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Yemen on brink of 'world's worst famine in 100 years' if war continues

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Yemen could be facing the worst famine in 100 years if airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition are not halted, the UN has warned.
If war continues, famine could engulf the country in the next three months, with 12 to 13 million civilians at risk of starvation, according to Lise Grande, the agency’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

She told the BBC: “I think many of us felt as we went into the 21st century that it was unthinkable that we could see a famine like we saw in Ethiopia, that we saw in Bengal, that we saw in parts of the Soviet Union – that was just unacceptable.

“Many of us had the confidence that would never happen again and yet the reality is that in Yemen that is precisely what we are looking at.”
Yemen has been in the grip of a bloody civil war for three years after Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, seized much of the country, including the capital, Sana’a. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the rebels since 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.

Thousands of civilians have been caught in the middle, trapped by minefields and barrages of mortars and airstrikes. The resulting humanitarian catastrophe has seen at least 10,000 people killed and millions displaced.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Grande said: “There’s no question we should be ashamed, and we should, every day that we wake up, renew our commitment to do everything possible to help the people that are suffering and end the conflict.”

Her comments came after the UN and humanitarian workers condemned an airstrike in which the Saudi-led coalition targeted Yemen’s Shia rebels, killing at least 15 people near the port city of Hodeidah.
Video footage released by the rebels showed the remains of a mangled minibus littered with groceries following the attack on Saturday, which left 20 others injured.

The Houthi rebels reported that five members of the same family were among those killed, adding that many children were among the casualties.

“The United Nations agencies working in Yemen unequivocally condemn the attack on civilians and extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” said Grande.

Hodeidah, with its key port installations that bring in UN and other humanitarian aid, has become the centre of Yemen’s conflict, with ground troops allied to the coalition struggling to drive out the rebels controlling it.

The killing and maiming of civilians including many children in the Red Sea city of has soared in the last three months according to aid workers.
Since June more than 170 people have been killed and at least 1,700 have been injured Hodeidah province, with more than 425,000 people forced to flee their homes.

A Gulf coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has been trying to wrestle back control of the strategic port city.
If the array of Yemeni militias takes the city it would be their biggest victory against the rebels, although the battle on the Red Sea coast also threatens to throw Yemen into outright famine.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/15/yemen-on-brink-worst-famine-100-years-un
 
It makes me so sad reading about all this. Is there absolutely no way these conflicts can be resolved?
 
No one can really do much when Arab's are killing Arab's. If the west gets involved we'll accuse them of interfering. This could very well spread in the rest of the middle east as well. Can't thank Allah enough for reversing the near civil war scenario in Pakistan. Few years back I was terrified to even imagine how Pak could have been what Yemen is today. This is why a powerful army and security agencies are so important to defend your country in today's dog eat dog world. It's the survival of the fittest now.
 
Yemen war dead could hit 233,000 by 2020 in what UN calls ‘humanity’s greatest preventable disaster’

The death toll from a devastating war in Yemen could soar to nearly a quarter of a million by the end of 2019, the United Nations (UN) has warned, calling the conflict one of the “greatest preventable disasters facing humanity”.

In a 60-page report, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said the fighting between the Gulf-backed Yemen government and the Houthi rebels could also set the country back a generation in terms of development.

It warned that if a proper ceasefire is not brokered by the end of the year, the total number of dead could rise to 233,000, with 60 per cent of the deceased being children under the age of five.

The UN’s projected count includes 102,000 killed in combat and 131,000 who will die due to a lack of food, health services and infrastructure in the war.

It represents a significant increase on the latest death toll, compiled by global mapping group the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled), which said last week 70,000 people have died in the war since 2016.

British parliamentarians, meanwhile, urged the UK to halt weapons sales to a Saudi-led coalition fighting in the country, fearing it was contributing to the humanitarian crisis and numbers of deaths.

“The current conflict in Yemen is one of the greatest preventable disasters facing humanity,” the damning UNDP report said.

“If that war continues it will continue to disproportionately kill children, mostly due to a lack of access to food, health services and infrastructure. It is already placed among some of the worst conflicts since the end of the Cold War.”

Yemen has been ripped apart by a devastating conflict since the Iran-backed Houthis took control of the country in late 2014, ousting recognised President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners, including the UAE, launched a bombing campaign in March 2015 to reinstate their ally Hadi.

Four years on there is little hope to an end to the fighting, which has sparked what the UN has previously termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Over 24 million people, or 80 per cent of the country, now rely on humanitarian aid, and more than 13 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.

Peace negotiations are currently centred on a tense UN-brokered truce in the port city of Hodeidah, which is the main entry point for humanitarian aid and commercial imports.

The UN is trying to get both sides to pull troops out of the flashpoint city but the process has stalled, with both sides blaming each other for lack of progress. Fighting still rages in the southwestern province of Taiz.

UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt hosted Saudi and UAE ministers in London last week in a last-ditch attempt to hammer out peace terms.

Ahead of the meeting he had highlighted the plight of children in Yemen, saying on Twitter that more than 100 children die a day from extreme hunger.

However, the UK government has faced mounting criticism for its continued support for Saudi Arabia, which has spearheaded the devastating bombing campaign in Yemen.

Since the coalition began its aerial campaign in Yemen in March 2015, the UK has licensed at least £4.7 billion worth of weapons sales to Riyadh.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kempton, said the UK must immediately cease weapons and personnel support to the kingdom because of the mounting death toll highlighted in the UN report.

“UK bombs routinely targeting civilian targets in Yemen are clearly not enough to shame the government into obeying UK arms export control law and suspending sales to Saudi Arabia,” he told The Independent.

“I have no faith that the government will stop unless the Court of Appeal compels them to do so,” he added.

The leaders of five opposition parties, including Labour, have called on the UK government to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The UN report said that the conflict was morphing into a “war on children”, with one child dying every 12 minutes in the country.

By 2022 more than 330,000 children could be dead, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the total war death toll, it predicted.

It also raised concerns about potential famine in the country. Right now 13.4 million people are at risk of starvation in Yemen, with the figure set to rise if the conflict drags on.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-houthi-gulf-saudi-arabia-arms-a8892926.html
 
Unfortunately as long as current Khadmai-e-Shareefain is on the good books of USA/Israel, these poor Yemenis will suffer. A truly horrible massacre right in the middle of Muslim world by PUREST MUSLIMS and we keep blaming Kuffars for our shortcomings.
 
The UAE are withdrawing their troops from Yemen.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The UAE's departure from the war in Yemen leaves Saudi Arabia with few good options. Emirati forces led virtually every successful advance. <a href="https://t.co/ekTTyNfccd">https://t.co/ekTTyNfccd</a></p>— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimesworld/status/1151974959759220744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a><br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UAE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UAE</a>'s withdrawal from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yemen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Yemen</a><br><br>Is the UAE washing its hands of a humanitarian disaster in Yemen?<br><br>READ: <a href="https://t.co/naF088PegA">https://t.co/naF088PegA</a> <a href="https://t.co/lKxspJP09v">pic.twitter.com/lKxspJP09v</a></p>— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) <a href="https://twitter.com/MiddleEastMnt/status/1151789383105859586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
..and other Arab's are too busy partying and womanising.
 
I really do not understand why this war is still going. This is one of the biggest catastrophes in the world currently.
 
War-torn Yemen at a 'critical juncture', warns UN

Latest clashes came after a months-long lull in the violence as the warring parties showed interest in de-escalation.

Yemen is at a crossroads, the United Nations' envoy to the war-torn country has said, as tens of thousands of people flee the northern province of Al-Jawf after fierce clashes.

Yemen's Houthi rebels seized provincial capital Al-Hazm earlier this month after heavy fighting with government troops, ending a relative lull in the violence that had raised hopes for a more permanent de-escalation.

"Yemen is, in my view, at a critical juncture: we will either silence the guns and resume the political process, or we will slip back into large-scale conflict," Martin Griffiths said during a visit to Marib province.

"Fighting needs to stop now. Military adventurism and the quest for territorial gains are futile," he told reporters, according to a transcript provided by his office.

"They will only drag Yemen to many more years of conflict."

The latest clashes in northern Yemen came after a months-long relative lull in the violence as the warring parties showed an apparent interest in de-escalation.

But efforts to resume a political process appear to be unravelling.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the fighting between the warring parties in Al-Jawf has displaced tens of thousands of people to Marib province.

"The ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent Society have helped around 70,000 people, or 10,000 families, by providing food, tents, blankets, jerrycans, basins and hygiene kits," the agency said in a statement on Saturday.

"In Al-Jawf governorate, increased clashes have hampered efforts to help patients and those in need."

The loss of the strategic city of Al-Hazm means the rebels now threaten oil-rich Marib.

At least 2,100 displaced families reached Marib on March 1, the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said last week.

Al-Jawf has been mostly controlled by the Houthis, but its capital - only 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of the border with Saudi Arabia - had been in the hands of the government.

Yemen's internationally recognised government has been battling the Houthi rebels since 2014 when they captured the capital Sanaa and swathes of the impoverished Arab nation.

Since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015, tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced, in what the UN has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...coronavirus-live-updates-200307234942500.html
 
A Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen has declared a ceasefire, according to officials.

Sources told the BBC the ceasefire will come into effect on Thursday in support of UN efforts to end the five-year-old war.

