davon abrückt.
17.5.2016 – Pars Today (A P PH)
Kuwait: Ergebnislose Jemen-Verhandlungen
Die Jemen-Friedensverhandlungen am gestrigen Montag in Kuwait sind ergebnislos zu Ende gegangen.
al-Mayadeen zufolge betonte die jemenitische Delegation ihr Festhalten an einer politischen Einigung als Beginn einer umfassenden Lösung und der Festigung des Waffenstillstandes.
Die den zurückgetretenen und geflüchteten Präsidenten Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi vertretende Delegation forderte Maßnahmen zur Vertrauensbildung wie zum Beispiel die Niederlegung der Waffen und den Rückzug aus den Städten.
Der UN-Sondergesandte für den Jemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, schlug die Rückkehr von Hadi vor, was allerdings den Protest der jemenitischen Delegation zur Folge hatte
http://parstoday.com/de/news/middle_east-i7567-kuwait_ergebnislose_jemen_verhandlungen
17.5.2016 – Reuters (* A P)
Yemeni government suspends participation in peace talks, demands guarantees
The Yemeni government on Tuesday suspended its participation in U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait and said it would only return if its opponents, the Houthis, committed to withdraw from cities they have seized since 2014 and hand over weapons.
A wide gap still separates the Iran-allied Houthis and the Western-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after nearly a month of peace talks in Kuwait intended to end a year of war that has killed more than 6,200 people, half of them civilians.
The talks center on government demands for the Houthis to hand over their weapons and quit cities captured since 2014 and the formation of a new government that would include the Houthis.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi said the government delegation had decided to suspend its participation in the consultations after the Houthis informed them they did not recognize Hadi's legitimacy.
"We will not return until we get a letter from them that commits them to the U.N. Security Council resolutions, the Gulf initiative and the outcome of the (national) dialogue ... the issue of legitimacy is not subject to discussion," Mekhlafi told a news conference in Kuwait city.
"If they do not make such a commitment, then there is no point for these talks to continue and as such they (the Houthis) bear responsibility," he said.
Osama Sari, an activist in the Houthi group, said the government's decision to suspend its participation in the peace talks had "unmasked its bad intentions".
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Cairo, Writing by Sami Aboudi, editing by Gareth Jones)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-talks-idUSKCN0Y82FE
17.5.2016 – AFP (* A P)
Yemen government suspends participation in peace talks
Yemen's government suspended its participation in talks with Iran-backed rebels Tuesday for the second time this month, the foreign minister said, in a new setback to the UN-backed peace process.
Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said on Twitter that the Huthi Shiite militia which controls the capital had "torpedoed the talks completely," by backtracking on their commitments after a month of negotiations.
"I have asked the UN envoy not to allow the rebels to waste any more time... and to make them comply with the reference issues before we resume the talks," said Mikhlafi, who heads the government delegation.
A statement by the government delegation said it would continue to boycott the talks until the rebels comply with the agreed references.
It also urged the international community to apply pressure on the rebels to implement international resolutions to end the war and held them responsible for obstructing the peace negotiations.
The statement blamed the Huthis of destroying the country's economy, refusing to respect the ceasefire and to implement UN Security Council resolutions.
In particular the government wants the Huthis to comply with a UN Security Council resolution ordering them to pull out of territory they occupied in a 2014 offensive and surrender heavy arms they captured.
Sources close to the government and rebel delegations confirmed to AFP that a session scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning was cancelled after the government delegation withdrew.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-government-suspends-participation-peace-talks and by Al Araby: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/5/17/standstill-in-yemen-peace-talks-as-government-withdraws-again and by Pro-Iranian Tasnim News: http://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2016/05/17/1077962/pro-hadi-delegation-suspends-participation-in-yemen-talks
Comment: Something like that was to happen. The Hadi government wants to keep up or to enforce their claim of exclusive legitimacy and the capitulation of the Houthis. For the Houthis, that would be suicide they never will accept. It is mainly the western political interference – having installed and hold up UN resolution 2216 – creating a total imbalance and thus effectively killing every peace talks. The only way could be all new all parties’ government, onto which all “legitimacy” has to be bestowed.
17.5.2016 – Khaleej Times (A T)
Tackle Al Qaeda, Daesh in Yemen
The yearlong war in Yemen is entering a decisive phase, as new dynamics are emerging in the region. Peace talks in Kuwait and Geneva to address the Yemeni and Syrian issues, respectively, have made some progress. But the ground realities in Iraq are in a flux where Daesh is on the loose. The need of the hour is to work closely on the vision spelt out by Saudi Foreign Minister Abel Al Jubeir, who said that the priority is no longer to wage a war against the Houthis but to fight Al Qaeda and Daesh. He has a point.
The Houthis can be dealt through a dialogue process, provided Iran's meddling comes to an end. But Daesh and Qaeda are too deadly to be spared for another day. Their resurgence in Yemen cannot be overlooked, and they need to be contained. Jubeir's statement is evidence of a change in the situation on the ground in Yemen, and the threat is real and lethal.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/tackle-al-qaeda-daesh-in-yemen
Comment: The new Saudi politics or propaganda, as stated by Saudi foreign minister Jubair.
16.5.2016 – Diplomatic Courier (* A P)
The Self-Imposed Exile that Can Save Yemen – by Asher Orkaby
http://www.diplomaticourier.com/self-imposed-exile-can-save-yemen/
16.5.2016 – Fars News (* A K P)
Analyst Discloses Saudi Arabia's Dangerous Proposal for Dissolving Yemeni Army
A senior political analyst said the political stances of UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed prevented peace talks in Kuwait to proceed as the Riyadh delegation to the negotiations proposed the dissolution of Yemen's army.
"The Riyadh delegation has demanded withdrawal of the popular forces from the cities and surrendering their weapons which is not logical," Yemeni Political Commentator Majed al-Qazali told FNA on Monday.
He, meantime, said that the biased stances adopted by Sheikh Ahmed have made solution of Yemen's crisis to weaken and fade away.
"The political stances of the UN special envoy are corresponding to those of Saudi Arabia and the US and this prevents progress in the talks," al-Qazali said.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950227001434
Comment by Judith Brown: The news from Yemen gets more bizarre every day. Are the Saudis really going to disband the Yemen army and if so, which part - the Saleh part or the Saudi paid Yemen army? They can hardly disband the ones who are on Saleh's side as they are currently fighting against them and they haven't blur rendered to.p them. Or are they planning to disband the ones whom they are currently funding to fight the Houthi Saleh alliance? They are getting rather cash strapped.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154361676803641
Comment: No wonder nobody can understand anything more, as both sides use an inaccurate propaganda wording. So what? Here: “Riyadh delegation” is the Saudi backed Hadi government delegation; the Saudis themselves do not take part in the peace talks. The Hadi side is speaking of “Saleh militia”, thus demanding them withdraw and surrender heavy weapons like they demand this from the Houthis. But there is no “Saleh militia”, actually this is the greater part of the Yemeni army which stayed loyal to ex-president Saleh. Thus, Qazali is right when saying that the Hadi government’s claims are absurd. Demanding the surrender of the greater part of the regular Yemeni army, just because of their own propaganda wording.
16.5.2016 – Reuters (* A K P)
Islamist militants exploit chaos as combatants pursue peace in Yemen
Islamic State efforts to exploit chaos may have brought Saudi-backed forces and Iran-allied Houthis tentatively closer at peace talks in Yemen's civil war, but a deal seems unlikely in time to avert collapse into armed, feuding statelets.
If the parties seize the opportunity, an unlikely new status quo may reign by which Houthis and Saudis depend on each other for peace.
