UN Warns Millions at Risk in Yemen Over Saudi Blockade

Date: 14 November 2017 - 21:32

News ID: ۴۶۴۴۷

GENEVA (Dispatches) – The UN aid coordinator called on the Saudi-led coalition to open all Yemen’s seaports urgently on Tuesday, saying millions of lives were at risk.
The Saudi-led coalition said last week it had closed all air, land and seaports in Yemen.
"We have some 21 million people needing assistance and seven million of those are in famine-like conditions and rely completely on food aid,” UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said.
"The continued closure by the Saudi-led coalition of critical seaports and airports is aggravating an already dire humanitarian situation. I think it poses a critical threat to the lives of millions who are already struggling to survive.”
McGoldrick was speaking to reporters in Geneva by phone from Amman, because he said flights into Sanaa were blocked.
"The humanitarian impact of what is happening right now is unimaginable,” he said.
McGoldrick went on to say that the northern region of Yemen only had 20 days’ stock of diesel, which is crucial for pumping water and battling the cholera outbreak. Yemen, he said, had 10 days’ stock of gasoline, with no prospect of resupply soon.
The United Nations says there is "no indication" that the Saudi-led coalition is lifting the naval and aerial blockade.

‘U.S. Congress Against Military Assistance to Riyadh’

Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution clearly stating that U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia in its war against neighboring Yemen is not authorized by Congress.
In a rare exercise of its war-making role, the House of Representatives on Monday overwhelmingly passed a resolution explicitly stating that U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen is not authorized under legislation passed by Congress to fight terrorism or invade Iraq.
The House adopted the nonbinding resolution by 366-30 vote on Monday. In a rare exercise, the House publicly acknowledged the Pentagon has been sharing targeting information and refueling warplanes that Saudi Arabia and its allies are using in its war of aggression against the impoverished nation.
The resolution states that U.S. military operations are partly authorized to fight only al-Qaeda and other allied terrorist groups in Yemen, but not Houthi fighters.
"To date," the resolution says, "Congress has not enacted specific legislation authorizing the use of military force against parties participating in the Yemeni civil war that are not otherwise subject to" the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force or the 2003 AUMF in Iraq.
The House vote is being seen as a key victory for members of both Democratic and Republican Parties who believe only Congress has the power to authorize U.S. military operations overseas.

Yemeni children gather at a crater at the site of an airstrike by Saudi Arabia against a health center in the area of Abbas in the northern province of Hajjah, October 7, 2017.