The coalition, backed by Western military powers, has been fighting against Houthi forces aligned to Iran since March 2015.

It's unclear if the Houthi forces will also observe the ceasefire.

Last month the UN Secretary General António Guterres called on those in Yemen to cease fighting and ramp up efforts to counter a potential outbreak of the coronavirus.

He called on the parties in the country to work with his special envoy Martin Griffiths to achieve a nationwide de-escalation.

On Wednesday, Mr Griffiths welcomes the ceasefire news in a statement.

He said: "The parties must now utilise this opportunity and cease immediately all hostilities with the utmost urgency."

Both sides are expected to take part in a video conference to discuss the ceasefire. The proposal calls for the halting of all air, ground and naval hostilities.

A statement from the coalition forces said: "On the occasion of holding and succeeding the efforts of the UN envoy to Yemen and to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Yemeni people and work to confront the corona pandemic and prevent it from spreading, the coalition announces a comprehensive ceasefire for a period of two weeks, starting on Thursday."

The situation in Yemen has long been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The war has cost many civilian lives and left the country on the brink of collapse.

The UN has brokered talks in the past, but this will be the first that the coalition has announced a countrywide ceasefire.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, spokesman of the Houthi movement said his group had put forward a vision to the UN which includes an end to the war and to "the blockade" on Yemen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52224358
 
MSF warns of 'catastrophic situation' in Yemen

International charity Médecins sans frontières (MSF) has raised the alarm over a "catastrophe" unfolding in its Covid-19 treatment centre in Aden, southern Yemen.

In the first half of May, the centre admitted 173 patients, of whom at least 68 went on to die, the organisation says. Many who reach the centre are already severely sick, which makes it hard to save their lives, it says.

It is feared the number of cases in the country may be far higher than reported. According to Johns Hopkins University, which surveys national public health agencies, there are only 30 deaths in the country and 184 confirmed cases.

MSF believes it is seeing only a small proportion of those people sick and dying in Aden, the organisation added in a statement.

“People are coming to us too late to save, and we know that many more people are not coming at all: they are just dying at home. It is a heart-breaking situation,” said Caroline Seguin, MSF’s operations manager for Yemen.

The country's health system has been damaged by years of civil war and ventilators are in short supply.
 
UN: Yemen healthcare 'has in effect collapsed'

The United Nations says aid workers report that war-torn Yemen's healthcare system has "in effect collapsed" and coronavirus is spreading through the country.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the situation as "extremely alarming" at a Geneva briefing.

He said aid agencies had talked of people being turned away from treatment centres partly because staff lacked personal protective equipment.

The Yemeni authorities have confirmed scores of coronavirus cases, and 30 deaths. But the UN says the real figures are almost certainly much higher.

Years of fighting have made millions of Yemenis homeless; many are malnourished; and most of the population depends on aid.
 
U.N. seeks $2.4 billion for Yemen, warns aid operation nearly broke

U.N. agencies trying to help the millions at risk from the conflict in Yemen are nearly broke, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Thursday, announcing a drive to raise some $2.4 billion next week to pay for the world biggest aid operation.

Around 80% of Yemen’s population - 24 million people - need aid. The country has been mired in conflict since the Iran-allied Houthi group ousted Yemen’s government from the capital Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 in a bid to restore the government.

The United Nations and Saudi Arabia are hosting a virtual pledging conference for Yemen on Tuesday.

“There’s no way to describe this situation other than alarming,” Lowcock said. “Is the world ready simply to watch Yemen fall off the cliff?”

“There are tens of millions of people whose lives are now at risk unless we get, not just pledges, but the money,” he said.

Lowcock said the United Nations received $3.2 billion last year for Yemen, but so far in 2020 it has only received $474 million. Saudi Arabia pledged $525 million nearly two months ago and Lowcock said he hoped Riyadh would pay soon.

“Most of the U.N. agencies are just a few weeks away from being broke. We’ve never had so little money for the Yemen aid operation ... this late in the year,” he said. “Last year it was well-funded essentially because the countries of the region stepped up and we’re hoping that’s going to happen this time.”

Lowcock said that of the $2.4 billion needed to fund the aid operation for the rest of the year, $180 million was to combat the outbreak of the coronavirus in Yemen, which the United Nations said was spreading rapidly.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-y...aid-operation-nearly-broke-idUKKBN23434X?il=0
 
DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Nations and Saudi Arabia host a pledging conference for war-ravaged Yemen on Tuesday to help raise some $2.4 billion as funding shortages imperil the world’s biggest aid operation.

The conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group has left 80% of Yemen’s population reliant on aid. The country now faces the spread of the novel coronavirus among an acutely malnourished people.

“Anything below $1.6 billion and the operation will be facing catastrophic cutbacks,” Lise Grande, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, told Reuters just days prior to the conference.

“We won’t be able to provide the food people need to survive, or the health care they need or the water or sanitation or the nutrition support which helps to keep 2 million malnourished children from dying,” she said.

The U.N.-coordinated humanitarian plan received $3.2 billion last year, but so far in 2020 has only secured $474 million, aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Thursday, adding that most agencies are weeks away from being broke.

Lowcock, asked about Saudi Arabia co-hosting the event, said Riyadh was a large donor and the U.N. would continue to call out warring parties on actions “they should not be doing”.

Saudi Arabia has already pledged $525 million. The United States said last month it would extend $225 million in emergency aid for food.

Some $180 million of required funding is needed to combat coronavirus in a country with shattered health systems and inadequate testing capabilities.

“Yemen is at a precipice. All indications point to COVID19 spreading fast and wide across the country, overwhelming the health system,” pledge organisers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Yemen has been mired in violence since the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, prompting the coalition to intervene a few months later.

Donors had cut funding to Houthi-held areas over concerns the group is hindering aid delivery, a charge it denies.

Grande said several issues had now been addressed by Houthi authorities, including waiving a 2% tax on aid operations, allowing needs assessments and providing the World Food Programme with approval to start a pilot on a biometric registration and verification system.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...o-save-aid-ops-as-virus-spreads-idUSKBN2390GX
 
The UN’s secretary-general has warned that there is a “race against time” to combat the coronavirus in Yemen, where a civil war has already caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Reports indicated that mortality rates from Covid-19 in the second city of Aden were among the highest in the world, António Guterres told a virtual pledging conference.

“That is just one sign of what lies ahead, if we do not act now,” he added.

Just half of Yemen’s health facilities are operational. There are shortages of testing devices, oxygen, ambulances and protective equipment. Many healthcare workers are among those who have been infected. And 50% of the population do not have access to clean water to wash their hands.

Guterres said the UN and its partners urgently need $2.4bn (£1.9bn) in funding to cover their operations for the rest of the year. Otherwise, 30 out of 41 major UN programmes will have to close in the next few weeks in a country where 24 million people depend on aid.

The UK has pledged £160m, which Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said would “mean the difference between life and death for thousands of Yemenis”.
 
International donors have pledged $1.35bn in humanitarian aid to war-torn Yemen, well below a $2.41bn fundraising target, according to the United Nations.

The videoconference on Tuesday was organised by the UN and Saudi Arabia, a major player in Yemen's long-running conflict since it first launched a bombing campaign in 2015 to try to push back Houthi rebels who seized the northern half of the country.

More:
Yemen: First bombs, soon a coronavirus epidemic
Yemen's health system 'has collapsed' as coronavirus spreads: UN
Yemen's war rages under shadow of looming coronavirus threat
It came as some relief groups say they have been forced to stop their work even as the coronavirus pandemic rips through the country.

"A total of $1.35bn in pledges has been announced from a wide range of donors to the humanitarian response in Yemen including to fight COVID-19," a UN spokeswoman told reporters.

Mark Lowcock, UN emergency relief coordinator, said the global body would continue its fundraising efforts.

"This is not the end," he added, calling on donors to pay the funds immediately, since "pledges on their own achieve nothing".


Yemen's health system 'has collapsed' as coronavirus spreads: UN (2:27)
'Attempt to [gloss over] crimes'
Saudi Arabia pledged $500m in aid to support a UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen.

The United Kingdom, a leading arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, stepped in with a new aid package for Yemen worth $200m. The United States, another weapons provider to the kingdom, said it would offer $225mi, while Germany announced $139.8m in assistance to Yemen.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Rabeeah, the supervisor of Saudi Arabia's King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, said he was pleased by the level of attendance, despite the lower than expected pledges.

Al-Rabeeah said the amount raised is a "good response" taking into consideration the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis resulting from it.

Yet, critics question the kingdom's high-profile role in rallying humanitarian support even as it continues to wage a war - as do the Houthis - that has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The air attacks and fighting on the ground have killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions of others, pushing the impoverished country to the verge of famine and gutting its healthcare facilities.

A spokesman for the Houthis dismissed the Saudi-led conference as a "silly attempt to [gloss over] their crimes", according to rebel-run Masirah television.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis killed or wounded 729 children during 2018, accounting for nearly half the total child casualties, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) in July 2019 that blacklisted the alliance for a third year. The UN report said the Houthis killed and wounded 398 children and Yemeni government forces were responsible for 58 child casualties.

Maysaa Shuja al-Deen, a Yemeni researcher and a non-resident fellow at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, said the kingdom is trying to repair its international image by changing the conversation.

Saudi Arabia "has always tried to change the narrative of the war and present itself as a backer of the legitimate government, not part of the conflict", she said.