"This could mean a massive re-ordering of Yemen's political structure, and the conflict so far has already produced some strange bedfellows," said Adam Baron, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Unlike with Libya and Syria, representatives of Yemen's warring sides meet daily in Kuwait and argue over how to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions and share power.
But while keeping Yemen's parties talking for this long was an accomplishment, getting them to live together in Sanaa and share power remains a distant dream.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi accused the Houthis of resisting a U.N. Security Council Resolution from last April to disarm and vacate main cities.
"There is a wide gap in the debate, we are discussing the return of the state ... they are thinking only of power and demanding a consensual government," he told Reuters.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said on his facebook page: "The solution in Yemen must be consensual political dialogue and not imposing diktats or presenting terms of surrender, this is unthinkable."
But a diplomatic source in Kuwait said that through the fog of rhetoric, a general outline of a resolution has been reached.
"There is an agreement on the withdrawal from the cities and the (Houthi) handover of weapons, forming a government of all parties and preparing for new elections. The dispute now only centers around where to begin," the source said.
All parties will be aware the danger of a collapse into feuding statelets is growing – by Mohammed Ghobary and Noah Browning
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-talks-idUSKCN0Y71H8
16.5.2016 – National Yemen (A P)
UN Envoy: the Coming Days are “Crucial” Envoy Close Up
The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh, has called on the Yemeni parties involved in the current peace consultations in Kuwait to make concessions in order to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis.
At a press conference he held after Sunday’s morning session of consultations, Ould Cheikh confirmed that the Yemeni parties involved in the talks have reached an agreement to release half of all prisoners before the holy month of Ramadan.
He added that the Kuwait consultations are ongoing and are based on three principles – the Gulf initiative, outcomes of the national dialogue and Security Council resolution 2216.
Ould Cheikh stressed the coming days are “crucial for Yemen” and that the United Nations will make every effort to urge all those concerned with Yemeni affairs to comply with their national and humanitarian duties.
On his part, Yemeni Minister of Tourism Muammar Al-Iryani said regional forces, Iranian specifically, are working to provoke sectarian strife in Yemen.
Al-Iryani confirmed in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that rumors about the formation of a new government or authority “are unrealistic,” pointing out that the legitimate president of Yemen, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, was elected by the people in free and democratic elections.
http://nationalyemen.com/2016/05/16/un-envoy-the-coming-days-are-crucial-envoy-close-up/
Comment: The Yemeni minister’s statement about Hadi’s legitimacy is rather odd. He had been elected by the people for two years – this term starting February 25, 2012. 1. Class math please!!
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
17.5.2016 – Democracy Now (** B K P)
Chomsky: Saudi Arabia is the "Center of Radical Islamic Extremism" Now Spreading Among Sunni Muslims
AMY GOODMAN: Part 2 of our conversation with world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author, Noam Chomsky, institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he’s taught for more than half a century. His latest book, Who Rules the World? I asked him to talk about Saudi Arabia’s role in the Middle East.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, there’s a long history. The basic—we don’t have a lot of time, but the basic story is that the United States, like Britain before it, has tended to support radical Islamism against secular nationalism. That’s been a consistent theme of imperial strategy for a long time. Saudi Arabia is the center of radical Islamic extremism. Patrick Cockburn, one of the best commentators and most knowledgeable commentators, has correctly pointed out that what he calls the Wahhibisation of Sunni Islam, the spread of Saudi extremist Wahhabi doctrine over Sunni Islam, the Sunni world, is one of the real disasters of modern—of the modern era. It’s a source of not only funding for extremist radical Islam and the jihadi outgrowths of it, but also, doctrinally, mosques, clerics and so on, schools, you know, madrassas, where you study just Qur’an, is spreading all over the huge Sunni areas from Saudi influence. And it continues.
Saudi Arabia itself has one of the most grotesque human rights records in the world. The ISIS beheadings, which shock everyone—I think Saudi Arabia is the only country where you have regular beheadings. That’s the least of it. Women have no—can’t drive, so on and so forth. And it is strongly backed by the United States and its allies, Britain and France. Reason? It’s got a lot of oil. It’s got a lot of money. You can sell them a lot of arms, I think tens of billions of dollars of arms. And the actions that it’s carrying out, for example, in Yemen, which you mentioned, are causing an immense humanitarian catastrophe in a pretty poor country, also stimulating jihadi terrorism, naturally, with U.S. and also British arms. French are trying to get into it, as well. This is a very ugly story.
Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia itself, its economy—its economy is based not only on a wasting resource, but a resource which is destroying the world. There’s reports now that it’s trying to take some steps to—much belated steps; should have been 50 years ago—to try to diversify the economy. It does have resources that are not destructive, like sunlight, for example, which could be used, and is, to an extent, being used for solar power. But it’s way too late and probably can’t be done. But it’s a—it has been a serious source of major global problems—a horrible society in itself, in many ways—and the U.S. and its allies, and Britain before it, have stimulated these radical Islamist developments throughout the—throughout the Islamic world for a long time.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think Obama has dealt with Saudi Arabia any differently than President Bush before him?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Not in any way that I can see, no. Maybe in nuances.
http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16217
16.5.2016 – ABNA (* A K P)
Zaria Massacre: Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Nigerian President Buhari
If the Saudi regime agreed that “Houthis are Yemenis and are our neighbors with whom one can hold talks” then why not hold talks from the beginning? Why did the Saudi regime assembled a coalition to attack Yemen that included 10 Arab regimes and Senegal from Africa combined with massive supports from the US and UK? Why did the Saudi regime spent more than 100 billion Dollars for the aggression against Yemen if it knows that talks can solve disagreements? And why did the Saudi-led coalition killed close to 10,000 Yemeni civilians and destroyed the country’s infrastructures and historical sites if talks and negotiations from the beginning can resolve the disagreements?
The right conclusion is that the Saudi regime assumed this new position due to its gross failure to realize its objectives through the war it imposed on Yemen, its present pathetic financial state and the growing discontent and dissent in Saudi Arabia. It is an open secret that the Saudi and its allied forces fought alongside AlQaeda and ISIS in Yemen against the brave and courageous Houthi freedom fighters but now they claimed they want to concentrate on the fight against Al-Qaeda and ISIS so as to give the US the pretext to station troops in Yemeni bases.
Then we will try to compare this Saudi behaviour with their attitude on the brutal Zaria massacre in #Nigeria by the Nigerian army that killed close to 1000 defenseless and unarmed Shia Muslims that included 100s of women and children. The first person to call the Nigerian President Buhari after the inhuman slaughter in Zaria was the Saudi king Salman who congratulated Buhari for a job well done and called the massacre “part of war against terrorism”. Then the Nigerian regime launched a massive smear campaigns of calumny and demonization against the peaceful Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) under the leadership of His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem #Zakzaky by desperately trying to link IMN with terrorism and making fraudulent claims that “IMN is more dangerous than #BokoHaram”!
It has now become clear to all Nigerians that the brutal Zaria massacre was an evil imperialist agenda that has the Saudi regime as front and that was why Western governments and their media are silent about it. And the picture is now clearer that the massacre was pre-planned and that the assassination claims was just a gimmick to justify the inhuman slaughter of women, children and the aged – by H. Elbinawi
http://en.abna24.com/service/africa/archive/2016/05/16/754646/story.html = http://en.shafaqna.com/news/33205 and see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Zaria_massacre
cp9 USA
17.5.2016 – The Hill (* A P)
Senate passes bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia
The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, defying vocal opposition from the White House.
The upper chamber approved the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by unanimous consent.
