It is all about blood bath: Saudi-led-coalition has diabolical modus operandi for Yemen War

For many years, Saudi Arabia has spent billions on weapons systems – yet rarely put them to use. During Desert Storm (1990-91) there were reports that the Saudi military didn’t know how to operate much of its own high-tech equipment.

All that has changed. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia started a ferocious bombardment of Yemen, heading a coalition of Sunni-dominated Arab states bent on crushing Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels, who had gained control of the capital, Sanaa.

A year on from the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s air strikes in Yemen and five years since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, what is Saudi Arabia’s endgame?

Before the cease-fire agreement among the nations, AL Jazeera aired an interview with Abdallah-al-Mouallami, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Nations, discussing the country’s role in the strike. Excerpts are given below.

Headliner: What is Saudi Arabia’s endgame in Yemen and Syria?

Nearly a year into the Saudi-led coalition’s air strikes in Yemen, what does the kingdom hope to gain?

Mouallimi says beheadings in the country are “not barbaric” because “there are no beheadings without a full process of law behind them”.

The ambassador also argues that just because the kingdom supports an elected government in Syria, “doesn’t mean there have to be elections somewhere else”, including in Saudi Arabia.

“Elections are not a panacea for everything”, Mouallimi adds. “I would like to claim that if you went to Saudi Arabia, and if you conducted a survey in Saudi Arabia, in any way, official, formal, otherwise, you will find a high degree of support for the system of government in Saudi Arabia”.

Arena: Can drone strikes defeat al-Shabab?

The United States announced earlier this month that it had used both drones and manned aircraft strikes to kill at least 150 al-Shabab fighters in Somalia, a move the Pentagon says was necessary to stop an imminent attack on US and African Union forces in the country.

Critics of the US drone programme however, argue such strikes create more enemies than they kill. With the number of fighters joining al-Shabab having nearly doubled since 2013, how can the brutal group be defeated?

In this week’s Arena, Somalia’s former special envoy to the US Abukar Arman, who has called drone strikes a “priceless propaganda tool” for al-Shabab, is in debate with the country’s former deputy prime minister Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, who says the strikes are needed.

DAMAGE DONE

–          During 2015 more than 5,700 people were killed, about half of them civilians, according to the UN.

–          Markets, factories, houses, schools and health clinics have all been targets – including a hospital run by the charity Médecins Sans Frontières and a school funded by Oxfam.

–          Cluster bombs banned by international treaty have been dropped from Saudi aircraft.

–          By December 2015, 1.5 million Yemenis had been internally displaced, and more than 7.6 million – almost a third of the population – were in desperate need of food aid. Intensive bombing and a Saudi blockade starving Yemenis of vital supplies are largely to blame.

BONANZA

The bombing of Yemen has been a bonanza for Saudi Arabia’s arms trading partners.

Chief among those are Britain (which accounts for 36% of arms sales to the kingdom), the US (35%) and France (5%).4 Canada has a profitable US$15 billion contract to supply light armoured vehicles.

Between 2010 and 2014 Saudi Arabia was already buying four times more arms than in the period 2005-09.4 In 2014 it became the world’s largest arms buyer.

The British government licensed almost $8.3 billion of arms to the regime between May 2010 and May 2015, including Hawk and Typhoon fighter jets, machine guns, teargas, bomb components, military vehicles, and targeting equipment.

As the bombing of Yemen escalated in March 2015, so did arms sales to Saudi Arabia:

–          In July 2015 Britain transferred to Saudi Arabia $234 million worth of Paveway IV precision-guided 500-pound bombs originally earmarked for its own Royal Air Force.

–          In six months between March and September 2015, Britain issued 37 arms export licences for transfers to Saudi Arabia.

–          In October the US approved an $11.25 billion deal for up to four Lockheed Martin warships for Saudi Arabia, along with weapons, training and logistics support.

–          In November the US State Department approved the sale of $1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions such as laser-guided bombs and ‘general purpose’ bombs with guidance systems.

The reasons given to legislators and the public for approving such sales was the need for Saudi Arabia to replace stocks that had been used up on ‘counter-terrorism’.