Jemen auf Qantara.de (Deutsche Welle): https://de.qantara.de/search/overview/Jemen
Allgemein
Oxfam: Der Jemen in aller Kürze:
http://oxfamblogs.org/yemen/uk/
11.9.2015 – Südwestpresse / Berliner Zeitung
Golfstaaten bomben Jemen in Schutt und Asche
Seit fünf Monaten zerstören Saudi-Arabien und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate nun schon mit hochmodernen US-Kampfjets den Jemen, das Armenhaus der Arabischen Welt. Ganze Teile der Hauptstadt Sanaa liegen in Trümmern, mehr als 1,5 Millionen Menschen sind auf der Flucht, 4500 wurden von Raketen und Bomben zerfetzt, 23 000 verletzt. Kriegsziel der Golf-Koalition ist es, den im März von den Huthi vertriebenen Präsidenten Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi wieder zurück an die Macht zu bomben. Für die kommenden Wochen blasen sie zum Sturm auf die Hauptstadt Sanaa. Der Aufmarsch dieser panarabischen Invasionsarmee bedeutet eine erhebliche Eskalation des Krieges.
Allein Sanaa erlebte bisher mehr als 2000 Luftangriffe, Aden und Taiz sind Ruinenlandschaften. 80 Prozent der 24 Millionen Jemeniten haben nicht genug zu essen, weil fast alle Lebensmittel importiert werden. "Das Ausmaß des menschlichen Leidens ist unbeschreiblich", sagte der UN-Chef für humanitäre Hilfe, Stephen O'Brien. "Nach fünf Monaten Krieg sieht Jemen bereits aus wie Syrien nach fünf Jahren Krieg", klagte Peter Maurer, Chef des Internationalen Roten Kreuzes. Denn die Infrastruktur des Landes war schon vorher stark ramponiert. Mittlerweile geht gar nichts mehr – von Martin Gehlen
http://www.swp.de/ulm/nachrichten/politik/Golfstaaten-bomben-Jemen-in-Schutt-und-Asche;art4306,3420795 und http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik/golfstaaten-und-aegypten-bodentruppen-in-den-jemen-geschickt,10808018,31780370.html
Der BBC-Reporter Gabriel Gatehouse ist zurück aus dem Jemen. Hier sein Bericht, mit Film, sehr lohnender Einblick in die Realität im Jemen:
10.9.2015 – BBC (mit Fernsehfilm)
Inside Yemen's 'forgotten war'
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse has just returned from Yemen, where he had rare access to the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by what some are calling the "forgotten war".
"Yemen is one of the world's worst crises," says Tariq Riebl, head of programmes in Yemen for the charity Oxfam.
"We have bombings every single day via airstrikes. We have ground fighting of very heavy levels. The country is facing famine which could start in a couple of weeks or months if things continue the way they are. We have more than a million people displaced across the country."
Away from the capital, towards the Saudi border, the bombing is even more intense. We travelled across the mountains that ring Sanaa to investigate reports of deliberate attacks on civilians - attacks that could amount to war crimes.
The airstrikes are backed by a resolution at the United Nations Security Council. But the UN's top humanitarian official in Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, says attacks on civilian infrastructure are violations of the laws of war.
"Schools and hospitals, markets, enterprises and factories should not be stricken, should not be shelled. Even in warfare there are certain rules, and they are being violated in this conflict," he said.
Since the conflict started, more than 2,000 civilians have been killed. Some are victims of months of vicious ground fighting between the two sides. Houthi soldiers, some of them no more than teenagers, are accused of firing heavy weapons in built-up areas.
But it is the Saudis and their coalition partners, mainly Gulf Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates, who have overwhelming force.
The coalition's efforts are supported by Britain and the United States. Both countries continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, and are providing the Saudi-led coalition with liaison officers and technical support.
Oxfam, whose own warehouse in Yemen has been hit by an airstrike, says the UK could be in breach of domestic and international laws on the sales of arms.
"It's difficult to argue that a weapon sold to Saudi Arabia would not in some way be used in Yemen," says Mr Riebl.
"Or if it's not used in Yemen it enables the country to use other weapons in Yemen."
The Arms Trade Treaty, which came into force in December 2014, prohibits the sale of weapons where there is a clear risk they could be used for war crimes.
The British government says it is not participating directly in the Saudi-led operations, but acknowledges it is providing technical support and precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Air Force has a fleet of British and American-made fighter jets, including F15s, Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons.
In July, a consignment of Paveway IV missiles, a highly accurate 500-pound bomb originally earmarked for the RAF, was delivered to Saudi Arabia.
"The UK is digging into its own weapons supplies to replenish Saudi stocks," says Michael Stephens of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
The majority of the Saudi airstrikes are being carried out by American-made F15 jets. The Saudi-led coalition has publicly given few details of which weapons are being used in Yemen – by Gabriel Gatehouse
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34211979
Film auch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqlrcVRzzhU (Part 1)
dazu auch von Gabriel Gatehouse
10.9.2015 – BBC (Fernsehfilm)
Inside a factory bombed and still smoking in Yemen
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse has just returned from Yemen, where he had rare access to the scale of the humanitarian crisis.
Here he tours a bottle factory that has just been bombed and is still smoking - causing numerous casualties. The Saudi Arabian government claims it was being used as a weapons factory and a training camp for African mercenaries, but the BBC saw no evidence to support that – by Gabriel Gatehouse
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34212125
9.9.2015 – Al Araby
Yemen: Who reaps the fruit of the storm?
While regional powers compete over their interests even within the Saudi-led coalition, Yemenis will only reap more crises and violence
Foreign assistance to any political group is based on a number of reasons, primarily the strategic interests of the foreign power providing the aid - and deals usually end up with some kind of dominance over the country being assisted. Foreign interests might overlap with the interests of the country in question, however the foreign interests are always prioritised, even if they contradict the interests of the country being assisted.This is the case with Yemen, which for more than five months has witnessed a bitter and costly war that has nothing to do with Yemenis - a war waged between regional powers for their own gains, while Yemenis reap only death and destruction. Meanwhile, the Yemeni crisis is becoming more complex - not only due to the struggle between the regional powers, but also due to the disagreements within the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
The Saudi-led military coalition that was formed in March to support the authority of interim president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi is witnessing Saudi-Emirati disagreements and competition. For Yemenis, these disagreements are very serious, because they relate to identifying the cities that will be "liberated" by the Saudi-led coalition, and the cities that will be left as open theatres of confrontation to wear down the enemy and internal warring factions.
The Saudi-Emirati disagreements are also about the nature of their future influence in Yemen and their ability to formulate the future of the country and dictate the Yemeni parties that take part in the post-war Yemeni state. It was not easy for Saudi Arabia to form an Arab military coalition under its leadership to protect its strategic interests as a dominant regional power. However, it utilised its Arab media dominance to promote the image of an Arab unity that would intervene to quell the Houthi rebellion and reinstate the authority of President Hadi.
Yet the apparent unity was merely a facade, and Riyadh had to resort to its vast financial resources to make deals with non-GCC members of the coalition. It struck a deal with Egypt and granted Sudan a reported investment deposit of $4 billion, in return for Sudan sending ground troops to Yemen.
Despite the dangers posed to the UAE's interests and security by alleged Iranian expansion in the region, the country has other motives behind participating in operation Decisive Storm. The UAE hopes to expand its influence southwards, specifically to Aden, where it wants to control the city's port to ensure that it does not compete with the port of Dubai - thus it has been working to create inroads with the southern Hirak movement to gain political influence in the south.