Addressing the conference, Guterres said aid agencies "are in a race against time" in Yemen, warning that "unless we secure significant funding, more than 30 out of 41 major United Nations programmes ... will close in the next few weeks".

"Today's pledges will help our United Nations humanitarian agencies and their partners on the ground to continue providing a lifeline to millions of Yemenis," he added.

Yemen has so far confirmed a total of 354 infections and 84 deaths from the coronavirus - but aid groups believe the actual numbers are much higher.

According to data compiled by the International Rescue Committee, Yemen has one of the world's lowest testing rates, even compared with other conflict-hit countries, at just 31 tests per one million citizens.

Guterres said reports indicate that mortality rates from COVID-19 in Aden, the temporary seat of Yemen's internationally-recognised government, are among the highest in the world.

"That is just one sign of what lies ahead, if we do not act now," he added. "Tackling COVID-19 on top of the existing humanitarian emergency requires urgent action. The pandemic is making it even more difficult and dangerous for humanitarian workers to reach Yemenis with life-saving aid," he said.

Yemen has been in the grip of a devastating power struggle since the Houthi rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, and other cities late in 2014.

The Houthis's advance on the Saudi-backed Yemeni government seat of Aden prompted Saudi Arabia to form a military coalition in early 2015 and start its ferocious air campaign against the rebels.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...an-aid-war-ravaged-yemen-200602180035408.html
 
Human rights groups have criticised the UN for removing the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen from a blacklist of those whose actions harm children.

The UN found 222 children were killed or injured last year by the coalition, which is backing Yemen's government in its war with the rebel Houthi movement.

Secretary General António Guterres said that represented a "sustained and significant decrease" in casualties.

Human Rights Watch accused him of ignoring evidence of grave violations.

Five years of conflict have devastated Yemen, reportedly killed more than 100,000 people, and triggered the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

The UN secretary general's report to the security council on children and armed conflict said 4,042 grave violations against 2,159 children in Yemen were verified last year.

In total, at least 395 children were killed and 1,447 children were maimed.

It attributed 313 children killed or injured to the Houthis, 222 to the Saudi-led coalition, 96 to the coalition-backed Yemeni armed forces, 51 to militias opposed to the Houthis, five to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and two to the Islamic State group.

Parties were also responsible for the recruitment of children, detentions, abductions, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals, the report said.

Despite the alleged violations, Mr Guterres said the Saudi-led coalition would be removed from its global list of state and non-state parties that had failed to put in place measures to protect children.

He cited "a sustained, significant decrease in killing and maiming due to air strikes" and the implementation of a memorandum of understanding that called for a programme of activities to strengthen prevention and protection measures.

But Mr Guterres added the programme would be monitored for 12 months and that "any failure in this regard would result in relisting for the same violation".

Human rights groups said the decision left children vulnerable to further attacks.

"The secretary-general is adding a new level of shame to his 'list of shame' by removing the Saudi-led coalition and ignoring the UN's own evidence of continued grave violations against children," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.

Adrianne Lapar, director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, said the delisting "sends the message that powerful actors can get away with killing children" and called for "an independent, objective, transparent assessment of the process leading to the decision".

When asked if Saudi Arabia had exerted pressure on the UN, Mr Guterres' envoy for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, said: "Absolutely not."

The coalition had been on the blacklist for three years.

It was added in 2016, but subsequently removed following protests from Saudi Arabia. Then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused the kingdom of exerting "unacceptable" pressure on the UN, with allied countries allegedly threatening to cut off vital funding for aid programmes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53062126
 
Yet you will find Wahabi cult followers defend the Saudis in an unwavering manner.
 
Five reasons why coronavirus is so bad in Yemen

Coronavirus could spread faster, wider and with deadlier consequences in Yemen than many other countries in the world, the UN says. Here's five reasons why - and you can find out more here.

1) It is a country still at war: Since 2015, Yemen has been devastated by conflict, leaving millions of people without access to proper health care, clean water or sanitation - crucial for preventing the virus from spreading

2) It is already suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis: Conditions in Yemen put the population at particular risk to a highly contagious disease

3) Yemen's health system has collapsed: The war has shattered the health system, leaving it incapable of coping with a pandemic

4) The actual number of coronavirus cases is unknown: Without knowing more accurately who has got coronavirus, it is more difficult to prevent its spread or plan for numbers of patients putting additional strain on the already fragile health system

5) Medics themselves are vulnerable: Alongside a lack of medicine to treat cases, medics lack personal protection equipment (PPE), such as masks and gowns, to shield them from the disease
 
Yemen separatists seize remote Socotra island from Saudi-backed government

ADEN (Reuters) - Southern separatists have seized control of Yemen’s island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea, deposing its governor and driving out forces of the Saudi-backed government which condemned the action as coup.

The Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared self rule in the south in April, complicating U.N. efforts to forge a permanent ceasefire in a war that has separatists and the government fighting as nominal allies in a Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi group, who control the north.

On Saturday, the STC announced it had seized government facilities and military bases on the main island of Socotra, a sparsely populated archipelago which sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The government which is led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi condemned the action as a “full-fledged” coup on the island and accused STC forces of attacking government buildings in “gang-style behaviour”.

Socotra governor Ramzi Mahroos accused coalition leaders Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of turning a blind eye. The UAE has previously backed STC forces with air strikes in fighting against the government in the south.

The coalition’s Saudi spokesman and the UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Sources told Reuters last week that Saudi Arabia, which has tried to broker a deal between the STC and Hadi’s government, had presented a proposal to end the separatist stand-off, but the STC subsequently denied receiving it.

Riyadh wants to prevent another front developing in Yemen’s multifaceted war, which has been locked in military stalemate for years.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government for power in the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system.

Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its unique fauna and flora, is located in the shipping lane linking Asia to the Europe via the Red sea and Suez Canal.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...nd-from-saudi-backed-government-idUSKBN23S0DU
 
Yemen government, southern separatists agree to ceasefire

Yemen's government and southern separatist forces have agreed to a ceasefire and will begin talks on implementing an earlier peace agreement, according to a Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthi rebels.

The former coalition allies on Monday agreed to a ceasefire in Abyan province - a major hotspot of clashes - and the de-escalation of tensions in other regions.

The self-styled Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi also agreed to hold a meeting on implementing a 2019 Riyadh agreement involving committees from both sides, coalition Spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried by official Saudi Press Agency.

Tensions between the two former allies in Yemen's long-running war have grown since April, when the United Arab Emirates-backed STC unilaterally announced self-rule in areas under its control in Yemen.

The STC fighters were the on-the-ground allies of the UAE, once Saudi Arabia's main coalition partner in its military campaign against the Houthis, who control vast swaths of territory in Yemen's north.

Friction escalated on Saturday after forces loyal to the STC assumed control of the strategically located island of Socotra.

The STC, which raises the flag of the former communist state in the south and has pushed to again split the war-torn country in two, seized several state buildings in the island's capital, Habidouh, including the governor's headquarters.

The internationally recognised government accused the STC of staging "a full-fledged coup" in Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"The coalition regrets the latest developments in a number of southern provinces and calls on the parties to prioritize Yemen's national interest ... and to stop bloodletting," the coalition's al-Malki said in Monday's statement.

Elisabeth Kendall, a senior fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford University, described the ceasefire announcement as "a very good start" to avoid de-escalation after a "very active weekend" that saw the STC "flexing its muscles" with the Socotra takeover and by organising rallies elsewhere.

"There might be a new dynamic developing. It certainty looks like there are signs that Saudi Arabia is tiring of the war in Yemen," she told Al Jazeera from London.

"[The war] hasn't been working for five years. It's very expensive and a virus is spreading so it could be that it is now recognising the STC as a genuine military as well as administrative presence on the ground in the south and is therefore stepping over the head of the Hadi government in order to broker some kind of deal which allows it to step back a little."

The STC turned on Hadi in August last year and took control of Aden, the internationally-recognised government's temporary seat. The fighting stopped when the two groups in November 2019 reached the Riyadh deal with the objective of forming a unity government, but clashes continued in the ensuing months.

Yemen's south was an independent state until the 1990 unification with the north.

The country's latest conflict broke out in late 2014 when the Houthis seized much of the country and removed Hadi's government from the capital, Sanaa.

Fighting escalated in March 2015 when the Saudi-UAE-led military alliance launched a fierce air campaign against the rebels in a bid to restore Hadi's government.

Since then, the war has killed more than an estimated 100,000 people and displaced millions, pushing the impoverished country to the verge of famine and gutting its infrastructure.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...s-agree-ceasefire-arabia-200622152037838.html
 
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1694076/saudi-arabia

DUBAI: The Arab Coalition intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile targeting Riyadh, state news agency SPA reported.

The Houthis have launched eight drones and three ballistic missiles towards the city between late Monday and early Tuesday, coalition’s spokesman Col. Turki Al-Maliki said.

The missile was targeting innocent civilians, Spokesman Col. Turki Al-Maliki said.

Earlier on Monday, Al-Maliki said that the Houthi militia “launched a number of unmanned (booby-trapped) drones at civilians and civilian objects” from Sa’dah in Yemen. Two were targeting Najran and the other was targeting Jazan.

The Iran-backed militants have targeted Saudi Arabia with 313 ballistic missiles and 357 drones in total, he added.
 
