The White House has issued a statement Wednesday saying that President Trump has instructed officials to call Saudi Arabia and call on them to lift the blockade on Yemen immediately, saying “this must be done for humanitarian reasons.”
This follows reports a few weeks ago in which the US was praising the Saudis for slightly easing the blockade, but also defending its continuation. Unspoken in all such statements is that US warships have participated in the blockade at various times.
The blockade has gotten more intense since early November, and chronic malnutrition in northern Yemen is rapidly heading toward mass starvation, with large numbers of people dying because of a lack of medicine.
The sudden US interest in halting the blockade is a major change, but may reflect growing concerns within Congress and among legal experts that the US government’s participation in the Saudi war, and endorsement of the Saudi war makes them legally culpable for the many, many war crimes being committed.
Wonderful news.
Silly me. Trump is full of s**t.
Children in Yemen can’t eat lip service.
Will MBS do anything in response? No.
Will Trump do anything in consequence? No.
The crimes will go on. All this is Trump saying, “Not me,” like young kids all denying responsibility for something one of them broke in the home.
Nevertheless it is a start.
Indeed, a start which I never expected to come. Let’s start pushing for consequences, particularly ending the refueling.
By any standard, this is good news.
And it is of note that it comes at the same moment that Trump makes an empty but widely condemned announcement on moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. (Does that mean he wants to avoid calling attention to this shift on the blockade?)
So he made two empty pronouncements. Big deal.
So I take it the USAF flying gas stations, that double the effectiveness of the Saudi airforce, are now closed? Shutting down our refueling effort would immediately reduce the number of bombs dropped on Yemen
You misunderstood. Trump told the Saudis to end the blockade. He didn’t actually say we were going to do anything about it.
arrest and prosecute all the saudi, US and UK officials for their war crimes in the war against poor Yemen
Trump tells Saudis to tend the Yemen blockade.
Saudis tell Trump “What? Speak up. We can’t hear you when we are laughing. Good one. You almost sounded serious there.”
They probably shouldn’t test his patience, the Israelis either.. He isn’t like Obama.
This is no different than when the USG tells Israel to stop building settlements on stolen Palestinian lands. Nothing will change. The Israelis and Saudis know that the USG will do nothing in response to their non-compliance.
That is a positive development! The Jerusalem move was largely symbolic but the is a concrete, if belated step in the right direction.
Good job, Don.
“endorsement of the Saudi war makes them legally culpable for the many, many war crimes being committed.” Since when has the USA cared for international law or even the opinion of others?
This doesn’t mean anything unless the Saudis want to blame outside forces for any lifting of the blockade. The interesting question is why there have been no hearings about American involvement in Congress. Corker, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not held one hearing. Remember him? The Senator who likened the White House to an adult day-care center? Another “Profile in Courage”. More crap.
I can just imagine the conversation. This war,
just like a spectacular flop called Qatar — all work of US favorite, Crown Prince MbNayaf. It has not been denied that the current ruler was recorded a while ago as wanting to end Yemen war. But unlike Qatar which KSA new ruler quietly left up to Egypt to smooth out, Yemen is different.
So, here is the conversation: “You would like us to lift the blocade of Yenen?”.
“Yes”.
“So, you are asking us to end the war, by moving into diplomatic solution?”
“No, no. This is not what we are asking st all”.
“If you desire to continue the war, and want us to do it, we need to decide how to conduct the war, or end it on terms that puts Saudi Rabia first.”.
But now Trump has just added Jerusalem to the list. United Shia, Suni, Kurds and Christians. Assad and King Hussein. Houthis and Saudis, Egypt and Turkey and all of them with Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan or Eritreia.
We will see if this results in Iraqi making serious move to ask US to leave for its own security. Iraqi militia is already calling on treating US soldiers as enemies. Now that these militias — Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese — have become batle hardened against Saudi sponsored cults — they know how valuable they are to their own state, and states will be veey reluctant to support US positions, as the opinion of militias now count. And the good relationship that developed in Syrian batle between Palestinians, Christians, Syrian Suni tribes snd Shia militia — has changed the dynamic not just in Syria — but has changed the dynamics in the region. In Lebanon— attempt at destabilizing the country by Hariri explosive announcement that he feared for his life, pointing finger at Hezbollah and Iran — backfired. Christian and Shia were nit intimidated, just the opposite, supported Sunni prime minister, demanding that he be released. Sunni joined the demsnd — and for the first time in a long time, divisivenes is at its lowest. Hezbollah militia has proven its value, again. They cleared up ISIS from Lebanese border. And in spite of having iver a milion Syrian refugees, ISIS did not infiltrate Lebanon through major attacks. This is Hezbollah victory.