Get Started for FREE
Sign up with Facebook Sign up with X
I don't have a Facebook or a X account
 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
#US, #Saudi CEOs Sign $20B Deals in #NYC as Protesters Condemn Catastrophic War on #Yemen Ajoutée le 3 avr. 2018 Two hundred corporate executives dined at the Saudi-US CEO Forum in New York City alongside Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while protesters outside called for an end to the devastating war on Yemen Visit http://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at http://therealnews.com/donate.
No comment yet.
Sign up to comment
Scoop.it!
Confidential #UN Document Questions the #SaudiArabia Blockade That’s Starving #Yemen - The Intercept #ArabieSaoudite #ONU November 17 2017, 12:19 a.m. A U.N. panel of experts found that Saudi Arabia is purposefully obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Yemen and called into question its public rationale for a blockade that could push millions into famine. In the assessment, made in a confidential brief and sent to diplomats on November 10, members of the Security Council-appointed panel said they had seen no evidence to support Saudi Arabia’s claims that short-range ballistic missiles have been transferred to Yemeni rebels in violation of Security Council resolutions. “The Panel finds that imposition of access restrictions is another attempt by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to use paragraph 14 of resolution 2216 (2015) as justification for obstructing the delivery of commodities that are essentially civilian in nature,” the U.N. experts wrote. Resolution 2216 was passed in April 2015, a month after the Saudi-led international coalition began its intervention in Yemen’s civil war. Paragraph 14 calls for U.N. member states to take measures to prevent the supply, sale, or transfer of military goods to a rebel alliance led by a group called the Houthis, which is backed to an unclear degree by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran. The panel of experts was established by a previous 2014 resolution and expanded to five members by resolution 2216. The(..)
Scoop.it!
#Humanitarian crisis In #Yemen is worst in the world – #Oxfam report #SaudiArabiaWarCrimes #SaudiArabia Ajoutée le 27 mars 2017 Thousands of protesters in Yemen have vented their anger at the relentless bombing by the Saudi-led coalition, as the conflict in their country rages on.
Scoop.it!
vidéo déjà culte ...
What happens when the #US gov is asked the difference between #Russia in #Syria and #SaudiArabia in #Yemen - The Independent
A US government spokesperson has struggled to answer questions put to him on why the US condemns Russian bombing in Syria, and supports Saudi-led bombing in Yemen, both of which have killed thousands of civilians. During a media briefing in Washington DC on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson John Kirby was asked repeatedly about whether Saudi coalition bombing of Houthi rebels in Sanaa - facilitated by US arms sales to the Gulf state - deliberately targets civilian infrastructure. On Saturday, an air strike in the Yemeni capital killed 140 people at a funeral hall, in one of the worst single incidents of violence in the 18-month-old civil war between the exiled Yemeni government and Houthi rebels who are in contro (...)
Scoop.it!
#Saudi to investigate attack on #Yemen funeral denounced as 'heinous' by #UN - #WarCrime The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen said Sunday it will investigate an air raid that killed more than 140 people, after Washington announced it was reviewing support for the alliance.
Scoop.it!
Why Did the #Saudi Regime+Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the #Clinton Foundation? by #GlennGreenwald for The Intercept #corruption #VeryDeepCorruption
As the numerous and obvious ethical conflicts surrounding the Clinton Foundation receive more media scrutiny, the tactic of Clinton-loyal journalists is to highlight the charitable work done by the foundation, and then insinuate — or even outright state — that anyone raising these questions is opposed to its charity. James Carville announced that those who criticize the foundation are “going to hell.” Other Clinton loyalists insinuated that Clinton Foundation critics are indifferent to the lives of HIV-positive babies or are anti-gay bigots. That the Clinton Foundation has done some good work is beyond dispute. But that fact has exactly nothing to do with the profound ethical problems and corruption threats raised by the way its funds have been raised. Hillary Clinton was America’s chief diplomat, and tyrannical regimes such as the Saudis and Qataris jointly donated tens of millions of dollars to an organization run by her family and operated in its name, one whose works has been a prominent feature of her public persona. That extremely valuable opportunity to curry favor with the Clintons, and to secure access to them, continues as she runs for president. The claim that this is all just about trying to help people in need should not even pass a laugh test, let alone rational scrutiny. To see how true that is, just look at who some of the biggest donors are. Although it did not give while she was secretary of state, the Saudi regime by itself has donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, with donations coming as late as 2014, as she prepared her presidential run. A group called “Friends of Saudi Arabia,” co-founded “by a Saudi Prince,” gave an additional amount between $1 million and $5 million. The Clinton Foundation says that between $1 million and $5 million was also donated by “the State of Qatar,” the United Arab Emirates, and the government of Brunei. “The State of Kuwait” has donated between $5 million and $10 million. Theoretically, one could say that these regimes — among the most repressive and regressive in the world — are donating because they deeply believe in the charitable work of the Clinton Foundation and want to help those in need. Is there a single person on the planet who actually believes this? Is Clinton loyalty really so strong that people are going to argue with a straight face that the reason the S(...)
