Blog archive: Yemen

  • 6th October 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    More details are emerging about the attack on a highly unusual "civilian" vessel which was severely damaged by Houthi fighters at the southern end of the Red Sea last weekend (see yesterday's blog post). The Saudi-led coalition which is fighting the Houthis in Yemen insists that the vessel...
  • 5th October 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Houthi-Saleh forces – the de facto government in the north of Yemen – have "warned" foreign ships not to enter the country's territorial waters without "prior authorisation from the competent Yemeni authorities".  The announcement, circulated by the Houthi-controlled Saba news...
  • 13th September 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    The battle over Britain's arms sales to Saudi Arabia is getting dirtier and dirtier, amid talk of disbanding a troublesome parliamentary committee which sought to have sales suspended. In a draft report earlier this month, the all-party Committee on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) warned...
  • 9th September 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Strenuous efforts are under way to water-down a report by British MPs which – in its draft form – calls for a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The draft version, prepared by the all-party Committee on Arms Export Controls, was leaked to the BBC and quoted extensively on...
  • 7th September 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    The British government's determination to continue selling weapons to Saudi Arabia – despite credible reports that the Saudis are committing war crimes in Yemen – is facing its most serious challenge yet. A parliamentary committee – the Committee on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) – is due to...
  • 25th August 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    With the military conflict in Yemen at an impasse, a battle has now broken out between the two rival governments for control of the country's Central Bank. The squabble threatens to exacerbate an already dire economic situation because the bank is the source of wages for state employees and...
  • 24th August 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    The British government faces growing calls to review its lucrative arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Yesterday the international charity Oxfam accused Britain of being “one of the most significant violators” of the Arms Trade Treaty.  The UK’s arms sales are, at least in theory,...
  • 21st August 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    In a TV interview today, Yemen's ex-president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, appeared to invite Russian military intervention in the country's conflict. He talked of reactivating old Yemeni agreements with the Soviet Union and offfered "all the facilities" of Yemen's bases, ports and airports to Russia...
  • 26th July 2016
    By
    Thanos Petouris
    On March 26, 2015, civil war officially broke out in Yemen. On that day, Saudi Arabia marshalled a hastily convened coalition of the willing to forcibly intervene in Yemen’s internal affairs, launching an all out armed conflict between forces loyal to the ‘legitimate government’ of president ‘Abd...
  • 23rd July 2016
    By
    Sebastian Sons and Toby Matthiesen
    During the 16 months that Saudi Arabia has been waging war in Yemen there has been little discussion of the kingdom's media strategy, though in some ways it is almost as important as the military strategy. In the article below, Sebastian Sons and Toby Matthiesen argue that the kingdom is...
  • 23rd May 2016
    By
    Helen Lackner
    There is no doubt that the military stalemate is a major reason leading to the Kuwait negotiations. After 14 months of full-scale war, the military situation is largely unchanged. Thirteen months into the full scale war which has encompassed the country, negotiations started in Kuwait on 21...
  • 17th May 2016
    By
    Brian Whitaker
    Saudi Arabia is not only denying that its forces have committed war crimes in Yemen; it is now also denying that human rights organisations have been on the ground investigating them. Interviewed on NPR radio yesterday, General Ahmad Asiri, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, ...

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