"This bill is very near and dear to my heart as a New Yorker because it would allow the victims of 9/11 to pursue some small measure of justice," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "[This is] another example of the [John] Cornyn-Schumer collaboration, which works pretty well around here."
President Obama has threatened to veto the bill. Schumer said he wouldn’t uphold a veto, and expects that most senators wouldn't, either.
"I think we easily get the two-thirds override if the president should veto," Schumer said.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest reiterated Obama's opposition to the bill on Tuesday.
“Given the concerns we have expressed, it’s difficult to imagine the president signing this legislation,” Earnest said.
The bill would allow victims of terror attacks on U.S. soil or surviving family members to bring lawsuits against nation-states for activities supporting terrorism.
Despite bipartisan support for the legislation, it hit a snag last month when Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) said he was blocking the legislation over concerns it would open up the U.S. to lawsuits from foreigners accusing Washington of supporting terrorism.
But Graham's office said he dropped his hold over the recent recess. Cornyn thanked Graham and other GOP senators for "their willingness to work with us to deal with their concerns." – by Jordain Carney
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/280179-senate-passes-bill-allowing-9-11-victims-to-sue-saudi-arabia and by NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/us/politics/senate-passes-bill-that-would-expose-saudi-arabia-to-legal-jeopardy-over-9-11.html?_r=0
16.5.2016 – Bloomberg (* A E P)
U.S. Discloses Saudi Holdings of Treasuries for First Time
Kingdom held $116.8 billion as of March, Treasury data show
The Treasury Department released a breakdown of Saudi Arabia’s holdings of U.S. debt, after keeping the figures secret for more than four decades.
The stockpile of the world’s biggest oil exporter stood at $116.8 billion as of March, down almost 6 percent from a record in January, according to data the Treasury disclosed Monday in response to a Freedom-of-Information Act request submitted by Bloomberg News. The tally ranks Saudi Arabia among the top dozen foreign nations in terms of holdings of U.S. debt, and compares with China’s $1.3 trillion trove, and $1.1 trillion for Japan.
“The politics has always been secretive, so have their finances,” said David Ottaway, a Middle East Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a research institute in Washington. “It does answer the question of how much they own, which is surprisingly not that much.”
Yet the disclosure may bring more questions than answers, because Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserves amount to $587 billion, and central banks typically put about two-thirds of their coffers in dollars, according to International Monetary Fund data.
The special arrangement was a product of the 1973 oil shock following the Arab embargo. It’s among concessions that U.S. administrations made over the years to maintain America’s strategic relationship with the Saudi royal family and access to the kingdom’s oil reserves.
Following is a table of U.S. debt holdings of the oil-producing nations for which the Treasury released data Monday: – by Andrea Wong
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/u-s-discloses-saudi-arabia-s-treasuries-holdings-for-first-time and by CNBC http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/16/saudi-arabia-holds-117b-in-us-debt-report.html and by Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c1569904-1c14-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122.html#axzz48u9XRaNf
13.5.2016 – US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (A K P)
Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov
Transmittal No: 16-08
WASHINGTON, May 13, 2016 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the United Arab Emirates for AGM-114 R/K Hellfire Category III Missiles and equipment, training, and support. The estimated cost is $476 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on May 11, 2016.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has requested a possible sale of four-thousand (4,000) AGM-114 R/K Hellfire Missiles over the next three (3) years in increments of one-thousand (1,000) to one-thousand five-hundred (1,500) missiles. Also included in this possible sale are training and technical assistance. The total estimated value of MDE is $468 million. The overall total estimated value is $476 million.
This proposed sale will enhance the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a partner country, which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.
The proposed sale will improve the UAE’s capability to meet current and future threats and provide greater security for its critical infrastructure. The UAE will use the enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defense. UAE will have no difficulty absorbing these Hellfire missiles into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractor will be Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control in Dallas, Texas. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.
Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the United Arab Emirates.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.
This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.
All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.
http://dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/united-arab-emirates-agm-114-rk-hellfire-category-iii-missiles and uae_16-08.pdf
Comment by Stephen Snyder: UAE gets US approval to buy 4000 Hellfire missiles for helicopter and drone warfare. In #Yemen?
https://twitter.com/StephenProducer/status/732152041963978752
Comment: Helicopters definitely have bombed in Yemen.
12.5.2016 – Investors Business Daily (** A P)
Hillary’s Latest Scandal: She And Bill Siphoned $100 Mil From Mideast Leaders
Scandal: A new investigation reveals that Bill and Hillary Clinton took in at least $100 million from Middle East leaders. Can such a financially and ethically compromised candidate truly function as our nation’s leader?
The investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation has uncovered a disturbing pattern of the Clintons’ raising money for the Clinton Foundation from regimes that have checkered records on human rights and that aren’t always operating in the best interests of the U.S. By the way, the $100 million we mentioned above doesn’t appear to include another $30 million given to the Clintons by two Mideast-based foundations and four billionaire Saudis.
All told, it’s a lot of money.
“These regimes are buying access,” Patrick Poole, a national security analyst who regularly writes for PJ Media, told the DCNF. “You’ve got the Saudis. You’ve got the Kuwaitis, Oman, Qatar and the UAE (United Arab Emirates). There are massive conflicts of interest. It’s beyond comprehension.”
The question is an open one: Did the oil-rich Mideast nations give lavishly to the Clinton Foundation in an effort to influence future U.S. policy? And what about Bill Clinton’s business partnership with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s authoritarian ruler, from 2003 to 2008? Clinton took away some $15 million in “guaranteed payments” from the deal, his tax records show.
A picture of extraordinary greed is emerging from both Clintons in the years after they hold the highest posts in the U.S. government.
In just the past three years, after her stint as the nation’s top diplomat, Hillary Clinton spoke to dozens of deep-pocket firms on Wall Street, typically charging $250,000 a pop to hear her wit and wisdom — despite her bitter condemnations of Wall Street during her campaign.
All told, she took in an estimated $22 million from these speeches — an extraordinary amount, given the growing consensus among foreign-policy thinkers that Clinton was one of the worst secretaries of state ever.
12.5.2015 – The Daily Beast (** B P T)
The FBI Is Keeping 80,000 Secret Files on the Saudis and 9/11
The secret ‘28 pages’ are just the start. The FBI has another 80,000 classified documents, many of which deal with Saudi connections to the 9/11 terror plot. What’s the Bureau got?
In Florida, a federal judge is weighing whether to declassify portions of some 80,000 classified pages that could reveal far more about the hijackers’ Saudis connections and their activities in the weeks preceding the worst attack on U.S. soil.
The still-secret files speak to one of the strangest and most enduring mysteries of the 9/11 attacks. Why did the Saudi occupants of a posh house in gated community in Sarasota, Florida, suddenly vanish in the two weeks prior to the attacks? And had they been in touch with the leader of the operation, Mohamed Atta, and two of his co-conspirators?
No way, the FBI says, even though the bureau’s own agents did initially suspect the family was linked to some of the hijackers. On further scrutiny, those connections proved unfounded, officials now say.
But a team of lawyers and investigative journalists has found what they say is hard evidence pointing in the other direction.
The final answers about what really happened in Sarasota may lie somewhere in those 80,000 pages. To be sure, not all of them concern the FBI’s investigation of the Saudi family. The documents represent the entire case file of the 9/11 attacks at the Tampa field office. But some subset surely will reveal more about what the FBI knew, and when, and why it reached a different conclusion.
For the past two years, U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch has been going through the files, page by page, to determine what information that pertains to the Saudi case can be released.
As far as Christensen is concerned, the truth will out. But the FBI’s silence is telling.
