RNA - A Swedish call at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire in Yemen’s port of Hodeidah was derailed during a closed session Friday. The US and Britain both expressed opposition to the measure, designed to prevent Saudi-led forces attacking a port responsible for feeding 8.4 million civilians.
US officials did not publicly comment on why they are opposed to the ceasefire, but this likely is a reflection of the Saudis really wanting to attack the city. British Ambassador Karen Pierce, however, said their opposition was made purely based on “the British national interest.” On that note:
1) It is not clear exactly how preventing food being delivered to Yemeni civilians is in the British national interest. This is likely a shorthand way of saying they too are backing the Saudi interest in bombing and seizing the city, and that the interest is to keep selling weapons to the Saudis to keep bombing the Yemenis with.
2) The Western-backed Saudi fighting in and around the port city of Hodeidah claimed at least 39 people on Thursday alone. Yet the US and Britain have continued to support the attack, mainly with weapons sales and logistical help. Without their assistance, it will be very difficult for the Saudis to continue the fighting.
3) The Western-backed Saudi airstrikes and a blockade-induced energy crisis have crippled the already devastated port city. Dozens of invaders have been killed. This is while a limited amount of territory outside of the city fell to the invading pro-Saudi forces. Most casualties were caused by the Saudi and Emirati warships and planes pounding the city.
4) Saudi Arabia says the blockade is preventing weapons from reaching the Ansarullah resistance fighters (Houthis). But it is also preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Yemenis. The ongoing fighting is making the problem even worse. Effectively, people are being strangled to death. Every day that passes they lose more and more of the essentials: food, water, shelter, fuel and health care.
5) Instead of trying to send in humanitarian aid, American and British militaries have helped Saudi coalition warplanes repeatedly drop weapons to the local militias fighting the Ansarullah fighters. They are using aid as a weapon and they are using the suffering of civilians as a political tool.
6) As the fighting grinds on, the level of suffering in Hodeidah has garnered relatively little attention in the Western press. It is important that the battle of Hodeidah is being reported widely in the media so people are conscious of what is happening there. The situation is dire and the only solution to end the suffering is ceasefire and peace. The United Nations should press the Saudi-led coalition to stop the fighting and go to the negotiating table in good faith and find a solution for the sake of the people of Yemen.
7) The ineffable destruction in Hodeidah is difficult to absorb. Airstrikes have reduced whole neighbourhoods to rubble. And they have destroyed almost all civilian infrastructure. All the places of communal interaction that breathe life into a city have been bombed. The coalition has targeted nearly every single market and commercial life has come to a standstill. The airstrikes come in successive waves, destroying hundreds of homes, and with them hundreds of livelihoods. People are now barely surviving.
8) This isn’t just about Yemen; it’s about the very nature of Western foreign policy. Saudi Arabia is Britain’s biggest arms client. The same is true about the United States. They both helped crush protests for democracy in neighbouring Bahrain in 2011: both regimes are lucrative customers for British and American arms. They are not helping the Saudis to introduce democracy in Yemen. It’s in their “national interests” to ensure the illegal war continues apace.
According to Fars News Agancy, the British and American governments cannot plead ignorance. They cannot claim that their weapons have not been used in breach of international humanitarian law. That’s why an immediate action by the UN to stop the fighting is so critical. Western military support and arms sales to Saudi Arabia must cease. Given the evidence in Hodeidah and the volume of Western-manufactured arms exported to Saudi Arabia, it seems inevitable that any violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by the Saudi-led coalition have involved arms supplied from the US and the UK.
American and British weapons are playing a central role in the Hodeidah bombardment. The US and the UK must not be allowed to discreetly wash their hands of Yemeni blood. A UN panel of experts says that violations in Yemen are “widespread and systematic”. Entire cities – such as Saada and Hodeidah – have been classed as military targets. The UN Charter is very clear. US and UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia must stop because they are being commissioned in a serious violation of international humanitarian law in Yemen.
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