Saudi-led coalition deploys troops to monitor truce between Yemeni allies

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it deployed troops in the province of Abyan to monitor a ceasefire between the internationally recognised government and the southern separatists.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) have agreed on a ceasefire and they will begin talks in Saudi Arabia on implementing a peace deal, the coalition said earlier this week.

The government, based in the southern port of Aden, and the separatists are nominal allies in the Saudi-led coalition, which has been at war against the Iran-aligned Houthis that have controlled north Yemen since 2014.

However, the STC declared self-rule in April, and the two sides have been fighting in Aden and other southern regions, complicating U.N. efforts to forge a permanent ceasefire to the overall conflict.

As part of the deal, a coalition’s joint force will deploy to monitor the ceasefire in Abyan province where the fighting has raged over the past six months, along with the neighbouring oil-producing region of Shabwa.

Troops from the joint force arrived on Wednesday in Abyan, the Saudi-owned television channel al-Arabiya reported, adding that both sides are committed to the ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia is trying to reunite its coalition’s factions as violence escalates in the north of the country, with the Houthi group firing ballistic missiles on Riyadh for the first time since the COVID-19 unilateral truce ended last month.

Tensions escalated between the STC and the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi since last week when the separatists seized control of Socotra, a Yemeni island in the Arabian Sea, deposing its governor and driving out forces of the government.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tor-truce-between-yemeni-allies-idUSKBN23V1L2
 
Yemen: Coronavirus aid loss 'harming millions of children'

Millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation in Yemen amid a "huge" drop in aid caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a major UN charity warns.

Unicef says it needs almost half a billion dollars to save children in a country the UN declared the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

So far it has received well under half that amount.

Some two million children are acutely malnourished in Yemen, which has been devastated by five years of war.

'Battle for survival'

Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund) says unless $54.5m (£44m; 48.5m euros) is received by the end of August, about 23,500 children with severe acute malnutrition will be at increased risk of dying.

Millions more will not get essential nutritional and vitamin supplements, or immunisation against deadly diseases, it warns.

It also says 19m people - including one million pregnant or breast-feeding mothers - will lost access to healthcare, without the funds.

"We cannot overstate the scale of this emergency as children, in what is already the world's worst humanitarian crisis, battle for survival as Covid-19 takes hold," said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Unicef's representative in Yemen.

"If we do not receive urgent funding, children will be pushed to the brink of starvation and many will die."

The charity says it also requires an additional $53m for dealing with coronavirus alone in Yemen.

Just over 1,000 cases and 288 deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded in government-controlled territory, and significantly fewer by rebels in areas under their control, though the actual number is believed to be far higher.

Since 2015, Yemen has been devastated by conflict, leaving millions of people without access to proper health care, clean water or sanitation - crucial for preventing the virus from spreading.

The country's health system has effectively collapsed, leaving it incapable of coping with the pandemic.
_110881793_yemen_control_v3_12_02_20_640-nc.png


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53191438
 
Saudi-led coalition destroys four Houthi drones over Yemen - Saudi Press Agency

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led military coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen said on Friday it had destroyed four explosive-laden drones launched by the Iran-aligned group in the direction of Saudi Arabia, the official Saudi news agency reported.

The drones were intercepted over territory controlled by the Houthis in Yemen, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing a statement from the command of the coalition, which is made up mainly of Saudi and United Arab Emirates forces.

The Western-backed coalition announced on Wednesday the launch of a new military operation against the Houthis after they stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

Last week, Houthi fighters fired missiles that reached the Saudi capital Riyadh in the first such assault since a six-week ceasefire prompted by the novel coronavirus epidemic expired in late May. The coalition said it intercepted the attack.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the

Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed, internationally-recognised government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system.

The conflict is largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...s-over-yemen-saudi-press-agency-idUSKBN2441LM
 
Cpt. Rishwat said:
So are we westerners. Not our problem, let them fight it out and we can sell them some jets and bombs so at least we get some benefit.
Click to expand...

I agree. I am not a fan of Pak overly respecting the Arabs or poking our nose in their affairs. They are no example to anyone. Only thing is that being the so called cradle of Islam the Arab's are supposed to be an example to Muslim people.
 
U.N. condemns air strikes in Yemen that reportedly killed children

ADEN (Reuters) - An unconfirmed but large number of civilians, including children, were killed in air strikes in northern Yemen on Thursday, the United Nations said.

Field reports indicate that as many as nine children were killed and seven children and two women were injured, humanitarian coordination agency UNOCHA said in a statement on Friday about strikes that hit al-Jawf governorate.

This is the fourth such attack since June causing multiple civilian casualties.

The U.N.’s Yemen envoy called for a transparent investigation into the incident.

The health ministry for Houthi-held parts of Yemen said 9 children had died and 12 children and women had been injured in a number of strikes by aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition.

Medical and civilian sources told Reuters a number of civilians had been killed by strikes in Jawf and transferred to hospitals.

The coalition, which is fighting the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement, said on Thursday it shot down an explosive-laden drone heading towards Saudi Arabia.

Cross-border attacks by Houthi forces have escalated since late May when a truce prompted by the coronavirus pandemic expired. In late June, missiles reached the Saudi capital Riyadh. The coalition has retaliated with air strikes.

“I remind all actors that they have obligations under international law to protect civilians and civilian objects. We continue to work with the parties to reach an agreement on a nationwide ceasefire,” envoy Martin Griffiths said.

“Yemenis deserve better than a life of perpetual war.”

The coalition, which receives weapons and intelligence from Western allies including the United States and Britain, was last month removed from a U.N. blacklist several years after it was first accused of killing and injuring children in Yemen.

The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people since the alliance intervened in Yemen in March 2015 shortly after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from power in Sanaa.

The conflict is largely seen regionally as a proxy war between Saudi and Iran. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...that-reportedly-killed-children-idUSKCN253277
 
I really feel bad for Yemen. It doesn't seem like the war is ending anytime soon.
 
US watchdog report cites civilian casualties in Saudi arms deal

The United States State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has found the administration of President Donald Trump skirted laws regulating US arms sales to avoid notifying Congress and to evade concerns about civilian casualties in the war in Yemen and about human rights in Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued an emergency certification in May 2019 to advance the sale of $8.1bn in weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without obtaining normal approvals from Congress, said the OIG.

The Inspector General report (PDF), while finding that Secretary Pompeo did not break US law, concluded that the State Department did not adhere to longstanding practice under the 1976 Arms Export Control Act.

The State Department “did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns”, the report said.

Further, the Inspector General found that the State Department “regularly approved arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that fell below” legal thresholds requiring notification to Congress.

These approvals included precision-guided-munition components that Congress had placed holds on but for which the law did not require notification “below those thresholds”, according to the OIG report.

In addition, the State Department “withheld significant information in the classified annex necessary to understand OIG’s finding and recommendation”.

Pompeo’s emergency certification had the effect of circumventing review by Congress of the sales. At the time, members of Congress were seeking to block the transfer of military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE because of the civilian death toll from the US-backed air campaign in Yemen.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis, many of them civilians, have been killed by the Saudi-UAE air strikes - often with American-made weapons, targeting information and aerial refuelling support.

The Saudi-UAE air raids hit farms, schools, water supplies, and energy sources, triggering what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Pompeo’s use of an emergency declaration to clear the 2019 arms sales prompted a political backlash in the US Congress, with a number of Republicans joining Democrats to vote their disapproval in a rebuke to Trump.

Ultimately, those votes proved nonbinding because most Republicans in the US Senate supported Trump’s authority as president to sell the weapons without congressional approval.

On Monday, a senior official at the State Department, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, previewed of the OIG’s internal probe claiming that the department had “acted in complete accordance with the law”.

The investigation by the OIG “found no wrongdoing in the administration exercise of the emergency authorities that are available under the arms export control act”, the unnamed official told news agencies.

In a statement on Monday, Representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the unnamed State Department official was Assistant Secretary Clarke Cooper, who had been a subject of the probe.

“This obvious pre-spin of the findings reeks of an attempt to distract and mislead,” Engel said, adding that he feared the classified annex to the report would be “used to bury important or possibly incriminating information”.

In May, Trump had abruptly fired Steve Linick, the inspector general who led the probe and was investigating allegations that Pompeo and his wife misused State Department staff for personal errands.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are investigating whether Linick’s removal may have been designed to quash the findings in today’s report as well as the other internal investigations at the State Department.

In an interview with House investigators, Linick defended himself from allegations by Trump officials that he had been a “bad actor” and said no reason was given for his sudden dismissal.

Linick told Congress he was repeatedly bullied and pressured by State Department political officials not to look into the Saudi arms sales even though the investigation was requested by members of Congress.

Linick testified that Pompeo declined to be interviewed about the subject and provided a written statement - and testified that he still had questions about Pompeo’s role that he wanted to ask.

When Linick was fired, he was replaced by Ambassador Stephen Akard, who had been a director of foreign missions. Akard served in the role for less than three months before resigning on August 5, just days before the release of the report.

“He left to go back home. This happens,” Pompeo said in a news conference. “I don’t have anything more to add to that.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...sualties-saudi-arms-deal-200811154456104.html
 
Horrible things are happening in Yemen. Is there no one to stop the Saudis? Can anyone ask them.
Erdogan,Mahathir and Imran Khan should intervene.
 
