UN negotiations falter as Saudi airstrikes continue on Yemen

“There is no point in negotiations with a party that is looking to obtain through talks what it has failed to achieve through a military campaign,” said Ansarallah chief negotiator Mohammed Abdus-Salaam in response to the illogical demands of the foreign backed forces, coupled with the unabated strikes on Yemen by Saudi Arabia, as part of the pressure tactics to dent the morale of the defenders.

Now we have a report by journalist Ahmed Abdul-Kareem for MintPress titled: “UN negotiations falter as Saudi airstrikes continue on Yemen”

The Ansarallah defenders of Yemen have decided to cancel the UN-backed cease-fire, previously enacted as a goodwill measure to “speed up” the peace process, and resumed ballistic missile and drone attacks against Saudi-led coalition forces. 

In retaliation to the continued crimes of the Riyadh regime, Yemeni forces last Wednesday targeted Apache helicopters as well as a Saudi airbase in Bir Askar in the southwestern region of Saudi-occupied Najran on Wednesday evening, The attack was carried out with a salvo of high-precision ballistic missiles dubbed the Badr P-1. The short-range ballistic missile uses a solid-propellant, an upgrade from its previous iteration, the Badr-1.

Ansarallahs’s Arabic-language al-Masirah that Yemeni missiles successfully struck their designated target in Najran.

Al Masirah’s broadcast station, which was taken off the air by Egyptian satellite company NileSat on Wednesday, said that the attack left an unspecified number of Saudi pilots killed or wounded, destroyed many Apache aircraft, and sparked a large fire in one of the bases’ ammunition stores.

A high-ranking source in Yemen’s military told MintPress that ballistic missile and drones attacks would escalate in coming days and vital facilities in UAE and Saudi Arabia would be targeted.

In a separate attack, a Zelzal-1 (Earthquake-1) missile hit a gathering of Saudi-allied mercenaries near Qais Mountain in Jizan, which is Yemeni territory occupied by Saudi Arabia in 1934. Another missile of the same type hit a group of mercenaries in the Wawa area of Asir – also a Yemeni province under Saudi occupation since 1934.

Yemen’s military said that both projectiles left an unspecified number of Saudi-led forces either killed or wounded. A source in the Yemeni armed forces told Mintpress that the attack on the Saudi air base was in retaliation for deadly Saudi attacks on civilians in Hajjah, in northwestern Yemen, which killed over 15 civilians in a single week.

Last Tuesday, seven civilians were killed, including women and children, and three were injured when Saudi aircraft targeted a home belonging to Hussein al-Yamani in al-Yamnah village in the Haradh directorate. In a separate attack, six civilians were killed and three were injured by Saudi airstrikes in the Ram district of the Mustaba region east of Haradh early Tuesday.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

Meanwhile, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes against multiple Yemeni provinces — including Hodeidaj, Sada’a, Hajjah, and Sana’a — continue. The invaders have said repeatedly that they target only Ansarallah military positions, yet international organizations say the spate of airstrikes have focused on residential areas where there are no fighters.

Ansarallah, the political wing of Yemen’s resistance movement, says ongoing airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition will make the next round of UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden meaningless.

The chief negotiator for Ansarallah, Mohammed Abdus-Salaam told the press: “There is no point in negotiations with a party that is looking to obtain through talks what it has failed to achieve through a military campaign.”

He went on to say that certain indicators — such as non-stop airstrikes, the failure to reopen the Sana’a Airport to commercial air traffic, the refusal to release prisoners and detainees, and the failure to remove sanctions, as well as other confidence-undermining measures — are making Yemenis lose confidence in the United Nations.

Ansarallah criticized the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, saying that Griffiths has not introduced a comprehensive political framework for a solution to the Yemeni conflict. Specifically, he has offered no solution that takes into account a government transition with the inclusion of all Yemeni political parties.

Ansarallah further noted that Griffiths is focusing on issues that are trivial and not fundamental to peace talks.

Abdus-Salaam said about Griffiths’ approach: “He [Martin Griffiths] is only looking at the possibility of bringing the warring parties together, without specifying the most important procedures for negotiations and a framework that needs to be agreed upon by all sides. If he does not offer a clear and comprehensive political framework that would form the nucleus of the next round of peace negotiations, he will not be able to hold any further talks.”

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, who is currently on a three-day visit to Yemen, made an appeal to all sides to cease hostilities, especially around the key Yemeni infrastructure including the port city of Hodeidah. Lowcock made the appeal during a press briefing after arriving in the capital Sana’a on Thursday. UN agencies say the closure of the port in Hodeida would greatly exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Lowcock went on to say that the fighting has once again highlighted the ongoing humanitarian tragedy in the war-ravaged country, adding, “the situation in Yemen has deteriorated since I was here last.”

According to the United Nations, shipping operations in Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, a lifeline for the country suffering a Saudi-imposed blockade, have dropped by almost 50 percent over the past two weeks, with shipping companies deterred by insecurity and ongoing Saudi attacks.

The UN’s World Food Program said on Tuesday that a drop in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would affect food stocks in Yemen, where 14 million people are facing possible starvation.

The Red Sea Ports Company confirmed to MintPress that four vessels carrying essential foodstuffs were being held near the Saudi-occupied port of Jizan despite having received a permit to enter Yemen by the United Nations. Four million people in Hodeida live below the poverty line and are on the brink of famine, according to local authorities.

The Saudi-led coalition has killed tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians since 2015, when its war on Yemen began. Moreover, the coalition’s blockade of food and medicine has plagued the country with an unprecedented famine and triggered a deadly outbreak of preventable disease that has cost thousands their lives.

AS/ME