The coalition intervened in March previous year to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Huthis and their allies seized much of Yemen. The U.S. has also participated in the coalition – providing intelligence, aerial refueling and precision guided munitions.
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Secretary of State John Kerry was in Saudi Arabia today trying to end a conflict that Saudi Arabia is fighting but the U.S.is getting blamed for, too.
Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, said Kerry’s remarks show the US government is “an accomplice in Saudi war crimes against the innocent people of Yemen”.
Jubeir said Saudi Arabia and the United States had agreed a way forward for Yemen and said the U.N. envoy to Yemen would take it up with the parties.
“Saudi Arabia is committed to arriving at a peaceful solution”. In some diplomatic circles the Yemen war has become a symbol of Western disinterest in laws of war that they helped craft in the wake of the Second World War.
Mohammad Ali Alnsour, who heads the Middle East and North Africa section of the U.N. Human Rights office, said a recent report by the national panel focused on alleged violations by the Houthis, and said a “more objective, more comprehensive” report of rights violations by all sides was needed.
In a statement, Zeid’s office said he “called on the worldwide community to establish an global, independent body to carry out comprehensive investigations in Yemen”, noting in particular “challenges” faced by the national panel set up under President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi – notably, security concerns.
The U.N. says about 3,800 civilians have been killed since the Saudis entered the war, and most of the deaths are blamed on Saudi airstrikes.
Both the Saudi-led coalition and the opposing Houthis have been accused of abuses against citizens of the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula.
“Civilians in Yemen have suffered unbearably over the years from the effects of a number of simultaneous and overlapping armed conflicts”, United Nations rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March past year after the rebels and their allies overran most of the country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.
Saudi Arabia reportedly plans to add 5,000 Yemeni mercenaries to its border guard.
“The Houthis, in a country of 26 million people, are less than 50,000”, he said. They have since sought to consolidate their hold on the country. Would that be acceptable in any system?
The U.S. military has coordinated with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, helping ensure Saudi access to precision-guided munitions.
“By continuing to sell weapons to a known violator that has done little to curtail its abuses, the U.S., U.K., and France risk being complicit in unlawful civilian deaths”, said Philippe Bolopion, Deputy Director for Global Advocacy at Human Rights Watch.
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In the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah on Thursday, Kerry outlined a plan which offers the Houthis participation in government in exchange for an end to violence and a surrender of weapons.
