A massive protest broke out last Friday in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, to condemn the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting with the country’s Houthis for six years.
Thousands took to the streets in Sana’a to criticize a Saudi-led blockade and the closure of an airport in the country, according to Tasnim News Agency. The protesters say the blockade has prevented vital medication and oil from entering the country.
Essam Al-Mutawakel, identified as an oil-company spokesman, said,
“All sectors issued a distress call that they are unable to work due to the lack of oil derivatives. Therefore, here we hold the coalition of aggression, led by the United States, as well as the United Nations participating in this blockade, fully responsible for what the situation has turned into in the past and what it will turn out into in the coming days.”
The report pointed out that more than 110,000 Yemenis have been killed since the start of the war in 2015.
President Biden, who as vice president under Barack Obama strongly supported the Saudi-led war, is now saying he wants to wind it down.
Acknowledged as the worst humanitarian crisis on earth, 80 percent of its population of 28 million depend on international aid to survive. The Tasnim News Agency reported that the war has destroyed about half of the country’s hospitals, which is all the more critical during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The U.N. humanitarian agency warned on Sunday that 16 million Yemenis would go hungry this year, and the risk of large-scale famine “has never been more acute.”
TRENDPOST: As we have been reporting since the outbreak of the Yemen war, it was launched from Washington, D.C., by the Saudi Ambassador to the United States in March 2015.
Long forgotten was that President Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, were strong supporters for a war that has devastated Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East.
This is how Reuters reported America’s involvement following the Saudi announcement on 7 April, some two weeks after the Saudi’s attacked Yemen:
U.S. expedites arms shipments to coalition bombing Yemen
“RIYADH/ADEN (Reuters)—The United States is speeding up arms supplies and bolstering intelligence sharing with a Saudi-led alliance bombing a militia aligned with Iran in neighboring Yemen, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S., a key ally of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, had also set up a coordination center in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, whose forces have led an air campaign against the Shi’ite Houthi group which rules most of Yemen.
‘Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force,’ he told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
‘As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operation center,’ Blinken added.”
And this is from The Council on Foreign Relations six months after the Saudi’s launched the war:
“Nevertheless, since March 25, the United States has been providing in-air refueling, combat-search-and-rescue support (including the rescue of two Saudi pilots whose helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Aden), detailing forty-five intelligence analysts to help advise on target selection, and redoubling weapons exports and contractor support to the GCC countries.”
Indeed, Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States is primarily as a source of cash for weapons. From October 2010 to when he left office, the Obama administration had sold $90.4 billion in weapons to the Gulf kingdom, according to the Congressional Research Service.
