RNA - In a statement issued on Thursday, the chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, slammed the international community for applying double standards vis-à-vis the Saudi war on Yemen and the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate.
Houthi called on the global community to address the plight of the Yemeni people just as it deals with Khashoggi’s murder.
He said every victim of the “illegal” Saudi raids “deserves the same attention as Khashoggi,” but “unfortunately none of the clear war crimes in Yemen has provoked the same international outrage.”
He urged the formation of a fact-finding committee to launch a full-fledged investigation into the crimes of the Saudi regime and its allies in Yemen.
Leading a coalition of its allies, Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall a former Riyadh-friendly government. Riyadh has the firm support of the US and the UK in the campaign.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
More than three and a half years into that war, Saudi Arabia has achieved neither of its objectives. This is while it had declared at the start of the invasion that the war would take no more than a couple of weeks.
Houthi's statement came after United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for international experts to be involved in an independent investigation into the murder of the slain Saudi journalist.
Bachelet said that it was important to determine whether serious human rights violations – such as torture, summary execution or enforced disappearance – were committed and to identify those implicated, “irrespective of their official capacity.”
Khashoggi, 59, an outspoken critic of the Saudi government, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 2017, when Saudi authorities launched a massive crackdown on dissent.
According to Press TV, Khashoggi’s assassination has sparked huge international outrage, with a number of European countries – which have been selling arms to Riyadh despite its war crimes in Yemen - threatening the Saudi regime with sanctions on its purchase of weapons.
Investigations into the murder case have determined that Khashoggi had been killed by Saudi operatives. A probe is currently underway in Turkey to find out who has ordered the death.
Many have pointed the fingers at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also the regime’s defense minister and architect of the Yemen war.
Britain, France and Germany have urged Saudi Arabia to provide “credible" facts for its explanation about the killing of Khashoggi.
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