The Starvation of Yemen

[Swordsmyth]

Both sides in Yemen's civil war will meet in Stockholm for peace talks this week and have agreed to a large swap of prisoners. Yemen foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani, part of the pro-government force backed by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, said Tuesday they've "come to an agreement" with the Houthis after being deadlocked in negotiations for months.
"When we head to the negotiations in Sweden, we will discuss the operational issues of this agreement, how it can be implemented, how to exchange the detainees, prisoners, abductees and the forcibly disappeared," al-Yamani said.
The agreed prisoner swap, which will involve hundreds of inmates, is building confidence that there could be a genuine cease-fire and an end to the war that's dragged on for four years.

A U.N. flight Tuesday transported 50 wounded Houthi fighters to Oman for medical care, and the Houthi peace delegation was set to fly out of the airport in Sana'a.
"It's encouraging that the airlift has happened and that the Houthi delegation looks set to leave Sana'a, but it's important to remember the odds are stacked toward the worst case scenario and against a peaceful resolution in the near term," said Peter Salisbury, a senior fellow at Chatham House's Middle East & North Africa Program. "The pressure and hard work that got us here needs to be maintained."

More at: https://www.upi.com/amp/Top_News/Wor...7211543926683/

[goldenequity]

Yemen

https://twitter.com/agerhusmedia/sta...40300558790656

Al-Masdar News
Over 20 Saudi-backed fighters allegedly killed in friendly fire airstrike in central Yemen
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...central-yemen/

Haykal Bafana
Detailed report : Saudi Arabia & the UAE bribed Sudan's president to send Janjaweed fighters to be cannon fodder in Yemen
https://www.theamericanconservative....dan-yemen-uae/

[goldenequity]

Yemen

SouthFront
Houthis Repel Large-Scale Saudi-led Coalition Attack In Central Yemen
https://southfront.org/houthis-repel...central-yemen/

Guy Elster
BREAKING Yemeni warring parties agree to prisoner swap: UN special envoy

[Swordsmyth]

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has proposed reopening the Houthi-held airport in the capital Sanaa on condition planes are inspected in the airports of Aden or Sayun which are under its control, two government officials said on Friday.

The Houthis rejected the proposal floated at U.N-sponsored peace talks in Sweden that are aimed at cementing confidence-building measures that could lead to a ceasefire to halt air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi missile attacks on Saudi cities.
But given this is only the second day of the talks due to last until Dec. 13, and with both sides are coming under mounting pressure for action because of the human toll of the war, there could be room for concessions.


The warring sides agreed on Thursday to free thousands of prisoners, in what U.N. mediator Martin Griffiths called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in two years to end a war that has pushed millions of people to the verge of starvation.
Griffiths wants a deal on reopening the airport, shoring up the central bank and securing a truce in Hodeidah, the country’s main port, held by the Houthis and a focus of the war after the coalition launched a campaign to capture it this year.

More at: https://in.reuters.com/article/yemen...-idINKBN1O61F0

[Firestarter]

Griffiths wants a deal on reopening the airport, shoring up the central bank and securing a truce in Hodeidah, the country’s main port, held by the Houthis and a focus of the war after the coalition launched a campaign to capture it this year.

More at: https://in.reuters.com/article/yemen...-idINKBN1O61F0

In stories like the following, from the “reputable” Reuters, the Houthis are made to look as the “bad guys” because they are inflexible and don’t agree to hand over Hodeidah like the UN tells them...
The Houthis for some reason aren’t allowed to tell their side of the story.


Griffiths at these talks doesn’t tell the Britain-led coalition to immediately stop the bombing of civilian targets, like: school buses, hospitals, energy infrastrure, drinking water supplies, fishing boats, agriculture land and food markets...
How many Yemenis have died so far, at 1 child dying every 5 minutes, more than 2000 die every week (besides the more than 58,000 dead Yemenis that died directly from the bombs). I think 400,000 dead Yemenis is a reasonable estimate...