Scoop.it!
Click herIt is now official: #Saudi regime supplied the #israel occupation army with intelligence on #Hizbullah during July ware to edit the content
Scoop.it!
#UN Chief Admits He Removed #SaudiArabia From Child-Killer List Due to Extortion #ONU #ArabieSaoudite #WarCrimes Ban Ki-moon cited a financial threat to defund United Nations programs, presumably by the Saudi government. une 9 2016, 7:36 p.m. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly acknowledged Thursday that he removed the Saudi-led coalition currently bombing Yemen from a blacklist of child killers — 72 hours after it was published — due to a financial threat to defund United Nations programs. The secretary-general didn’t name the source of the threat, but news reports have indicated it came directly from the Saudi government. The U.N.’s 2015 “Children and Armed Conflict” report originally listed the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen under “parties that kill or maim children” and “parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals.” The report, which was based on the work of U.N. researchers in Yemen, attributed 60 percent of the 785 children killed and 1,168 injured to the bombing coalition. After loud public objections from the Saudi government, Ban said on Monday that he was revising the report to “review jointly the cases and numbers cited in the text,” in order to “reflect the highest standards of accuracy possible.” But on Thursday, he described his real motivation. “The report describes horrors no child should have to face,” Ban said at a press conference. “At the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many U.N. programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and so many other places would fall further into despair.” Saudi Arabia is one of the U.N.’s largest donors in the Middle East, giving hundreds of millions of dollars a year to U.N. food programs in Syria and Iraq. In 2014, Saudi Arabia gave $500 million — the largest single humanitarian donation to the U.N. — to help Iraqis displaced by ISIS. Over the past three years, Saudi Arabia has also been become the third-largest donor to the U.N.’s relief agency in Palestine, giving tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild Gaza and assist Palestinian refugees. “It is unacceptable for member states to exert undue pressure,” the secretary-general said. “Scrutiny is a natural and necessary part of the work of the United Nations.” Ban called the decision “one of the most painful and difficult decisions I have had to make.” Saudi Ambassador to the U.N. Abdallah al-Mouallimi, who held his own press conference afterward, offered his own back-handed confirmation of what happened. “We didn’t use threats,” he said, “but such listing will obviously have an impact on our relations with the U.N.” “It is not in our style, it is not in our genes, it is not in our culture to use threats and intimidation,” he concluded. Ban has invited a team from the Saudi-led coalition to New York to conduct a “joint review” ahead of scheduled U.N. discussions on the report, scheduled for August. On Monday, however, after the changes were announced, the Saudi ambassador to the U.N. declared that the changes were “final and unconditional” and that Saudi Arabia had been “vindicated.”
Scoop.it!
