Riyadh bullying countries to kill UN probe on Yemen

In a letter seen by AFP, Riyadh has threatened economic retaliation against countries that vote in favor of a UN resolution setting up an international probe into human rights violations in Yemen.

The United Nations rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has on multiple occasions called for the Human Rights Council to launch an independent investigation into Saudi Arabia’s rights violations against its impoverished neighbor Yemen.

The Human Rights Council is set to vote for a Dutch/Canadian draft which calls for the international UN-backed probe -- known as a Commission of Inquiry. Saudi Arabia has so far been able to block the probe.

"Adopting The Netherlands/Canadian draft resolution in the Human Rights Council may negatively affect the bilateral political economic relations with Saudi Arabia", said the letter.

It added that the kingdom will not accept the draft and calls for a Yemeni domestic probe, which the UN claims is not internationally credible.

Human Rights Watch Geneva Director John Fisher said that such threats are "disgraceful."

"It is outrageous that Saudi Arabia is seeking to use threats of economic and political sanctions to bully states into not supporting the kind of international investigation that could put an end to the abuses," he said.

"The (Arab) coalition forces have bombed hospitals, they have bombed market places, homes, funeral parlors and it is time for the international community to say enough is enough,” he added.

Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan are part of Saudi Arabia's coalition. Qatar withdrew from the coalition in June amid a diplomatic rift with Riyadh, Manama, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia along with his allies has been pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign more than two and a half years ago. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due the war. The Saudi war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.

MG