“In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimise civilian casualties”.
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Despite these atrocities, the United States continues to support Saudi Arabia’s vicious campaign, with the USA government recently approving a $1.15 billion weapons deal with the Saudis.
Coalition warplanes are also supporting pro-government forces against Al-Qaeda jihadists who have exploited Yemen’s power vacuum to expand their presence in the country’s south and southeast.
It is time for North Carolinians to demand that our U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) complaining to Jake Tapper of CNN on Wednesday that Congress isn’t debating the “unauthorized” war in Yemen. The Obama administration this month approved a potential $1.15 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia.
The demonstration – one of the biggest in Yemen since the civil war broke out past year – took place as the Saudi-led coalition backing exiled President Abd-Rabbou Mansour Hadi stepped up air strikes and fighting on the ground intensified.
The Saudi-led coalition, supported by the United States, has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen since March 2015.
Recent peace talks held in Kuwait ended without resolution in early August, ending a shaky four-month cease-fire.
The paper said that Saudi Arabia is the most responsible for the current humanitarian catastrophe, having inflamed the conflict through their intervention.
In a concession to Saudi Arabia, the U.N. chief has suggested privately to his advisors that the U.N. should create two blacklists, one for U.N. member states and another for terrorists and other nonstate armed groups. While Ban didn’t single out Riyadh by name, he claimed unnamed states had threatened to cut off financial support for vital United Nations aid programs in countries like Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen if the coalition was not taken off the list.
Congressional opposition to the arms sale came as the Saudi-led, USA -backed military coalition broke an unsteady five-month ceasefire in Yemen last week and resumed bombing in the capital city of Sana’a – prompting immediate reports of civilian deaths.
The violence increased after a Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a military campaign in March past year to help shore up the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, which is responsible for the aerial bombings, has expressed “deep regret” over the decision.
Saudi Ekhbariyah television said projectiles fired by the Houthis landed at an industrial area in the southern city of Najran, close to the Yemeni border, in one of the deadliest attacks on Saudi Arabia.
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Since the campaign began, the USA military has conducted an average of two refuelling sorties every day. However, US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity have said that the reducing staffing was not a result of being on the receiving end of the increased global outcry over civilian casualties.