The "distressing" situation in Yemen is a result of choices made by "powerful countries and powerful people", according to a UN official.

Sir Mark Lowcock told Sky News "choices have been made to abandon these people".

He added that deciding not to fund the relief operation has been "one of the worst choices" made this year.

The country has been devastated by a conflict between Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi's administration and the Houthi armed movement since 2014 - both claim to form the official government.

Sir Mark Lowcock is warning millions of Yemeni children could starve to death

'All about choices' as Yemen faces famine
Mr Hadi's government is supported by powerful countries, headed by Saudi Arabia, but also backed by the US, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

The crisis has worsened due to coronavirus, with the UN saying more than 20 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance because of the ongoing conflict - almost half of them children.

The UK government has said that famine in Yemen "has never looked more likely".

The UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator said the situation in Yemen is "very distressing and upsetting", and one which is "very important" for the world to see.

In the past, relief efforts have helped avoid suffering and death. However, without these in place Sir Lowcock said "half the people we were reaching, we're barely able to give any food to anymore".

This has also led to the closure of clinics and water stations.

He said countries in the Gulf typically pledge a lot of money but "have not pledged as much this year and have paid almost nothing", adding that "every country actually needs to step up to do more".

Last year, Saudi Arabia gave $750m to the appeal - this year they pledged $500m, before decreasing the amount to $300m.

Sir Lowcock said even this amount isn't "going to be enough, it's not going to turn the corner, it's not going to save all of those millions of children", adding that the relief operation needs to get back to where it was in 2019.

David Milliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, emphasised this is not a tragedy, telling Sky News: "This is a crisis of diplomacy because there's a war going on. It's a crisis of politics because the UN is stuck unable to bring the waring parties to heel.

"It's a crisis of the humanitarian system too because only 30% of the UN appeal is funded."

He added: "The threat of famine and the reality of malnutrition is daily life in Yemen today and it is preventable, and that's what makes this an absolute scandal. We need the governments of the world to fulfil their responsibilities."

Commenting on the crisis, Sir Lowcock added that what has been seen so far is "just the tip of the iceberg" as those unable to get to the hospital are in a much worse situation.

He said: "They're in a tiny shelter covered by a piece of plastic with no food, no water, no power.

"They have nothing except the care and the support of their families as they breathe their last."

Sir Lowcock spoke about how "heartbreaking" the closure of the "life saving" programmes has been, but highlighted that the UN can "only keep them going if people pay for them" due to its reliance on voluntary contributions.

Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said the UK would provide a further £5.8m in UK aid to help avoid famine in the country.

The UK support is said to be able to help at least 500,000 vulnerable people each month with buying food and household essentials, including soap and medicine.

Speaking in New York at a meeting of permanent UN Security Council members, Mr Raab said: "The humanitarian situation in Yemen is now the worst it has ever been, and compounded with the threat of coronavirus, the country has never looked more likely to slide into famine.

"Unless donors urgently act now and follow through on their pledges, hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of dying simply from starvation."

He also called for "unwavering support" for plans to secure a ceasefire that ends the suffering.

https://news.sky.com/story/yemen-ch...says-un-official-12075312?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
 
More evidence of war crimes that have been committed on the people of Yemen.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“This was a massacre. Nine people died on that day. Six of them were children.” <br><br>A Sky News investigation has discovered evidence of a recent potential war crime in northern Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, which is backed by the US and Britain</p>— SkyNews (@SkyNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1310254593687851009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Gabbar,

It's good you post this stuff that gets mostly ignored as the nations committing the crimes are good friends of the powerhouse US.

This is yet another example of crimes that will fade away and no justice come out of it.
 
Spineless.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Philippines... are united in opposing a UN probe on war crimes in Yemen. Ofcourse this is to please Saudi Arabia. <a href="https://t.co/WqxVsR5j1Q">https://t.co/WqxVsR5j1Q</a></p>— Khurram Parvez (@KhurramParvez) <a href="https://twitter.com/KhurramParvez/status/1313505290558402561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Gabbar Singh said:
Spineless.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Philippines... are united in opposing a UN probe on war crimes in Yemen. Ofcourse this is to please Saudi Arabia. <a href="https://t.co/WqxVsR5j1Q">https://t.co/WqxVsR5j1Q</a></p>— Khurram Parvez (@KhurramParvez) <a href="https://twitter.com/KhurramParvez/status/1313505290558402561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Click to expand...

Absolutely spineless. Glad they got outvoted.
 
Yemen war: Mass prisoner swap under way

Hundreds of prisoners are being freed in the biggest such exchange between the warring sides in Yemen since the conflict there began in 2015.

More than 600 Houthi rebels and 400 pro-government prisoners are expected to be released over the next two days.

The mass prisoner exchange was agreed during UN-supervised talks in Switzerland last month.

Two US hostages held by the Houthis were freed on Wednesday and 200 pro-Houthis were allowed back in from Oman.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is overseeing the exchange, said that five of its planes had taken off from airports in the Yemeni cities of Abha, Sanaa and Seiyoun on Thursday morning.

The UN's Yemen Envoy, Martin Griffiths, said the release was "another sign that peaceful dialogue can deliver", adding that he hoped further talks would be held to discuss the release of prisoners still being held.

In late 2018, the two sides agreed to release a total of 15,000 prisoners, but the deal has yet to be fully implemented.

The day before the exchange began, the Houthis said they had received the group of Yemenis from neighbouring Oman, many of whom were stranded after undergoing medical treatment there.

A spokesman for the rebels said they included casualties who had travelled to the Gulf state during UN-brokered peace talks between the warring parties in Stockholm in 2018.

US officials named the freed American citizens as Sandra Loli, a humanitarian worker held for about three years, and businessman Mikael Gidada, who was held for about one.

The remains of a third US captive, Bilal Fateen, were also repatriated.

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015, when the rebels seized control of much of the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.

A military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, joined the war on the side of the government.

The civil war has also triggered what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with thousands of civilians dying from preventable causes.

The situation has left the country even more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54552051
 
From the Biden campaign website:

Under Biden-Harris Administration, we will reassess our relationship with the [Saudi Arabia] Kingdom and end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
Click to expand...

Both Democrats AND Republicans voted to end US support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen, but Trump vetoed it.

The Saudi airforce is entirely reliant on Washington (and London) logistical support. They would be grounded without it.

You will be held on those words Mr President Elect. End the Yemenis suffering and end the blank check for crimes against humanity otherwise you'll be no different from your predecessor.
 
This will make the famine worse humanitarian groups have said as they won’t be able to deliver aid if the Houthis are distributing it.


The outgoing Trump administration is planning to designate Yemen's Houthi movement, known as AnsarAllah, as a terrorist organisation before leaving office in January, according to a report by Foreign Policy on Monday.

Citing several diplomatic sources, FP said the move, which has already faced opposition by the humanitarian community, could disrupt international aid efforts and upend the UN-brokered peace efforts between the Houthi-led National Salvation Government (NSG) based in Sanaa and the Saudi-based, internationally recognised Yemeni government.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could also use the designation as a "victory" in his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran, which is an ally to the NSG ahead of his visits to Israel, Saudi and the UAE this week. Riyadh, which has been waging a five-year war to topple the NSG, already deems the Houthis as a terrorist organisation and, along with the administration of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, has urged Washington to do the same.

"They have been contemplating this for a while, but Pompeo wants this fast-tracked," said one diplomatic source. "It's part of the scorched-earth policy the sour grapes in the White House are taking."

However it has also been speculated that the move is intended to stifle the incoming administration of Democrat President-elect Joe Biden. "It would basically box in the new president when he wants to take a new approach to the war in Yemen, and cut back on the Saudi war," said Gregory Johnsen, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also told the outlet that such designation would be a "clear attempt by the Trump administration to hamstring future peace negotiations."

"The Houthis and their financial supporters are already subject to U.S. sanctions, so the practical impact of the designation would be exclusively to make it more difficult to negotiate with Houthi leaders and to deliver aid to Houthi-controlled areas, where the majority of Yemenis still live," he said.

Yesterday Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a senior member of the Supreme Political Council, the executive body of the NSG responded to the news by sharing on Twitter an infographic discussing the definition of terrorism and the position of the NSG.

According to Al-Houthi, the term terrorism is frequently used by Trump and successive US administrations against those who reject US policies and that President Trump has even used this term against domestic protesters.

Al-Houthi stressed that the term "terrorism" cannot provide legitimacy for anyone in targeting Yemen and that what the Trump administration considers as foreign interference amounts to unjustified aggression against Yemen.

He added: "It does not matter to us how America classifies us, because in our view it is a killer of the Yemeni people, for it is the one that kills and besieges our people."

"It is the Trump administration that rejected even the decision of Congress to stop the aggression against our country and stop supporting the Saudi Wahhabis."
Click to expand...


https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...ns-to-designate-yemens-houthis-as-terrorists/
 
Isn’t this Islamaphobia?

But I expect more outrage over cartoons than the suffering of millions.
 
Saudi-led coalition strikes at Yemen capital after attacks on Aden blamed on Houthis

ADEN (Reuters) - Saudi-led coalition warplanes struck targets in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Thursday in retaliation for attacks in the southern port city of Aden the previous day that took place as officials in a government backed by Riyadh arrived there.

The coalition accused the Houthi movement, which it has been fighting for six years, of staging the attack on Aden’s airport and a second one on the presidential palace.

