On Thursday, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called for an global investigation into rights abuses and violence in Yemen’s civil war, insisting that a domestic panel set up to look into violations has not been up to the task. All of them were reportedly taken to hospital.
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After 18 months of airstrikes, the Saudi-led coalition – which is backing the Yemeni government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi – has not yet been able to dislodge the Houthi rebels and allied renegade soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh from the capital, in addition to an area on the Red Sea and in the north.
The U.S. has backed the Saudi-led coalition with arms sales worth billions of dollars and with logistic and intelligence support.
Yemen’s Houthi-run governing council said on Sunday it was ready to restart peace talks with the country’s exiled government backed by a Saudi-led coalition, provided the coalition stopped attacking and besieging Houthi-held territories.
Speaking at a press conference in Jiddah, Mr Kerry said: “The bloodshed, I think most would agree, has simply gone on for too long”. “It has to stop”. UN-brokered negotiations, which had stalled in preceding weeks following the Houthi’s refusal to accept Hadi as the president of a new unity government, and Saudi Arabia’s unwillingness, or more likely, inability to replace him, formally ended on 7 August.
The aim is also to put in place mechanisms for delivering desperately needed humanitarian aid to the impoverished country, he said. “It offers them participation in that process”.
The meetings today show the deep concern among the worldwide community about the ongoing conflict in Yemen. “This is because it appears key OPEC members remain more concerned about market share”, said Oystein Berentsen, managing director for crude at oil trading firm Strong Petroleum in Singapore.
Unfortunately, the talks between the self-described “quad” of the US, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia, are more likely to be an exercise in public hand-wringing than a serious effort to end the war and prevent further loss of life. The border violence has killed several civilians and Saudi border guards.
On Thursday, Kerry announced almost $189 million in additional humanitarian aid for Yemen, bringing the total amount of USA assistance to more than $327 million since October 2015.
“By participating in attacks that violate the laws of war and by providing weapons and munitions to a military force that can be expected to use them unlawfully, the us risks complicity in violations by coalition forces”, Human Rights Watch wrote in a letter to Kerry last week.
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“Civilians in Yemen have suffered unbearably over the years from the effects of a number of simultaneous and overlapping armed conflicts”, he said.