Not to be content with just the 80,000 pages, though, Christensen has also been pressing to get those 28 pages from the congressional inquiry released. They have an appeal pending before the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, an obscure group within the National Archives that has the power to declassify the material, in whole or in part.
An Archives official wouldn’t comment on the appeal, except to say that the panel has yet to officially take it up. According to a public docket, the appeal was filed in July 2014.
President Obama could elect to declassify the pages himself. Or he could defer to the judgment of the panel. Doing so would give him some political cover. It would also allow the president to make good on his commitment to finally let the public see what those pages have to say – by Shane Harris
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
10.5.2016 – Vice News (* A K P)
UK Could Face Murder Charges Over Covert Drone Strikes, Say MPs
British ministers, intelligence officers, and drone pilots are at risk of criminal prosecution over their role in covert drone strikes abroad, said a parliamentary report published on Tuesday. It calls on the government to "urgently" clarify its legal position on drone strikes outside of war zones, after finding that a lack of clear policy may expose those involved to "criminal prosecution for murder or complicity in murder."
The inquiry by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) — a cross-party group of members of parliament — found that confusion reigns within the British government over the legal justification for assassinations outside of declared war zones. It follows revelations by VICE News last month that British intelligence helped direct lethal US drone strikes in Yemen for years.
The JCHR's report, titled "The Government's policy on the use of drones for targeted killing," notes that the defense secretary, in evidence given to the committee, demonstrated a "misunderstanding of the legal frameworks that apply" to the use of armed drones outside war zones.
"We owe it to all those involved in the chain of command for such uses of lethal force to provide them with absolute clarity about the circumstances in which they will have a defense against any possible future criminal prosecution, including those which might originate from outside the UK," said the committee.
The influential parliamentary committee, chaired by former deputy leader of the opposition Labour party Harriet Harman, also raises fears that the UK "may end up in the same place as the US policy" on assassinations outside of declared war zones.
Commenting on the UK government's participation in the inquiry, the committee said they were disappointed "by the government's failure to answer a number of important questions," and criticized "contradictions and inconsistencies in the government's account of its policy, which have given rise to confusion."
Jennifer Gibson, a staff attorney at human rights NGO Reprieve, which represents victims of drone attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, said: "This report is a wake up call. Not only does the committee raise troubling questions about whether the government 'misunderstood' the legal frameworks that apply, but it warns they may be at risk of prosecution for murder as a result.
"The UK's silence in the face of repeated questioning by the committee only further reinforces the very real danger that the UK is following the US down the slippery slope of kill lists and targeted killings. This is alarming given the CIA's secret drone war has killed hundreds of civilians and been described as a "failed strategy" by Obama's own former head of defense intelligence." – by Namir Shabibi
https://news.vice.com/article/uk-could-face-murder-charges-over-covert-drone-strikes-say-mps
cp13a Flüchtlinge / Refugees
17.5.2016 – Somaliland Informer (* B H)
Yemen: Malnutrition, Conflict worsens situation of Ogaden refugees
The Ogadeni refugees living in the Yemen’s capital, Sana’a and Al-Kharaz camp, about 120 kilometers of the Southern town of Aden are suffering and the conflict have aggravated the plight of at least 500 families, who were already facing acute food shortage and could not return to their homeland for fear of detention, torture and possibly persecution.
On Monday, more than a dozen of women from Ogaden region of Ethiopia gathered in front of the UNHCR’s Bureau for the Refugee Affairs (BRA) to raise their concerns with the UNHCR staff at the Algerian Street Sana’a. The UNHCR’s door is closed and nobody answers most of the cases, except few cases, like mandate renewal or receiving new clients, a process that takes up to two years.
The Ogadeni community in Sana’a numbers approximately 300- 500, of whom most of them registered with the UNHCR. Around 100 families from Ogaden live in Al-Kharaz Refugee in the South of Yemen, registered with the UN as refugees from Somalia.
Most of the refugees are women who have to bring up their families single-handed: their husbands are either in Ethiopian jails or have been killed by the government forces. They work as maidservants and are paid 150 dollars per month.
Scores of Ogaden asylum-holders took a risk in returning, however, their fear was justified: Upon their return to Ogaden region, they have been detained, tortured and charged in connection with ONLF-sympathizers for carrying UNHCR documents with them. They are serving four years term in the notorious prison better known as ‘Jail Ogaden’,in the regional capital of Jigjiga, about 80 kilometers Eastern of the city of Harar, in which torture and execution are routine.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sana’a, Yemen has already ignored their plight and they receive less attention from the International Community and UNHCR’s donors.
Moreover, the local UNHCR’s cruel treatment of the African Refugees and asylum seekers is horrible and shameful.The refugees are treated as they are criminals and the security guards behave as prison guards.The guards, who receive orders from the UNHCR’s
local staff whose their backgrounds are half-caste Ethiopian-Yemenis and Somali Yemenis, often beat women with their batons, intimidate and harass the young African men in front of their loved ones.
Most refugees felt helpless after their former leader Yusuf Goggaar and his wife allegedly executed by poison. Another Somali Christian father likely died of poisoning. He left behind a son of his and his bible.The gangsters that are eliminating the voice of the voiceless refugees remain unknown to the wider Yemeni community and the rest of the World.
According to refugees, there is no any independent body overseeing what the UNHCR Yemen do on the ground level. And no private human rights organizations that could put pressure on UN to do the right things.
http://www.somalilandinformer.com/africa/yemen-malnutrition-conflict-worsens-situation-of-ogaden-refugees/ see also older article from Oct. 2015: http://www.mareeg.com/unhcrs-deviant-behavior-in-yemen-will-donors-put-pressure-on-un-to-do-the-right-thing/
16.5.2016 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees (B H)
2016 Yemen Situation Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan: Funding snapshot as at 12 May 2016
13.5.2016 – Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (** B H)
Shifting Tides: The changing nature of mixed migration crossings to Yemen
By early April 2016, there were more than 2.7 million internally displaced persons (10% of the Yemeni population), and more than 175,000 had sought refuge in neighbouring countries in the region, some 85,000 of whom had fled to countries in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan).
Yemen’s geographical position on the south-western tip of the Arabian Peninsula has long positioned the country as a gateway for the movement of people and goods from the Horn of Africa. Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees (primarily of Ethiopian and Somali origin) have traditionally travelled from the coastal towns of Obock in Djibouti and Bossaso in Puntland, Somalia across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden/Arabian Sea to Yemen. Monitoring patrol teams established by UNHCR and partners (Danish Refugee Council, Yemen Red Crescent Society, and the Society of Human Solidarity) have patrolled the coastal roads of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea since 2006, providing information on the numbers of people arriving on Yemeni shores.
With the exception of 2010 (as the result of a war along the Yemen-Saudi border and a Yemeni security force clamp down on the arrival of Somali nationals) and 2013 (following the mass expulsion of migrant workers from Saudi Arabia), the numbers reveal a year-on-year increase of the arrival of migrants and refugees in Yemen.
The 2015 Yemen conflict, which triggered a new bi-directional flow along the strait with the arrival of persons from Yemen back into the Horn, appears to have done little to deter groups of migrants and refugees from continuing to cross into Yemen. In fact, Yemen arrival figures in 2015 were the highest recorded since 2012, and the third highest since monitoring began. Due to the disruption of monitoring missions caused by the conflict in 2015, it is possible that the arrivals figures in 2015 were even much higher.