#JohnKerry Gives Saudis a Big Pass on Indiscriminate Bombing of Civilians in #Yemen - #SaudiArabia #ArabieSaoudite The Intercept June 3 2016, 6:15 p.m. Kerry instead faulted the Houthis, who are on the receiving end of the airstrikes, for "putting civilians in danger". Secretary of State John Kerry this week waved off concerns about U.S.-supported Saudi-coalition airstrikes in Yemen that have indiscriminately bombed civilians and rescuers, and instead blamed the Shiite Houthi rebels for the bulk of the civilian casualties. “There have been a lot of civilian casualties, and clearly, civilian casualties are a concern,” Kerry told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “I think the Saudis have expressed in the last weeks their desire to make certain that they’re acting responsibly, and not endangering civilians.” Kerry instead faulted the Shiite Houthis, who are on the receiving end of the airstrikes, saying they “have a pretty good, practiced way of putting civilians into danger.” According to a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 60 percent of the more than 3,200 people killed and 5,700 wounded in the conflict through September 2015 were killed in coalition airstrikes. The Saudi coalition has also intentionally targeted civilian areas, destroying hospitals, schools, factories, markets, and homes. The Saudi coalition announced last week that they have “fully complied with international…law,” and that “coalition forces have a robust process to ensure all targets are genuinely military.” The announcement also promised that “avoidable(...)
Scoop.it!
#Yemen: Suspend Weapon Sales to #SaudiArabia - #HRW #HumanRightsWatch #EtatVoyou #StateTerrorism #Wahabism
|
Scoop.it!
The #US Ambassador ( #MatthewTueller ) to #Yemen’s Hard-Line Approach Is Jamming Up Peace Efforts - The Intercept-excellent investigative articles by @AlexEmmons ,- Matthew Tueller deserves to be tried at the #ICC The Intercept - 13th of December 2017 Article by Alex Emmons Ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller has frequently taken positions sympathetic to the Saudis and hostile to the rebel Houthis, State Department sources say. One night in mid-August 2015, a fleet of warplanes circled over the Yemeni port city of Hodeida. Since that spring, a Saudi-led coalition had been carrying out a devastating bombing campaign. The United States had been helping the coalition with targeting, arguing that its precision guidance of airstrikes would mitigate civilian casualties. But that night, the coalition raid leveled the port, destroying five massive cranes that were essential for unloading cargo ships. Clinging to the shore of the Red Sea, Hodeida is the entry point for nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s imported food. With the cranes gone, the flow of goods into the country slowed to a trickle, and the international community scrambled to fend off a famine. The U.S. government donated $3.9 million to the World Food Program to purchase new cranes, which took months to arrive. When they did, the Saudi-led coalition turned away the ship that was carrying them. As the famine accelerated, the cranes sailed back to Dubai. Aid organizations accused the coalition of pursuing a deliberate strategy of starvation, one that has led to the worst humanitarian crisis of the century. Despite the fact that the United States had paid for the cranes, one senior U.S. diplomat opposed their delivery. Matthew Tueller, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, argued that it was pointless to deliver the equipment because it would only be destroyed, either by coalition bombs, the opposition Houthis, or a future military offensive by the United Arab Emirates. The cranes have yet to be delivered. According to multiple current and former State Department officials, the pushback was characteristic of Tueller, who, as the primary U.S. d ( ...)
Scoop.it!
#SaudiArabia ’s Incompetence Would Be Comical If It Weren’t Killing So Many People - The Intercept #ArabieSaoudite #MBS November 17 2017, 3:02 p.m. Saudi Arabia should be a very powerful country. Endowed with one-fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves, close ties with powerful Western states, access to endless amounts of U.S. weaponry, the support of global corporate interests, and the religio-cultural cachet afforded by stewardship of Muslim holy sites, the kingdom should by all accounts be an undisputed regional powerhouse. Suffice to say, this is not the case, as a quick glance at the Middle East today reveals. Saudi foreign policy is floundering in a way that would be comical if it didn’t involve so much human devastation. Under the newly minted leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi government is stuck losing every proxy war that it is involved in. It has failed to bring their diminutive Gulf rival Qatar to heel and most recently humiliated its own ally, the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, in what appears to be a tragicomic attempt to destabilize the Lebanese government. Saudi Arabia is often criticized for being the seedbed for radical Islam, but this might be just a symptom of a deeper problem: the radical incompetence of its leadership. Since the 1975 assassination of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz — the last ruler widely seen to have promoted a positive image of the country — Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy has been catastrophically adrift. Despite spending exorbitant sums of money to spread its influence, the kingdom’s leaders appear more and more besieged — at war not just with Iran and its allies, but with Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and internal rivals. It’s worth comparing Saudi Arabia to another country in its region that it actually has a lot in common with: the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite their sectarian and ethnic differences, in many ways the two rivals are more similar to each other than the rest of their neighbors. Both are repressive petro-states that employ state religion as a tool for keeping their people in line. Both try to use sectarian identity as a way to cultivate their influence abroad. And both are seeking to establish themselves as regional hegemons, heedless of the destruction that their efforts cause. There are real differences, of course: Iran is an international pariah, commands a fraction of Saudi Arabia’s resources, and seems to be permanently on the brink of being bombed into oblivion by an unremittingly hostile United States. Yet Saudi Arabia, despite its innumerable advantages, has proven to be infinitely worse than Iran at the sordid game to win power in the region. Although th(...)
