Washington’s Perfect Excuses for Saudi War Crimes in Yemen

Rasa - It is time for the international civil society to condemn the United States government for stonewalling on the use of American weapons in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

News ID: 434830

Date: 16 November 2017 - 23:55

RNA - The world community should also criticize the US government for making excuses for the atrocities committed by its client state in their illegal war on the poorest country in the Arab world - and do actually something about it.

This is because despite rising outrage over the bloody civilian toll in the war, the United States administration is showing no signs of remorse and breaking with - or attempting to check - the criminal actions of its Persian Gulf ally.

Since March 2015, a coalition of Middle Eastern countries led by Saudi Arabia and armed and supported by the US and the United Kingdom has brutally bombed Yemen.

The US and the UK have supported the Saudi-led campaign with aerial refueling and targeting assistance without criticizing Saudi Arabia and its allies for repeatedly and unlawfully bombing civilians and committing war crimes in broad daylight and in great violation of international humanitarian law.

The same law says the nature of this criminal support makes the US and the UK parties to the unjustified armed conflict, and culpable in unlawful strikes.

More than 15,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war. Thousands more civilians have been injured, and the war has destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, creating what the UN says is one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.

Several reports were also published this month alone warning that Yemen is on the brink of famine and a humanitarian catastrophe.

This brings charges of Washington responsibility for Saudi actions, as US officials defend their alliance with Saudi Arabia. They claim Saudi war crimes in Yemen have been errors of capability or competence, not of malice. When faced with criticism, the War Party in Washington frequently reaffirms its close partnership with Saudi Arabia, a repressive absolute monarchy that bases its laws on an extreme interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism.

The world community should stop buying this excuse. Whether Saudi targeteers are malicious or simply poorly trained does not absolve the US government of responsibility. Indiscriminate attacks that fail to distinguish between civilians and military objectives as well as those that cause disproportionate loss of civilian life or property are illegal under the laws of war and UN Charter.

What’s more, Saudi Arabia has only been able to carry out the war on Yemen because of US support. Since President Donald Trump has entered office, his administration has sold more than $110 billion in arms deals and military support to Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the massive weapons sales, the US has done refueling sorties for Saudi planes, providing tens of millions of pounds of fuel. And Pentagon officials have given targeting advice, sometimes while in the same room as Saudi military personnel.

US officials are free to insist the Saudi military is just bad at targeting. But this belief strains credulity anyhow. Research by Human Rights Watch and other rights groups like Amnesty International, along with a recent report by a panel of UN experts, has documented US-backed, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on a host of civilian targets, including hospitals, schools, homes, factories, refugee camps and more.

More so, the UN has repeatedly reported that the Saudi-led coalition is responsible for most of the civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch has noted that there have been no serious investigations into the Saudi atrocities committed in Yemen. In fact, Western allies of Saudi Arabia have blocked multiple UN attempts to launch independent inquiries - first at the UN in September 2015, and again in September of 2016.

War-party Washington needs to provide better answers for Saudi war crimes. It should stop making excuses or stonewalling on its role and how American weapons have been used. The world community is no longer buying this nonsense.

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