There are also no plans to stage elections in Yemen, with more than 1 candidate preferably, as the so-called “internationally recognised” president isn’t supported by the Yemen population.
Maybe some political experts can explain that it’s democratic that the terrorist UN decides who becomes president instead of the population.


I think that this is a good moment to give some attention to Martin Griffiths... who’s from Britain.
Griffiths is the executive director of the Brussels-based European Institute of Peace (EIP) – you have to understand “peace” in an Orwellian way to understand what kind of “peace” Griffiths works for.

He has earlier supported genocidal campaigns for the UN in Syria, Afghanistan and Libya, making sure that there came no peace or improvement of life for the population: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/w...voy-1120969214

Here’s Martin Griffiths.



Last month, US Congressmen tried to get some media attention with a new resolution to supposedly “limit” the US support for the genocide by the “coalition”. The resolution was rejected.

At least 5 of the 37 Republican senators that voted against the resolution - Tim Scott, John Boozman, Roy Blunt, Richard Burr and Mike Crapo - got some of that sweet Saudi money in 2016 and 2017 (nothing on the UAE!).
It is estimated that Saudi Arabia spent around $27 million on lobbying in 2017: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/...ational-Policy

[Swordsmyth]

The White House wants to stay the course in Yemen even as the Senate is set to push back against US military support to the Saudi-led bombing campaign. But now a bombshell report reveals the Pentagon has been fueling Saudi and UAE jets free of charge due to "errors in accounting where DoD failed to charge" according to US defense officials.


The huge significance is summarized in the opening lines of The Atlantic report which broke the story over the weekend:

President Donald Trump, who repeatedly complains that the United States is paying too much for the defense of its allies, has praised Saudi Arabia for ostensibly taking on Iran in the Yemen war. It turns out, however, that U.S. taxpayers have been footing the bill for a major part of the Saudi-led campaign, possibly to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

For the entire three-and-a-half years of the program, the Pentagon never had an official servicing agreement in place with the Saudis and further never informed Congress.
The vital refueling role that the US military has played in the war goes back to March 2015 and is reported to be "enormously expensive". The recipient country, in this case the Saudis, is required by law to pay the costs but the Pentagon now admits "they in fact had not been charged adequately" in an official DoD letter obtained by The Atlantic.
The Pentagon is now “currently calculating the correct charges” but it's unclear if the missing funds going back years — footed by the American taxpayer — will ever be obtained especially as the DoD doesn't even know what it's owed.


Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Atlantic that likely "tens of millions of dollars" worth of fuel was supplied to the Saudi coalition for free. However, this figure (again which the Pentagon says it can't account for) is possibly in the hundreds of millions, considering the following:

Records provided by the Defense Logistics Agency this March indicated that since the start of fiscal year 2015 (October 2014), more than 7.5 million gallons of aerial refueling had been provided to the UAE, and more than 1 million gallons to the Saudis. Those figures were for all aerial refueling, not necessarily only related to operations in Yemen.

“It is clear that the Department has not lived up to its obligation to keep Congress appropriately informed or its responsibility to secure timely reimbursement,” Sen. Reed told The Atlantic. “U.S.-provided aerial refueling assistance was provided to the Saudi-led coalition for more than 3.5 years, activities that likely cost tens of millions of dollars. We must ensure that U.S. taxpayers are fully reimbursed for that support.”


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...jets-free-2015

[Swordsmyth]

A rally was held outside the office of the United Nations in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Monday to protest against measures of the Saudi-led coalition to hold and prevent ships carrying oil products from docking at Yemen’s ports, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reports as the warring parties in the nearly four-year-long conflict hold UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...ens-Ports.html

[Swordsmyth]

A mass prisoner swap between Yemeni rebels and the government, a key issue at UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden, has been finalised, both sides said Monday.Brokered by UN special envoy Martin Griffiths earlier this month, it is one of the main points at talks between the government and Huthi rebels in Sweden this week.
Griffiths told reporters Monday the prisoner swap was well underway, adding that he hoped it "will be very very considerable in terms of the numbers that we hope to get released within a few weeks".
Haid Haig, head of the governmental delegation tasked with the swap, told AFP the deal would be fully implemented by the end of January.
"We agreed ... the deal would be complete within 48 days," Haig said. Asked when he expected the exchange to be complete, he replied: "In theory, in January."
Haig said the list of names should be "mutually handed over by end of day today."
An advisor to the Huthi rebels in Sweden confirmed the list of names would be completed by Monday.
"There might be an announcement of dates," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.