Scoop.it!
#911 victims’ families sue #SaudiArabia despite the infamous #Obama 's veto (broke by a court ) Ajoutée le 21 mars 2017 A lawsuit was filed in New York on Monday on behalf of the families of 850 people killed and 1,500 injured in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. It alleges that Saudi Arabia is partly to blame for the damage caused by the terrorists. RT's Gayane Chichakyan reports.
Scoop.it!
‘It’s different’: #US justifies #Saudi ‘self-defense’ in #Yemen , slams #Russia ’s actions in #Syria
‘It’s different’: #US justifies #Saudi ‘self-defense’ in #Yemen , slams #Russia ’s actions in #Syria The US says Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen was an act of “self-defense” against Iranian missiles on its border. While there are similarities with the Syrian conflict, Washington sees “differences” between the deaths of over 150 civilians, blamed on Riyadh, and the situation in Aleppo. “It is different,” the State Department’s John Kirby has told AP’s Matt Lee, when asked whether Capitol Hill sees a difference between the recent attack in Yemen and “what you accuse the Russians and the Syrians and the Iranians of doing in Syria, particularly Aleppo?” The question specifically referred to an airstrike that targeted a funeral service in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, killing more than 150 civilians and injuring over 525. Located on opposite sides of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria bear few similarities, but have one thing in common: a civil conflict between their governments and rebels, which later evolved into larger-scale wars, with the intervention of foreign forces. However, the rules of the game appear to be different for each case. For the State Department, the Saudi pledge to investigate the bombing seems to offer some reduction in the significance of its actions. “The Saudis publicly said that they were going to investigate this as – for the potential of it being, in fact, wrongly implemented and wrongly executed,” Kirby said. That is something, he added, he hasn’t seen the Syrian army or the Russian military do “not once.” When asked about Russia’s recent demand for an investigation into an attack on a humanitarian convoy in Syria, Kirby said “it’s not exactly been a clarion call.” Addressing the attack in Sana’a, the UN called the bombing “outrageous” and pointed out constant strikes, specifically at places of mass congregation, which lacked proper recourse. “Since the beginning of this conflict in Yemen, weddings, marketplaces, hospitals, schools – and now mourners at a funeral – have been hit, resulting in massive civilian casualties and zero accountability for those responsible,” the UN said in a statement Monday. Yet, when it comes to Saudi Arabia and its intervention in Yemen, the State Department said it is important to remember that Riyadh has a “pressing requirement for self-defense” because of threats it faces from Iranian missiles launched by Houthi rebels near the border. However, there is no similar judgment regarding Syria, where rebel groups along with Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists presumably hold people at gunpoint in Aleppo. Kirby accused Moscow and the Assad forces of “a concerted” and “very deliberate” effort to take “to subdue” the city by force. As RT learned from locals still living in western Aleppo, it was not Russian forces that terrified them. A woman said that everyone trying to get water from a well was also shot at while children described shells destroying their house. RT has asked the State Department to comment on whether the people were effectively being “held” in Aleppo. “I can’t confirm that report. You know I don’t get into battlefield reports; I’m not going to do that,” Kirby. “And your question about being held hostage, there should be – and I’ve seen reports that they’re allowed to leave,” he added, blaming the Syrian government and the Russian military. The Department’s spokesman also declined to speak about Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, who remain in the area along with anti-Assad rebels. Moscow has unsuccessfully been asking the US to dissociate terrorists from the so-called moderate opposition. Kirby says it’s unlikely they would want to leave Aleppo, hinting that the responsibility also lay with Russia. “They’re not likely to want to leave while they’re continuing to be bombed,” he said. When specifically asked whether it was America’s strategy to let Al-Qaeda run the area, Kirby declined to answer. Washington has been supplying rebels with arms, some of which it has admitted ended up in the hands on terrorists.
