RNA - The port is the source of food for 8.4 million Yemenis, the attack threatens to start a major famine across northern Yemen, and this makes the United States directly accountable for Saudi crimes against humanity under international law and international humanitarian law.
This should surprise no one. Throughout the illegal invasion, the US has offered in-air refuelling to Saudi warplanes that have killed thousands of civilians. Strange enough, they have also publicly criticized the naval blockade of Yemen, despite US warships having directly participated in that unlawful blockade as well.
Likewise, it should be unsurprising that the US spent the last week feigning opposition to the attack on Hodeidah, only to join it. It’s a little more surprising that they are going to the trouble to issue statements claiming they are not participating after making it clear just days before that they would be:
- The whole world is in the know that the US is deliberately commanding, accompanying, or participating in the ongoing operations. The US has even vetoed anti-Saudi resolutions at the UN Security Council related to the Yemen war. This is important, because Pentagon officials had previously affirmed US involvement in the attack. Besides, on Tuesday, June 12, they confirmed they were going to provide growing military intelligence and targeting lists for the city. They defended this by claiming it would reduce civilian casualties compared with just leaving the Saudis and the UAE to their own devices.
- The claim that the Pentagon regime isn’t involved is incredibly misleading given the initial opposition to the attack, and subsequent announcement that they are helping facilitate it. The Pentagon has in the past been caught lying to the international civil society and the United Nations about the scope of its illegal war on the poorest nation in the Middle East, falsely claiming no ground troops were involved despite sending special forces into the war-torn country. The only difference this time is that they are continuing to be less than transparent about it.
- At a time when Muslims in other parts of the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, defenceless civilians are scrambling to make their way out of Hodeidah. This should be a wake-up call to not just the Muslim world but the non-Muslim world as well. This has to stop. The Saudi-led forces cannot and should not be allowed to continue the attack, with warplanes and battleships firing into the city itself. This will only make the already dire situation worse.
- Hodeidah is the last port controlled by the Yemeni resistance and subsequently responsible for importing food for in excess of eight million civilians. The city itself has hundreds of thousands of civilians within. Resistance and volunteer forces defending the city have so far prevented any coastal landings by pro-Saudi forces. Civilians getting out of the city are fleeing toward the capital of Sanaa, though their future there is uncertain, with basic food aid and medicine for Sanaa heavily dependent on the port remaining open. Though UN ships are continuing to take deliveries there, the ability to distribute out of Hodeidah remains to be seen.
- US-backed, Saudi warplanes intensified the bombing of coastal areas Southeast of Hodeidah as civilians congregated for the Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in an open area early Friday morning. The Saudis claim to be the guardians of the Holy City of Mecca and Islamic beliefs, values and traditions. Nowhere in these beliefs and values is there a word that suggests they can bomb those who are out saying Eid al-Fitr prayers.
- The situation in Hodeidah and Yemen is morally reprehensible. These atrocities cannot continue in the absence of US military support on the ground and in the air or at the United Nations. Some member states are calling Yemen the forgotten war but it hasn't been forgotten, they just don't care enough. Instead of standing up against the United States and Saudi Arabia, they are far too quick to say the war has been forgotten because then there is no moral culpability in what is going on there.
At any rate, the world community cannot simply ignore the situation in Yemen. There is a moral culpability, particularly for governments that sit on the UN Security Council who have the ability to influence the conflict but don’t. These governments include the United Kingdom, the United States and even France. These governments have had the ability to help Yemenis and bring actors both in and outside of the country in finding a sustainable peace. Instead, they have been busy selling weapons to the Saudi-led coalition and laughing all the way to the bank. The Saudi-led attack in Hodeida and in Yemen is what will devastate many civilian lives for many years and decades to come and the international community has a responsibility over the thousands of human lives being lost under this oppression.
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