For Saudi Arabia however, despite its own reservations towards the Muslim Brotherhood, it views al-Islah as the most effective local force to achieve its interests, in addition to viewing Emirati concerns as unjustified or a point of disagreement that should be postponed. Thus, Saudi Arabia has been working to utilise al-Islah's tribal and military connections in the war and has even been working to enable the party to govern the country in the future
However, while the regional powers and local Yemeni forces compete to reap the fruit of the "storm", they ignore the fact that Yemenis will only reap more crises and violence, which is what led to this war in the first place – by Bushra al-Maqtari.
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2015/9/9/yemen-who-reaps-the-fruit-of-the-storm
8.9.2015 – BBC (Fernsehfilm)
Yemen residents fear for future as tension continues
Last month the Red Cross suspended its operations in the southern city of Aden after gunmen stormed into its office.
In the past weeks, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels were largely driven out of the South, after lengthy battles with troops loyal to the Yemeni president, supported by a Saudi-led air campaign – by Sally Nabil
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34190238
8.9.2015 – Geopolitics made Super
Saufi Arabia’s no good, very bad war in Yemen
The GCC is extremely wealthy and well-armed, but it’s forces are overpaid and undertrained, with only elite units capable of operating. That’s a deep disadvantage against the long-warring tribes of Yemen, who have forgotten more civil wars and regular wars than GCC soldiers remember of training exercises. While the Yemeni are not well-armed, they are well-honed in guerrilla warfare, and the Houthi forces are no exception, as noted when the Houthis struck an Emirati base last week and killed an unprecedented 45 UAE soldiers.
To fully control Yemen would require a commitment of cash and troops beyond the GCC. While Saudi Arabia has a large army and population base, no other GCC state cracks the 2 million native population mark; states like Qatar and the UAE are utterly dominated by foreign labor. While there’s plenty of debate over the ratio of soldier to citizen for an effective occupation against an insurgent army, if one is generous and say it’s 10 to 1, you’d still need around 2.5 million troops to really consolidate control of Yemen’s 25 million. Saudi Arabia’s army is only 227,000 troops.
The newness of GCC states shouldn’t be lost in this discussion. None of the GCC states have much experience in war, which of course translates to debacles like the attack last week. But worse than that, GCC states have very little idea how much political blowback they’ll receive from their citizens as the bodies start rolling home. GCC propaganda around Yemen is very thin: most can see it’s a powergrab by Saudi Arabia, who is forcing its vassals in the GCC to send tokens of loyalty in the form of troops and warplanes. This war is meant to send a message to Iran, and victory should scare Iran off from getting ambitious elsewhere.
The humanitarian disaster of the war is obvious; the strategic gains for most GCC states is almost nil, since their security is guaranteed not by Saudi Arabia (who they have reason to fear) but the United States. It’s anybody’s guess how long it will take for most GCC citizens to see this a war for their rulers and not for them, but I’ll venture it won’t be long, especially in more advanced countries like the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Should a large chunk of Saudi subjects decide the royals are wasting their lives in the highlands of Yemen, a spark could be lit that might burn the whole kingdom. Deflated oil prices, largely because Saudi Arabia is determined to kill off shale oil in America, makes it all the harder to slather oil cash on dissent. Differences within the kingdom, long held at bay through bribery and a handful of elite security services, could come roaring into the open, and Saudi Arabia is not prepared for such a day.
Either the GCC will be discredited as a military force, emboldening its Iranian and jihadi enemies and forcing the U.S. back into the breach, or the blowback will be so severe it will break up the GCC itself. There is no win for the Saudi and the GCC, just less terrible ways of losing.
http://geopoliticsmadesuper.com/2015/09/08/saudi-arabias-no-good-very-bad-war-in-yemen/ = http://atlanticsentinel.com/2015/09/saudi-arabias-no-good-very-bad-war-in-yemen/
30.8.2015 – The Real News (Film auf Youtube)
Extraordinary Brutality Inflicted on Civilians in Yemen
As Saudi ground troops enter Northern Yemen with US backing, Amnesty International charges Saudis with alleged war crimes. Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VxWNzlF5dA
Westliche Medien
10.9.2015 – Media Lens
Invisible War Crimes – The Corporate Media On Yemen
Adopting the required ideological viewpoint, the BBC piece observes that what 'worries' the West about events in Yemen is 'the threat of attacks emanating from the country as it becomes more unstable.'
And the cited source for such alleged concerns? 'Western intelligence agencies' who 'consider AQAP the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda because of its technical expertise and global reach.' This fits the usual pattern of 'our' government being concerned about 'keeping people safe' from the 'shadows and threats' that surround us on all sides.
One line hints at the West's real concern: 'Yemen is strategically important because it sits on the Bab al-Mandab strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass.'
The propaganda version of events, summarised and promoted by the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, is that Saudi Arabia is waging a war against 'a pro-Iranian rebel movement taking over their southern neighbour', Yemen. But a major missing factor in BBC reporting, or at best passed over very quickly, is the role of the West in Yemen's violence. Gardner only goes as far as saying that the Saudi-led coalition is 'US-backed'. But surely there is more to be said than that? Why the lack of explanation or detail?
This pattern of omissions is repeated across corporate media coverage, as we will see below.
The same omissions [ as in US media] characterise British media coverage of Yemen. In fact, the deaths of over thirty people in the August 30 attack was barely reported at all in the UK national press. The slaughter merited a short paragraph of 67 words in The Times and a single line in the Sun. That was the sum total of search results we found (Lexis newspaper database search conducted September 8, 2015). A short BBC news piece reported 31 deaths, while leaving out any mention of US or UK culpability.
[Regarding the report of Amnesty International on war crimes in Jemen which according to an article by Iona Craig was “raising vital questions over the U.S. and Britain's role in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen”], BBC News and other national news media showed zero interest in pursuing these 'vital questions', far less raising them in the first place. Indeed, the BBC published a short article that effectively whitewashed US and UK responsibility for the carnage.
Our newspaper search (September 8, 2015) has revealed that only two newspapers even mentioned the Amnesty report. This is a shocking indictment of the Western propaganda system and how it protects brutal state power.
The first of these two reports, in the Telegraph, devoted all of 170 words at the end of a news report about Yemen. The paper chose its words carefully:
'Amnesty International said that all parties to the conflict may have committed war crimes.'
There was no mention of Western culpability, far less any specific reference to the US and UK roles in war crimes.
The Times gave even shorter shrift to the Amnesty report, devoting just 24 words at the end of a tiny update on Yemen:
'It came hours after Amnesty International implored the UN to investigate potential war crimes by the Saudis and Houthi rebels involved in the conflict.' ('Yemeni aid supply at risk after Saudi attack', August 19, 2015)
For the rest of the British press, it was a non-story.
Kommentar: Ausgezeichneter Artikel!!
31.8.2015 – Fair
Missing From Reports of Yemeni Carnage: Washington’s Responsibility
Both of these reports [on Saudi air raids in Yemen] left out the information that made this news particularly relevant to the papers’ mostly American readership: The US government is actively backing the air war in Yemen that killed those civilians, as the Times and Post have both reported. The Times (3/26/15) wrote at the start of the Saudi assault:
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council said Wednesday night that the United States was providing intelligence and logistical support for the campaign in Yemen, and that President Obama had authorized a ”joint planning cell” with Saudi Arabia to coordinate American support for the military offensive.
