Time to spotlight US missile double standards

The US State Department has announced $1 billion in missile sales to Saudi Arabia and the announcement can be used to condemn the US for its double standards regarding Iran’s defensive missile defense program.

US President Donald Trump made clear earlier during his meeting with the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that US arms sales to the Saudis are a top priority. The sales are going to include 6,600 TOW 2B missiles, at a cost of about $1 billion. The State Department justifies the sales as an attempt to help the Saudis build up their military in order to what they like to name “maintaining stability.” Far from it, Saudi Arabia is the largest buyer of US arms, but sales have been increasingly criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups because of the massive number of civilians martyred in the airstrikes against Yemen. Amnesty International says, “The irresponsible arms flows by the US, UK, France and other European countries to the Saudi-led coalition bombing Yemen has inflicted enormous harm to Yemeni civilians.”

Other human rights groups have likewise documented violations of International Law by the Saudi-led coalition. Three years on, Yemen’s conflict shows no real signs of abating, and Saudis continue to inflict horrific suffering on the civilian population. Schools and hospitals lie in ruins, thousands have lost their lives and millions are displaced and in dire need of humanitarian aid.”

Indeed, there is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians. But this has not deterred the Trump White House and other Western states from continuing transfers of billions of dollars' worth of new arms. That this makes a mockery of the global Arms Trade Treaty is beyond dispute. Saudi Arabia and its military allies - armed by the US - stand guilty of war crimes as well, and yet President Trump wants the world to believe that Iran’s missile defense program is a threat to humanity.

Here, the US is not just an innocent spectator to what’s going on in Yemen. It is playing a significant role in enabling the starvation and killing of civilians there. The US continues to provide Saudi Arabia with arms, even though there is compelling evidence that they have been used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. The US government refuses to end weapon sales to Saudi Arabia and other members of the Saudi-led coalition; moreover, President Trump says they are ‘a top priority’.

Not only is this immoral and making the US complicit in the deaths and starvation of thousands of Yemeni civilians, but it also flouts International Law and International Humanitarian Law, which prohibit the US government from selling weapons to countries that might use them to commit war crimes. The law prohibits selling weapons to countries obstructing international humanitarian aid as well – something UN aid agencies have been complaining about for three years now as the Saudis refuses to allow aid into the besieged country.

The point in all, the US is not in a position to preach the world about what they put forth as threat of Iranian missiles when itself continues to provide weapons for Saudi Arabia, and is complicit in war crimes and the starvation of millions of Yemeni people because of the blockade. It is time for the Trump administration to abide by International Law and stop supporting the Saudi-led coalition’s violations in Yemen. The State Department claims the new missiles will help the key Middle East ally defend itself against what it calls "malign Iranian influence" and contribute to counter-terrorism operations across the region. A claim never substantiated by any proof or evidence, and never backed up by independent world bodies. Iran has nothing to do with arming the Ansarullah forces in Yemen. They have what it takes to defend their country. If their alleged ‘malign influence’ is any concern then why is Washington deaf to all the world bodies that not only blame Saudi Arabia, but also the US and Britain for the death of thousands of Yemenis. Why does Washington think that it is allowed to arm Saudi Arabia to kill defenseless people in Yemen, but the Yemenis are not entitled to defend themselves?

It is time for the United Nations to implement a full ban on Western and US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, that’s because the US Senate has once again authorized the War Party and the Military-Industrial Complex to continue their support for Saudi Arabia’s illegal war on Yemen. To that end, SJ Res 54, the Senate’s War Powers Act challenge to the US military involvement in the Yemen War, was killed by the Senate, meaning it will not get a direct floor vote. The bill noted that Congress never authorized the Yemen War, and would’ve compelled the US to withdraw its participation. The bill went nowhere.

The Trump Administration has lauded Senate’s cowardly move, the same regime that last year sold Riyadh weapons, including cluster bombs, worth over $100 billion dollars. This is while international opposition to the Yemen War rests heavily on the massive number of civilians martyred in US-backed, Saudi airstrikes. That the US involvement was never authorized by the UN is another big issue, though this was the first attempt by the Senate to actually challenge a conflict over War Powers Act violations. Still unauthorized, the war remains illegal under International Law and the UN Charter, meaning, there has to be some legal challenges at the UN and the Security Council, even if the US is a member with veto power. After all, a majority of member states oppose this dirty war and would vote against it if given the chance.

This will be great news, but it’s long past overdue - and still not enough. US companies - the makers of weapons sold to Saudi Arabia - have profited far too long off the death and destruction caused by their products placed in Saudi hands. They should also be held to account for aiding and abetting the Saudis in this murderous campaign.

Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen has led to conditions the United Nations has characterized as a “humanitarian catastrophe.” Over 12 million people are in need of humanitarian aid. An estimated 7.6 million Yemenis are now “severely food-insecure” and over 3.4 million children are unable to attend school. Some 2.5 million people are internally displaced, and the GDP in 2015 contracted by 28 percent, which can only prolong the turmoil in the country after Saudi Arabia finally leaves.

Faced with these horrifying statistics, the UN listed the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on its blacklist of children’s’ human rights violators. But only days after the publication of the list, its secretary general caved under bullying from the Saudis and their Persian Gulf allies, who threatened to cut UN funding for humanitarian programs. Faced with this dire prospect, the UN reluctantly removed Saudi Arabia from the list. This is while human rights groups around the world continue to condemn the Saudi pressure tactics and the backtracking by the UN, but to no avail. Saudi Arabia remains protected in global politics by paying off and purchasing the political influence of powerful states such as the US which claims to protect human rights above all else.

To sum up, the US government, in addition to replenishing Riyadh’s dwindling supply of precision-guided bombs, is the one giving the Saudis deadly missiles, bombs, howitzer artillery pieces, Blackhawk helicopters, and the antimissile system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, that we all know are being used to kill Yemeni people.

Any doubters should ask the UN and Human Rights Watch officials who attribute most of the heavy civilian toll to the air campaign waged by Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies. UN officials and human rights groups accuse the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition of recklessly bombing hospitals, markets, schools and homes, in violation of International Law and the UN Charter. They never blame Iran for the atrocities in Yemen. They never say the Saudis should build up their military to allegedly “maintain stability” - the way President Trump would like to justify his new missiles sales.

(Courtesy: FNA)

EA