Between 1,500 and 2,000 members of pro-government forces and between 1,000 and 1,500 rebels would be released, according to Haig.
On the government side, they include former defence minister Mahmoud al-Subaihi, who has been held by the rebels ever since they overran the capital in late 2014, and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's brother Nasser, a general and former senior intelligence official.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/yemen-war-riv...151718140.html

[goldenequity]

The UN 'offer' to 'partially open' Sana’a Airport clearly and merely continues the prior intention of the Saudis in causing the suffering of the Yemeni citizens.
Mohammad al-Houthi: Saudi blockade of air traffic to Yemen should stop completely
https://www.uprising.today/mohammad-...op-completely/

►"the Yemeni people are looking for peace, but are not seeking to surrender or beg their own rights in Sweden’s consultations.
Rather, the Swedish negotiations should declare the complete return of Yemeni peoples' rights, which have been under assault by the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression and its allies without any legal justification."

Responding to the offers of a gradual resumption of Yemen’s internal flights, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi indicated that the prima facia concern of the United Nations should be in declaring the external ban of Yemeni air traffic by the US/UAE/Saudis as being a criminal violation of international and humanitarian law.
"The Security Council resolutions themselves are incompatible with the civil aviation embargo that the Saudi-led invaders have imposed on the Yemeni capital of Sana’a."
►"The Saudi alleged “security risk” justifications as the 'reason' to embargo aviation traffic, are not convincing.
International airports already have adequate security procedures for inspection and surveillance of any and all Yemeni travelers."
►"What is being put forward is implied support for continued confiscation of the Yemenis right of travel."

In the occasion of World Human Rights Day, Mohammed al-Houthi demanded a halt to the continual air embargo,
which is being imposed by the US-backed Saudi-led invasion forces as a weapon against the Yemeni nation.

Continued torture of Southern Yemenis by UAE

[Swordsmyth]

The government on Tuesday ruled out a truce, one day after the Saudi-led coalition said military operations were ongoing in Hodeida.
The government alliance launched an offensive to retake the rebel-held city in June, sparking an international outcry over the fate of its 600,000 residents and a port crucial for food imports.
"This has been proposed as part of the general framework, and this is what we came to make progress on: a full, complete ceasefire. But I think we will be unable to achieve this progress in this round," Zaeel told AFP.
"This is a round of talks to prepare for that."

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/yemen-gov...115911599.html

[Swordsmyth]

The opposing sides in Yemen's ongoing civil war have agreed to reopen the airport in the Houthi-controlled city of Sanaa during peace negotiations in Stockholm, Sweden, Reuters reported Dec. 12.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...r-negotiations

[Swordsmyth]

Saudi-led forces and Yemen-based Houthi rebels announced that oil and gas exports will resume in an effort to restore revenues to the troubled country, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...w-Support.html

[Swordsmyth]

Yemen's warring parties agreed on Thursday to cease fighting for the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops, the first significant breakthrough for U.N.-led peace efforts in five years of conflict.At the close of a week of talks in Sweden, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a framework for political negotiations would be discussed at the next round of talks at the end of January between the Iranian-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.


"You have reached an agreement on Hodeidah port and city, which will see a mutual re-deployment of forces from the port and the city, and the establishment of a governorate-wide ceasefire," said Guterres.
"The U.N. will play a leading role in the port," he told a news conference in Rimbo, outside Stockholm.
The United States, which provides military support to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, welcomed the agreement.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that while many details still needed to be worked out, the talks marked a pivotal first step. "Moving forward, all must continue to engage, de-escalate tensions, and cease ongoing hostilities," he said in a statement.