Thursday’s coalition air strikes hit Sanaa airport and several other sites in and around the city, residents said. Loud blasts were heard and warplanes flew overhead for several hours, they said.

Houthi-run Masirah television said the planes hit at least 15 locations in different districts in the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Coalition air strikes have killed thousands, including many civilians, over the course of the war.

But they have been less frequent in recent years as the conflict has reached a stalemate, with the Iran-aligned Houthis controlling most population centers and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognised government - supported by Riyadh and Western powers - basing itself in Aden.

The main war has been eclipsed by a power-struggle between Hadi’s government and southern separatists in Aden. Saudi Arabia has been trying to unite them to focus on fighting the Houthis.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tacks-on-aden-blamed-on-houthis-idUSKBN2950YU
 
Markhor said:
From the Biden campaign website:



Both Democrats AND Republicans voted to end US support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen, but Trump vetoed it.

The Saudi airforce is entirely reliant on Washington (and London) logistical support. They would be grounded without it.

You will be held on those words Mr President Elect. End the Yemenis suffering and end the blank check for crimes against humanity otherwise you'll be no different from your predecessor.
Click to expand...

The war was started with the blessings of the Obama Administration
 
The Saudi-UAE coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen has reportedly carried out air raids in parts of the capital, Sanaa, hours after explosions struck the main airport in the southern city of Aden killing at least 26 people.

The coalition launched the air attacks overnight on Sanaa International Airport, and two Houthi sites in Rima Hamid in Sanhan district and Wadi Rjam in Bani Hashish district situated in southern Sanaa, according to Houthi-run Al Masirah TV.

No casualties have been reported so far.

“There are more than eight raids that have been carried out,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Al Attab, reporting from Sanaa, confirmed.

António Guterres, the UN chief, condemned the “deplorable” deadly attack on Aden airport, which came moments after a plane carrying members of a newly formed Saudi-backed unity cabinet landed.

Hours after the attack, a second explosion was heard around Aden’s Maasheq presidential palace where the cabinet members including Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, as well as the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Said al-Jaber, had been taken to safety, residents and local media said.

Two International Committee of the Red Cross staff members were also killed in the attack and one was missing, ICRC said in a statement.

Prime Minister Abdulmalik said all members of the cabinet were “fine”. He dubbed the attacks as “treacherous” and “cowardly”.

No group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, denied they were behind the attack.

The Saudi-led coalition later said it had downed an explosive-laden Houthi drone that was targeting the presidential palace.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...tion-target-houthi-positions-airport-in-sanaa
 
The reality of the war in Yemen. US and British weapons, Saudi and UAE air strikes and Yemen kids starving and dying.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yemeni boy, ravaged by hunger, weighs 7 kg <a href="https://t.co/7WjfuzeVqA">https://t.co/7WjfuzeVqA</a> <a href="https://t.co/xrLQcsVVPG">pic.twitter.com/xrLQcsVVPG</a></p>— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1346087813146701829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
BIDEN TEMPORARY FREEZE OF ARMS SALES TO SAUDI ARABIA AND UAE IS WELCOME

Responding to President Joe Biden’s decision to temporarily suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippe Nassif, advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA, said:

“President Biden’s decision to freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE represents a welcome relief in an otherwise shameful chapter of history. Almost six years of conflict in Yemen, fueled by irresponsible arms transfers, have left 14 million Yemenis in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

“The suspension of arms sales by the United States is a step in the right direction and ups the pressure on European countries, most notably the UK and France, to follow suit and stop fueling the human misery in Yemen.

“For years, we have been warning Western states that they risk complicity in war crimes as they continue to enable the Saudi-led coalition with arms. The Biden administration is finally acknowledging the disastrous effects of these continued sales, and puts to shame other states that continue to ignore the mountain of evidence of probable war crimes collected by Yemenis, the United Nations, and human rights organization over the course of the past six years.”

Background

Since 2015, the Saudi and UAE-led Coalition carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate air strikes on civilians and civilians’ objects, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, mosques, weddings and funerals. Amnesty International has documented over 40 coalition air strikes that appear to have violated international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes. These have resulted in more than 500 civilian deaths and 400 civilians injured.

In relation to the UAE, Amnesty International has collected extensive evidence that show weapons are not only being used by the UAE forces in Yemen, but are also being passed on to completely unaccountable militias, some of which stand accused of war crimes.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-re...rms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-and-uae-is-welcome/
 
US announces end to support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, and arms sales to Saudi Arabia are frozen.

Long overdue but at last. Well done to all those who raised their voice tirelessly on this issue.

Has London got the memo ?
 
Last edited:
Does Pakistan support Saudi in the war against Yemen. What is IK's position on this issue?.
 
Gilly said:
Does Pakistan support Saudi in the war against Yemen. What is IK's position on this issue?.
Click to expand...

Pak is nuteral
Parliament refused to send the millitary (although there are reports of some millitary personals in Yemen assisting Soudi but it's all hush, hush because pakistan wants nothing to do with the conflict atleast officially)

But the numbers aren't enough to make a difference in the fight
 
Bigboii said:
Pak is nuteral
Parliament refused to send the millitary (although there are reports of some millitary personals in Yemen assisting Soudi but it's all hush, hush because pakistan wants nothing to do with the conflict atleast officially)

But the numbers aren't enough to make a difference in the fight
Click to expand...

This is great news tbh. Yemen is poverty stricken and so many innocent people are dying. I hope Pakistan continues to stay out.
 
Both Saudi/UAE and Iran need to back the heck off from Yemen and also Yemeni politicians and militias need to stop seeking the involvement of either party cause it's only going to further divide their country and eventually result in a partition.
 
Gabbar Singh said:
It’s a welcome move - better late than never.
Click to expand...

The Viper said:
BIDEN TEMPORARY FREEZE OF ARMS SALES TO SAUDI ARABIA AND UAE IS WELCOME

Responding to President Joe Biden’s decision to temporarily suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippe Nassif, advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA, said:

“President Biden’s decision to freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE represents a welcome relief in an otherwise shameful chapter of history. Almost six years of conflict in Yemen, fueled by irresponsible arms transfers, have left 14 million Yemenis in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

“The suspension of arms sales by the United States is a step in the right direction and ups the pressure on European countries, most notably the UK and France, to follow suit and stop fueling the human misery in Yemen.

“For years, we have been warning Western states that they risk complicity in war crimes as they continue to enable the Saudi-led coalition with arms. The Biden administration is finally acknowledging the disastrous effects of these continued sales, and puts to shame other states that continue to ignore the mountain of evidence of probable war crimes collected by Yemenis, the United Nations, and human rights organization over the course of the past six years.”

Background

Since 2015, the Saudi and UAE-led Coalition carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate air strikes on civilians and civilians’ objects, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, mosques, weddings and funerals. Amnesty International has documented over 40 coalition air strikes that appear to have violated international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes. These have resulted in more than 500 civilian deaths and 400 civilians injured.

In relation to the UAE, Amnesty International has collected extensive evidence that show weapons are not only being used by the UAE forces in Yemen, but are also being passed on to completely unaccountable militias, some of which stand accused of war crimes.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-re...rms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-and-uae-is-welcome/
Click to expand...

Markhor said:
US announces end to support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, and arms sales to Saudi Arabia are frozen.

Long overdue but at last. Well done to all those who raised their voice tirelessly on this issue.

Has London got the memo ?
Click to expand...

This is all smokescreen

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On its face, this sounds like a positive development, but Blinken recently said the US will "continue to help defend the Saudis against Houthi attacks". What exactly is the distinction between "offense" & "defense" in a genocidal war again a whole country? <a href="https://t.co/IamShBjMW3">https://t.co/IamShBjMW3</a> <a href="https://t.co/vulMlo5icp">https://t.co/vulMlo5icp</a> <a href="https://t.co/XIC7TgmMHt">pic.twitter.com/XIC7TgmMHt</a></p>— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1357382483311009794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Really sorry to see all the suffering in Yemen. War is bad enough then additionally they Covid is causing is more suffering. I am however glad that Pakistan refused to get involved in this war years back. Where is the so called Ummah then Zaid Hamid keeps crying about?
 
Yet while Greta and Rihanna have somehow got themselves up to speed on Indian economic disputes, this continues unnoticed. Sad.
 
Giannis said:
This is all smokescreen

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On its face, this sounds like a positive development, but Blinken recently said the US will "continue to help defend the Saudis against Houthi attacks". What exactly is the distinction between "offense" & "defense" in a genocidal war again a whole country? <a href="https://t.co/IamShBjMW3">https://t.co/IamShBjMW3</a> <a href="https://t.co/vulMlo5icp">https://t.co/vulMlo5icp</a> <a href="https://t.co/XIC7TgmMHt">pic.twitter.com/XIC7TgmMHt</a></p>— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1357382483311009794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Click to expand...

Devil is in the detail but assistance to prevent attacks like the strike on Aramco can be justified. What cannot be justified are the indiscriminate attacks in Yemen on schools, hospitals, water supplies etc which the previous two administrations turned a blind eye too.

So stopping support for offensive operations like that is game changing and hopefully will force Saudis to negotiating table.
 
Markhor said:
Devil is in the detail but assistance to prevent attacks like the strike on Aramco can be justified. What cannot be justified are the indiscriminate attacks in Yemen on schools, hospitals, water supplies etc which the previous two administrations turned a blind eye too.

