Toufan statement on the war in Yemen

 Yemen's humanitarian catastrophe and media censorship 

  

Yemen is a country that is fighting for its independence, and except for a small number of countries that support the struggles of the Yemeni people, including Iran, other countries, especially those claiming to defend human rights or to investigate war crimes, such as the expansionist European Union, or countries such as Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, have adopted the silence of death and deliberately turned a blind eye to this. This is because the human rights theme of these countries, which pretend to be "anti-war crime fighters," has a different narrative based on their imperial interests. The degree of incitement of their humanitarian sentiments depends on the degree of their colonial and marauding interests. One day, a reporter asked then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about the sanctions on Iraq, which killed more than half a million Iraqi children: "Were the sanctions and the invasion of Iraq worth it?" This representative of U.S. "human rights" , who also approved and promoted the Iran-Yemen embargo and did not value the lives of Iranians, explicitly defended this crime. This is the opinion of all the leaders of the European Union, Britain and the entire Anglo-Saxon imperialist front. Their approach to human rights is purely business-like.  

In Yemen, the people are fighting against an occupying force. They have been able to put an end to the influence of Saudi Arabia, which ruled Yemen and considers it part of its territory. Saudi Arabia has set its greedy eyes on other countries on the Arabian peninsula, such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and even Oman. This is why the seeds of discord and conflict with Saudi Arabia is sowed everywhere. No one supports Saudi Arabia becoming a big power in the Arabian Peninsula. They rejoice at Saudi Arabia's weaknesses and failures in the Yemen war because it undermines the implementation of its intentions towards them. The lying imperialist media outlets are either silent about the struggles of the Yemeni people and the crimes committed by their collaborators in Yemen, or the fighting people of Yemen are considered agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The fact is that the influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Yemen is limited and with the iron wall that the savage governments have drawn around the Yemeni people, there is no possibility of helping these people, either with food or military.  The lying media claim that only “Houthis” are involved in the struggles. If at first this reference did not have a specific meaning, today it means that it is an ethnic and religious war against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a war between Shia and Sunnis, while this is not essentially the case. The fighting force, Ansarullah, is a front, including not only the Houthis, but also people with other ethnic and religious affiliations have the right to participate only if they fight for the freedom and independence of their country. Ansarullah is the united front of the Yemeni Peoples’ struggle.  

Saudi Arabia, which arrogantly wanted to stop the “Houthi activities” in a matter of weeks and crush their resistance, has been plagued by its aggression in Yemen for nearly eight years now, and with the most modern U.S., British, German, French weapons and Israeli and British and NATO advisors it is still unable to break the will of the Yemeni people. On the contrary, its imported mercenaries have been regularly defeated on the battlefield, and even among their allies, including the United Arab Emirates, there is a disagreement over the proportionality of their influence in Yemen. The will of the people who are fighting for their freedom and independence cannot be shattered. The U.S. experienced this in Vietnam, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia in Yemen. Thousands of civilians, especially children, have been victims of the atrocities of the Saudi coalition since the Yemen war began. Saudi Arabia is bombing the residential areas, towns and the entire historic city of Sanaa in order to destroy the identity of the Yemeni people. This is a war crime, and UNESCO must take appropriate measures to prevent this crime.  

According to the International Division of Tasnim News Agency, the Saudi-led Arab aggressor coalition has besieged Yemen by sea, air and land for seven years, bombing residential areas every now and then, resulting in thousands of civilian victims, especially innocent children, as well as the destruction of residential areas, Infrastructure and markets.  

Even al-Mayadeen news publication in Beirut reported that Taha al-Mutawakkil, Minister of Public Health and Population in the government of Sanaa, said that the number of Yemeni victims had reached 47,000.  

This number has clearly increased today. The sea blockade of Yemen to prevent food and medicine from reaching the Yemeni people is an inhumane crime  

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Guterres, in order to carry out his political duties of giving service to the United States , immediately made his way to Kiev, Ukraine, to talk  with the murderer Zelensky and declare his support for Zelensky's crimes. But he is useless for the people of Yemen. He has not travelled to Yemen even once during the past several years to see the scope of Saudi Arabia’s atrocities and to witness what the war has done to the Yemeni people, who are one of humanity's oldest ethnic groups and have an ancient civilization.  

As of November 18, 2021, the U.S.-Saudi aggression has killed more than 3825 and injured 4175 children from the beginning of 2015 to the end of November 2021. The human rights report said that the number of children with various disabilities caused by the attacks of the aggressor coalition has reached 5,559; more than 3 million Yemeni children are suffering from malnutrition, while more than 300 children die daily and more than 3,000 have suffered congenital malformations. The Saudi aggressors, by bombing residential areas, a clear crime against humanity, have destroyed 1,128 primary schools and educational centers, 8,326 farms, 136 sports centers, 250 archaeological sites and 50 media centers.  According to a report recently published by the United Nations Development Program, by the end of 2021 the number of Yemeni victims was estimated to be about 377,000, 60% of whom are indirect victims of war who have died from starvation, outbreaks of diseases and a lack of medical or health facilities. Last week, it was announced that half a million Yemeni children are at risk from food shortages. According to this report, in al-Mughraba district, a remote area in Yemen's northern Hajjah province, families have turned to eating the leaves of a local tree in order to survive, boiling them to form a bitter paste and make it a little more digestible. Al-Mughraba is one of 11 regions in Yemen that were identified with famine conditions in late 2020. Mothers who themselves suffer from starvation have dry breasts and cannot feed and save their children. No country in the world, or UN officials, is trying to open Yemen’s ports to food so that civilians do not die. Boycotting and starving people, killing them by lack of food, are part of the Saudi-Western strategic policy of bringing the Yemeni people to their knees. They are intentionally violating their human rights, but they are loudly pretending to defend them. Efforts must be made to deliver food supplies to Yemen and to pressure international agencies to find legal and globally regulated ways to deliver supplies to the Yemeni people.  

The Role of the United Arab Emirates  

Geopolitically, the UAE intends to monitor and influence the southern part of Yemen and the port of Jeddah, as this important area of shipping and global sea transport is very sensitive from the perspective of political geography. In competition with Saudi Arabia, the UAE is willing to take control of southern Yemen by dividing Yemen into north and south, controlling the south and ending Saudi Arabia's influence in the south in the Arabian Sea. The cooperation of the invading forces in Yemen is a calculated partnership and coalition. With its policy, the UAE intends to make Saudi Arabia responsible for all the costs of aggression, but to take a greater share in the looting of Yemen, and not to get involved openly but be an important actor behind the scene. In this regard, UAE officials, who have always feared Saudi expansionism, have entered into negotiations with French imperialists and Israeli Zionists and reached agreements with them. The control of the Arabian Sea gives the UAE an important role in controlling the Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea.  

Partisan warfare on the ground and in the air  

The Ansarallah Front, along with its victories in partisan warfare on the ground and even moving the war into Saudi Arabia, achieved a kind of partisan warfare in the air by developing new technology and purchasing arms from Iran. All the soft and vital facilities of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, western companies, construction and financial monopolies and the entire tourist industry etc. in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Hijaz, Aramco, and other cities are in the range of Yemeni drones and missiles. These major blows by Yemenis have brought the Saudi and UAE governments to their knees and have made them exercise caution. The pleasant breeze that is now coming is the crushing of the current world order. This break-up of the current order greatly diminishes the power of NATO, the United States, Israel and their collaborators in the region and opens a window for the freedom and independence of the Yemeni people. This geopolitical change in the world will change our entire Region and will help the Yemeni people.  

(Taken from Toufan No. 267, June, 2022, the Organ of the Party of Labour of Iran)