U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths said both parties would withdraw "within days" from the port, a main entry point for most of Yemen's commercial imports and aid supplies, and later from the city of Hodeidah, where coalition troops have massed on the outskirts.
Houthi forces would also pull back from the port of Salif, used for grains, and Ras Isa, used for oil. Revenues from the three ports would go the central bank branch in Hodeidah.
A Redeployment Coordination Committee including both sides will oversee the ceasefire and withdrawal, according to the agreement. It will be chaired by the United Nations and report weekly to the U.N. Security Council.
International monitors will be deployed in Hodeidah city and the three ports, and all armed forces are due to pull back completely within 21 days of the ceasefire coming into force.
Saudi ambassador to Yemen Mohammed al-Jabir told Al Arabiya TV that enforcement procedures relating to Hodeidah would start on Friday.
Another joint committee overseen by the United Nations will set up humanitarian corridors to Taiz, Yemen's third city.
"This is a minor breakthrough. They have been able to achieve more than anyone expected," said Elizabeth Dickinson, Senior Analyst, Arabian Peninsula, at International Crisis Group.
"Saudi Arabia has taken a firmer hand with the Hadi government, which has in turn been more cooperative."
She added: "The big game is the political framework, which would pave the way for actual peace negotiations."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/u-n-chief-joi...055431081.html

[Swordsmyth]

Fighting broke out on the outskirts of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah on Friday, residents said, a day after a ceasefire agreement was reached by the warring parties at U.N.-sponsored peace talks.

Despite the ceasefire, one resident told Reuters he could hear the sound of missiles and automatic gunfire in the direction of the eastern 7th July suburb.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said coalition warplanes had launched two strikes on Ras Isa city north of Hodeidah. The coalition did not immediately confirm the report.
The warring sides agreed after a week of consultations in Sweden to cease fighting in Hodeidah and withdraw their troops as part of confidence-building measures to pave the way for a wider truce and political negotiations.
It was the first significant breakthrough for U.N.-led peace efforts to end the nearly four-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
Envoy Martin Griffiths said at the end of the peace talks that both parties would withdraw “within days” from the port and then from the city. International monitors would be deployed and all armed forces would pull back completely within 21 days.
A Redeployment Coordination Committee including both sides and chaired by the United Nations would oversee implementation.
Both sides issued statements following the talks claiming they would ultimately control Hodeidah.
Abdullah al-Alimi, a senior official in the office of the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, tweeted on Friday the deal meant a Houthi withdrawal from the city and “the legitimate authority will fully control security and administration”. The Houthis’ media office tweeted that “occupying forces” would quit Hodeidah and “the current authority will be the official authority”.

Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that a robust monitoring regime was urgently needed in Hodeidah to oversee compliance with the truce. Such a monitoring mission needs a Security Council resolution, diplomats said.


He said retired Dutch Major General Patrick Cammaert agreed to lead monitoring and could arrive in the region within days.
“The process outlined on Hodeidah is one that’s wracked with potential pitfalls — the key will be ensuring an orderly withdrawal process in preventing spoilers from derailing the process,” said Adam Baron of the European Council for Foreign Relations.
The warring parties are due to hold another round of talks in January to discuss a framework for political negotiations.

More at: https://in.reuters.com/article/yemen...-idINKBN1OD2F4

[goldenequity]

spokesman of Yemen’s armed forces, Brigadier GeneralbYahya Saree, said that the Saudi-led aggression coalition
has launched 21 air strikes coinciding with heavy artillery attacks and infiltration attempts at the West Coast frontline over the past 24 hours.

https://twitter.com/uprisingtoday/st...67370823094272


Sweden 'Peace' talks have adjourned...
they came up with a piece of paper. ba-dum tish!

[Swordsmyth]

Fierce clashes broke out in Yemen’s crucial port city of Hodeidah on Sunday, leading UN and Yemeni officials to delay the "official" start of the hard-fought ceasefire agreed last week.
Residents reported skirmishes on the outskirts of town with missiles and automatic gunfire heard near the city's eastern 7th July suburb.
Unconfirmed television reports said that the Saudi-led coalition had launched two airstrikes on Ras Isa, a port north of Hodeidah.