And the Post, in a piece headlined “How US Weapons Will Play a Huge Role in Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen” (3/26/15), noted that the weaponry involved largely comes from the US:
US officials said they will offer intelligence and logistical support to the Saudis, but that’s really only a piece of it: The Saudi military is equipped with billions of dollars in advanced American-made weapons.
But that “huge role” often disappears when the the leading papers are discussing the carnage that results from the air attacks that the US is supporting and supplying – by Jum Naureckas
http://fair.org/home/missing-from-reports-of-yemeni-carnage-washingtons-responsibility/
Humanitäre Lage
10.9.2015 – Channel News Asia (by Reuters)
Arab coalition navy inspections paralyse Yemen food shipments
Shipping to Yemen is grinding to a halt as Saudi-led navy inspections hold up cargoes, shippers say, depriving it of desperately needed fuel and food as aid groups warn of famine.
Before Saudi Arabia and Arab allies intervened in March to try to restore Yemen's president to power and roll back the Iranian-allied Houthi militia, Yemen imported more than 90 percent of its food, mostly by sea.
Since then, many shipping companies have pulled out. Those still willing to bring cargoes face incalculable delays and searches by coalition warships hunting for arms for the Houthis.
Around 23 ships, carrying cargoes such as wheat, rice and fuel, waited to discharge at Hodaida and Salif ports along the Red Sea, ship tracking data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed. The two ports are still controlled by Houthis.
A humanitarian aid and food report compiled this week by the U.S. Navy, seen by Reuters, also showed over 20 ships stuck. The paralysed ports and damage to flour mills threatened to create more shortages, it said.
About 20 million people or 80 percent of the population, are estimated to be going hungry. The United Nations warned last month that Yemen was on the brink of famine.
The U.S. Navy report, citing aid agency estimates, said Yemen faced a grain shortfall of 170,000 tonnes per month.
According to trade data on Thomson Reuters Eikon, wheat imports into Yemen are estimated to reach 50,000 tonnes in September versus 35,000 tonnes in August and 159,503 tonnes in June.
Fuel shortages have spread disease and suffering in arid Yemen, where access to water is mostly depends on fuel-powered pumps. Aid and commercial assessments show Yemen needs to import over 500,000 tonnes of fuel every month.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and Noah Browning in Dubai, editing by William Hardy)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/arab-coalition-navy-inspe/2118316.html
10.9.2015 – Reliefweb
Mosquitoes winning Yemen's war
Amid the endless opinion and speculation, one thing is certain: the only real winners so far are the mosquitoes.
Although it infects hundreds of millions of people a year and is endemic in more than 100 countries, the mosquito-borne dengue virus is not especially dangerous. The vast majority of those infected develop no symptoms and most of those who do fall sick need only basic medical care, such as a drip. This reduces the risk of death to below one percent. Conditions in Taiz in central Yemen, however, have turned an outbreak into a crisis.
Late last month, the World Health Organization made an emergency plea for humanitarian access to the city to combat “an extreme spike” in cases of the disease. The call went unheeded. As long as the fighting continues, getting care to those in need in a city rife with dengue fever is practically impossible.
Taiz is right on the frontline of Yemen’s civil war, which pits the northern Houthi rebels and breakaway parts of the army against an array of forces broadly loyal to the exiled President Abbdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and backed by a Saudi Arabian-led bombing campaign.
Daily life has disappeared: the streets deserted apart from groups of armed men and the occasional crack of a sniper’s rifle. Most residents have fled for rural areas, but thousands still cower in their homes with nowhere else to go. Schools and universities are closed, the water supply has been cut off, and the doors at the state-run Republic Hospital are shuttered as shells land nearby.
There have been 1,243 suspected cases of dengue in Taiz governorate this year, according to official figures from the WHO. Local reports, including from the Relief Coalition health group in Taiz city, say the real number of cases is 10 times higher and that 15 people have died.
Helping spread the disease is the lack of a proper water supply, which has forced people to collect what they can in open containers, leaving a plethora of perfect breeding grounds for the disease-carrying mosquitoes.
"Limited access to health care services, a breakdown in safe water supply and sanitation services as well as accumulation of garbage have facilitated the spread of dengue fever in the governorate,” said Ahmed Shadoul, WHO’s representative for Yemen.
Nearly a quarter of all Yemen’s medical facilities have closed down because of the conflict, according to the UN.
"There is not enough medicine in Taiz for the complications of dengue fever, and most of the hospitals closed their doors and made this a crisis,” Izi told IRIN.
"Dengue fever is killing Taiz's residents right now and there is a large number of casualties,” he said, urging international organisations to do more to help.
Shadoul said most roads into Taiz were inaccessible, impeding the delivery of medical aid.
http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/mosquitoes-winning-yemens-war
8.9.2015 – Aljazeera
Almost 100,000 children starving in Yemen's al-Hodeidah
UN children's agency says it is alarmed by the levels of child hunger in Yemen after six months of heavy fighting.
The UN children's agency says 96,000 children are starving and close to death in the port city of al-Hodeidah.
It estimates nearly 8,000 children will suffer from severe malnutrition in the southern port city of Aden in the next year.
Already, almost two million children across the country do not have enough food or water. And the fighting is escalating in the capital, Sanaa, as the Saudi-led coalition steps up its bombardment.
Al Jazeera's Alexi O'Brien reports.
8.9.2015 – Al Jazeera (Film)
UNICEF: New nutrition data show an alarming situation for children in Yemen
Malnutrition is emerging as a potent threat to the children of Yemen. UNICEF is carrying out a new survey in nine high risk governorates to establish the exact scale.
The Findings from “Hodeida and Aden” where the survey has been completed, are disheartening. There is a remarkable increase in the numbers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOXRWw3xvWE&feature=youtu.be
Kulturerbe
10.9.2015 – History News Network
The religious and cultural heritage being ruined by Yemen's war
The roster of antiquities damaged in the war in Yemen runs long. Missiles fired from the coalition's planes have obliterated a museum (where the fruits of an American-Yemeni archaeological dig were stored), historic caked-mud high-rise dwellings, 12th century citadels and minarets and other places whose importance to humanity's heritage has been recognised by the UN. The Great Dam of Marib, a feat of engineering that was undertaken 2,800 years ago, has been struck four times, most recently on August 18th. Antiquities experts fear for the oldest surviving fragment of the Koran, in a six-month war which has killed over 4,000 and injured 20,000
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160578
Friedensgespräche
11.9.2015 – SZ
UN: Konfliktparteien im Jemen wollen Friedensprozess neu beleben
New York (dpa) - Die Konfliktparteien im jemenitischen Bürgerkrieg haben sich nach UN-Angaben auf neue Friedensgespräche verständigt. Die Unterredungen sollten in der kommenden Woche in der Region beginnen, sagte der UN-Sondergesandte für den Jemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in New York. Ort und Zeitpunkt sollen demnach in den kommenden Tagen bekanntgegeben werden.
11.9.2015 – Reuters
U.N. says Yemen peace talks set to resume next week
The United Nations on Thursday said peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Yemen are set to resume next week in the region and urged all parties to participate "in good faith."
A U.N. press official said U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's special envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, welcomed the commitment of Yemen's government, the Houthis and Yemen's General People's Congress to join the talks, which will take place in the region next week.
