Yemen War

[Samson]

The limits of Iran’s influence on Yemen’s Houthi rebels

While Iran engages in dialogue with regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the UAE, its ally in Yemen has increased attacks on them.

Houthi rebels continue to attack airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, but a new target recently came into focus.
The armed group had largely spared the other prominent actor in Yemen – the United Arab Emirates – since the UAE reduced its direct military involvement there in 2019.

Troops loyal to the UAE long avoided a direct confrontation with the Houthis, but that changed after Emirati-backed fighters from southern Yemen pushed the rebels out of the oil-rich area around the city of Shabwah in early January.
For the Houthis, the attacks were pivotal setbacks since Shabwah and Marib’s energy and mineral resources would make a Houthi-led state in Yemen economically viable.

The Houthis launched a series of drone and rocket attacks on the UAE in recent weeks, including during a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the end of January. Three guest workers were killed in Houthi attacks on January 17.

“There are quite a few justifiable criticisms of the Houthis, but they are hardly Iranian puppets,” said Zunes. “Washington is using such labels largely to rationalise for US support of the genocidal bombing campaign by the Saudis and the UAE.”

Fighting continues to rage in Yemen and it remains uncertain when a political solution can be found after 11 years of grinding war, creating what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Yemenis are quite capable of settling differences among themselves if foreigners did not keep intervening militarily, Zunes said.

“The best solution [for peace] would be to form a broad provisional coalition government and move forward to free and fair multiparty elections,” said Zunes.

“Back in 2011, there was an impressive degree of unity among the various tribal, regional, sectarian, and ideological groups that took part in the pro-democracy protests against the Saleh regime, which included mass marches, sit-ins, and many other forms of nonviolent civil resistance.”
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[EnglishEdward]

Well now @ Samson; that is a nice diagram.

 

[El_Machinae]

"Inspired by the motto of revolutionary Iran the slogan "Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam" was originally not tied to the Houthi movement. (wikipedia)


Now to be fair and consider this I am American. I understand some of the vitriol in the message especially finding out its origins are from Iran. The same Iran that in which the CIA, MI6 successfully orchestrated a coup in.Iran was a moderate democracy at the time. The motivation for the coup: so the British and Americans could rape Iran for its oil. Look up Operation Ajax its a good read. The end result is a Theocratic govt in Iran that hates America. Consider this: there would be an organic moderate Islamic democracy in the middle east had the coup not been successful. What a blunder.

I wish I knew how to get this game to fit properly on Firefox ... it used to.

Anyway, it explains a lot.

https://www.addictinggames.com/strategy/oiligarchy#url

 

[Remorseless1]

I'm sorry, but I can't believe there are people who are unaware of the civil war in Yemen. It's been one the worst humanitarian crisis for years, with regional powers (Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates vs. Iran) that have prolonged the agony of the Yemenis by providing weaponry and ammunition. Attempts to get humanitarian aid to the people there have been erratic due to either Iranian naval blockade or Saudi aerial bombing. Several power sharing agreements have been reached, only to collapse.

Y'all need to read more.

 

[Quintillus]

I can definitely believe there are people who aren't aware of the civil war in Yemen. It's been going on for years now, and occasionally it has made the news... but news of the type where you're listening to NPR on your way home from work and you hear about it. Or you read a few pages deep in the world news section of a newspaper. Probably not on your 6 PM local news. If that's the extent of what you watch (and for a lot of people it probably is), you may well be unaware of it.

Ultimately, the reason it has never been front-page news is that outside of the immediate region, it's unlikely to have major spillover effects that affect the rest of the world. There also isn't an obvious "bad guy" to most of the world, and there aren't such egregious war crimes that it raises to the world stage despite being regional, as happened in Rwanda in the '90s. Or if there are, they aren't very well known.

I'd heard or read about it once or twice a year over the past few years, and never figured out which side was "right". Are the Saudis the bad guys because they're bombing the rebels? Are the rebels the bad guys because they're trying to overthrow a (presumably) legitimate government? Now that I realize what the rebels' slogan is, it's even tougher to think they're the "right" side.

Whereas with Ukraine, there's a significant risk that it could escalate into a world war involving several nuclear-armed states. There hasn't been a serious risk of that happening in decades. Even if it doesn't, which we should all hope will be the case, it could have significant and long-lasting economic ramifications - even if the war ends soon and all sanctions are withdrawn shortly thereafter, it's going to profoundly affect risk calculations that companies make when investing outside their home area. For the past 30 years, there's been the impression that the First World was finally past the days of war; there would be some ongoing regional struggles in the Third World, but nothing to threaten the world order, and even those regional wars would likely gradually end as the world developed. That no longer looks to be so reliable of a conclusion, so of course it's major news.

There are other ongoing conflicts that also fall into the below-the-radar area, such as the civil war in Mali. It's a colder war than the one in Yemen right now, but has not been fully resolved, and people still die in it every year.

In the end, I interpret it as a, "what are you going to do?' situation. It's not going to affect most people's countries, and there's no good way to intervene to restore peace; even if you thought there might be, we've seen enough examples where intervening only made things worse in the Middle East over the past 20 years to cause any statesman to be cautious. And thus the tragedy continues...

 

[Henri Christophe]

I can't believe there are people who are unaware of the civil war in Yemen.