UN officials said it was necessary to delay the implementation of the ceasefire until December 18th to convey orders to troops on the ground.
On Sunday afternoon, UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths issued a plea to both to “respect their obligations as per the text and the spirit of the Stockholm Agreement” and “engage in the immediate representation of its provisions.”
"Without peace, we will be facing in 2019 a much worse situation than today" as a result of food shortages, warned UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday.
Hodeidah is almost completely controlled by the Houthis, and their withdrawal from key positions like the port is one of the central components of the UN-brokered deal reached last week in Sweden.
By moving units away from the Red Sea port, international officials hope to get desperately needed food and aid into the country to ease Yemen’s festering humanitarian crisis.
Under the deal, which could create the breathing space for meaningful peace talks, international monitors are to be deployed in Hodeidah to observe as all armed forces pull back completely within 21 days of the start of the ceasefire.
Skirmishes and clashes like those seen in Hodeidah over the past two days are not in themselves a sign that the ceasefire is doomed, said independent Yemen analyst Hisham Al-Omeisy.
“Even in previous ceasefires, there was a huge de-escalation infighting, but still sporadic fighting here and there, like we’ve seen over the past few days,” he told the Telegraph.
He cited recent conversations with Houthi contacts where the atmosphere in Hodeidah was cited as “toxic” and characterised by a deep mistrust of the Saudi-led coalition. A rise in looting by Houthi forces, he said, showed "bad faith" ahead of the agreed withdrawal.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/fierce-clashe...171904630.html

[goldenequity]

Yemen


DAILY SABAH
Canadian government is looking for a way to cancel an $11.5 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, PM Justin Trudeau says, as criticism mounts over the kingdom's role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen
https://www.dailysabah.com/americas/...ashoggi-murder

[Swordsmyth]

Yemen


DAILY SABAH
Canadian government is looking for a way to cancel an $11.5 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, PM Justin Trudeau says, as criticism mounts over the kingdom's role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen
https://www.dailysabah.com/americas/...ashoggi-murder

The Canadian arm of General Dynamics Corp <GD.N> warned Ottawa on Monday the federal government would incur "billions of dollars of liability" by unilaterally scrapping an agreement to sell armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia.General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada made the comment in a statement issued shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said for the first time that his Liberal government was looking for a way out of the deal.


"Were Canada to unilaterally terminate the contract, Canada would incur billions of dollars of liability to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada," the company said.
"Terminating the contract would have a significant negative impact on our highly skilled employees, our supply chain across Canada, and the Canadian defense sector broadly."

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gener...--finance.html

Is the MIC is above the law?
Can the rest of us sue the government for costing us money?

[RonZeplin]

Saudis Tell US Senate 'Where To Go' - Time To Leave? (Yemen)

The Saudi government has condemned a US Senate resolution accusing the Saudi Crown Prince of being responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. But bigger trouble for the Saudis might be on the horizon, as an historic Senate vote to end the US participation in the Saudi war on Yemen passed on the same day. Though the House is being prohibited by its leadership from voting on its own version of the resolution, the Senate move has raised awareness of the brutal Saudi war and has increased the momentum. What next? Watch today's Liberty Report:

[Swordsmyth]

A U.N.-brokered cease-fire in the Yemeni port city of al-Hudaydah that went into effect at midnight on Dec. 18 appears to be holding following some fighting and airstrikes that lasted until 3 a.m., AFP has reported.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...e-appears-hold

[goldenequity]

Yemen Observer
Sudanese soldier defected to Houthis in Jizan province. He did it after a conflict with the Saudi officers.
He was injured while escaping. He said that the reason of the conflict with the Saudis
was his posts on Facebook about Yemeni civilians who were killed by the coalition.