In September, a US military spokesman said that rebels surrendered six pick-up trucks and about one-quarter of their ammunition to Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Fatah al Sham, in exchange for safe passage. When it comes to Yemen, the US also played, though indirectly, its part in the conflict aiding Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners with weapons, often used in attacks targeting civilians. Following the airstrike, the White House said it would reassess its help to Saudi Arabia. Despite massive casualties and some opposition among lawmakers, US-Saudi arms sales have been thriving with the Senate just recently blocking a bipartisan bill that would stop the deal with Riyadh.
Scoop.it!
#Saudi #petition seeks full rights for #women - #HumanRights #Feminism AFP Last updated: September 28, 2016 The petition calls for the kingdom's women to be treated "as a full citizen, and decide an age where she will be an adult and will be responsible for her own acts"
Women's rights Thousands of Saudis have signed a petition urging an end to the guardianship system that gives men control over the study, marriage and travel of female relatives, activists said Tuesday.
The petition calls for the kingdom's women to be treated "as a full citizen, and decide an age where she will be an adult and will be responsible for her own acts", said campaigner Aziza Al-Yousef of Riyadh. The retired university professor told AFP that she tried unsuccessfully to deliver the petition containing 14,700 names to the Royal Court on Monday. The activists will now send it by mail as requested. Saudi Arabia has some of the world's tightest restrictions on women, and is the only country where they are not allowed to drive. Under the guardianship system a male family member, normally the father, husband or brother, must grant permission for a woman's study, travel and other activities. Activists say that even female prisoners have to be received by the guardian upon their release, meaning that some have to languish in jail or a shelter beyond their sentences if the man does not want to accept them.
"We are suffering from this guardianship system," said Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in Eastern Province. The campaign is an outgrowth of a Twitter hashtag in Arabic that started more than two months ago calling for an end to guardianship. "This momentum got very high after the hashtag was created" and following a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, Yousef said. "Saudi Arabia's male guardianship system remains the most significant impediment to women's rights in the country despite limited reforms over the last decade," the watchdog said. Although the government no longer requires guardian permission for women to work, Human Rights Watch said many employers still demand guardian consent in order to hire a woman.
Scoop.it!
From
www
#India sends food for 10,000 starving workers in #SaudiArabia - #humanitarian #humanrights Over 10,000 starving Indian workers in Saudi Arabia have received 16,000kg of food from their own government, which was distributed in front of the India’s consulate in the port city of Jeddah. Over 10,000 Indian workers were laid off in Saudi Arabia after growth has slowed in the country, triggered by the negative effects of falling oil prices. The workers were left without any money to buy food or travel back to India. They asked their government for help. The desperate situation came to light after India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said “large numbers” of Indians had been laid off in Saudi Arabia. Swaraj appealed to the Indian community on Twitter to “help your fellow brothers and sisters.” “I assure you that no Indian worker rendered unemployed in Saudi Arabia will go without food," she wrote. Investigations into the matter revealed that thousands were starving across Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Swaraj told the Indian consulate in Saudi Arabia to make sure that no unemployed person starves and asked to monitor the situation on an hourly basis. The Indian community was in charge of distributing the food supplies in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. India’s media revealed that local company Saudi Oger had failed to pay waged to workers for seven months. It employed a total of 50,000 employees and 4,000 of them were Indians. “For the last seven months these Indian workers of Saudi Oger were not getting their salaries and the company had also stopped providing food to these workers,” confirmed Indian Consul General Mohammad Noor Rehman Sheikh. India’s government is also planning to evacuate the stranded workers from Saudi Arabia. Junior Foreign Minister VK Singh will be traveling to Saudi Arabia to kick-start the repatriation process.
