‘Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy nation…and they’re going to give the United States some of that wealth, hopefully, in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world.’
President Trump during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s visit to the White House in March 2018
On 9 August, a bus carrying school children on a field trip in northern Yemen was hit by a US-made missile, killing 40 children and 11 adults, injuring 79 more. This airstrike was launched by the Saudi-led coalition making war on Yemen and was one of more than 50 which have hit civilian vehicles this year. The war in Yemen was declared the world’s worst humanitarian disaster by the UN in March 2017, but every month the statistics get more shocking. A UN report released in August declares that 22.2 million people in Yemen, out of a population of 29.3 million, were in need of humanitarian assistance. 11.3 million of these were judged as in acute need. US and British imperialism continue to back the war, selling huge quantities of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other antagonists, and sending military advisers to direct their use. Despite this worsening crisis, the war on Yemen has been labelled ‘the forgotten war’, with imperialist-sponsored slaughter always being overshadowed in the media by other more ‘newsworthy’ events.
The coalition assault on Yemen began in March 2015 following the seizure of the Yemeni capital Sanaa by an insurgency led by the Houthis the previous year. The Saudi-led coalition and the major imperialist powers back the government of President Abdrabbah Mansur Hadi and claim that the Houthis are a proxy for Iran. More than three years of bloody fighting have resulted in a stalemate with little change in the overall control of territory – despite the massive resources and firepower backing the Hadi government. Huge numbers of civilians have died in airstrikes, famine, and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Islamic State, have grown in strength in the east of the country through the chaos of the war.
The recent UN report concludes that both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis have committed acts that may be considered war crimes, but it is the indiscriminate coalition bombing campaign which comes in for most criticism. The report notes that ‘coalition air strikes have caused most direct civilian casualties’, going on to say that ‘airstrikes have hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and even medical facilities’.
The first scheduled peace talks since 2016 were organised for September 2018 but did not go ahead as the Houthi negotiators didn’t attend as they were not assured safe passage by Saudi Arabia. In the 2016 Kuwait peace talks the Houthi team were prevented by Saudi Arabia from returning to Yemen for three months following the end of negotiations. However, the coalition used the failure of the 2018 talks as an excuse to escalate the war. An offensive against the major Red Sea port of Hodeidah has been stepped up, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) army fighting on the ground with Saudi air support. Hodeidah is the entry point of 70% of Yemen’s imports, and the offensive threatens further starvation. 90% of Yemen’s food was imported into the country even before the war began. Save the Children called the campaign a ‘war on children’, highlighting the huge number of children who have been the victims of air strikes hitting schools and hospitals (Independent 25 September).
Since the war began Britain and the US have had an excellent opportunity to sell their weaponry. Britain is currently competing with Russia to be the second largest arms dealer after the US. British arms exports were 83% higher in 2017 than they were in the previous year – totalling £6.6bn. 67% of British arms sales in 2017 went to the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia the biggest customer. Exports to Saudi Arabia in 2017 were £1.13bn – 66% higher than the previous year. This was made up of 139 separate arms consignments. Exports to the UAE rose by 94% from 2016 to £260m (iNews 21 September). British imperialism sees arms exports as a crucial way of maintaining influence after Brexit.
We cannot let the slaughter in Yemen be a human disaster so overwhelming that it paralyses action. The alliance of British and US imperialism with Saudi Arabia is central to imperialist interests in the Middle East. Not only are Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states the largest market for British and US advanced weaponry, they share a strategic interest in containing the power of Iran and its allied forces. This war could not happen without US and British support. Jeremy Corbyn said at a vigil for Yemen that a Labour government would present a motion to the UN to end the war ‘tomorrow’ (Aberdeen Evening Express 23 September). However, with 116 civilians dying every month as a cause of the war in just Hodeidah, the people of Yemen cannot wait for a Labour government. Action must be taken now against the arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and against British imperialist meddling in the Middle East.
Toby Harbertson
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 266 October/November 2018