"The special envoy applauds the decision of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and other Yemeni parties to attend the talks," the statement said – by Louis Charbonneau
http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-says-yemen-peace-talks-set-resume-213510596.html
10.9.2015 – UN News Center
UN envoy on Yemen welcomes commitment of parties to upcoming peace talks
The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen today welcomed the commitment of the Government, the Houthis and the General People’s Congress to participate in peace talks that he will convene in the region next week.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed applauded the decision of Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and other Yemeni parties to attend the talks, for which a venue and date will be announced in the coming days.
He urged the participants in the talks to engage constructively and in good faith, recognising the need for a rapid end to the violence which has brought intolerable levels of suffering to the Yemeni people.
The aim of the upcoming talks is to create a framework for an agreement on implementation mechanisms for UN Security Council resolution 2216, a ceasefire and the restoration of a peaceful political transition.
Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed voiced his gratitude for the support of States in the region and in the international community for their efforts to help Yemenis find a way out of the current conflict.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51849#.VfJZMxHtlHw siehe auch http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/world/middleeast/fighters-in-yemen-agree-to-talks-with-un-mediator.html?_r=0
Kommentar: Wird wahrscheinlich auch wieder nichts, wenn die Hadi-Exilregierung und ihre saudischen Hintermänner, wie bei früheren Gesprächen auch, darauf besten, dass die Huthis kapitulieren, bevor man überhaupt miteinander redet
8.9.2015 – Inner City Press
UN's Yemen Envoy Absent When Houthis Met US, UK, EU & Saudi Intelligence, "Dissed"
On August 27-28 in Muscat, the US and UK, the EU Ambassador to the UN and Saudi intelligence, met with the Houthis -- without the UN and its envoy present, or even sources say aware of the meeting. These sources say that the UN's Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was on vacation in his native Mauritania, and was entirely out of the loop. It seems it was being exposed as such which caused this envoy to complain - and remain silent about the airstrikes.
Sources also note that the Saudi have "dissed" Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, relegating him only to meeting with Saudi intelligence, not diplomats as was previously the case with the UN. This too is embarrassing to the UN. Hence the Sunday evening statement:
"The Special Envoy for Yemen of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, is disturbed by press reports regarding the leak of internal United Nations correspondence. The content of these reports, especially in some Yemeni media outlets and Internet sites, constitute distortions and misinterpretations. These reports do not reflect the position of the Special Envoy or of the United Nations."
A well placed UN source told Inner City Press that the replacement envoy should never have commented on the leak, especially while remaining silent on the increased airstrikes and Qatar sending troops and Apache helicopters. […]
While some are sure to argue that Ban now meeting with the parties would undercut Cheikh Ahmed, others point out the the underlying resolution speaks of the Secretary General's Good Offices INCLUDING his Envoy. The envoy is not the only game in town - nor, given his lack of disclosure, raised by Inner City Press, should he be. We'll have more on this – by Matthew Russell Lee
http://www.innercitypress.com/yemen56fishy090815.html
Kriegsereignisse
10.9.2015 – Die Zeit
Arabische Koalition bombardiert Bienenzüchter im Jemen
Bei Luftangriffen der arabischen Militärallianz auf vermeintliche Rebellenstellungen im Jemen sind acht Zivilisten getötet worden. Die Kampfjets zielten am Mittwoch auf Positionen nahe der Ortschaft Bayhan in der Provinz Marib, wie örtliche Behörden am Donnerstag mitteilten. Getroffen wurden demnach aber die Lager von Bienenzüchtern. Sechs Bienenzüchter sowie zwei weitere Zivilisten seien getötet worden.
10.9.2015 – Associated Press
Saudi soldier killed in exchange of fire across Yemen border
Saudi Arabia says an exchange of fire across the kingdom's border with Yemen has killed a Saudi soldier.
A statement from the Interior Ministry, carried by state-run media, says the soldier was killed after a Saudi border guard outpost in the southern region of Jizan came under heavy fire from across the border on Thursday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4699861,00.html
10.9.2015 – Reuters
Saudi-led air raids hit bases, Houthi leaders' houses in Yemeni capital
War planes from a Saudi-led military alliance bombed Yemen's capital Sanaa on Thursday, in what witnesses described as the fiercest attacks on the city in over five months of war.
The air strikes hit houses of political leaders in the Iran-allied Houthi movement and military bases, as explosions and wailing ambulance sirens forced a sleepless night on the city's nearly 2 million shell-shocked residents.
"The sick people fled the hospital in terror," an official at a private hospital said. "They were afraid the building would collapse from the non-stop bombing of the army bases nearby."
There were no immediate reports of casualties, a day after medics said six civilians in the city were killed by air strikes.
(Reporting By Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Robin Pomeroy)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/10/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0RA0M720150910
10.9.2015 – Iran German Radio
26 Tote bei den jüngsten Luftangriffen Saudi-Arabiens auf den Jemen
Bei Luftangriffen Saudi-Arabiens auf Ziele im Jemen sind gestern mindestens 26 Zivilisten getötet und mehrere verwundet worden. Das teilte die Nachrichtenagentur al-Masirah mit.
Die Angriffe erfolgten auf die südwestjemenitische Provinz Ta´iz. Bei einem weiteren Luftangriff starben in den Regionen Ain und Bayhan in der südjemenitischen Provinz Shabwa weitere sieben Zivilisten und weitere wurden verletzt.
Die jemenitische Hauptstadt Sanaa erlebte am Mittwoch mit 20 Attacken binnen 30 Minuten ihren schwersten Angriff der vergangenen Wochen
10.9.2015 – The Washington Post
Buildup of Saudi-led ground forces in Yemen triggers alarm in capital
Zusammenfassung der Lage aus Sicht der Huthi-Gegner.
Analysts say that Marib province is a logical staging ground for a broader coalition attack because it is near the capital and its population is sympathetic to the mission.
The province is home to key oil-production facilities and power plants that feed Sanaa with electricity. The fighting has disabled much of that infrastructure, leading to months of crippling power blackouts throughout much of the country. But the oil and electrical facilities eventually could be used for development and reconstruction in the areas of southern Yemen that had been freed from Houthi control, analysts say. Parts of the south, including Aden, were destroyed in the fighting.
“Talk of liberating Sanaa sounds a lot sexier than exploiting energy riches in Marib. But seizing that infrastructure in itself could be seen as a sort of victory,” said Adam Baron, a Yemen analyst and visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based expert on military issues in the Persian Gulf region, said coalition forces have made detailed preparations for an attack on the capital. Military leaders are under no illusions as to how skilled the Houthis are at guerrilla warfare, he said.
Sanaa is set amid mountainous terrain that is home to tribes that are sympathetic to the Houthis, all of which would complicate such an attack, Karasik said – by Ali al-Mujahed and Hugh Naylor
10.9.2015 – Süddeutsche Zeitung
Schlacht mit Ansage
In Jemen bereitet die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Militärkoalition den Sturm auf die Hauptstadt Sanaa vor. Auch anderswo im Land leiden die Menschen unter Zerstörung und Anarchie.
Die von Saudi-Arabien geführte Militärkoalition hat am Donnerstag ihr ohnehin schon schweres Bombardement vonJemens Hauptstadt Sanaa weiter intensiviert. Ein Bewohner der Stadt sagte der Süddeutschen Zeitung am Telefon, bis zum Mittag habe es mindestens 50 Luftangriffe gegeben. Im Hintergrund waren die Einschläge und Luftabwehrfeuer zu hören. Andere Quellen sprachen von mehr als 80 Angriffen bis zum frühen Nachmittag.