A more detailed look at the figures in 2015 shows a steady climb in arrival figures in the first three months of the year, followed by a sharp drop in April and May, coinciding with the outbreak of conflict at the end of March. In June however, as outward flows from Yemen began to decline, arrival figures began to climb again, with a peak in October, the highest monthly arrival figure ever recorded since 2006. These statistics not only show an increasing demand for travel to Yemen despite the risks associated with a conflict zone, it also shows that migrants and refugees may perceive the unrest to facilitate a better environment for undetected passage. It also alludes to the ability of smuggling networks to quickly regroup and reorganise their business model in such situations.
Migrants and refugees travelling to Yemen from the Horn of Africa face various protection risks that arewidely documented. These risks are faced at all steps of the journey – at origin, while in transit on land, during the sea journey, and on arrival in Yemen. RMMS’ reports Desperate Choices, Blinded by Hope, andAbused and Abducted have observed the risks faced by people on the move including, physical and sexual violence, abduction and kidnapping, extortion, and torture. In Blinded by Hope 70 percent of interviewed Ethiopian migrants that had returned from Yemen had either witnessed or experienced ‘extreme physical abuse, including burning, gunshot wounds and suspension of food for days’.
Data received from the monitoring missions show that these abuses are more pronounced along the Red Sea route from Obock, Djibouti, and in particular kidnap for ransom. No cases of abduction have ever been reported along the Arabian Sea route. According to UNHCR, patrols along the Arabian Sea are manned by UNHCR’s partner Society of Human Solidarity, who the capacity to receive all new arrivals on the shore regardless of the time preventing smugglers and criminal networks an opportunity to carry out abductions.
The smuggler networks between the point of embarkation in Obock and disembarkation in Yemen were extremely coordinated in sharing information on when boats would set off and arrive. Once migrants/refugees landed in Yemen, they would be abducted and taken to smuggling dens for weeks on end, until they paid extortion fees to secure their release. If they were unable to pay they would be physically beaten, raped, tortured or put to work before eventually being released. Oftentimes migrants travelling further north after their release would be recaptured by other smugglers and go through a similar process.
The threat of abduction and kidnapping for ransom remains a significant threat for those moving, and particularly Ethiopian nationals who are perceived to be able to pay ransoms more readily than their Somali counterparts.
RMMS monthly summaries continue to include reports on the abduction of migrants/refugees arriving via the Red Sea coasts. In March 2016, migrants reported 218 cases of abduction and 29 cases of trafficking, amounting to 77 percent and 10 percent respectively of all protection incidents reported in that month.
Nonetheless, migrants and refugees continue to land along the Red Sea coast. More than 4,600 people have plied this route between January and March 2016. For Ethiopian migrants (who now account for 85 percent of people moving to Yemen) the Red Sea route is quicker, and cheaper, which may explain why so many still choose to use that passage. But even that route from Djibouti may become more difficult and more expensive. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Djiboutian government has instituted a crackdown on Ethiopian migrants, prompting them to move into Somalia and depart from Bossaso.
Despite the recent shifts in the mixed migration flows to Yemen we can continue to expect that migrants and refugees, and especially Ethiopian nationals, will continue to cross from the Horn of Africa to Yemen.
http://www.regionalmms.org/indexEthiopian.html
cp13b Nationalbank und Währung / National Bank and currency
15.5.2016 – Al Monitor (** A E P)
Beware of the failure of Yemen’s central bank
The Central Bank of Yemen continues to set new policies to tackle the rising inflation and devaluation of the Yemeni rial, knowing its policies will not be effective as long as there is no political will to stabilize the situation.
One of the last standing public institutions in Yemen is its central bank. The Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) has been playing a major role in stabilizing the very fragile economic situation in Yemen since the outbreak of the uprising in 2011. It has maintained a very careful monetary policy in order to preserve the value of the Yemeni rial to spare the people of Yemen the agony of hyperinflation and devaluation during politically volatile times.
The trust in the CBY took a blow in March 2015 when the government along with the president had to flee the country, leaving financial matters to be run by the governor of the CBY.
The technocratic and bipartisan leadership governing the CBY is what enabled its survival. The CBY governor, Mohammed Awad Bin Hammam, is a widely respected official in a country where bipartisanship seems almost impossible. His administration banned cashing foreign transfers in their original currency for a few months in 2015 to stop the dollar drain after trade significantly slowed down when the Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes started.
This was a mechanism to curb devaluation of the Yemeni rial and substitute the inflow of foreign currency the country was supposed to earn from its oil exports, which were halted in March 2015. The CBY only lowered the value of the rial against the US dollar earlier this year by 17% — from 214 to 250 Yemeni rials to the dollar — to mitigate a bigger devaluation of the currency in the black market that was exchanging the dollar for 279 rials, 11.6% lower than the official exchange rate of 250. This is a signal by the CBY for the market to show it is recognizing the problem of the scarcity of hard currencies and is willing to adapt in order to regain the trust of the market.
While the foreign reserves of the CBY went down from $5.35 billion in 2013 to $4.6 billion in November 2014, the war and the cutting of sources of foreign currency — except for the remittances from Yemenis abroad — contributed in lowering the foreign reserves to $2.1 billion by the end of 2015, according to a report by Yemen's Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.
Although some might want to blame the depletion of foreign reserves entirely on the Houthi rebel group, which is in fact withdrawing substantial amounts of money from the CBY to finance its war efforts, the reason behind the dwindling foreign reserves is primarily the ever-rising demand for foreign currency in the country.
The depletion of the CBY foreign reserves limits the range of anti-inflationary monetary policies the CBY can implement to stop a free fall of the value of the Yemeni rial. This limitation led the Houthis to arrest many owners of currency exchange shops who did not abide by the CBY’s official exchange rate. If the CBY cannot stabilize the value of the Yemeni rial, more capital will leave the country for more stable economies, prices of basic commodities will go up beyond the 30% inflation rate the country witnessed in 2015, real wages and purchasing power will decline even if nominal wages were raised and the gap between the poor and rich, who own assets in foreign currencies, will drastically widen.
Even if the CBY continues to set new policies to tackle rising inflation and the devaluation of the Yemeni rial, its policies will not be effective as long as there is no political will to stabilize the situation. This puts a huge responsibility on the conflicting parties to come up with a sustainable political solution to spare the Yemeni people further misery and deterioration in the standard of living. The economists of the CBY are doing their best to save Yemen from a financial collapse and now it’s time for politicians to do the same – by Amal Nasser
and read also from 2014: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/11/yemens-astonishing-financial-meltdown/
17.5.2017 – Al Arabiya (A E P)
$4 bln ‘missing’ from Yemen’s Central Bank
Four billion dollars have disappeared from Yemen’s Central Bank in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and the country is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, its foreign minister told reporters.
Foreign Mininster Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi did not accuse any side and gave no further details.
and see also
17.5.2016 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A E)
Cost of food &basic needs in the country has sharply increased in the last few days.The price of each $1 n the black market is YR 325
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/732607021451743232
17.5.2016 – Yemen Post (A E)
#Yemen Currency COLLAPSES 50% over 2 weeks as food prices skyrocket &millions fear hunger in poorest Mideast nation.
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/732619501536182272
17.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A E)
Gas black market popping up on Sana'a streets. Yes, blockade, but issue not scarcity as much as corruption.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732490548422926337
17.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A E)
Some gas stations open this morning but price now YR 8,500. US $ exchange up too $1= YR 330.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732472938910224384
16.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A E)
US $ exchange rate up, #Yemen riyal devalued, prices up, had to buy gas for YR 4,500/20L when 2 days ago YR 4,000..while economy in shambles
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732179663972405249
16.5.2016 – Fuad Rajeh (A E)
Yemen Rial is continuing to fall vs USD. Today, 1USD is for 320YR up from 300YR 2 days ago. Before Houthi takeover, 1USD was for 215YR.
https://twitter.com/FuadRajeh/status/732209117239119873
16.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A E)
Yes, spike partly bcz demand for foreign currency to feed local market with products ahead of Ramadan..but it's too steep.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732180484114022400
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
17.5.2016 – NZZ (B T)
Angriffsserie des IS in Mukalla
Die unlängst von der Kaida befreite jemenitische Hafenstadt Mukalla ist von einer Serie tödlicher Attentate des IS erschüttert worden.
