Focus on Saudi Arabia

Pentagon Ceases Refueling Saudi Jets In Yemen Ahead Of Sanctions On Riyadh

Zero Hedge,

10 November, 2018

In a significant development, the White House is preparing to halt the U.S. refueling of Saudi coalition jets engaged in operations over Yemen. It's been among the more controversial measures of assistance the Pentagon has provided the Saudis and Emirates during three years of aerial operations over Yemen, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, including a massive number of civilian casualties. 

The New York Times reports that the "limited punishment" is to be accompanied by proposed sanctions on Riyadh over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi:

The Trump administration is ending air refueling flights for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen and preparing sanctions against Saudis linked to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, current and former American officials said on Friday. The moves would impose a limited punishment on the kingdom.

But ironically even the Times is aware of the PR and propaganda nature of the move, as it comes after the mainstream media has finally (after over three years) "discovered" Yemen and after the U.N. dubbed it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. It also comes after Turkey revealed on Saturday that the US, Germany, France and the UK have the Khashoggi audio death tapes in their possession. 

Reports the Times:

The steps appear calibrated to respond to international outrage over the death of Mr. Khashoggi and to thousands of civilian deaths in the Yemen war, but avoid directly punishing the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and could head off tougher congressional action.

So really the move is much more symbolic without much teeth, and could actually serve the purpose of softening future punitive congressional action against the kingdom. 

According to various reports based on anonymous government sources, the White House is expected to make an official announcement of the change in Pentagon cooperation with the Saudi coalition in Yemen in the coming days. But lending credence to the idea that this is really all about "appearing" to get tough while in reality doing nothing against one of America's closest Middle East partners, Reuters reports based on two government sources that the decision was taken in part due to Saudi Arabia’s already self-sustaining refueling capabilities.

The Saudi-UAE-US coalition itself confirmed this in a statement announcing the cessation of the refueling efforts:

Recently, the Kingdom and the Coalition increased its capability to independently conduct inflight refueling in Yemen. As a result, in consultation with the United States, the Coalition has requested the cessation of inflight refueling support for its operations in Yemen.

Thus this is confirmed PR damage control coming out of the coalition at a moment when increasingly both Democratic and Republican members of Congress have called on the US role in the Yemen war to cease. 

Yet the Washington Post, relying on on a former CIA officer still spun the decision as follows: “This marks the first time that the United States has taken a concrete measure to rein in the Saudi war effort,” former career CIA officer Bruce Riedel and Brookings Institution scholar said. 

“Two administrations have basically given the Saudis a blank check to do whatever they wanted. Now it will be harder for the Saudis to carry out airstrikes deep into Yemeni territory, going after the capital for instance,” Riedel added.

Currently a resolution is before Congress with the backing of a small but growing group of key lawmakers that if passed would force the US to end its military support for Saudi forces in Yemen within 30 days.

Of course, the other less talked about but equally pressing issue is the billions of dollars in weaponry that the United States and United Kingdom provide to the Saudis. President Trump had previously said within the weeks following Jamal Khashoggi's death that he wants to get to the bottom of it and promised "severe punishment" if Riyadh ordered the killing. 

Using the economy as a straw man to avoid cracking down on Riyadh, Trump told 60 minutes that "I don’t want to hurt jobs. I don’t want to lose an order like that,” and added, "There are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true."

UN delegates praise Saudi Arabia's rights record

Prophecy Uodate,

7 November, 2018

Saudi Arabia today won widespread praise for its human rights record as the fundamentalist regime was examined in a routine UN review, prompting strong protests from human rights activists.

“Sadly, 75 out of 96 country delegations who took the floor at the UN Human Rights Council today expressed praise for the brutal and misogynistic Saudi regime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group.

“It’s a betrayal of jailed Saudi human rights activists like pro-democracy blogger Raif Badawi, who has been wrongfully imprisoned since June 2012. Despite our appeals to Canada, and to Germany, Britain, Sweden, France and others, no one spoke up for Raif Badawi.”

Despite today’s mandatory review of Saudi Arabia, in a standard exercise that all countries undergo every five years, the 47-nation UNHRC has never produced a single resolution, special session or commission of inquiry to condemn Saudi Arabia’s human rights record — not even for their confessed killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“On the contrary,” said Neuer, “Saudi Arabia is an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council.”

In today’s meeting, China praised Saudi Arabia for “its adoption and implementation of the Saudi Vision 2030,” for its “efforts in the area of economic, social development and poverty elimination” and its “judicial reform and fight against corruption.” 