Scoop.it!
Worried About “Stigmatizing” #ClusterBombs, #US House Approves More Sales to #SaudiArabia - The Intercept Alex Emmons June 16 2016, 11:20 p.m. But the closeness of the vote was an indication of growing congressional opposition to the conduct of the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing coalition in Yemen. The House on Thursday narrowly defeated a measure that would have banned the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, but the closeness of the vote was an indication of growing congressional opposition to the conduct of the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing coalition in Yemen. The vote was mostly along party lines, with 200 Republicans – and only 16 Democrats – heeding the Obama administration’s urging to vote against the measure. The vote was 204-216. “The Department of Defense strongly opposes this amendment,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., chairman of the House Committee on Defense Appropriations, during floor debate. “They advise us that it would stigmatize cluster munitions, which are legitimate weapons with clear military utility.” Cluster munitions are large shell casings that scatter hundreds or thousands of miniature explosives over large areas – often the size of several football fields. Some of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, leaving mine-like explosives that kill civilians and destroy farmland decades after a conflict ends. Cluster bombs are banned by an international treaty signed by 119 countries, not including the United States. The United States opposed the treaty, and instead of signing it, adopted a policy that cluster bombs should never be used in concentrated, civilian areas. Speaking in support of the amendment, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said Saudi Arabia has deliberately targeted civilians with cluster bombs. “Earlier this year, the Saudi-led coalition dropped cluster bombs in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, specifically targeting known civilian neighborhoods,” he said. “One of the buildings hit was the al Noor Center for Care and Rehabilitation for the Blind, which also has a school for blind children. The destruction of the school and the injuries sustained by the children was unbearably gruesome.” The coalition has also used U.S.-produced weapons to destroy markets, factories, and hospitals. The vote came the day after one of the war’s key architects, Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi deputy crown prince and defense minister, met with lawmakers to discuss, among other things, “the threat posed by Iranian aggression in … Yemen, and the broader Middle East.” Despite the defeat, human rights activists celebrated the closeness of the vote. “This is a big deal for the U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance,” said Sunjeev Bery, Amnesty International’s advocacy director for the Middle East in the U.S. “More and more members of Congress are clearly getting tired of selling Saudi Arabia bombs when it is dropping them on civilians in Yemen.” The vote comes at a time when the U.S.-Saudi alliance is facing unprecedented skepticism in the United States. Although the Obama administration has refused to publicly condemn the use of cluster bombs, Foreign Policy reported that the White House has quietly placed a hold on a transfer of CBU-105 cluster bombs. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to place a complete arms embargo on the kingdom, until it stops deliberately targeting civilians in Yemen. The Saudis faced further loss of support Thursday when Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy crown prince of the UAE, announced on Twitter that the “war is over” for Emirati troops. The UAE had previously been one of the most active members of the coalition. Top Photo: Yemenis inspect the damage at a sewing workshop that was hit by a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Sanaa on Feb. 14, 2016.
Scoop.it!
#Saudi -led coalition rejects #UN blacklisting over #Yemen - #humanitarian #YemenCrisis #SaudiWarCrimes #TerroristState Sunday 5 June 2016 14:10 UTC Last update: Monday 6 June 2016 7:49 UTC UN blacklisting of Saudi-led coalition will complicate peace Yemen talks underway in Kuwait, says spokesman The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen rejects a UN report that placed it on an annual blacklist over the deaths of hundreds of children in air strikes. "The report is imbalanced and does not rely on credible statistics, nor does it serve the Yemeni people," coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri told the official Saudi Press Agency on Sunday. "It misleads the public with incorrect numbers and mostly relies on information from sources associated with the Houthi militia and the deposed [former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah] Saleh," he said. The report, released on Thursday by the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said 785 children had been killed and 1,168 injured in Yemen last year, blaming the Saudi-led coalition for 60 percent of the toll. It blacklisted both the coalition and rebel forces for a "very large number of violations" including "attacks on schools and hospitals". The UN also said this week that despite a fragile ceasefire agreed in Yemen two months ago, civilians in the country face an "immeasurable" humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia launched the intervention in Yemen last March in support of the internationally recognised government of Abd Mansour Hadi against the Houthis. The group is accused of having links with Iran and army units loyal to Saleh, who was forced out of office in 2012 under a Gulf-sponsored deal. The war has left an e(..)
