The Bigger Picture in Yemen

Date: 21 August 2017 - 21:30

News ID: ۴۳۲۴۶

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The United States has, since March 2015, been actively participating in the ongoing war against Yemen, providing arms and valuable logistical support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing of civilian objects.
Given the high number of civilian casualties, further support from the United States for this unnecessary war is indefensible. After all, this has even galvanised members of UN Security Council, especially Russia, to bash the madness of U.S. support for the war.
Another argument is that the U.S. has advanced knowledge of what targets will be struck by jets that are refuelled by its personnel with tankers. Its Air Force is providing drone-fed logistical and intelligence support, including "target selection and review,” for Saudi bombers. So it is rather odd for Washington to claim that U.S. personnel have no advanced knowledge of the bombing runs!
As has been widely reported and documented by human rights groups and aid agencies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, the U.S. is directly engaged in military operations with the Saudi-led coalition that directly result in the use of force on civilian targets in Yemen. With its wilful blindness, the U.S. is also violating international standards by engaging in such direct military operations because its personnel are aware that targets are civilian, the loss of life and property are disproportional, and the operation is militarily unnecessary.
Now that this relationship has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of new reports by UN and human rights groups, it is important to also remember that the Trump administration approved over $100 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia earlier this year despite warnings that it could implicate the U.S. in war crimes.
The high number of civilian casualties even prompted the U.S. to launch a "review” of its support for the kingdom of terror. The Department of State warned the government that "the United States could be implicated in war crimes” for aiding the criminal campaign.
All this and more opens up the U.S. military to accountability anyhow. The U.S. supports the war, and as maintained by current and former officials, that makes Washington a co-belligerent in the war under international law. They maintain that American officials are actually well aware that airstrikes are killing civilians.
The War Party’s defence of its involvement in the dirty war has little credibility among the international civil society, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague. All U.S. personnel involved, therefore, should be investigated and prosecuted for committing war crimes.