Saudi Coalition: UN Report on Yemen Violations Doesn’t Serve Yemeni People

General Accuses UN of Trying to Legitimize Houthis

The Saudi-led coalition that’s been attacking Yemen since March of last year has been under growing criticism throughout the war for its huge number of civilians killed, but today expressed anger at the most recent UN report with added them to the blacklist of nations committing violations of children’s rights.

Military spokesman Brig Gen. Ahmed Assiri claimed the report doesn’t “serve the Yemeni people,” and accused it of relying mostly on data provided by the Houthis, whom Assiri accused the UN of trying to legitimize.

Assiri went on to complain that the report “contradicts” previous UN resolutions, which insisted that the pro-Saudi faction is the “legitimate government of Yemen,” though the report did not actually contest that.

The report actually did also fault the Houthis for their own children killed in mortar strikes, though the much larger source of civilian casualties throughout the war has been the Saudis. This

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.