Nach offiziellen Angaben galten die Angriffe Häusern von Anführern der Huthi-Miliz und Loyalisten des Ex-Präsidenten Ali Abdullah Saleh sowie Militäreinrichtungen und Waffenlagern. Bewohner Sanaas berichteten allerdings übereinstimmend von Einschlägen in dicht besiedelten Gebieten und Wohnhäusern von Zivilisten. Bis zum Mittag habe es mindesten 25 Tote in verschiedenen Vierteln der Stadt gegeben.
Zugleich baut die Militärkoalition in der zentralen Provinz Marib Truppen für einen Vorstoß auf Sanaa auf. Nach Schätzungen aus Jemen wurden dort mehr als 2000ausländische Soldaten mit schweren Waffen zusammengezogen; der in Katar ansässige Nachrichtensender Al Jazeera sprach sogar von 10 000 Mann. Das kleine Golfemirat ist Teil der Militärkoalition und hat zugesagt, 1000 Soldaten zu entsenden.
Die Menschen in Sanaa befürchten eine äußerst blutige Schlacht und große Zerstörungen, wenn die Koalition tatsächlich versuchen sollte, die Stadt zu erstürmen – von Paul-Anton Krüger
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/jemen-schlacht-mit-ansage-1.2642098
10.9.2015 – Counterinformation
Foreign Invasion Force In Yemen Grows
The invasion force in Yemen is growing. The invasion troops now include:
3,000 United Arab Emirates
1,000 Qatar
1,000 Saudi Arabia
6,000 (somewhat unreliable) Yemeni expats hired and trained by Saudi Arabia
600-800 Egypt
small contingents from Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan
All together the force has now nearly the size of an infantry division in a “western” army. That is not really much should these want to advance from Marib towards the capital Sanaa through the mountainous terrain inhabited by an unfriendly and well armed population. I would recommend at least three division or some 40-50,000 men for that partial task. (For comparison: In the 1960s Egypt sent some 70,000 troops to a proxy civil war in Yemen of which some 12,000 got killed and many more wounded.)
Coordinating such an array of forces with different military cultures will be extremely difficult. There have already been several cases in which the Saudi air force “successfully” bombed ground elements of its Yemeni allies.
Announced are also some 6,000 troops from Sudan though I doubt that so many will ever arrive. Smaller contingents are also to come from Senegal and Morocco.
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/foreign-invasion-force-in-yemen-grows/
10.9.2015 – World Socialist Web
Thousands of Saudi-led coalition troops invade Yemen
Thousands of troops from a Saudi-led coalition are being deployed in Yemen, a development which portends a major escalation of the bloody US-backed assault on the impoverished Arab country. Now in its sixth month, the war has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,100 civilians.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, the coalition waging war in Yemen is composed of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.
Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that the number of coalition troops in Yemen has grown to 10,000 since the Saudi military units made their first reported incursion into the country on August 27. A further 10,000 Yemeni soldiers, loyal to Hadi and trained in Saudi Arabia, are also said to have been deployed to fight the Houthis and their allies.
The number of coalition troops occupying the country grows by the day. Qatar and Egypt both deployed troops to Yemen for the first time this week following a Houthi missile attack on a coalition military camp in Marib province that killed at least 60 coalition soldiers, including 45 from the United Arab Emirates, 10 from Saudi Arabia and five from Bahrain.
Qatar is reportedly contributing 1,000 troops to the invasion and 800 Egyptian soldiers were reported to have arrived in Yemen on Tuesday. The Saudi-backed Al Arabiya reported on Monday that the Sudanese government was preparing to contribute 6,000 troops to the fighting.
The developing ground offensive comes in the wake of a White House meeting last weekend between Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and US President Barack Obama.
A one billion dollar deal to replenish Saudi Arabia’s missile stockpile, announced ahead of the meeting between the two heads of state, will facilitate the continuation of punishing airstrikes throughout Yemen. Coalition jet fighters have repeatedly bombarded residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, markets, factories and ports.
The coalition has already received significant amounts of support from the United States. Military intelligence and logistical support from the Pentagon have facilitated the nearly continuos aerial assault.
Many of the coalition airstrikes have been carried out by US supplied jet fighters and US supplied bombs, guided by US intelligence. Several dozen American military advisers are working in central military command centers in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has provided lists of airstrike targets which are vetted by American military and intelligence officials.
American naval vessels have assisted in enforcing a blockade which has contributed to severe shortages of food and medical supplies throughout the country – by Niles Williamson
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/10/yeme-s10.html
10.9.2015 – Al Araby
Yemen war: Arab countries mass ground troops
Arab nations are massing ground forces as they escalate their battle against Houthis in Yemen's north, and in rebel-held Sanaa.
(Ausführlicher Bericht über die Massierung von Truppen in der Provinz Marib zum Vormarsch auf Sanaa). Der Artikel endet mit:
The Saudi-led coalition also has to contend with a population in the north that is more naturally sympathetic to the Houthis and Saleh, unlike the south, where the Arab forces were seen as liberators from northern invaders.
Indeed, many southern fighters have vowed not to join in the war in the north, telling the Gulf that that is not their fight.
The coalition has been working hard to convince the tribes in the regions surrounding Sanaa, groupings that have so far largely thrown in their lot with the Houthis and Saleh, that this is not their fight.
They want them to either join their side, or at least stand aside.
Much rests on the decisions made by those tribes. They are pragmatic and avoid losing causes.
Yet, even with them on side, the coalition faces a group in the Houthis who will not give up easily, especially in light of their ideological beliefs and their battle-hardened experience.
War is coming to Sanaa, and, however many troops the coalition manages to mass, outright victory will be difficult to achieve – by Abubakr al-Shamahi
10.9.2015 – Economist
Saudi Arabia escalates its military campaign
Yemen is descending into prolonged, uncontrollable war
The conflict in the desperately poor nation was already going horribly badly. But the Saudi-led coalition fighting the country’s Houthi rebels has now intensified its campaign, after 60 of its soldiers were killed in a single attack in Marib on September 4th.
The coalition has since unleashed an unprecedented flurry of airstrikes in both the northern governorate of Saada, the stronghold of the Houthi rebels, and the country’s capital, Sana’a. Residents say as many civilian as military targets being hit, including houses, restaurants and main streets.
The action certainly has the whiff of revenge. Onlookers have already been questioning what the coalition’s campaign, now in its sixth month, hopes to achieve.
Quashing the Shia Houthis is nigh on impossible too. Gulf officials and media talk bombastically of preparations to take back Sana’a from the Houthis and reinstall Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi as president (the Houthis drove him out of the country in March). But Yemen has long been treacherous territory for foreign invaders, and Gulf armies are relatively inexperienced.
The fighting will only get harder since the Houthis’ remaining strongholds are in mountainous redoubts rather than flat plains. “Taking Sana’a and other places would require Yemeni forces,” says Hakim al-Masmari, the editor of the Yemen Post, a local paper. “When Gulf forces move, they are vulnerable to attacks.”
The high toll exacted on civilians may be losing the coalition the support of allied fighters on the ground: a mixture of tribesmen, units of the fractured army and Islamist types, including al-Qaeda fighters.
9.9.2015 – Press TV Iran
Yemen forces fire rockets at Saudi troops in Ma’rib
Yemeni army forces and allied popular committees have, in retaliatory attacks, fired rockets at Saudi forces in central Yemen.
According to local media reports on Wednesday, the Yemeni forces fired Katyusha rockets at Saudi forces in the area of Sahn al-Jin in the oil-rich Yemeni province of Ma’rib, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of the capital, Sana'a.
