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In an editorial in Washington To post On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Saudi Arabia against concealment. "The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi involves much more than a group of security officials, just as the Watergate scandal was more serious than an intrusion and the terrorist attacks of September 11 went to Pirates of the air, "he wrote. A full month after the murder of the Saudi journalist in Istanbul, the kingdom must immediately reveal the identity of the "ghost masters behind the murder of Khashoggi and discover those in which Saudi officials, always trying to conceal the murder, have placed their trust. The investigation, said Erdoğan, no longer seems to be that a blocking operation.
Among the friends and family of Khashoggi, the western powers allied to the kingdom, and even some Saudis, cynicism grows towards true Saudi accounting – or, more importantly, true justice – for murder from Khashoggi. However, more and more signs indicate that his death was at the origin of a diplomatic initiative aimed at taking advantage of the vulnerability of the monarchy, in particular to contain the aggressive foreign policy of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. US officials deny, but the diplomatic atmosphere in Washington is that the de facto leader of the kingdom will pay a price in other respects, including Yemen. It is a kind of tacit agreement, even a counterpart to accept that the Crown Prince keeps his position.
The United States and Britain, the two largest sources of weapons in the House of Saud, this week launched a new campaign to end the terrible conflict in Yemen. Defense Secretary James Mattis outlined US efforts in speeches at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Saturday and at the US Peace Institute on Tuesday. In clear terms, he called on the main parties – Saudi Arabia, backed by an Arab coalition, and the Iranian-backed Houthis – to stop fighting and begin serious talks from here. the end of November.
"Yemen has had more problems than any people deserve to carry," said Mattis Tuesday, retired general of the Navy. "The long-term solution – and, in the longer term, I hear in thirty days – we want everyone to find themselves around a peace table, based on a ceasefire , based on a withdrawal from the border, and then on the cessation drop bombs, which will allow the [U.N.] Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths – he's very good, he knows what he's doing – to reunite them in Sweden and put an end to this war. "
It is increasingly urgent to end the war in Yemen launched by the Crown Prince shortly after his accession to the post of Defense Minister (one of the many portfolios he now holds) at the beginning of 2015. Physically, Operation Storm Decisive has created catastrophic conditions … the worst famine in the world in a hundred years and the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. According to the United Nations, some 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation. That's about half of the country's 29 million people. The Saudi-led coalition has reached thousands of military targets, but it has also destroyed school buses filled with children, farms and crops, fishing boats, roads and bridges, thousands of homes and dozens of health facilities. Foodstuffs have been disturbed. The economy is paralyzed. The national infrastructure was destroyed.
The human toll is staggering. Every ten minutes, a Yemeni child under five dies as a result of "severe acute malnutrition" or preventable diseases. UNICEF reported Friday. More than 16,000 civilians were injured during the war. Some two million Yemenis have been displaced from their homes. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than twenty million people need assistance to survive. "I think many of us have felt, at the beginning of the 21st century, that it was unthinkable to see a famine like the one we experienced in Ethiopia, Bengal, in some parts of the world. Soviet Union … it was simply unacceptable, "BBC Lise Grande, the agency's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told the BBC. "Many of us had the confidence that would never happen again, and yet the reality is that in Yemen, it is precisely what we are looking at."
The deterioration of Yemen's physical condition could be aggravated by political upheaval, which increases the pressure to restart peace negotiations. President Mansour Hadi, former marshal of the Yemeni armed forces, suffers from a serious heart disease. In recent weeks, he has been quietly treated at the Cleveland clinic, "said Yemeni and Western officials. He was still there on Thursday, confirmed a Yemeni diplomat. His health has been described by others as precarious.
