Even if the UK warned against attacking the vital port of Hodeidah, we bear responsibility for the horrors of this war: The Guardian

YemenExtra

Y.A

Even if the UK warned against attacking the vital port of Hodeidah, we bear responsibility for the horrors of this war, according to a report issued by the Guardian on June 17.

 Now the excuses for our role in Yemen’s misery have fallen away entirely. The assault on Hodeidah by the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition can only deepen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis; 70% of the country’s imports pass through the port, it added.

So they are doing it. They are conducting this war with British-, American- and French-made arms. They are conducting it with western military training and advice; British and US officers have been in the command room for airstrikes, and this weekend Le Figaro alleged that there are French special forces on the ground in Yemen. They are conducting it with diplomatic shelter from the west. On Friday, the UK and US blocked a Swedish drive for a UN security council statement demanding a ceasefire: “Britain, as the ‘penholder’ on Yemen at the UN security council, nevertheless takes a nakedly pro-Saudi approach to the conflict,” the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell notes. Arms sales and security interests dictate, read it.

The UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who had previously warned that an attack on Hodeidah could “take peace off the table in a single stroke” .  He is due to brief the security council on Monday, following emergency talks, and the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, Lise Grande, has said that talks on the UN taking over the port’s administration are at an advanced stage . But even if Mr Griffiths can manage an agreement against the odds, the chances of it sticking are poor, given both sides’ record of acting in bad faith. The complexities of a handover are immense.

A few months ago, Emirati-backed forces were fighting and killing Saudi-backed forces in Aden. The south is moving towards outright autonomy . But which Saudi and Emirati officials will dare to tell their superiors that Tehran enmeshed them in a costly, apparently endless war at relatively little cost to itself? The entrenchment of a war economy is another significant obstacle to peace.