A number of Saudi military vehicles were reportedly destroyed and some other items of military equipment were damaged in the Yemeni retaliatory attacks against Saudi positions.
The Yemeni forces also fired rockets at a number of Saudi military bases in the southwest of the kingdom.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/09/09/428392/Yemen-Saudi-Arabia-Marib-Sanaa-
Kommentar: Iranische Quelle, folglich Yemeni army forces = Auf Seitren der Huthis kämpfende Teile der jemenitischen Armee (die übrigens den größeren Teil der Armee ausmachen!), allied popular committees = Huthis.
Politik der USA
10.9.2015 – Daily Star / Middle East Eye
Drone kills four Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed in an apparent U.S. drone strike on the jihadis' stronghold in southeastern Yemen, a local official said Thursday.
The raid late on Wednesday targeted a 4x4 transporting the four suspects near Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province, with a missile leaving the vehicle charred, the official said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Sep-10/314725-drone-kills-four-al-qaeda-suspects-in-yemen.ashx und http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-drone-kills-four-al-qaeda-suspects-yemen-1442215408
Kommentar: “Four suspected”: Das bedeutet gar nichts. 13jährige hatten wir auch schon. Der Irrsinn des Drohnenkriegs.
10.9.2015 – Foreign Policy
The King and ISIS
King Salman came to Washington touting military and counterterrorism cooperation. But can the U.S.-Saudi relationship survive the House of Saud’s sponsorship of Islamic radicalism across the globe?
One commentator who did dwell on the deep dissonance in the relationship was Thomas Friedman, in a New York Times column published just before King Salman’s arrival. Teeing off on some benighted retired Air Force general who opposed the nuclear deal on the grounds that Iran was the leading sponsor of Islamic radicalism in the world, Friedman exclaimed: “Nothing has been more corrosive to the stability and modernization of the Arab world, and the Muslim world at large, than the billions and billions of dollars the Saudis have invested since the 1970s into wiping out the pluralism of Islam … and imposing in its place the puritanical, anti-modern, anti-women, anti-Western, anti-pluralistic Wahhabi Salafist brand of Islam.”
Friedman is on target in arguing that Saudi Arabia’s contribution to Islamist extremism has far outstripped Iran’s. Indeed, Tehran’s effort to transcend sect and become the leader of the Muslim world’s radical rejectionist stream has been in tatters since the Arab Spring and the heightening of sectarian tensions because of the Syrian civil war. Although systemic misgovernance is the Arab world’s deadliest disease, Saudi Arabia’s energetic propagation of Wahhabism — which began as a response to Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 — has been central to the rise of violent extremism, from Indonesia to Mali.
Wahhabism has been a devastating invasive species in Islam’s enormous ecosystem — it’s the zebra mussel, the Asian Tiger mosquito, and the emerald ash borerwrapped into one. The consequences have been fateful: A solid line of causation from the slaughter in Islamic State-controlled Iraq and the tragedy of 9/11 traces back directly to Saudi evangelization and the many radical mosques and extremist NGOs it spawned.
Friedman’s explanation for why the United States has never challenged Riyadh is crude — in both senses of the word. “We’re addicted to their oil and addicts never tell the truth to their pushers,” he wrote.
This is too easy; if oil were the only vital U.S. interest binding it to the kingdom, dealing with the export of extremism would be vastly easier.
Still, there is an extraordinary paradox [related to the US-Saudi cooperation in counterterrorism] here. Because of the large sums that flow from the country’s religious establishment and huge NGOs to institutions that promote Wahhabi-style Islam — with its malignant views of Shiites, Jews, Christians, and the West — Saudi Arabia remains the fountainhead for Islamist extremism. These funds, together with curricular materials, preachers, television broadcasters, religious literature, and the like stoke radicalism in scores of countries, even if they are typically not directly implicated in violent acts. At the same time, Saudi intelligence services are active around the world trying to prevent the terrorism that grows from this activity.
Crazy? Absolutely, but it is an insanity borne of the kingdom’s original political compact between Muhammad ibn Saud, progenitor of the House of Saud, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the original Wahhabi, a charismatic preacher — who joined forces to wrest control of the Arabian Peninsula in the mid-18th century. The royal family could rule Arabia so long as it promoted Wahhabism, and the monarchy has relied on Wahhabi clerics to validate its legitimacy as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ever since. Whenever the monarchy has faced challenges to its rule, it has pumped even more money to the clerical establishment, some of which went abroad. Not surprisingly, the prospect of a democratic wave sweeping the region during the Arab Spring led to billions being disbursed.
So why hasn’t the United States pressed Riyadh more effectively to dial back the support for extremism that so clearly affects our security and global interests?
There are several reasons – by Daniel Benjamin
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/10/the-king-and-isis-saudi-arabia-egypt-iraq/
10.9.2015 – The American Conservative
The War on Yemen and the Administration’s “Gnawing Concerns”
[refers to article cited above] Benjamin makes some good points in the article, but I have to question the assumption that U.S. support for the war was ever a “necessity” for maintaining the relationship or for the sake of the nuclear deal. The Saudis have not always supported every U.S. intervention, and in some cases they have been very much opposed, but the relationship remained intact. A client isn’t obliged to endorse everything that its patron does, nor is a patron obliged to support every policy that its client pursues. If the Saudis didn’t approve of making a nuclear deal, that wouldn’t have derailed the negotiations. The U.S. didn’t have to back the Saudi intervention in Yemen. The administration chose to do this when it was not obliged to, and it was a terrible decision.
As I said earlier in the week, it is hard to take these “gnawing concerns” seriously. If the U.S. were so concerned about the effects of the bombing campaign, it could either cut back on the assistance it is providing or it could publicly criticize the targeting of civilian areas. Helping the Saudis to “refine” their targeting is not very useful when it seems plain enough that the Saudis have been deliberately targeting civilian areas for months, which is why the civilian casualties from the campaign are so high. These repeated anonymous professions of worry and concern come across too much as a belated and increasingly desperate attempt to disavow the consequences of a war that the administration foolishly joined without considering the risks and costs. The administration wants credit from the Saudis by enabling the war, but it doesn’t want to be held responsible for the horrific effects that the war is having on Yemeni civilians, and so we get these behind-the-scenes laments that change nothing.
It’s good that “the Saudi claim that the Houthis are nothing more than an Iranian proxy has also worn thin,” but then it should never have been taken seriously and indulged in the first place. This was a piece of Saudi propaganda used to sell their war, and it should have been obvious to our government that it wasn’t a credible claim. Unfortunately, they were too preoccupied trying to “reassure” our despotic clients that they went along with it when it mattered most – by Daniel Larison
10.9.2015 – American Enterprise Institute
A new model for defeating al Qaeda in Yemen
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), still likely the most potent al Qaeda terrorist threat to the US homeland, has expanded and strengthened as the Yemeni state has collapsed, and its success buttresses the global al Qaeda network.
The current US approach to Yemen has failed alongside the Yemeni state because it prioritized a military response to the AQAP threat rather than a more comprehensive strategy.
A win against al Qaeda in Yemen will last only if it is part of a global strategy against al Qaeda, ISIS, and like-minded groups.