He met with the head of the Sudanese diaspora in Yemen.

https://twitter.com/JobeerBa/status/1076206404103520256

Yemen Observer
Pro-Houthi Yemeni army claimed captured 90% of Sirwah directorate in Marib province.
“Operation started in response to the escalation in Nihm district.”

https://twitter.com/YemeniObserv/sta...83214158512128



-------


related... ongoing protests in Sudan ramping up (Africom propping puppet gov)


Sudan

https://twitter.com/Souria4Syrians/s...47740920582145

[Firestarter]

I have to admit that I still don’t understand the deal made between the Yemen puppet government and the Houthi rebels…
As I still haven’t found any article from our wonderful media that explains, I’ll try to explain more or less what I don’t understand. According to the media, the deal made in Sweden is something like:

1) The Houthis will stop attacking targets in Saudi Arabia.
I think I understand what this means, but think it’s strange that Saudi Arabia is allowed to continue bombing the starving population.

2) The Houthis and Yemeni puppet government will swap some 15,000 prisoners.
I think I understand what this means, but think it’s strange that nothing is mentioned on the prisons controlled by the UAE where innocent Yemenis are tortured.

3) Fighting in the province of Hodeidah will stop.
Here it becomes too bizarre for me; there are armed forces from both sides in the province of Hodeidah. Are they supposed to simply stop fighting? Is it possible to have a ceasefire in such a situation?
Is this meant to give the “coalition” the time to prepare an attack to finish the Houthis off once and for all?

4) The Houthis will hand over the port cities of Hodeidah and Salif.
The Houthis have been successfully defending Hodeidah and if I understand correctly they are now supposed to hand it over to the puppet government and the terrorist UN: https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1OC0FU


Since the deal was made it has been repeatedly reported that fighting has continued (it should have stopped completely on 17 December). Bizarrely it has also been repeatedly reported that now the ceasefire appears to “hold” when there’s less fighting for a couple of hours.
Obviously our wonderful media have a different “understanding” of what a ceasefire means.

Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert - who arrived in Hodeidah on Sunday - is heading a committee to monitor that the Houthis will conform to the truce.

Government puppet spokesman Brigadier Yahya Sariyah said that Saudi Arabia has violated the Hodeidah ceasefire 223 times from 17 December to 23 December. And why wouldn’t the coalition, with the support of the terrorist UN, continue their assault?
Street graffiti in Hodeidah shows that Yemenis blame the US for murdering Yemenis. I’m just glad that the Iranian press doesn’t expose the role of the UN: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/...h-Saudi-Arabia


In July, Saudi Arabia agreed to lend $2 billion to the puppet government central bank office in Aden. Money has been directed away from Houthi-controlled areas where most Yemenis survive and most food imports arrive. Deputy Governor Shokeib Hobeishy said that only $340 million of that money has been used, but it was unclear how much had reached companies to import food.

Some traders say Aden favours government-held areas. One big importer said it was not possible to ship new wheat cargoes to the ports of Hodeidah and Salif due to lack of payment. The importer still waits for over $50 million in foreign currency.

The central bank is struggling to pay public-sector wages. It has access to a Federal Reserve account of $200 million, while the Bank of England, in a great example of “justice”, has frozen 87 million pounds: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-y...-idUSKCN1OJ1PU

[Swordsmyth]

A UN-led team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire met Wednesday in Yemen's flashpoint city of Hodeida, after sporadic clashes underscored the fragility of the truce which began last week.

Government forces -- backed by a Saudi-led coalition -- and the Iran-aligned Huthis exchanged gunfire for a few hours on Wednesday morning, an AFP correspondent reported.
The sound of heavy artillery could be heard to the east of the city.


A coalition official warned Tuesday of a renewed offensive on Hodeida if violations of the ceasefire persist.
"We look forward to supporting Cammaert in his efforts... we genuinely hope he succeeds, but if not, we reserve the right to recommence an offensive to liberate the city," said the official who spoke on condition anonymity.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/un-led-monito...094822065.html

[Swordsmyth]

Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels on Dec. 29 handed over control of the main port in the Red Sea city of al-Hudaydah to the country's navy and coast guard under United Nations supervision, AP reported.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...l-red-sea-port

[Swordsmyth]