So stopping support for offensive operations like that is game changing and hopefully will force Saudis to negotiating table.
Click to expand...

You dont actually believe this do you?

Saudi has all the arms it needs, so this move is only at a time when they are not buying esp due their economic situation. There will still be help with operations.
 
KingKhanWC said:
You dont actually believe this do you?

Saudi has all the arms it needs, so this move is only at a time when they are not buying esp due their economic situation. There will still be help with operations.
Click to expand...

The Saudi puppet air force is entirely dependent on foreign logistical support, their systems are all American and British made.

That's why it's a major step however support for "defensive operations" need to be clarified. If it means boosting Saudi air defences to intercept attacks like the one on Aramco, then that isn't an issue.

While specifics must be shared, it's a big message against the Saudi's bombardment of Yemen which Obama and Trump (who personally vetoed Congress's overwhelming vote to stop US support for Saudis in Yemen) turned a blind eye to.
 
Markhor said:
The Saudi puppet air force is entirely dependent on foreign logistical support, their systems are all American and British made.

That's why it's a major step however support for "defensive operations" need to be clarified. If it means boosting Saudi air defences to intercept attacks like the one on Aramco, then that isn't an issue.

While specifics must be shared, it's a big message against the Saudi's bombardment of Yemen which Obama and Trump (who personally vetoed Congress's overwhelming vote to stop US support for Saudis in Yemen) turned a blind eye to.
Click to expand...

I think we will have to wait and see but defensive as you say could mean anything when it comes to the Yanks.

We have to accept Biden is a proven warmonger, he lusts at the thought of destroying other nations. Iraq and Afghanistan have gone back years now he's in office. He's also made lame statements about Palestine but will continue with the old rhetoric formed by Obama, Jeruslam is the undivided capital of the Zionist entity.
 
Saudi-led coalition says it downed six Houthi drones fired at Khamis Mushait

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it had intercepted six explosive drones fired towards the kingdom on Friday, with the Houthis claiming to have launched attacks into southern Saudi Arabia since dawn.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border drone and missile attacks on Saudi cities, mostly targeting the southern part of the country. The coalition says it intercepts most attacks.

The Houthis fired the six intercepted drones towards Khamis Mushait near the Yemen border in attacks since dawn, the coalition said in statements carried by Saudi state news agency SPA and Ekhbariya TV.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in Twitter posts on Friday that three drones had been fired at dawn, and five in the afternoon. They hit Abha International Airport and King Khalid Air Base, in the Khamis Mushait area, he said.

Yemen’s Houthi forces said on Thursday they fired a missile and hit a Saudi Aramco facility in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. There has been no confirmation from the Saudi authorities.

The United States and United Nations have renewed peace efforts as fighting has also intensified in Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on two Houthi military leaders.

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis deny being puppets of Tehran and say they are fighting a corrupt system.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-drones-fired-at-khamis-mushait-idUSKBN2AX0MO
 
U.S. commits to Saudi defence after Houthi attacks on oil heartland

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it is committed to defending Saudi Arabia following drone and missile strikes claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, including on a Saudi facility vital to oil exports.

Saudi authorities said there were no casualties or property losses from Sunday’s attacks targeting an oil storage yard at Ras Tanura, site of a refinery and the world’s biggest offshore oil loading facility, and a residential compound in Dhahran used by state-controlled oil giant Saudi Aramco.

The attacks, which drove Brent crude prices above $70 a barrel to their highest since January 2020, come at a time of friction in the decades-old alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States as President Joe Biden puts pressure on Riyadh over its human rights record and the ruinous Yemen war.

“The heinous Houthi assaults on civilians and vital infrastructure demonstrate lack of respect for human life and disregard for peace efforts,” the U.S. embassy in the kingdom said in an Arabic-language Twitter post.

“The United States stands by Saudi Arabia and its people. Our commitment to defend the Kingdom and its security is firm.”

The Houthis have been battling a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen for six years in a conflict largely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki, who also speaks for the coalition, said on Al Arabiya TV channel that Iran was smuggling missiles and drones to the Houthis. The group and Tehran have in the past rejected such charges.

Riyadh has repeatedly said that Iran’s ballistic missile programme and support for regional proxies including in Yemen should be part of any talks aimed at reviving a nuclear pact with Iran that Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump quit.

The Houthi movement said its operation on Sunday using 14 drones and eight ballistic missiles also attacked military targets in the Saudi cities of Dammam, Asir and Jazan.

The coalition said it destroyed 12 Houthi drones, without specifying locations in the kingdom, and two ballistic missiles launched towards Jazan.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...houthi-attacks-on-oil-heartland-idUSKBN2B01CM
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un/war-in-yemen-is-back-in-full-force-says-u-n-mediator-idUSKBN2B82VB

The war in Yemen is “back in full force,” the United Nations mediator told the Security Council on Tuesday amid renewed attempts to get the warring parties to talk and U.N. warnings that the country is spiralling toward a massive famine.

Martin Griffiths told the council that there had been a dramatic deterioration in the more than six-year-long war with a Houthi offensive on Marib - the Yemeni government’s last northern stronghold - putting millions of civilians at risk.

“We are also seeing other fronts in Yemen opening, including with military escalations in Hajjah and Taiz and Hudaydah. The war is back in full force,” he told the 15-member council.

A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthi group ousted the country’s government from the capital Sanaa. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system.

U.S. President Joe Biden has made ending the war in Yemen a priority. His special envoy Tim Lenderking said on Friday that a “sound plan” for a ceasefire in Yemen had been before the Houthi leadership for “a number of days”.

“The death and violence must stop. We call on the Houthis to accept an immediate, comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire and to cease all attacks. In the meantime, we will continue to hold Houthi leadership to account,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council.

The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 80% of Yemenis need help, with 400,000 children under the age of 5 severely malnourished, according to U.N. data. For much of its food, the country relies on imports that have been disrupted over the years by all warring parties.

“A nationwide ceasefire, along with the opening of Sanaa airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hodeidah ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives,” Griffiths said.
Click to expand...
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-usa/how-to-end-a-war-you-didnt-win-yemens-houthis-seek-saudi-concessions-idUSKBN2BB1NF

Yemen’s Houthis say a U.S. plan for a ceasefire in their six-year war against a Saudi-led military coalition does not go far enough, and are ramping up pressure on Riyadh to lift a sea and air blockade before any truce deal is agreed. With the United Nations warning of a looming large-scale famine, U.S. special envoy on Yemen Tim Lenderking toured the region this month to press the warring sides to agree a nationwide truce to revive U.N.-sponsored peace talks on ending the conflict.

But making clear the Houthis believed the plan must go further, Chief Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters: “We have discussed all these proposals and offered alternatives. We continue to talk.”

Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015, has been trying for over a year to exit the war but wants more assurances from the armed Houthi movement on the security of its borders and on curbing the influence of its rival, Iran, in Yemen.

Tehran denies arming the Houthis.

A main sticking point is the Houthi demand that the coalition lift the blockade - which has largely contributed to Yemen suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis - before any truce deal is agreed, three sources involved in the talks said.

The Saudi-led coalition controls Yemen’s airspace and waters, including off the Houthi-held Hodeidah port on the Red Sea which handles more than 70% of Yemen’s imports. The Houthis hold most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

“The issue is seen as an existential threat in Saudi Arabia. Free shipping and daily flights between northern Yemen and Iran would cause real anxiety in Riyadh,” said a source familiar with the talks. “It is a case study on how to end a war that you didn’t win.”

Lenderking has not provided details in public of what he called a “sound plan”. But Abdulsalam said it included allowing flights to Sanaa airport from some destinations with prior coalition authorisation.

He said the Houthis agreed to inspection of ships heading to Hodeidah and verification of bank transfers and goods’ origins, but that the coalition says port revenues must go to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Lenderking has presented a fair proposal for a nationwide ceasefire, with elements that would immediately address Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation. “The Houthis must demonstrate their willingness to adopt and adhere to a comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire and enter negotiations,” the spokesperson said. The challenge, the sources and analysts said, is finding middle ground.

“From what I understand, the Saudis are willing to make concessions,” said Peter Salisbury, a senior analyst at International Crisis Group. “But there is a lot of devil in the details to be worked out, in terms of what a ceasefire looks like and what an easing of restrictions looks like.”

The stakes are high as the Houthis step up missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on oil facilities, and make gains in an offensive to take Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region, the last stronghold of the internationally recognised government that the Houthis ousted from power in Sanaa.

Biden has said the United States will no longer support offensive operations by the coalition while continuing to help Saudi Arabia defend itself.

“I think the military escalation in Marib and elsewhere shows that Iran wants to pressure the U.S. indirectly on the nuclear file, I do not see another reason for it,” a Saudi official, who declined to be named, said.

Abdulsalam rejected this.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said this month that Tehran supports a truce in Yemen “with lifting of the blockade”.

Biden aims to restore a 2015 international nuclear pact with Iran that his predecessor Donald Trump quit in 2018, but Washington and Tehran cannot agree on who should move first.

The Biden administration has used a carrot and stick approach on Yemen, including lifting terrorist designations on the Houthis imposed by the Trump administration and later sanctioning two of the group’s military leaders.

Lenderking has said Washington will work with the Yemeni and Saudi governments to find a way to deliver fuel to Yemenis and restore humanitarian aid funding for the north.

