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Stephen Lendman: Saudi Arabia proxy of US waging war against Yemen

Yemenis in Sana’a wait to fill jerrycans with water from a public tap amid an acute shortage of water supply to houses during the fasting month of Ramadan, June 21, 2015. (AFP)

 

Press TV has interviewed Stephan Lendman, a Chicago-based author and radio host, about UN’s declaration of its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian situation in Yemen.

 

Following is a rough transcription.

 

Press TV: The UN has declared its highest level of emergency in Yemen but we don’t see any concrete action at all on the ground by the United Nations, why?

Lendman: We certainly don’t. On the one hand, some individual UN members have been very outspoken about the humanitarian situation and how dire it is. But from the top of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, generally he confined his comments to things looks like saying, ‘We urge both side to show restraint!’ and nothing from the UN ever states a US-orchestrated, a Saudi-led naked aggression is fully responsible for what is going on in Yemen.

Yemen is Obama’s war. Saudi Arabia and other (Persian) Gulf states, and Egypt and so on are proxies of America waging war against Yemen, an independent country, to destroy it and make Yemen a US client state again.

This is never explained to people and the UN will never do it. As far as a humanitarian crisis, the crisis existed in the early weeks of the conflict that began in late-March. Now we are in the fourth month of the conflict. My God, Yemenis are dying, who aren’t being counted, from deprivation, from lack of medical care, from lack of clean water, not enough food; I mean the world should be screaming about this and pointing to the nations, America and the others, that stand full responsibility for this holocaust they are committing against the Yemeni people.

 

Press TV: Human Rights Watch had earlier in a report said that the US could be complicit in the Saudi war on Yemen by supporting its airstrikes. What legal actions can be taken against both these countries?

Lendman: Well, Human Rights Watch indeed did say that and it blames the Houthis as well. What Human Rights Watch should do is to say what I just stated. Point the blame where it deserves to be! Don’t blame the Houthis for defending themselves. They are being attacked by Saudi terror-bombing, as I like to call it, and shelling from the ground and the blockade starving the Yemeni people and they are responding in self-defense as any group should and they shouldn’t be blamed for self-defense. Blame the aggressors, not the others.

What should be done? The aggressors should be called out and some kind of accountability should be put into effect but of course that will never happen. The only way to stop this thing is action from the Security Council, backed up by teeth from the world community; but of course America has a veto and will block any Security Council action and responsible action, so this thing could go on for years and as far as the state of emergency, it could go on for six months. My God, it should be declared for six years or maybe sixteen years! The Yemenis won’t come out of this for a very very long time and I shudder to think how many thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Yemenis may die before this ends.

MTM/HSN


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