Over a year ago we reported on the fact that the Saudi-US-UAE coalition in Yemen has been increasingly reliant on foreign mercenaries, including even officers, from Sudan to execute its three-year long ground war against Shia Houthi rebels as coalition jets pounded urban areas from the skies. As this was long before the brutal Jamal Khashoggi killing at the hands of the Saudis, we were among a tiny handful that bothered to cover it — aside from a few Middle East outlets — significantly before western mainstream media suddenly "discovered" the tragedy unfolding in Yemen, a Saudi-driven conflict the UN has belatedly called "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".
But Khashoggi's death and crown prince MbS' new pariah status means The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and others have finally decided to spotlight Yemen and dig into inconvenient truths of the war at a moment the United States has pledged to greatly lessen its role and as the US Senate is scrutinizing American involvement, including the Pentagon's recently halting its aerial refueling program to Saudi-UAE jets. What does the latest NYT coverage find? The Saudi coalition — made up of America's closest Middle East allies — is sending child mercenaries from Darfur to the front lines of the Yemen war.


According to the Times report:

Led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudis say they are battling to rescue Yemen from a hostile faction backed by Iran. But to do it, the Saudis have used their vast oil wealth to outsource the war, mainly by hiring what Sudanese soldiers say are tens of thousands of desperate survivors of the conflict in Darfur to fight, many of them children.

At any given time throughout the past almost four years of war (the Saudis entered Yemen in early 2015), some 14,000 Sudanese mercenaries have been fighting alongside pro-Saudi forces, often on the front lines in places their UAE officers won't dare to go.
For families in war-torn Sudan, the Saudis' deep pockets and lucrative payment offers to send their young to fight in Yemen has proven irresistible given no other means of survival, according to the story of one such family:

Then, around the end of 2016, Saudi Arabia offered a lifeline: The kingdom would pay as much as $10,000 if Hager joined its forces fighting 1,200 miles away in Yemen.
Hager, 14 at the time, could not find Yemen on a map, and his mother was appalled. He had survived one horrific civil war — how could his parents toss him into another? But the family overruled her.
“Families know that the only way their lives will change is if their sons join the war and bring them back money,” Hager said in an interview last week in the capital, Khartoum, a few days after his 16th birthday.

Noticeably, unlike all prior scant reporting on Yemen, the New York Times actually features Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's name front and center as responsible for such evils and injustice.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...es-fight-yemen

[Firestarter]

In the latest scheme it appears that the UN, with the help of our wonderful media, insinuates that the Houthis are to blame for the starvation in Yemen...
Carefully ignoring that the coalition bombs food and drinking water, while the Central Bank of Yemen’s puppet government “forgets” to buy food for the Houthi controlled areas.

Abdullah al-Hamidi, who makes propaganda for the Yemen puppet regime, claims that at least 15,000 food baskets that were supposed to feed hungry families were instead sold on the black market or eaten by Houthi “militiamen”; he said:

Since the Houthis came to power, looting has been on a large scale. This is why the poor get nothing. What really arrives to people is very little.

No need to give the Houthis the chance to give their version of what has happened of course...

In a surprising, almost balancing move, the “reputable” AP admits that food donations are also snatched from the starving Yemenis by the coalition forces: “The army that should protect the aid is looting the aid”: https://www.apnews.com/c9fee661bfa64ca7adb02c037f93b09f


Most of the Sudanese mercenaries fighting in Yemen come from the battle-scarred and impoverished region of Darfur, where some 300,000 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced during a dozen years of conflict.
Most belong to the Janjaweed that were blamed for the systematic rape of women and girls, indiscriminate killing and other war crimes during Darfur’s conflict.

Last year, the Trump administration announced sanctions on the powerful Yemeni Islamist warlord Abu al-Abbas, because of working for al-Qaeda.
But Abu al-Abbas has boasted that he has received millions of dollars in weapons and financial support for his fighters from the United Arab Emirates.

In August, the Associated Press published that the coalition systematically hires al-Qaeda members to fight the Houthis.

