By\u00a0Maliheh Bitaraf<\/i><\/p>\n
The Case Against the Yemen Intervention <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The case for US Support of the Saudi intervention in Yemen rests on two assumptions, that the US is a moderating force in the campaign, preventing further death and destruction, and that the war is a regional proxy struggle against a revisionist Iran. Both assumptions are erroneous, the war is anything but \u2018moderated\u2019 and before the intervention, the link between the Houthi rebels and\u00a0 Iran was tenuous at best. Moreover, I argue that to give Iran the sole title of destabilizing power obscures more than it reveals.<\/p>\n In 2012, the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, resigned, handing over the power to his Deputy Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. This was not a smooth transition, and this failure led to the current unrest in Yemen. Moreover, the involvement of Saudi Arabia has created further instability in the country.<\/p>\n While Saudi Arabia accused Iran of providing arms to Houthi rebels and called on the UN Security Council for the imposition of an arms embargo on Iran, it has spent billions in weaponry mostly made by the U.S. and the U.K. to use against Yemen. No one can deny the Saudi government\u2019s atrocities against innocent Yemeni people. According to the UN, out of over 29 million population, approximately one-third<\/a> are on the verge of famine which has been described as \u201cthe biggest famine in the world.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Some 17 million<\/a> people (60% of the population) are suffering from severe food and water shortages. The Saudis purposefully installed a blockade aimed at stopping the Houthi rebels, preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Yemeni people, based on a UN report.<\/p>\n The Saudi- led coalition is comprised seven countries: Egypt, United Arab Emirate, Bahrain, Jordan, Pakistan, Sudan and Kuwait, is supported by the United States, Britain, and Australia. In March of 2015, the coalition launched a bombing campaign against Houthi militias with the objective of restoring Hadi\u2019s presidency. Overall, tens of thousands of people have been killed, suffered from starvation or cholera, including hundreds of children\u2019s deaths<\/a>, according to the UN.<\/p>\n While Saudi Arabia accused Iran of controlling Houthis militias in Yemen to justify its war, there is very little evidence<\/a> to support its claim. Iranian authorities deny supporting the rebels and have even discouraged them from capturing Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. In response to the Saudi\u2019s claim, Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswomen for the National Security Council said that \u201cIt remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen.\u201d Moreover, a U.S. intelligence official said, \u201cIt is wrong to think of the Houthis as a proxy force for Iran\u2026 Yemen\u2019s chaos is a civil war, not a battleground for regional conflict between Iran and the Sunni-ruled Gulf states,\u201d The Huffington Post<\/em><\/a> has reported. Conversely, Saudi Arabia, with its radical Islam ideology supports Sunni extremists has emerged as \u201cthe Middle East\u2019s Biggest<\/a> Danger.\u201d<\/p>\n A Destabilizing Power?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In the 72nd<\/sup> session of the Third Committee of the \u00a0UN General Assembly, the Saudi delegate expressed his appreciation to Canada for the sponsorship of a draft resolution tabled against five member states, including Iran and Syria, for violation of human rights, underscoring his support of the draft. In response, the Syrian delegate referred to Saudi Wahhabism as \u201ca weapon of mass destruction.\u201d Despite some reforms, such as ending the ban on women driving and allowing them to join the army or anti-corruption measures, Saudi Arabia still remains an autocratic and repressive regime. Yet, Saudi Arabia\u2019s horrific record on human rights abuses, including beheading, is barely covered.\u00a0 Within the kingdom, there is no gender equality and women do not enjoy the same rights as men do. There is no freedom of the press and numerous human rights activists and bloggers that have run afoul of the regime are in prison.<\/p>\n How could Canada sponsor draft resolutions against some Member States, yet overlook Saudi violation of human rights nationwide and worldwide, their destabilizing role in the Middle East, and their involvement in supporting and funding global terrorism including extremist Wahhabism, the origin of several Jihadist groups?\u00a0 How can the United States turn a blind eye to the Saudi government\u2019s inhumane and illegal practices? According to Senator Bob Graham<\/a>, the former Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, 28 classified pages of the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry suggest, \u201ca strong linkage between [the Sep 11] terrorists and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Saudi charities, and other Saudi stakeholders.\u201d Yet, notwithstanding the crimes committed by Saudi Arabia, the Saudis maintain good relations with the two major powers, the U.S. and the U.K. \u00a0Surprisingly, neither has censured the Saudi government, but rather have signed arms deal with Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 The UK\u2019s BAE<\/a>\u00a0Systems has sold 48 typhoon fighters to Saudi Arabia worth \u20ac 43 billion, adding to 72 jet fighters.<\/p>\n There was \u201cnothing new<\/a>\u201d in CBS\u2019 60 minutes regarding Mohammad Bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince, viewed as the de facto leader. Bin Salman\u2019s remarks were too insignificant to resolve any current crisis; rather, his belligerent language and incendiary rhetoric against Iran and Lebanon signify his antagonistic attitude, contributing to \u201cplaying an increasingly destabilizing role<\/a>\u201d in the region. Houthis\u2019 connection with Iran is exaggerated \u201cwithout providing solid evidence<\/a>,\u201d giving Saudi Arabia more justification to intervene in Yemen. The U.S, the U.K, France<\/a>, and other major powers should halt its support of Saudi Arabian campaign in Yemen. By providing arms support to the Saudis, the powerful states, in fact, are contributing to the deaths of thousands of civilians including children in Yemen. What is Saudi Arabia\u2019s motivation? It is not humanitarian aid, but a political machination to exert its influence and dominance in the region.<\/p>\n Maliheh Bitaraf is a graduate student at the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and International Relations.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0Her specializations are International Organizations and Foreign Policy Analysis. Maliheh\u00a0is an associate editor at the Journal of Diplomacy. Maliheh received her first\u00a0Master’s degree in Mass Communication from the Middle Tennessee State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By\u00a0Maliheh Bitaraf The Case Against the Yemen Intervention The case for US Support of the Saudi intervention in Yemen rests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3907,"featured_media":4359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,175,628,98,634],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-foreign-policy","category-editors-pick","category-human-rights","category-middle-east","category-editorial-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3907"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4353"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4360,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4353\/revisions\/4360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}