The US must identify a way forward and lead a coordinated regional response in Yemen, including negotiating a political settlement among Yemeni stakeholders, supporting subnational actors, leading a ground offensive against AQAP, and addressing the immediate humanitarian needs of the population. – by Katherine Zimmerman
https://www.aei.org/publication/a-new-model-for-defeating-al-qaeda-in-yemen/ see also by the same author http://www.criticalthreats.org/yemen/exploring-isis-yemen-zimmerman-july-24-2015
Politik von Grossbritannien
10.9.2015 – One World News
UK arms sales fuelling Yemen crisis in potential breach of law says Oxfam
Arms going to Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign of Yemen
The UK Government is quietly fuelling the Yemen conflict and exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises potentially in breach of both domestic and international laws on the sales of arms, Oxfam warned today. These laws prohibit arms deals where there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit war crimes or human rights abuses
The Government says it is not directly involved in the bombing but since the conflict began UK arms exports have been replenishing Saudi Arabia’s stocks of weapons. The Government has declined to give Parliament details of numbers or types.
The agency called on the Government to immediately take four steps:
· suspend arms shipments and military support to Saudi Arabia, which is leading the bombing campaign on Yemen,
· undertake an investigation into whether UK arms have been used in attacks that may have breached international humanitarian law
· condemn, in significantly more outspoken terms, attacks on civilians by all sides, including by Houthi and anti-Houthi armed groups, and by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes
· make every possible diplomatic effort to help bring the conflict to an end and continue to push for vital humanitarian and commercial supplies to enter Yemen and reach those most in need
Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s Chief Executive said:
“Yemen has descended into a humanitarian disaster putting its people at risk of famine and the UK is materially involved through its export of arms and military support to the bombing campaign. An estimated eight children a day are killed or injured in Yemen’s conflict. The on-going conflict in Syria and the refugee crisis it has produced show why it is so vitally important to search for political solutions before it is too late. It is time the government stopped supporting this war and put every possible effort into bringing an end to the carnage.
“There is a paradox at the heart of the government’s approach to Yemen. On the one hand the Department for International Development is funding efforts to help civilians caught up in the conflict, while on the other the Government is fuelling the conflict that is causing unbearable human suffering.
“The UK successfully lobbied hard over many years for a UN Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the arms trade which came into being last year. This Government has incorporated the treaty into national law, yet at the first test of the new law it has turned a blind eye to mounting evidence of potential misuse of its weapons and support.”
In 2013, David Cameron hailed the Arms Trade Treaty as a landmark agreement that would “save lives and ease the immense human suffering caused by armed conflict around the world.” He said Britain should be proud of the role it had played in securing an agreement that would make the world safer for all.
http://oneworld.org/2015/09/10/uk-arms-sales-fuelling-yemen-crisis-in-potential-breach-of-law/
Politik von Saudi-Arabien und den Golfstaaten
10.9.2015 – Christian Science Monitor
In central Yemen, Saudi policy of 'checking' Iran is tested in battle
Both in public and private, Saudi military officials have hailed their military action – depicting the war in Yemen as the first step of a wider and ambitious policy of “deterrence” and “checking” Iranian military and political influence in the region.
At first glance, the sparsely-populated central province of Marib may not seem like the center of the battle for future Gulf military policy. But due to the presence of oil refineries, key weapons depots, and its supply lines to Houthi forces some 75 miles north in Sanaa, the town has become the focus of the coalition force’s strategy to “cut off” Houthis in the capital and key to its victory in Yemen.
“This is really the first time many of these countries on their own have gone outside their borders – and for Saudi Arabia, the first time since the 1930s,” says Gregory Gause, a Gulf expert and professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University.
The attack so far has rallied rather than hindered public support in the Gulf for the campaign, with an outpouring of support through social media in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. In a play to the public, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed ben Zayed vowed “revenge” and pledged to rid Yemen of Houthi “scum,” while Bahraini King Hamad al-Khalifa enlisted his own sons to join the campaign.
Yet as the fighting drags on and coalition members prepare for a costly ground invasion of the capital Sanaa, military analysts and coalition officials privately expect casualties to soar – and public morale to waver.
“I think the biggest question is the sustainability of casualties – UAE, Kuwait and Qatar – these societies really haven’t suffered casualties in foreign wars in the living memory of anyone,” Mr. Gause said.
Saudi military analysts say that by painting the struggle for Yemen as part of a wider war against Iran and its encroaching influence in the Arab world, the Gulf monarchies are trying to prepare their publics for a longer, costlier war than originally billed.
“The public debate in the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain is very simple: action in Yemen is not only to save Yemen from the hand of Houthi militia control, it is rather an important part of an overdue regional, Arab confrontation with Iran,” says Mustafa Alani, director of national security at the Jeddah-based Gulf Research Center.
With its regional fighting force being put to the test in Yemen, the parameters for a wider Saudi victory are clear.
Should the coalition uproot the Houthis from Sanaa and reinstall the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the capital within the next three months, Riyadh’s new policy of intervention will be deemed a success, Gulf military analysts and officials say.
However, should the offensive on Sanaa stall and casualties rise, the appetite for future military action in states such as Iraq and Syria – where the conflicts are much more protracted and Iran has a strong military presence on the ground – will fade – by Taylor Luck
Politik der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate
10.9.2015 – Al Monitor
It was announced that squares, memorials, a mosque, postage stamps and even a museum would be dedicated to the “martyrs,” with plans for this museum to house an archive that would “document the records of each soldier, including their biography.” Yet, Emirati authorities are simultaneously cracking down on the sharing of a list of the purported names of some deceased soldiers on social media.
The state-owned The National has called this list “false,” and quoted the Abu Dhabi attorney general as saying that anyone who starts a rumor or spreads false information, or any information that aims to “weaken the moral spirit of the people,” will be prosecuted. It has also reported that the public prosecution office in Abu Dhabi has ordered the arrest of a person who published the above-mentioned list.” – by Mohammad Ali Shabani
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/uae-troops-yemen.html#
9.9.2015 – Construction Week
UAE plans monuments commemorating Yemen martyrs
Various monuments will be constructed to commemorate Emirati martyrs of the Yemen war, it was reported.
Local daily The National stated that a martyrs' square and memorial will be "created in Al Alam Park at the request of the Ruler, Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi".
"The Emirate’s municipality and planning department will oversee construction," the report continued.
"The memorial will celebrate the positive role the fallen soldiers have played in influencing the people of Ajman."
Dubai Customs will also build a mosque to honour the "martyrs of the Emirates".
Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah, has dedicated a public square in Sharjah City "to every Emirati who has died in the line of duty since the country was founded in 1971". – by Neha Bhatia
http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-35333-uae-plans-monuments-commemorating-yemen-martyrs/
Kommentar: Das wird in Beton gegossene Propaganda. Lügen für die trauernden Angehörigen und für die Welt. Für die Tausende ermordeter Zivilisten wird es natürlich keine Denkmäler geben.
Politik von Ägyten
10.9.2015 – Arab News
800 Egypt troops boost Yemen force
As many as 800 Egyptian soldiers arrived in Yemen late on Tuesday, Egyptian security sources said, swelling the ranks of a Gulf Arab military contingent which aims to rout the Iran-allied Houthi group after a five-month civil war.
It was the first reported deployment of ground troops there by Egypt, which has one of the Arab world's strongest armies.
http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/804236
oder aber?:
9.9.2015 – Times of Israel
Egypt denies sending troops to battle Houthis in Yemen
Government sources reject reports of 800-strong deployment in bid to quell Iran-backed rebels
The officials disputed earlier reports of the first Egyptian deployment in Yemen.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-denies-sending-troops-to-battle-houthis-in-yemen/
Soldaten aus Afrika
10.9.2015 – Al Monitor
Yemen’s African Connection
there have been reports of African troops fighting alongside GCC forces.