Hadi runs an already unstable government. He took power in 2012 after a year of protests provoked by the Arab Spring that led to the crackdown on security forces and the death of 2,000 Yemenis. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than three decades, has been ousted. Hadi, his vice-president, took over. He was supposed to oversee the drafting of a new constitution and a transition of power in two years. The agreement was supported by Saudi Arabia and the United States. But the elections were delayed several times. Hadi's decision to reduce fuel subsidies in 2014 led to soaring food prices – and, in turn, triggered new protests that Houthi rivals exploited. Hadi escaped to Saudi Arabia in 2015, but he retained the title of president. The Saudis claim that their goal is to restore his government.
Militarily, the war has been in a virtual stalemate for over two years. During this process, the country was fractured geographically, thus annulling the proclaimed unification of pro-Western Marxist and Northwest North Yemen after the end of the cold war nearly three decades ago. In chaos, both ISIS and al-Qaeda from the Arabian Peninsula won supporters and one foot. The United States does not want jihadists to exploit another bankrupt state. During quieter periods, in 2000, al-Qaeda suicide bombers hit the United States. Cole at a refueling stop in Aden, a port city in southern Yemen. Seventeen American sailors were killed.
The United States was also dragged into the war by arming, assisting and advising its Gulf allies. Under the Obama and Trump administrations, Washington has supplied intelligence, planes, bombs and other weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. US military aircraft supplied Saudi air bomber aircraft, less than twenty percent, said Mattis. But critics say the US refueling makes the United States complicit in Saudi airstrikes that kill civilians.
The Trump administration is now facing increasing Congressional pressure, particularly from Republicans, to limit arms sales to the kingdom until the end of the war. This week, five personalities, led by Marco Rubio, also asked the White House to end negotiations with the kingdom on civil nuclear cooperation. "The ongoing revelations about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as some Saudi actions related to Yemen and Lebanon, have raised new concerns about the transparency, accountability and judgment of current decision-makers in Saudi Arabia," he said. they write.
Washington has often appeared hypocritical – supporting peace efforts in Yemen while arming the Saudi-led coalition. The inflection on Yemen seems to be designed, in part, to help the Trump administration justify its close ties to the monarchy, which is today at the center of three of President Trump's most important foreign policy goals: Iran, counter terrorism in the era ISIS and al-Qaeda and an Arab-Israeli peace plan. Ending the war could ease the growing opposition in Washington for diplomatic or military support from the House of Saud.
British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt acknowledged that the killing of Khashoggi was a lever to put pressure on the oil-rich kingdom. "Maybe," he told the BBC on Wednesday, "it's because we have this strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, because the United States has this relationship, which we we are able to ask them to do things that we could not do if we did not have that relationship, and now we have to use that relationship to get things done. "
In a brief late-night email, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented a plan for the end of the war this week. First, the Houthis, who control the capital, Sanaa, since 2015, must stop missile fire on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from their strongholds. It was only then, Pompeo said, that the Saudi-led coalition would end its air strikes on all populated areas. UN-led "bottom-up" mediation "would then implement confidence-building measures to address the underlying issues of the conflict, the demilitarization of borders, and the concentration of all large weapons targeted of an international observation ".
The Trump administration clearly wants to move forward with the kingdom, even with Prince Salman still in command.
The United States has "a long history of deep strategic relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Pompeo said Thursday. "They are partners in the trade. They offer tremendous opportunities for Americans to expand their business and create wealth here in the United States, and they are a strong partner for the Trump administration. [in] against terrorism around the world. These are important interests for US national security, and we can not lose sight of them. "
With more control of its own capital, the Yemeni government welcomed Thursday the new push for peace, before condemning the rival, the Houthis. According to its own signal, the Saudi coalition shelled Friday the international airport of the capital. Even Western allies who support the US-led campaign are skeptical of the Administration's willingness to do whatever is necessary – for example, refusing to refuel aircraft or rebuilding its arsenal. kingdom – so that all parties are present. "All the circumstances are there to make the most of the situation, but is this administration able to use this leverage and engage with the Saudis?", M told a European diplomat on Thursday .
Ending the war will indeed be difficult, as difficult as getting the truth about the killing of Khashoggi.
