Global figures urge US, UK, France to stop fanning flames of Saudi war on Yemen

Yemeni children protest against the Saudi-led bombing campaign on their country in front of UN offices in the capital, Sana’a, on November 20, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Over 350 high-profile global figures have urged the US, Britain and France, the three Western backers of Saudi Arabia’s bloody offensive on Yemen, to use their UN Security Council seats and help ease the sufferings the Arab nation instead of fanning “the flames of war” there.

Nobel peace prize laureates, politicians, diplomats, former military generals, religious leaders and celebrities issued a statement addressed to US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.

The statement marked the 1,000th day since the Saudi regime and a group of its vassal states unleashed a military campaign against Yemen, at a time when the Arabian Peninsula state was grappling with an internal conflict.

The Saudi offensive was launched in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective administration.

“December 2017 marks 1000 days of a war that has turned the Middle East’s poorest country into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, leaving Yemen ravaged by preventable diseases and on the verge of a historic famine,” the statement read.

Yemen is “at a tipping point,” it noted, criticizing the international community for failing to take action in order to bring an end to “the man-made catastrophe” there.

“The US, UK, and France, as permanent members of the UN Security Council and major weapons suppliers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, bear a special responsibility to use the full extent of their leverage to press their partners in the region to end the crisis. Instead of stoking the flames of a war that is strangling an entire population and risks destabilizing the entire region, they could be the brokers of peace,” the statement read.

People carry the body of a man they uncovered from under rubble after a wave of Saudi-led airstrikes in Sana’a, Yemen, December 13, 2017. (Photo by AP)

The three have been the biggest arms suppliers to the Saudi regime since the war on Yemen broke out, according to a report by the campaign group Control Arms in September.

Since the onset of the war, the Saudi-led coalition has imposed a naval and aerial blockade on Yemen under the pretext of blocking alleged arms supplies to the Houthi fighters. The siege, however, has caused severe shortages of food and medicine, endangering the lives of millions of aid-reliant Yemeni citizens. 

The Western-backed offensive has, however, achieved neither of its goals as it has been met with stiff resistance from Ansarullah fighters and popular groups.

The statement further warned that the blockade “has made an already catastrophic situation worse. It has barred delivery of life-saving food, medicines and fuel, leading to hospitals shutting down, and whole cities without clean water or working sanitation.”

A Yemeni mother sits next to her child suspected of being infected with cholera at a makeshift hospital in the capital, Sana'a, on June 9, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

“To prevent further catastrophe and famine, Yemen needs an immediate ceasefire; an end to all blockages on access for food, fuel and medical supplies; and investment in a new, inclusive peace process,” it added.

“If you don’t want the burden of the lives of thousands more Yemeni children on your hands, then the time to act is now. Yemen can’t wait any longer," the statement concluded, addressing Trump, May and Macron.

The Saudi-led war has so far killed more than 12,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis as well as a deadly cholera outbreak in Yemen.

Last month, the Riyadh military angered the world community and international rights groups by tightening the already-crippling blockade after Yemeni forces fired a retaliatory missile that hit near an airport in the Saudi capital.