Die von Saudiarabien angeführte Militärkoalition, der auch die Emirate angehören und die seit März 2015 in Jemen gegen die schiitische Huthi-Miliz interveniert, hatte die Kaida lange verschont und sich auf die Bekämpfung der Huthi konzentriert. Saudiarabien war auf die iranische Bedrohung fixiert, die es hinter der Expansion der Huthi in Jemen sah. Die Extremisten profitierten vom Machtvakuum, das durch die Kämpfe entstanden war. Sie breiteten sich im Zentrum und im Süden des Landes aus und eroberten mit der strategisch wichtigen Hafenstadt Mukalla die Provinzhauptstadt von Hadramaut.
Washington, das die saudisch angeführte Intervention unterstützt, war die Ausbreitung der Kaida ein Dorn im Auge.
Beobachter hatten warnend darauf hingewiesen, dass es für die jemenitischen Sicherheitskräfte nicht leicht werden dürfte, die Lage in Mukalla nach der Eroberung unter Kontrolle zu halten. Denn es fehlt nach wie vor an einer politischen Strategie, welche den Extremismus vor Ort an seinen Wurzeln bekämpft und sich die Probleme der an vielen Missständen leidenden Bevölkerung zur Hauptsorge macht – von Monika Bolliger
http://www.nzz.ch/international/jemen-konflikt-angriffsserie-des-is-in-mukalla-ld.82871
16.5.2016 – Fars News (A T)
Official: Saudi PoW Unveils Riyadh Government's Plot to Spread Terrorism in Yemen
A jailed prisoner of war (PoW) has disclosed plots by the Riyadh government to assassinate political leaders and military commanders in Southern Yemen, a Yemeni security official disclosed on Monday.
"After confessions by jailed Saudi mercenaries, the security forces disclosed that Saudi Arabia is planning to conduct large-scale terrorist operations in Sana'a and some Yemeni provinces against the revolutionary forces," Head of Yemeni Popular Forces' Special Security Service Ali Hashem told FNA on Monday.
Hashem reiterated that Saudi Arabia is looking for spreading terrorism in Yemen because it considers terrorism a weapon that has targeted Yemen's revolution and the Yemeni people.
He, meantime, said that there are over 230 PoWs of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni prisons.
On Sunday, a senior Yemeni military source disclosed that the Saudi regime has coordinated with Al-Qaeda to dispatch a large number of Takfiri terrorists to the strategic regions in Southern Yemen.
"Saudi Arabia has stationed a large number of al-Qaeda terrorists around the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandeb in Southern Yemen in line with a US plot to increase its military presence there," Khalil Abdullah told FNA.
Abdullah also said that Saudi Arabia has asked its Sudanese mercenaries to advance towards Ta'iz and Lahij provinces.
"Hundreds of Al-Qaeda terrorists are now in Southwestern Yemen and they have pointed their artillery at the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait," Abdullah said.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950227000791
15.5.2016 – Soufan Group ( B T)
On the Front Lines of Terror
There are few jobs more dangerous than that of police officers in war torn countries like Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Unlike military counterparts that operate in larger units, police officers man isolated checkpoints and have constant interaction with the populations they are trying to protect. Both the mission and symbolism of police make officers prime targets for any terrorist group, from the Taliban to al-Qaeda to the so-called Islamic State. A population that feels protected and secure can build resilience to extremism. A police officer standing on a street corner provides a symbol of stability and governance, both of which terrorists cannot abide.
A fundamental principle of counterinsurgency strategy is the protection of the local population. Achieving that goal requires guaranteeing the protection of the protectors. Yet the vital mission of police officers requires close interaction with the community; the overwhelming scale of violence and conflict that officers face in places like Yemen, Afghanistan, and Iraq puts them at a level of risk that is difficult to effectively negate or minimize. Given the primacy of their mission, more effort will be needed to protect those who have stood up and volunteered to serve and protect.
http://soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrief-police-on-the-frontlines-of-terror/
Comment by Judith Brown: The daily risks of police in destabilised countries. Yet despite the fact that police can protect no-one, the West still refuses to accept that those fleeing such countries are desperate to get away.
https://www.facebook.com/judith.brown.794628/posts/10154361660123641
cp15 Propaganda
16.5.2016 – Asharq Al-Awsat (A P)
Muammar Eryany: Iran Perturbs Yemen’s Sectarian Coexistence
Yemeni Minister of Tourism Muammar Eryany recently stated that regional parties, namely Iran, are relentlessly working on inciting sectarian divide in Yemen.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Eryany accused Houthis of attempting to foil the peace process with their adopted evasive approach at the current negotiations in Kuwait.
He also accused Houthi insurgents of planning to deceive the international community and rally against Yemeni constitutional legitimacy.
Eryany urged the swift implementation of U.N. resolution 2216, which translates into the restoration of statehood. One of the pressuring elements, making the resolution’s implementation crucial is the economic precarious status which is on the verge of collapse. Insurgent militias have taken over state authority, he explained.
Following is a set of questions answered by Yemeni Minister of Tourism Eryany:
How do you read into the insurgency’s evasiveness at the negotiations?
I can assure you that the Yemeni government had went to negotiations in Kuwait with earnest intentions on negotiating and absolute desire for achieving peace.
We speak on behalf of the government which is responsible for all Yemeni citizens, regardless of their political, sectarian or ideological affiliations. However, we realize that a number of regional parties do not wish peace, security or stability for Yemen. They wish for Yemen to continue being the chink in the Arabian Gulf’s armor.
International resolutions are clear cut; U.N. resolution 2216 especially revolves around stages that lead to restoring statehood. The implementation of resolution 2216 means the restoration of sovereignty and integrity for Yemeni citizens and dodges the chaos Yemen could enter.
How do you read into the northern-southern discord, and the Zaidiyyah- Shafi’i sectarian strife recently appearing in Yemen, in light of regional players feeding into that?
No sign on Sunni-Zaidi conflict have appeared since hundreds of year. Everyone coexisted with no apparent disputes.
Houthis have made a huge mistake by getting on Iran’s side. For the upcoming period, I fear the sectarian, tribal and area-based divide will be the worst to be faced if reason and wisdom are not favored.
Do you believe that Iran is backing the current events in Yemen, as some suggest?
There is definitely a great attempt on encouraging sectarian sedition. Some went as far as claiming that preceding authority in Yemen was Zaidi-controlled and should remain that way. Yemenis have never been known to use such discriminative, hate-spurring language – by Arafat Madabish
Comment: See in cp1 and cp7 on Iranian influence and the delay in the peace talks. To blame the Houthis for sectarian strife in Yemen is rather odd. For decades, Saudi Arabia had fueled sectarian strife in Yemen by financing and supporting radical Wahabi extremism among Yemen’s Sunni population and by pummeling the Yemeni Zaidis by their Wahabi followers in Yemen.
16.5.2016 – Al Malekhlafi, YemenHadi government’s foreign minister (A P)
Currency is collapsing &the economy is catastrophic because of the coup. The gov is trying to save the situation &the putschists don’t care.
https://twitter.com/almekhlafi52/status/732346491386396672
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: Coalition's commercial blockade, destruction of infrastructure & stopping #Yemen main revenue via oil exports HELLO!