But time is running out. Fuel shortages have knocked out water pumps, generators in hospitals and disrupted aid supplies in a country where 80% of the population need help.

U.N. special envoy Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday that no fuel imports had been permitted to enter Hodeidah since January.

As of March 17, at least 13 fuel tankers were held -- some for more than six months -- by coalition warships off Hodeidah despite them having U.N clearance, U.N. data showed.

Four ships cancelled and left without docking at the port after waiting for months.
Click to expand...
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-saudi/saudi-led-coalition-pounds-houthi-military-sites-in-sanaa-say-residents-idUSKBN2BC0AM?il=0

The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi group struck military targets belonging to the Iran-aligned movement in the capital Sanaa in the early hours of Sunday, residents said.

The raids come after the Houthis claimed responsibility for drone attacks on an oil refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Friday, which caused a fire that was brought under control.

On Saturday, the coalition said it intercepted and destroyed an explosive-laden drone launched towards the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait.

Residents in Sanaa told Reuters that coalition warplanes bombed areas housing Houthi military camps in southern Sanaa and a military manufacturing site in the north of the city.

Houthi-run Al Masirah television also reported coalition air strikes on the capital, including on Sanaa airport.

The coalition, which intervened in Yemen in March 2015, has often retaliated to cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia with air strikes in Yemen.

The Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from power in Sanaa in late 2014 and now control most of northern Yemen.
Click to expand...
 
Saudi Arabia has announced a plan to offer its rivals in Yemen’s long-running war a nationwide ceasefire under the auspices of the United Nations, the kingdom’s foreign minister said.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the kingdom’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said the ceasefire proposed to the Houthi rebels is envisioned “for the entire conflict”, including allowing for the main airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa, to reopen.

It would take effect “as soon as the Houthis agree to it”, he said in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.

“It is up to the Houthis now,” Prince Faisal added, stressing his country would continue to “protect” its borders, citizens and infrastructure and face the Houthi “aggression with the necessary response”.

“The Houthis must decide whether to put their interests first or Iran’s interests first.”

The proposal would also allow for fuel and food imports through the western port of Hodeidah – Yemen’s main port of entry – and restarting political negotiations between the Saudi Arabia-backed government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthis.

Whether such a plan will take hold remains another question. A unilaterally declared Saudi ceasefire collapsed last year.

The offer was welcomed by Hadi’s government in a statement from the foreign ministry based in the southern port of Aden.

But the Houthis said the initiative provided “nothing new”, as it still fell short of their demand for a complete lifting of the blockade on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port.

“We expected that Saudi Arabia would announce an end to the blockade of ports and airports and an initiative to allow in 14 ships that are held by the coalition,” the group’s chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters news agency.

“Opening the airports and seaports is a humanitarian right and should not be used as a pressure tool,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has long accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with military aid. Iran denies the allegation, saying it only supports the rebels diplomatically and politically.

Yemen’s war broke out in late 2014 when the Houthis seized large swaths of the country, including Sanaa. Fighting escalated significantly in March 2015 when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates assembled a United States-backed military coalition in an attempt to restore Hadi’s government.

Tens of thousands of people have since been killed in the deadlocked conflict, with much of the impoverished country’s infrastructure destroyed and millions pushed to the brink of starvation. Nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s nearly 30 million people depend on foreign aid.

The announcement by Saudi Arabia comes as fighting rages around the strategic northern city of Marib and the Saudi-led coalition launching air raids as recently as Sunday targeting Sanaa. A UN mission said another suspected air raid hit a food production company in the port city of Hodeidah.

The proposal also follows the Houthis stepping up a campaign of drone and missile attacks targeting the kingdom’s oil sites, briefly shaking global energy prices amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Analysts, meanwhile, say Saudi Arabia, which has been internationally criticised for air raids killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger, is keen to rehabilitate its image with the US under new President Joe Biden.

Ibrahim Fraihat, associate professor of conflict resolution at the Doha Institute, told Al Jazeera a significant difference compared with previous peace initiatives was that this time there is “a strong political will by the Biden administration that has been openly saying that this war must end”.

“There is a serious US intervention,” he added, noting that the Saudi initiative could be seen “as a way to comply with the US efforts … and throw the ball again in the court of the Houthis.”

There are fears, however, the Houthi push into Marib – which until recently has been relatively peaceful and stable because of well-protected oilfields nearby – threatens to ignite more fighting elsewhere in Yemen.

The UN has been attempting to renew diplomatic efforts to end the war – especially following the recent uptick in violence in Marib – but to no avail.

Prince Faisal said Saudi Arabia was “fully committed” to working with the UN to bring this conflict to an end, adding that the kingdom wanted all “guns to fall completely silent”.

“That is the only thing that can really help us get to the next step, which is a political process and resolution that can make Yemen safe and secure,” he said.

Fraihat noted, however, that six years of war have resulted in a severe mistrust between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

“No one trusts anyone,” he said. “So just an initiative without action or changes on the ground, I don’t think anyone would be willing to immediately … respond very positively without seeing additional assurances,” Fraihat added.

“Opening the Sanaa airport, though it’s an important step, I don’t think it’s enough in order to repair the damaged trust between the two parties. We need to see more of this, and also we need to see serious delivery of humanitarian assistance, whether to Sanaa airport or other places in order to build confidence.”

AL Jazeera
 
Yemen conflict: Saudi Arabia puts forward peace plan

Saudi Arabia has proposed a new peace plan to end nearly six years of war in Yemen.

It suggests a UN-supervised ceasefire between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran.

The plan also includes the reopening of vital air and sea links, and the start of political negotiations.

Houthi rebels have said the offer did not appear to go far enough to lift the air and sea blockade in place.

The proposal was announced in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who called on the Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen, to accept it.

He said the ceasefire would come into force as soon as the Houthis accepted it.

Yemen's internationally recognised government has welcomed the offer, but the Houthis have said the initiative provided "nothing new", and fell short of their demand for a complete lifting of the blockade on the airport in the capital, Sanaa, and the western port of Hudaydah.

"We expected that Saudi Arabia would announce an end to the blockade of ports and airports and an initiative to allow in 14 ships that are held by the coalition," Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters news agency.

The group would continue to talk with the Saudis, the US and mediator Oman for a peace agreement, he said.

Saudi officials say they are co-ordinating their steps with the United Nations and the United States, which have also stepped up their efforts to end a conflict which has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Only days ago, the Houthis rejected a US plan for a nationwide ceasefire.
Click to expand...

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56491503.
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security/yemens-houthis-say-they-fired-drone-at-saudi-airport-after-truce-offer-idUSKBN2BF1T1?il=0

Yemen’s Houthi forces launched a drone attack on an airport in southern Saudi Arabia, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after Riyadh presented a new peace initiative that includes a nationwide ceasefire.

There was no immediate confirmation by Saudi authorities or the Saudi-led military coalition that has been battling the Houthis for six years, of an attack on Abha airport which has been repeatedly targeted by cross-border attacks.

“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege continue,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a Twitter post.

Saudi Arabia and the United States have urged the group to accept the ceasefire initiative which Riyadh said would also include reopening Sanaa airport and allow fuel and food imports through Hodeidah port, both of which are under Houthi control.

The Houthis’ chief negotiator had told Reuters that the Saudi offer fell short of their demand for a complete lifting of the air and sea blockade, but that the group would continue to talk to Saudi Arabia, the United States and mediator Oman in pursuit of a peace deal.

The movement has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on oil facilities, and a ground offensive to seize Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region. The coalition has responded with air strikes on Houthi military sites.

Yemen has been mired in violence since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from power in the capital Sanaa.

The conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis, who now control most of northern Yemen, deny being puppets of Tehran and say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.
Click to expand...
 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-houthis/saudi-led-coalition-says-it-destroys-several-houthi-drones-launched-at-kingdom-idUSKBN2BH37F

The Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi forces in Yemen said on Thursday it had intercepted and destroyed several explosive-laden drones aimed at Saudi Arabia, state TV reported.

The coalition said the Iran-aligned Houthis attempted to target universities in both Najran and Jazan, Saudi cities near the Yemeni border. The coalition said it had destroyed the one targeting Najran, as well as six additional explosive-laden drones fired by the Houthis aimed at the kingdom.

On Friday, the Houthi group said it had launched attacks against several Saudi Aramco facilities and military sites in the kingdom.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Twitter that the group had targeted King Abdelaziz military base in Dammam and military sites in Najran and Asir. Sarea also said they targeted Aramco facilities in Ras al-Tanura, Rabigh, Yanbu and Jizan.

Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said one of the projectiles struck a petroleum products distribution station in Jazan that resulted in a fire in a tank, state news agency SPA reported. There were no casualties, the ministry said.

When contacted by Reuters, Saudi oil giant Aramco said it would respond at the earliest opportunity.

The kingdom’s defence ministry said Saudi Arabia would take deterrent actions to protect oil exports following the attacks, Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The drone attacks took place days after Riyadh presented a new peace initiative that includes a nationwide ceasefire.

The Houthis have recently stepped up drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on oil facilities, and a ground offensive to seize Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region.

The coalition has responded with air strikes on Houthi military sites.

Yemen has been mired in war since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government in the capital Sanaa.

The conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis, who now control most of northern Yemen, deny being puppets of Iran and say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.
Click to expand...
 
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