The war on Yemen has strengthened jihadist groups both directly and indirectly: https://www.theamericanconservative....nals-in-yemen/


The Pentagon has announced that after “accidentally” refuelling Saudi Arabia and UAE aircraft for free for 3 years; US Central Command is “in the process of seeking reimbursement from” for $331 million in fuel and flight hours: https://www.rt.com/news/446426-penta...-error-saudis/

[Swordsmyth]

Three weeks after the UN-brokered ceasefire in Yemen’s key port city of Hodeidah entered into force, the warring sides continue to trade accusations over who has broken the fragile truce and still disagree when and where the next round of talks will be held.

“The mercenaries of US-backed Saudi-led coalition waged on Monday an artillery attack on residential areas of Hodeidah province,” Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported on Monday, quoting a military official.
The Yemen government and allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), however, are complaining that the Houthis violated the ceasefire and the rebels show no signs of getting ready to withdraw from their positions at Hodeidah. The rebels shelled a village in the Hodeidah district, residents told The National last week.
“We have said before and continue to say that we will not attend the next round of talks unless the Houthis comply to what was agreed in Sweden,” a government official told The National on Monday.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...-Disagree.html

[Origanalist]

The Donald Trump administration has approved nearly $200 million in upgrades to Saudi Arabia’s missile defenses, Al-Monitor has learned, despite continued congressional uproar over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Under the commercial deal approved by the State Department in December, Saudi Arabia will receive $195 million in upgrades to improve its Patriot PAC-3 defenses, including a guidance system that increases its ability to intercept ballistic missiles able to evade US-made radars.

Though the State Department notified Congress of the sale in December, it did not make the exact dollar value of the transaction public. The figures were provided to Al-Monitor by the Security Assistance Monitor.

A State Department spokesperson told Al-Monitor on background that Trump had indicated the United States would remain a “steadfast” partner for Saudi Arabia, despite tensions over the war in Yemen and Khashoggi’s death.

“For four decades and across seven US presidential administrations, Saudi Arabia has been an important partner for the United States in curbing the malign behavior of Iran, who is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, and the source of the growing ballistic missile threat to our regional partners,” the spokesperson said.

Frank Rose, a former assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance told Al-Monitor that the missile defense upgrade would improve algorithms within the system’s radar to target ballistic missiles such as those in Iran’s inventory.

While Riyadh has invested in Patriot batteries since the 1991 Gulf War, major Saudi cities have faced a barrage of scud missiles as Yemen has fallen deeper into conflict.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ori...khashoggi.html

[Swordsmyth]

A fire that ripped through a storage tank at the main oil refinery in Yemen's Aden on Friday evening was probably started deliberately, an official said.The fire, which also spread to a nearby pipeline, was likely "the result of an explosion (and) probably a deliberate act of sabotage", said the official, who did not wish to be named.
He did not specify who may have been responsible.
"The fire brigade are working to contain the blaze and stop it spreading to the neighbouring storage tanks, which are full of oil and diesel" donated by Saudi Arabia, he added.
Another official said security forces had prevented anyone from leaving the site and opened an investigation into the incident.
Early indications suggested "an explosion and an act of sabotage" were to blame, he said.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/refinery-blaz...195825871.html

[Swordsmyth]

Yemeni rebels on Sunday boycotted a meeting chaired by the head of a UN-led ceasefire monitoring team in the flashpoint city of Hodeida, accusing him of pursuing "other agendas".Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is leading a joint committee, which includes both government and rebel representatives, tasked with overseeing a truce in the Red Sea port city and the withdrawal of both parties.
Huthi rebel negotiator Mohammed Abdelsalam said Cammaert "steered from the course of the agreement by implementing other agendas".
"If (UN envoy to Yemen Martin) Griffiths does not address the issue, it is going to be difficult to discuss any other matter," he said on Twitter without elaborating.
An AFP photographer said that the Huthi representatives did not take part in the committee meeting in Hodeida on Sunday.
The UN declined to comment.
Clashes erupted between Huthi rebels and government forces in Hodeida on Saturday, dealing a new blow to the fragile truce.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/yemen-rebels-...105507431.html