I just discovery that war very recently, when a friend from Poland come in Rio to carnaval, he like to speak about a lot of wars and told me. I was astonish because I never heard before of this war.
Here in my country the television never sayid nothing about this war, the only way to find information is searching in googles

 

[Samson]

TV news is awful at giving a broad view on what is happening in the world. In the UK after the covid hit if you just stuck with the BBC news you would have thought that the world consisted of the British Isles and Washington DC.

 

[El_Machinae]

I heartily suggest that people subscribe to the ICRC and MSF pages on your social media.

 

[Samson]

I heartily suggest that people subscribe to the ICRC and MSF pages on your social media.

They do not have pages here, and what other social media could you be referring to

 

[Samson]

Saudi 'double-tap' attacks target rescuers in civilian areas

Saudi Arabia and its allies may have used “double-tap” airstrikes in Yemen, researchers at investigative journalism site Bellingcat have revealed.
The tactic sees missiles fired once, then again when aid workers have rushed to the injured. It dramatically raises civilian death tolls and endangers rescuers.
Evidence has now been found to suggest that civilian targets in Yemen were hit by double-tap airstrikes. Researchers examined open source photographs and videos of attacks carried out by the Saudi-led coalition.

The researchers behind the report say strikes that potentially breach humanitarian law have not stopped, which indicates “a clear risk that weapons sold by the UK may be used in breaches”.
By examining satellite imagery of the aftermath of airstrikes, researchers at Bellingcat – a non-profit organisation that specialises in open-source investigations – found at least six instances whereby civilian areas appear to have been hit by double-tap strikes.
Those targets included a funeral hall, two markets, a restaurant, a mosque and a residential area.
​

Satellite images of the funeral hall struck by the Saudi-led coalition in October 2016 show two distinct holes in the floor, which researchers say indicate a double-tap strike

 

[Remorseless1]

Meanwhile...

In other forgotten wars, Myramar's government has begun shelling civilians who back insurgents fighting the government. Air strikes from fixed-wing and rotary-wing units mixed with heavy artillery and missiles are causing heavy casualties.

The rebellion began last year after a military coup toppled the elected president.

 

[Berzerker]

I wonder why this war don't catch our attention as Ukraine war?

In exchange for using US dollars when selling oil we help the Saudis militarily. That may be changing soon, China wants to pay yuan for Saudi oil... The days of the petrodollar are numbered.

 

[Samson]

Multiple strikes on Saudi facilities the other day

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have unleashed a barrage of drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, targeting a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, water desalination plant, oil facility and power station, Saudi state-run media reported.

The attacks early on Sunday did not cause casualties, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said, but damaged civilian vehicles and homes in the area.
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While the population starve

The UN was seeking $4.3bn but it could raise only $1.3bn, with some major donors missing, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations and aid groups have warned of grave consequences for Yemen after an international pledging conference failed to raise enough money to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the war-torn country.

Overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine, aid-starved Yemen – already suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations – is on the verge of total collapse.

With the country almost completely dependent on imports, aid groups say the situation will only worsen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which produces nearly a third of Yemeni wheat supplies.

Some 80 percent of its about 30 million people depend on aid for survival, after seven years of a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, directly or indirectly.

The WFP has said the levels of hunger risk becoming catastrophic as the Ukraine crisis pushes up food prices.
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Spoiler Half hour AJ report on why it is getting worse :

 

[Ferocitus]

In exchange for using US dollars when selling oil we help the Saudis militarily. That may be changing soon, China wants to pay yuan for Saudi oil... The days of the petrodollar are numbered.

Some reckon that there's another energy imperialist out there we should be worried about.

 

[Samson]

While the world of sport has turned its back on Russia, the sport of making cars go really fast by burning loads of money happened within the war zone of this war, despite missile attacks.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix goes ahead as planned despite Houthi missile attack
Oil facility 10 miles from track set ablaze on Friday afternoon
Qualifying and main race go ahead [Sat + Sun] despite driver concerns
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Smoke and flames rise from an oil facility near to the F1 circuit in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah

 

[NovaKart]

I work in Iraqi media and we rarely cover news on the war in Yemen.

Another issue, from what I’ve seen lately, when people bring up the war in Yemen it’s very often to compare how it gets so little coverage compared to Ukraine.

While this is a fair point it shows the person probably doesn’t care about the war in Yemen either but is just bringing it up for the purpose of making that point.

 

[Henri Christophe]

I work in Iraqi media and we rarely cover news on the war in Yemen.

Another issue, from what I’ve seen lately, when people bring up the war in Yemen it’s very often to compare how it gets so little coverage compared to Ukraine.

While this is a fair point it shows the person probably doesn’t care about the war in Yemen either but is just bringing it up for the purpose of making that point.

I need to admit when I made this thread it was because I was upset how the Ukranian war have attention of media and how other wars is almost forgoten. But that don't mean I don't care to Yemen War, I care about all wars by the way.

 

[NovaKart]

Yeah maybe my reply came off a bit harsh and I haven’t really been following the war in Yemen either.

I do think if people are going to criticize the media for not publicizing the war in Yemen more they might want to look at themselves and what they follow because I imagine at least some of this coverage has to do with public interest and what generates hits and ratings.

And nothing is stopping anyone from following the war in Yemen themselves if they seek the information it’s just not in your face all the time.

 

[Kupe Navigator]

Here in my country the television never sayid nothing about this war, the only way to find information is searching in googles

You get most of news from TV? In 2020's? Dude TV has been losing to internet since 2010's. Go and do more research on internet. Google stuff .

 

[r16]

because things might heat up elsewhere the Saudis have been made to stop bombing Yemen . Uhm , amazing or something .