The world has long echoed the principles of justice, humanity, sovereignty, charters for human rights and SDGs for addressing the causes leading to injustices, civil wars, inflation and conflicts in our society. However, contrary to the principles mentioned above, they are the very people who initiate, participate, and fund the operations, strategies, groups, and countries that are violating all of the above-mentioned principles: Yemen is an example of the world's hypocrisy at its peak.
Unlike the rest of the world, Yemen is ignored and left out alone to bear the torture, injustice, brutality, and oppression at the hands of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The war in Yemen – or should it rightly be described as “the persecution of Yemenis" – started in 2015 when the Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened and started its air strikes. It has never been the focus of world media or leaders.
What is the conflict?
The war started within Yemen when the Houthi movement, shortly after the Arab Spring, had taken control of Yemen’s capital Sana when the government fled. The control of Sana by Houthis was followed by a Saudi-led coalition that intervened in 2015 to install the former government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted by an uprising due to economic and political grievances.
The estimation of deaths by the UN since the war started is 377,000 or more, directly and indirectly – including more than 10,000 confirmed children dead as a result of the conflict. The UN reported that around 2.2 million children are malnourished; most are at extreme risk of cholera, measles and other diseases. Moreover, more than 1.5 million of Yemen’s 4 million displaced people are children. And according to UNICEF, “Every 10 minutes a child dies in Yemen” because of malnutrition and other health diseases. Unfortunately, even this does not ring a bell for the international community.
The players who hold the reins of the world and can play a decisive role in ending the suffering of the Yemeni people are party to the conflict and siding with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The war is jointly supported both militarily and politically by the Arab states, the USA, the UK, France and other Western and European countries because of larger interests of hegemony in the region. They have provided Saudi Arabia with intelligence, weapons, and support at the international level.
Saudi Arabia-led coalition along with land attacks, and aerial strikes has also put a naval and air blockade restricting not just essential medical, food, and goods supplies but making Yemen an open prison similar to the way Israel has done with the Palestinians. They claim their war is to stop the allegedly Iranian-supported Ansarullah group.
How is Iran involved?
Iran and Saudi Arabia are in a situation of Cold War-type politics in the Middle East. The Iranian involvement in Yemen is criticised by the Saudis, who blamed Iran for creating chaos in the Middle East. However, Iran states thatit is not providing any weapons, but merely moral support for the Houthis and considers them part of the “Axis of Resistance” against the Americans.
Iran is believed to be the only nation supporting Yemen in its struggle against Saudi Arabia and has allegedly provided them with funds and the latest weapons, warfare training, and technology to help respond militarily against the Saudi-led coalition attacks. At this moment, Yemen possesses quite a handsome number of ballistic missiles and UAVs, and has the technical know-how on how to use them - courtesy Iran and its IRGC force.
Iran’s IRGC force is famous for covert operations in the Middle East region. It has provided Hezbollah with thousands of missiles and UAVs, trained Hashd-al-Shabi in Iraq to fight ISIS, and has helped Hamas have access to drones and missiles with enough range to reach Tel Aviv. For the same matter of resisting the USA in region, IRGC, allegedly, supports Ansarullah in Yemen.
The Ansarullah possess similar kind of capabilities as Hezbollah and Hamas do. However, the lack of a proper stable government in Yemen and a complete blockade of the country via air, sea, and land routes has disturbed the continuation of these supplies – resulting in more damaging strikes by Saudi Arabia and Coalition forces.
Ansarullah is widely supported and praised, not just by the Yemeni population for standing up against and fighting the Saudi-led coalition invasion, but by Hezbollah, Hamas, Hashad-al-Shabi, and every other faction present.
Yemen is striving and struggling all alone for its sovereignty, equal status and freedom against the forces of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and other Arab states. The brutal war imposed on Yemen alongside the complete blockade by coalition forces have created the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth - the world has turned a complete blind eye to this matter, eventually, contributing more than what the coalition forces have done so far.
Why is the world silent?
This reminds us of the statement of EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, when he said, “Europe is a garden, rest of the world is a jungle.” For those who run the IMF, World Bank, the UN and other institutions, the Yemen war is just collateral damage.
The West and Europe not just ignore the ongoing conflict in Yemen which so far has caused the deaths of thousands of children, men and women, and destroyed almost all of Yemen, causing millions of Yemenis to go homeless.
The Arab states have militarily participated in Yemen, and the West provided weaponry and political support. A major reason is that they use this situation to make strong allies in the Middle East to not just maintain a strong position of hegemony but to also weaken Iran and make Saudi Arabia the only leader in the middle east – a west’s puppet ally like Shah of Iran was before the revolution of 1979.
If the war is not stopped, and a global voice for Yemen is not raised at this moment, the situation could reach a moment where no one would be able to save innocent lives – and responsibility will be social and collective. Those who stay silent on oppression share the guilt it being carried out.