And in exchange, said Neuer, “tomorrow when China has its own turn to be examined, I predict that Saudi Arabia will take the floor to hail Beijing’s human rights record.”

Yemen applauded Saudi “support provided all levels to the people of Yemen.” Bahrain hailed Saudi Arabia’s “positive steps to protect human rights.” Jordan said that “the Saudi government has made human rights one of its main priorities.”

Malaysia said Saudi “efforts in advancing women’s rights are commendable.” Mauritania said “we applaud progress by Saudi Arabia in the fields of women’s rights.” Eritrea commended “steps taken to ensure equality.”

“We believe that Saudi Arabia places great importance on human rights,” said the Palestinian delegation. “We welcome its efforts in promoting human rights, protecting development and ensuring accountability.”

Only a minority of countries applied real scrutiny, with UN Watch noting statements by Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Neuer called the exercise of dictatorships falsely praising each other a “mutual praise society.”

“What we witnessed today was the spectacle of anti-democratic regimes like China, Venezuela and Myanmar falsely lauding Saudi Arabia for human rights successes, knowing that the Saudi regime will happily return the favor when their own records are under scrutiny,” Neuer said.

“A country with deeply-rooted discrimination against women in all sectors of society should not be praised in a UN human rights review, let alone sit on three separate UN bodies that are meant to protect women’s rights,” said Neuer

Revealed: The UK is training Saudi pilots amid accusations of war crimes in Yemen

the Independent,

22 October, 2018

The Saudi Air Force is being trained by the British Government amid accusations that it is carrying out atrocities in neighbouring Yemen, it has emerged.

The Liberal Democrats seized on the instruction being given, in both Saudi Arabia and the UK itself – describing the revelation as “shameful”.

Tom Brake, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, called on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to end the training immediately and for much stricter controls on arms exports to the oil-rich kingdom.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the Royal Saudi Air Force was helped in order to “improve their targeting processes” – and, therefore, their compliance with international law.

But Mr Brake said: "It is shameful that the UK Government is not only arming Saudi pilots, it is training them as well. The indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, in clear breach of international humanitarian law, is now well documented. The Government must end its complicity in this murderous campaign.”

The training opens up a new front in criticism of Britain’s close links with Saudi Arabia – with the Saudis currently leading a coalition bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen – at growing humanitarian cost.

Earlier this month, air strikes carried out by the coalition’s air forces killed at least 140 people and injured up to 600 more at a funeral. A report by the Saudi-led coalition’s Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) admitted responsibility having promised an investigation into the incident, but blamed “wrong information” from allies of the internationally recognised Yemeni government, which it is supporting in the conflict.

“A party affiliated to the Yemeni presidency of the general chief of staff wrongly passed information that there was a gathering of armed Houthi leaders in a known location in Sanaa, and insisted that the location be targeted immediately,” investigators said in a statement at the time.

Saudi Arabia insists the coalition it leads keeps to international laws, with any incidents investigated.

Despite the accusations of alleged war crimes, Theresa May has defended selling arms to Saudi Arabia by insisting close ties “keep people on the streets of Britain safe”.

The admission that training is also taking place came in a written parliamentary answer obtained by Labour MP Stephen Doughty from Mr Fallon.

The Liberal Democrat demanded to know what training and advice had been given by the UK on authorising military operations and the “targeting of aerial operations” over the past year.

In reply, Mr Fallon wrote: “As part of our ongoing defence engagement with Saudi Arabia, the UK has provided training to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) both in the UK and in Saudi Arabia, including international targeting courses for RSAF personnel, to improve their targeting processes and to support International Humanitarian Law (IHL) compliance.”

The Defence Secretary said the UK had also delivered two training sessions in Saudi Arabia on the process for investigating alleged IHL violations, under a joint incident team it supported.

But he added: “The UK has not been directly involved in investigations undertaken by the JIAT, has not provided any specific operational advice to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for operations in Yemen and has not provided training on political authorisation of military operations.”

Saudi Arabia has insisted its campaign in Yemen is being waged "in accordance with international humanitarian law, in a legitimate war of self defence, in a legitimate war to defend the legitimate government of Yemen".

Mr Brake said the latest revelation emphasised the urgent need for strict rules to require the Foreign Secretary to sign off personally any arms sales to countries such as Saudi Arabia.

His plan would see all 28 countries on the Foreign Office’s "countries of concern" list – which also includes China and Russia – denied arms without proof there was “no risk they’ll be used in human rights abuses”.

Mr Brake announced plans to bring forward a backbench Bill, hoping to win the support of both Labour and the Scottish National party for the crackdown.