Scoop.it!
#US Report on #SaudiArabia Downplays Civilian Casualties in #Yemen ... #WarCrimes #NoPasaNada ... - The Intercept Apr. 15 2016, 10:51 p.m.
A State Department report on human rights minimizes civilian casualties from Saudi-led bombing in Yemen.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images U.S. Report on Saudi Arabia Downplays Civilian Casualties in Yemen Apr. 15 2016, 10:51 p.m. IN ITS ANNUAL human rights report on Saudi Arabia, the State Department ignored thousands of civilian casualties from the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and overlooked the widespread use of illegal cluster munitions by the bombing coalition. Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign in Yemen last March after Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened the rule of the Saudi-backed president. The Saudi military has been widely criticized for targeting civilians, destroying homes, schools, and hospitals, and using internationally banned cluster munitions. The Obama administration has supported the Saudi-led campaign throughout, providing the coalition with intelligence and selling them at least $20 billion in weapons since the campaign began in March. The report, which was released Wednesday and covers all of 2015, attributes to Human Rights Watch a report “that 13 people total were killed, including three children, in seven rocket attacks from April to mid-July.” But Human Rights Watch also tallied more than 550 civilian deaths in 2015 from 36 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, and documented 15 attacks where the coalition used banned cluster munitions, according to Belkis Wille, the group’s Yemen researcher. The group estimates that coalition bombing has killed a total of nearly 2,000 civilians since the war began. And the Human Rights Watch report the State Department referenced specifies that Saudi forces used U.S.-made M26 cluster bombs in all seven attacks. Each rocket released more than 600 explosives, which spread out over miles. Human Rights Watch found that the U.S.-made explosives had scattered over fields “normally used for agriculture and grazing,” threatened “the livelihood of local farmers,” and badly injured at least three workers who stepped on them. Cluster bombs are widely recognized as unlawful because their unexploded duds act like land mines, killing civilians years after the conflict. The United States is not among the 119 countries that have signed an international convention banning them. Human Rights Watch accused the State Department of cherry-picking its research: “The State Department report suggests that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the Saudis of only 13 civilian deaths during the fighting,” said Wille. “The U.S. is presenting a small bite of the apple.” Wille said that some of the unmentioned casualties could have been at the hands of other coalition members, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Egypt. “Saudi forces may not be implicated in all of them, but the coalition’s failure to investigate alleged unlawful attacks — as required by international law — has made it impossible to know for sure,” she said. The State Department admitted to more civilian casualties in its report on Yemen, also released Wednesday. But the Yemen report only acknowledged four problematic air attacks and confirmed only 173 civilian casualties. The report included several estimates of civilian casualties killed by both sides in the conflict, but never attributed a percentage to the Saudi-led coalition. On Wednesday, Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced legislation to temporarily block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia until the State Department certifies that the Saudi military is taking all available steps to protect civilians. The senators joined a growing chorus of human rights and civil society groups calling for an arms embargo of the kingdom. President Obama has approved more arms sales to Saudi Arabia than any other president. By 2015, his administration had approved more than $100 billion in weapons sales to the Saudis, and currently has approved $46 billion in new agreements. A State Department spokesperson, who would only comment on background, pointed out that the U.S. has called on both sides of the conflict to protect civilians. He also claimed that the use of cluster munitions is not a human rights violation because the United States has not signed the ban on cluster munitions.
Scoop.it!
EXCLUSIVE: Former senator #BobGraham fights to declassify 9/11 report implicating #Saudis - interview 11 mn - RT America Ajoutée le 16 mars 2016 The former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, wants to declassify 28 pages of documents that he says detail Saudi Arabia's connection to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The former senator recently said that if the US had declassified the report in its entirety, there would be no Islamic State today. Graham joins RT America's Simone Del Rosario for an exclusive interview.
|