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732361669167460353
16.5.2016 – Al Malekhlafi, YemenHadi government’s foreign minister (A P)
Our commitment to our people & to our country is what makes us stay in the talks with a group all it cares about is power.
Comment by Hisham Al-Omeisy: For crying out loud you are there bcz you want exclusive power and Hadi asked coalition to reinstate via war!
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732359249783889924
More comments:
KSA justified the war on #Yemen 2 return Hadi 2 the power.A country destoryed by +100k airstrike 2 return u 2 power !
yeah, all they care about is power and all you care about is water? both of u r fighting over legitimacy of a dying nation!
16.5.2016 – NPR (** A P)
Saudi Arabia Regrets Civilian Casualties During Operations In Yemen
To explore Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen's civil war, Mary Louise Kelly talks to Gen. Ahmad Asiri Asiri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition that is backing Yemen's president.
KELLY: How do you respond to criticism that Saudi airstrikes are killing thousands of civilians?
AHMAD ASIRI: We regret any casualty. And we - there is no intention to have those casualties in Yemen if it happens because Yemen is our neighbor. We have family in both sides of the borders. We have very deep relationships.
KELLY: The United Nations also says that while there have been war crimes committed by multiple parties in this conflict that the majority of civilian deaths have come from airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition.
ASIRI: If you allow me, we - the kingdom in particular and the 12 countries who came to Yemen to secure human the Yemeni doesn't have...
KELLY: You're talking about your coalition partners, mostly other Arab nations.
ASIRI: ...Doesn't have any ambition in Yemen. Why we go to Yemen? Why we lose our resources? Why we lose our boys? Why we lose our equipment? Is it because we want to have influence in Yemen or to occupy the Yemeni country? No because we saw population undermined and oppressed by the militias. This is why.
KELLY: We interviewed on this program last month an official from Human Rights Watch. She described an airstrike on a village in rural Yemen that killed 97 people. Human Rights Watch sent a team. They examined the site. They concluded that this was an indiscriminate strike carried out by Saudi Arabia.
ASIRI: Unfortunately, today, there is no team from Human Rights Watch on the ground.
KELLY: They went. They saw it.
ASIRI: No. No one can get in Yemen without the permission of the coalition. So we don't have single permission from the United Nations on the ground.
We hope that Human Rights Watch and the other NGOs come to the coalition and ask permission and we will send them down to investigate. We need to investigate those allegations. You cannot...
KELLY: I think you and Human Rights Watch are going to agree to disagree. My question is whether the Saudi intervention has improved things. The country remains in chaos after more than a year of fighting. Are you any closer to your goals or bringing stability to the country?
ASIRI: I think this is not precise, saying this. Today, what is the result? At that time, the militias doesn't want to talk peacefully with the government. Today, they are talking.
KELLY: You're talking about these peace talks...
ASIRI: Yes, peace talks underway in Kuwait.
Continue reading at:
See HRW’s reply and Daniel Larison’s comment in cp 1 Most important.
Comment by Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights: Saudis can't defend killing Yemeni civilians so pretend @HRW wasn't there to investigate.
https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/732311514170949633/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Comment: How can they “regret” civilian casualties when having deliberately targeted at civilians? They at best can regret that (a small part of) the international public got aware of these civilian casualities and did not keep silent about it. – That is the level Saudi propaganda – and Asiri in special – permanently are arguing at: HRW was not in Yemen, because we are those who must permit anybody to get to Yemen and they did not come to us to ask for permission.
16.5.2016 – Al Arabiya (A P)
Why target Yemen's Mukalla?
The war that ISIS is waging against Mukalla is further proof that this malicious organization generously serves the long-term goals of the enemies of Arab interests and of legitimacy, as represented by legitimate Yemeni forces and the Arab coalition, which are fighting Iranian soldiers in Yemen, the Houthis and their allies, Saleh’s supporters.
ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Houthis and Saleh’s forces are all the same - they are the coalition’s rivals and opponents of Yemeni peace – by Mshari Al Thaydi
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/05/16/Why-target-Mukalla-.html
Comment: That is really great propaganda. The Houthis and the Saleh forces (these just is the greater part of the Yemeni army) as “Iranian soldiers”. And we learn here a new way just how to equal ISIS and Al Qaida on the one and the Houthis and the Saleh forces on the other side. The author does not state in hoe far Houthis and Saleh forces should be “opponents of Yemeni peace”, while the Saudis, UAE and Hadi government should be not.
16.5.2016 – WAM (A P)
People of Yemen are in desperate need of peace: paper
A UAE newspaper has said that the people of Yemen desperately need an end to the misery of their long civil war.
"The Saudi-led Arab coalition that is fighting in support of the legitimate government has played an essential role in getting the parties to the negotiating table, and even if the slow progress of the peace talks in Kuwait may be deeply frustrating, they may also indicate that parties have finally got down to discussing real details of how to implement any future accord," said the Gulf News in an editorial on Monday.
It is encouraging that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir has been so clear that Al Houthis are part of the solution. "Whether we agree or disagree with them, Al Houthis are part of the social fabric of Yemen," he said, spelling out the readiness of the Saudis to support a deal when it happens.
But the international coalition will have to continue to reinforce the Yemeni state. This is why Al Jubeir continued his comment by saying that "Al Qaida and Daesh are terrorist entities that must be confronted in Yemen and everywhere else".
The UAE Armed Forces have played a leading part in the coalition’s mission, and they are now deployed in fighting Al Qaida along with others as they work to support Yemeni forces in making sure that all Yemeni territories are freed of Al Qaida.
The current action is in the Hadramaut port of Al Mukalla, which the allies have retaken.
"This means that Al Qaida has lost an important source of revenue through oil and weapons smuggling, and the economy of Hadramaut can start to recover from the chaos of war," concluded the Dubai-based daily.
https://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395295513871.html = http://www.totaluae.com/news/people-of-yemen-are-in-desperate-need-of-peace-paper/
16.5.2016 – ABNA (A P)
Yemen's Sayyed Houthi condoles Sayyed Nasrallah on Badreddine martyrdom
The leader of Yemen's Ansarullah revolutionary movement, Sayyed Abdul Malik al-Houthi offered condolences to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah on the martyrdom of senior Jihadi leader, Mustafa Badreddine.
"With dignity and appreciation we received the news of great Jihadi leader Mustafa Badreddine's (Sayyed Zulfiqar) martyrdom," Sayyed Houthi said in a cable sent to Sayyed Nasrallah.
Sayyeed Houth praised Sayyed Zulfiqar as a "knight whose life-long Jihad was crowned with martyrdom after a path full of sacrifice and steadfastness in the sake of Allah."
"This dear knight had carried the banner of Mohammadi and Hussaeini convoy. We ask Allah to accept him," Ansarullah leader said in the cable.
"Hezbollah, with its path which is full of donation and sacrifice, become more victorious and blessed by Allah. These great sacrifices are worthy of the sacred goal and the rightful position..."
"This is the path which knows neither weakness nor surrender. The sacrifices in this path knwos no bounds."
"Sayyed Nasrallah, we offer our congratulations for this martyr who triumphed and for this party over this honor," Sayyed Hputhis addressed Hezbollah S.G.