In May, the West African nation of Senegal announced that it would send 2,100 troops to Saudi Arabia to join the “Arab” operation in Yemen. Moreover, in recent days, there have been reports of Sudan — long seen as an Iranian ally but yet swayed to join the Yemen operation — now sending 6,000 soldiers. Of note, the Sudanese central bank has confirmed receipt of $1 billion from Saudi Arabia, with the Finance Ministry saying in April that another $1 billion will be deposited from Qatar as well. Separately, Egypt is also reportedly set to send 800 soldiers, while Qatar is sending 1,000 troops.
However, it appears that the reported “African soldiers” in Yemen may neither be Senegalese nor Sudanese. Instead, they may come from Yemen’s war-torn neighbor, Somalia.
In April, Somali Foreign Minister Abdisalan Omar Hadliye announced that his country would allow the GCC-led forces to use his country’s air, land and sea for operations in Yemen. Two months later, in early June, the Emirati foreign minister paid a rare visit to Somalia, where he met with the Somali president and other senior officials. Days afterward, military aid consisting of “armored vehicles, Toyota Land Cruiser-type vehicles and other equipment such as tank trailers” arrived from the UAE.
In early September, only days before the Houthi attack that claimed the lives of 45 UAE soldiers, an unnamed Somali diplomat reportedly accused Somali President Hassan Mahamoud of “allowing the UAE to train the country’s soldiers to go to war in Yemen, instead of fighting al-Shabab.” The unnamed diplomat alleged that while African Union troops were battling Somali insurgents, “Somali soldiers will be fighting in Yemen, and the whole world has to know.” The diplomat further charged that there could be more than 500 Somali troops receiving training to fight alongside Emirati forces, and that the Somali president “is doing this in order to get funding from UAE to defend a motion against him currently in parliament.” – by Mohammad Ali Shabani
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/uae-troops-yemen.html#
Terrorismus / IS
10.9.2015 – Wallstreet Journal
Is Al Qaeda Winning in Saudi-Iran Proxy War in Yemen?
Concerns arise after Islamist extremists fought alongside Saudi-led coalition and its allies
To what extent is al Qaeda reaping the rewards of the Saudi-led war in Yemen?
That is an important question for the future of Yemen and for U.S. counterterrorism efforts against the Yemeni branch of the global terror network. The answer depends on who you ask.
Few here deny that al Qaeda has fought alongside the broad alliance that ousted pro-Iran Houthi militias from much of southern Yemen in recent weeks.
Now, preventing the Islamist extremists from leveraging these victories into increased power has become a critical challenge for the Saudi-led coalition
Houthi and Iranian propaganda routinely describe all of the Saudi-backed forces loyal to Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as affiliated with al Qaeda. Ahmed Mahdi Fudail, the governor of southern Yemen’s Lahj province, most of which was recently retaken from the Houthis, estimated that Qaeda militants accounted for only 5% of the Yemeni forces allied with the Saudi-led coalition.
But that small proportion doesn’t mean that al Qaeda isn’t capable of using the current political chaos in southern Yemen to dramatically increase its power.
Yemeni officials and officers from the United Arab Emirates acknowledge that militants of al Qaeda and Islamic State are present in the area. They deny, however, that the extremists control any part of south Yemen’s main city, with a prewar population of 1.5 million.
So far, U.A.E and Saudi forces in Yemen have maintained an informal nonaggression pact with al Qaeda, abstaining from hitting each other, coalition officials say.
“It’s not in al Qaeda’s interest right now to attack the Gulf forces or anyone fighting against the Houthis,” said Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemen expert at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “But at one point, al Qaeda will say—it’s you or us.”
Al Qaeda, Mr. Bakri added, has little chance of taking root in Aden, a cosmopolitan city with a proud culture that, he reminded, had the Arabian peninsula’s first cinema and first stadium under British rule a century ago.
The head of President Hadi’s office in Aden, Mohammed Ali Maram, also argued that al Qaeda’s threat in the south is much exaggerated – by Yaroslav Trofimov
http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-al-qaeda-winning-in-saudi-iran-proxy-war-in-yemen-1441877581
Kommentar: Übertreibt die eine Seite die Bedeutung von Al Kaida in den Gebieten im Süden, hat die andere Seite gute Gründe, sie kleinzureden. Das eine wie das andere ist Propaganda – man sollte den Vertretern der Golfstaaten und der Hadi-Regierung deshalb auch nicht mehr glauben.
9.9.2015 – HEC News
Dozens of Emirati Soldiers Beheaded by ISIL in Yemen
ISIL terrorists have cut off the heads of several dozen Emirati soldiers who fled the war in Yemen's Maarib after a Houthi missile attack killed at least 65 of their comrades along with 240 others from the Saudi-led coalition, Iranian media reports said.
http://news.hec.su/item/127459/dozens-of-emirati-soldiers-beheaded-by-isil-in-yemen
Flüchtlinge
9.9.2015 – The Nation
Yemen, the World’s Next Great Refugee Crisis
As the civil war heats up amid intervention by the Gulf monarchies, thousands are fleeing every day.
Another large refugee problem may now loom, which is unlikely to leave Europe unaffected. The war in Yemen, already highly destructive, may be getting hotter as it reaches an endgame, with the potential for putting a large proportion of its 24 million people—a slightly larger population than pre-war Syria—on the road (or, more likely, the seas).
By this August, with the outbreak of civil war in January and a major foreign intervention, the number of internally displaced Yemenis alone is thought to have risen to about 1.5 million, about 6 percent of the population.
The war has affected even those not forced to flee their homes. Yemen is dry or hilly and water-poor, so the country had been importing nine-tenths of its food before the Houthi coup in January. The ensuing fighting has interfered with such imports.
By spring, already some 25,000 Yemenis had fled abroad, but in the course of the GCC air campaign and indiscriminate Houthi shelling this summer, another 100,000 have left the country. Thousands are leaving every week, taking passage in cargo ships across the Red Sea to Djibouti and Somalia in the Horn of Africa, and then some are making their way north to places like Egypt. The only limiting factor so far has been the high cost of passage, but human traffickers are likely to set up shop on the Yemen coast if they smell money. The chaos in Libya makes it a favored launching place for Afro-Asian refugees attempting to get to Europe, and a stream of Yemenis could make their way to the Mediterranean coast
If the Saudi-led coalition does manage to conquer Sana by main force and then go after the Houthi leadership in their traditional area of Saada, it will be the Zaydi Shiites’ (a third of the population) turn to flee in the tens or hundreds of thousands. On top of declining water aquifers, desertification from climate change, and the threat of terrorism, Yemenis face a hard year – by Juan Cole
http://www.thenation.com/article/yemen-the-worlds-next-great-refugee-crisis/
Der Artikel von Jake Flanagin (Quartz) auch hier : http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/09/yemens-refugee-crisis-spilling-over-somalia/120560/
Verschiedene ältere Artikel
Ältere Artikel zum Waffenhandel der USA:
Waffenhandel mit Saudi-Arabien:
20.12.2014: https://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countries/saudi-arabia
Noam Chomsky zum Iran:
20.8.2015: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176038/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky%2C_rogue_states_and_nuclear_dangers/
Bilder vom Luftschlag auf Sanaa am 8. September 2015 (nichts für Sensible - "graphic"!!):
http://poorworld.net/Yemen/YemenImages229.htm
Ältere Jemen-Links unter: http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm oder https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose
