Saudi Arabia rejects UN report on egregious violations in Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition has rejected the findings of a report by the UN Human Rights Council that strongly condemns the egregious violations committed by the foreign forces in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, said the coalition “does not accept the report,” calling it “impartial,” according to reports.

The UN envoy of the Saudi-backed regime in Yemen, Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, also reportedly dismissed the report, claiming it was “based on misleading information.”

A panel of UN-appointed rights experts last week said there was a growing “climate of fear” among civilians in Yemen, with no let-up in more than six years of Saudi-backed aggression.

The report censured the Saudi-led coalition for war crimes in Yemen, including airstrikes in support of the unpopular Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi regime, besides indiscriminate shelling of civilians.

“Since March 2015, over 23,000 airstrikes have been launched by the (Saudi-led) coalition in Yemen, killing or injuring over 18,000 civilians. Living in a country subjected to an average of 10 airstrikes per day has left millions feeling far from safe,” reads the report.

It further adds that the Saudi-led coalition has “largely rejected the previous findings of the Group of Eminent Experts, characterizing them as being based on ‘assumptions.”

“We urge the parties and the international community to establish a credible political process to achieve peace in Yemen,” Kamel Jendoubi, chair of the UN group of experts on Yemen, said.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Riadh-friendly officials in Sana’a, and to crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.

The foreign aggression, however, has faced unwavering resistance from the Ansarallah-Houthi fighters and the popular committees, who have launched many lethal retaliatory strikes on Riyadh.

The protracted war has created the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history, the UN says.