SANA’A (Press TV) – Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement has lashed out at the United Nations for boasting about the dispatch of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country, saying that receiving such supplies is an “unconditionally absolute right” of all people across the world as well as the entire Yemenis.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the movement’s spokesman, made the remarks in a tweet in Arabic on Tuesday, saying the entry of medicine, food and oil derivatives to Yemen is an inalienable right, and therefore making Yemenis feel indebted was quite absurd.
“The entry of an oil ship from time to time, making the Yemeni people feel beholden and describing this as an achievement is an unrivaled absurdity,” Abdul-Salam said in his tweet.
“The arrival of medicine, food and oil derivatives to the Yemeni people is an unconditionally absolute right in all circumstances, and no bargain or blackmail is accepted for human rights that are guaranteed to all humanity,” he added.
The UN food agency, the World Food Program (WFP), warned last week that it was ramping up support to people in Yemen’s worst hunger hotspots in an effort to prevent famine but sustaining response through the rest of the year was uncertain due to reduced funding.
The agency said it would require at least $1.9 million billion to prevent famine in Yemen while international donors have contributed nearly $947 million this year.
WFP said nearly 50,000 people in Yemen are already living in famine-like conditions, and five million are in immediate danger due to the years-long conflict in the impoverished Arab country. Every 10 minutes a child dies from preventable diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory infections.
Meanwhile, the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement decried on Monday the United Nations’ “weak” response to the Saudi-led blockade imposed on Yemen, which is grappling with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi referred to the UN’s reaction to the Saudi siege, which blocks the entry of food, medicine and petroleum products, criticizing the UN for turning a blind eye to the blackmailing of the Yemenis.
Houthi emphasized the Yemeni people’s right to have access to oil derivatives, medical supplies and foodstuffs, “whatever the circumstances might be.”
Saudi Arabia, backed by the U.S. and regional allies, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement. However, the Saudi regime failed to achieve its goals.
Saudi Arabia’s embattled Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the architect of the war on Yemen, has come under fire at home after more than 70 Saudi forces were killed in a successful Yemeni army operation in the southwestern port city of Jizan.
The massive aerial and ground operation by the Yemeni military forces, backed by allied fighters from popular committees, has come as a major setback to the Riyadh-led coalition in its war on Yemen.
Yemen’s al-Masirah television, quoting military sources, reported on Monday about the operation that targeted Saudi positions on three strategic mountainous areas of Jabal al-Dud, al-Ramih and Jahfan.
Apart from 70 fatalities suffered by Saudi-led mercenaries, at least 32 Saudi armored vehicles were also damaged in the operation, the report said.
Yemeni forces managed to seize control of at least 40 sites in the mountainous region, after which the Saudi air force sent warplanes that inflicted damage on their own military equipment.
The massive military operation, which again reaffirmed the Yemeni military’s supremacy in the devastating Saudi-imposed war, has come as a huge embarrassment for the kingdom’s leadership.