Viewpoint

Who Is Behind Yemen Crisis?

Date: 19 April 2017 - 20:58

News ID: ۳۸۶۰۳

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The United Nations says it is the Saudis and their allies. The UN is warning that the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war on Yemen and its economic consequences are driving the largest food security emergency in the world.
According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 17 million people are currently food insecure, of whom 6.8 million are severely food insecure and require immediate food assistance, and two million acutely malnourished children. The Yemeni population amounts to 27,4 million inhabitants.
As is, the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed air strikes and fighting continue to inflict heavy casualties, damage public and private infrastructure, and impede delivery of humanitarian assistance. The warmongers have created a vast crisis in which millions of people face tremendous threats to their safety and well-being, and the most vulnerable struggle to survive. Millions have been displaced, roughly 73 percent are living with host families, and 20 percent in collective centers or spontaneous settlements. A substantial numbers of returnees live in damaged houses, unable to afford repairs and face serious protection risks.
A reminder that the United Nations should demand the Saudis halt this dirty campaign, lift the illegal blockade, and pull back from all the territory they have occupied since the war began. The UN should impose sanctions on Riyadh if they refuse to do that. The world organization should also stop endorsing Saudi Arabia’s vicious position, which is bad for regional peace and security. This policy reversal could have huge effect on the ground in Yemen, because the international bullies are indifferent to civilian life and do not consider themselves subject to UN requirements.
It is time for the world organization to do its job, because Saudi Arabia is violating international law, and the United States is acting in a perceived self-interest that is distorted and unethical. The world organization must stand for justice and peace. That is what it was created for. It won’t be able to serve that purpose until it stops endorsing the Saudi position.
One more point: By its own admission, Riyadh is depending upon so-called southern fighters - another term for ISIL and Al-Qaeda militants - for ground operations, as Saudi forces have repeatedly failed to gain their desired objectives. In desperation, they have given ISIL the control of some southern territories - even though the terrorist network has committed mass atrocities and declared war against the kingdom itself.
All this and more reveals the fact that the desperate war on Yemen is an impossible war to win. Despite announced victories, the warmongers have reached a dead end. The Saudis need ISIL and Al-Qaeda to stay the course, as a long war risks damaging their leadership and unleashing domestic dissidence. What’s more, they cannot divide Yemen or turn it into a strife-torn failing state, all the more so, because in their desperation to avoid another defeat after Syria, not only are they willingly supporting hated terrorists and extremists, but also drawing reluctant allies into the war zone.
Taken together, the future looks bleak for the House of Saud. Very few intelligent people today would accept that the unholy alliance of Saudi Arabia possesses any basic goodness at all. The complexity of the situation and multiplicity of actors, coupled with the division among so-called coalition members and their terror proxies, have undoubtedly exhausted the Saudis’ ability to leave the Yemeni quagmire in one piece. They have lost the war. What makes this so certain is that it exists at a time when the battle-hardened people of Yemen remain united in facing Saudi aggression and terror.