"We also offer our condolences for losing this beloved man, and we ask Allah to bless the men of Jihad in Hezbollah."
http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-east-west-asia/archive/2016/05/16/754607/story.html
cp16 Saudische Luftangriffe / Saudi air raids
16.5.2016 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A K)
Saudi warplanes soaring now over the sky of Taiz, Jouf, and Marib provinces. #Yemen
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/732298097821388801
16.5.2016 – Fatik Al-Rodaini (A K)
It's a habit in every single night that we hear the sounds of Saudi jets soaring n the sky of my country #Yemen.Now KSA jets flying in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/732296733468860416
16.5.2016 – Yemen Post (A K)
WAR ZONE: 18 Saudi airstrikes today & Houthi clashes in 7 #Yemen provinces in fiercest day of war in weeks.
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/732299515672268800
16.5.2016 – Yemen Post (A K)
ATTACKS Resume: 10 Saudi airstrikes bombard #Yemen city Hodieda today targeting airport & nearby residential areas.
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/732192208296783873
16.5.2016 – Crimes of decisive Storm (A K PH)
Airline Saudi aggression is pounding the province of Hodeidah
More than 10 air strikes on
- Hodeidah Airport
- Air Defense
Coastal defense (with images)
https://www.facebook.com/SaudiArabia.war.crimes.against.Yemen/posts/1545633612399294 and see also https://www.facebook.com/961126490607048/photos/a.961595153893515.1073741828.961126490607048/1026643134055383/?type=3 and https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/732232542208819200
16.5.2016 – Alwaght (A K PH)
Saudi-Led Aggressors Continue Truce Breaches in Yemen
Saudi-led aggressors have continued to breach the UN-sponsored ceasefire in several Yemeni provinces over the last one day.
Military sources say Saudi war planes launched a raids on Damaj in Sa'ada province and al-Arqob in Khawlan al-Teyal in Sana'a province.
The Saudi warplanes have never stopped to fly on the skies of the Capital, Ibb, Sana'a, Amran, Sa'ada, Mareb, Shabwa, Baidha, Hodeida, Taiz, Lahj and Jawf provinces, according to the official.
http://alwaght.com/en/News/53687
16.5.2016 – Hisham Al-Omeisy (A K PH)
Great. Airstrikes on Hodeidah airport and some residential area and now we're all holding breath as fighter jets arrived in Sana'a.
https://twitter.com/omeisy/status/732132211873460224
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
16.5.2016 – Faizah Al-sulimani (A K)
He lost his daughter during the random shooting n #Taiz by #Houthis ...really painful heartbreaking farewell
https://twitter.com/faizahsulimani/status/732194123613114368
16.5.2016 – Yemen Post (A K)
WAR ZONE: 18 Saudi airstrikes today & Houthi clashes in 7 #Yemen provinces in fiercest day of war in weeks.
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/732299515672268800
16.5.2016 – Alwaght (A K PH)
Saudi-Led Aggressors Continue Truce Breaches in Yemen
Saudi-led aggressors have continued to breach the UN-sponsored ceasefire in several Yemeni provinces over the last one day.
Reports say de-escalation committee members, who were in al-Masna'a area in Mareb province, was attacked with artillery shells by Saudi allies.
The army and popular committees’ sites in Dhubab district and Shabaka and Hamra areas in al-Waze'yah in Taiz province were also pounded by Saudi-led mercenaries.
In Shabwa province, the hirelings targeted the army and popular committees’ sites in Usailan district with Katyusha rockets and artillery shells.
The official said the Riyadh's hirelings pounded Malh, Bani Bareq and Mabda'a areas in Nehm district of Sana'a province.
http://alwaght.com/en/News/53687
cp18 Sonstiges / Other
16.5.2016 – Yemen Post (A)
EARTHQUAKE shakes heart of #Yemen capital (Hadda & Bait Boos) shaking 100,000s of homes while Saudi warplanes fly above its skies.
https://twitter.com/YemenPostNews/status/732239675327455232
16.5.2016 – Hussain Albukhaiti (A)
Many ppl in #Sanaa felt earthquake still no details as #Saudi #UAE CO destroyed #Yemen only earthquake centre in my city Dhamar on 21may2015
https://twitter.com/HussainBukhaiti/status/732254555837190144
16.5.2016 – Middle East Eye (* A H P)
Forgotten suffering of Baha’i minority in Yemen
Baha’is in Yemen are active, for the most part, in the field of medicine and engineering. They played an important role in building bridges in the capital, Sanaa. Although they did nothing to deserve accusations of treason or imprisonment, the authorities started harassing them in 2008 as four Baha’is were arrested. Following their release, most of them left Yemen according to Hamed’s wife who decided to go public with her story.
Her husband had been imprisoned for three years when the defence in the case went as far as to request the death penalty. Elham decided to be silent no more and to talk to the media. “About 1,000 Bahai’s – or even more – live in Yemen. My husband and I are Yemeni nationals,” she said. “Dr Kamal, my father-in-law, came to the island of Socotra in southern Yemen as the private physician of Socotra’s Sultan Issa ibn Ali ibn Afrar. The Sultan decided to reward him for his loyalty by granting him the Yemeni nationality. The family settled in Socotra until the Communist regime took over in southern Yemen, hence the decision to leave for the United Arab Emirates.”
In 1990, she went on, “Hamed, Dr Kamal’s son, decided to go back and work in Yemen. We lived there safely all those years until the harassment started in 2008. The Baha’is were accused of being Israeli spies because our holy Baha’i shrine and the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, i.e. our Baha’i leadership, are located in Occupied Palestine. Our presence in Palestine goes way back, many years before the creation of the State of Israel… we cannot be spies because our religion bans us from undertaking any political activity.”
Elham later learned that her husband had been arrested by National Security who nonetheless denied that they were detaining him. She would go there with his medication as he suffered from diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure and kidney stones. The officers would take the medication, telling her they did not know whether or not her husband was there. Afterward, he was taken to the central prison, where he was allowed to communicate with his wife and sons.
Hamed went through extensive torture in jail, not to mention the insults levelled at his wife when she visited him. “My husband is an engineer in Balhaf, which – as you know – is an uninhabited region. So what is there to spy on? What proof is there of his spying? All they found is our religious books. I don’t know what gave them the right to inflict this injustice upon my husband and throw him in the same cell with terrorists.” – by Hind Al Eryani
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/baha-yemen-1469024072
15.5.2016 – UNFPA (B H)
Population Development
Within a span of 35 years, between 1975 and 2010, Yemen’s population increased from 6 to 23 million. At the present growth rate of 3%, one of the highest in the world, Yemen’s population would reach 34 million by 2025. The issue of population growth is one of the most important challenges facing the country today.
Rapid population growth slows down Yemen’s development in many ways. It increases the pressure on the limited area of arable land and scarce water resources to produce food, making it harder to improve food security and combat malnutrition. The population is young, with 45% under the age of 15, resulting in a rapid rise in the school age population and demand for education. Demand for other public services including health care and social protection services is creating similar pressure, with growing rate of unemployment.
Population growth is related to a number of factors. Early marriage, limited girls education, high female illiteracy, high adolescent fertility rate and the low use of contraceptives, all contribute to the relatively high total fertility rate (TFR) (6.2 births per woman). The unmet need for family planning is high (37%), and cultural taboos and misconceptions impede access to existing services.
UNFPA supports the government with data collection for policy, planning and programming. Improvements in data availability and analysis will result in improved decision-making, policy formulation and resource allocation around population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health, and gender equality.
UNFPA provides technical and financial support for the implementation of the Demographic Health Survey (DHS and the 2014 Census.
http://yemen.unfpa.org/topics/population-development
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/krieg-im-jemen-neue-artikel-zum-nachlesen-144
Neue Artikel zum Nachlesen 1-144: / Yemen Press Reader 1-144:
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