As U.S. and world media provide saturation coverage of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, another vicious war in Yemen is being prosecuted by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with weapons supplied by the U.S. Although there’s little media attention paid to the Yemen war, this nation, among the poorest in the world is experiencing our planet’s most severe humanitarian crisis. Nearly 400,000 civilians have died since the Saudi-led intervention began in March 2015 and more than 16 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. According to the World Food Program, at least half of Yemeni children under the age of five — 2.3 million people — are at acute risk of malnutrition.
The death toll in Yemen is partly attributed to the Saudi-led coalition’s blockade and bombings that target civilian infrastructure, which has destroyed access to food, water, and healthcare. A tenuous 60-day truce in the war was negotiated by the UN on April 2, but its fate is uncertain.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in Yemen after Houthi rebels, seen as protectors of the Shia Muslim minority, allied with Iran, seized control of large portions of Yemen in September 2014, including the capital, Sanaa. When elected, President Biden said he would work to end the war in Yemen, but he continues to sell arms to the Saudis and UAE that fuel the conflict. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jehan Hakim, chairwoman of the Yemeni Alliance Committee, who discusses more than 70 organizations that are calling for the U.S. Congress to adopt a War Powers Resolution to end all U.S. military assistance for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
JEHAN HAKIM: Since 2015, there have been almost 400,000 Yemenis who have been killed by the violence and two-thirds of civilian deaths are due to airstrikes. Those airstrikes, I think what maybe we forget or are forced to forget is that these war planes are carrying U.S.-made bombs by bomb manufacturers made here by companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamic and Boeing. And we’ve been supplying the coalition with all of these weapons that are made here.
And the coalition can’t do it without us. And I think that’s an important thing to remember. I know I think people hear that, “Oh, they’ll get their weaponry elsewhere.” Well, let them get it elsewhere. We don’t want to have our hands be filled with the blood of Yemenis.
In addition to the military support, the blockade of Yemen has killed tens of thousands of people and has wreaked havoc on the country. Not only is the blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, but it’s upheld by are U.S. naval ships that do patrolling in the vicinity, trying to thwart smuggling from Iran or other countries. But what it has actually done is it starved Yemenis. Over 100,000 Yemeni children have starved to death. Today, 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure. It sounds like food is being used as a weapon.
In addition to all of these disastrous tactics, the Sana’a International Airport has also been closed since 2016, which not only separated families, but also blocked necessary travel for those needing medical attention outside of Yemen, especially since Yemen’s hospitals have been targeted by the airstrikes.
SCOTT HARRIS: Jehan, I wanted to ask you about President Joe Biden when he was campaigning for office. He talked about wanting to withdraw U.S. support for this war in Yemen that have been going under his predecessors, both Obama and Donald Trump. What action, if any, has Joe Biden taken since he’s entered the presidency?
JEHAN HAKIM: That’s a very good question and you’re very spot on. Biden did promise during his campaign, even before he became president, that he was going to end U.S. support to the Saudi-led war in Yemen. And even when he became president in February of last year, he again reminded the American public that he was going to end U.S. support to this Saudi-led war on Yemen.
What he has done is backpedaled on his campaign promises. So we are not seeing an end to U.S. support to this silent war on Yemen. We’re actually seeing the contrary. We’re seeing more arms contracts being sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And we’re also seeing Biden just last month attempting to have discussions with Mohammed bin Salman over fuel prices, you know, right after Russia invaded Ukraine.
We’re not seeing an attempt to disentangle our relationship with Saudi Arabia, a brutal monarchy itself. And guilty of murdering and brutalizing (Jamal) Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist. We’re seeing a relationship that is continuing to be pretty solid. And it’s disappointing.
SCOTT HARRIS: Now, the U.S. Congress has in the past gone on record opposing the U.S. involvement in the Yemen war. A War Powers Act, I believe, was passed but vetoed by Donald Trump. Your campaign right now is to enlist the support of the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution, a War Powers Resolution, to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war.
Tell our listeners about that, if you would.
JEHAN HAKIM: Exactly right, Scott. So we’ve been working to pass a War Powers Resolution ever since 2016 from House Concurrent Resolution to Senate Joint Resolutions that vary in name, different names and numbers, all with the goal of ending the role of the U.S. in this brutal war on my family’s homeland. We were successful in pushing a Yemen War Powers Resolution in 2019 that was bipartisan, as you said.
Trump vetoed it and he stated that “This resolution is an unnecessary dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members both today and in the future” which is not the truth from what we’re hearing from some war veterans. But you know here we are fast forward we are hopeful now since two Reps. (Pramila) Jayapal and (Peter) Defazio recently announced their plans to introduce and pass a new Yemen War Powers Resolution that will once and for all, hopefully end unauthorized U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia’s brutal military campaign.
We’re also hearing a lot of support for the first time around from over 200 representatives on both sides supporting this War Powers Resolution. You know, members like Adam Schiff and (Gregory) Meeks. So I think this time around, we should be successful in passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution, and we can set a precedent for other unauthorized wars.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Jehan Hakim (26:55) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
For more information, visit the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation at yemenfoundation.org and the Yemen Alliance Committee on Facebook at facebook.com/
