Yemenis Will Punish the British

Canada’s desire to sell arms to Saudi Family is like a taste that it is degusted by a grandmother and is recounted to her grandchild.

British leading company BAE Systems sold £15b worth of arms and services to the Saudi military during the last five years, the period covered by Riyadh’s involvement in the deadly bombing campaign in the war in Yemen.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

British daily the Guardian on Tuesday, April 14 and in an article wrote that according to the company’s most recent annual report, the arms maker company generated £2.5b in revenues from the Saudi military during the whole of 2019.

An official at the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) has told the Guardian that the last five years have seen a brutal humanitarian crisis for the people of Yemen, but for BAE it’s been business as usual. The war has only been possible because of arms companies and complicit governments willing to support it. So it is natural and understandable that Saudi Arabia is the third major customer of BAE Systems and the company maintains and supplies Tornado jet aircraft to the kingdom’s airforce and provides “operational capability” to the country’s air and naval forces to operate against Yemenis.

Touching upon the report, BAE Systems spokesperson said that the company provided defense equipment, training and support under government to government agreements between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.‎

According statistics about world largest arms makers and vendors, BAE is the leading in Europe and second in the world after Lockheed Martin.

Deputy head of the Sit-In Committee of Mahrah Province in Yemen, Sheikh Abboud Qamsiyat, has recently asked  British Ambassador to Yemen Michael Aron for pullout of the British forces from Al-Mahrah and has emphasized that British troops should not be involved in the occupation of Al-Mahrah. Saudi Arabia has recently deployed considerable amount of its troops, military vehicles and ammunition in the province.

On Tuesday and reacting to Saudi-coalition forces’ claim of truce, Qamsiyat said that such a request for a truce is useless when Saudi and Emirate forces control the crossings and airports especially in southern ports of Yemen and above all Al-Mahrah. Saudis have taken the full control in the province which gives them this opportunity to take the control of Nishtun Port, Al-Ghaziah Airport as well as Shahn and Sarfit border crossings.

That today Yemeni people burn under fire of Saudi-led coalition and they are dismembered, soon Saudi-led coalition forces and their providers of arms will get proper reply. On the claim of Saudis for a truce with Yemeni forces, it is enough to refer to reports of Al-Mayadeen TV channel showed fierce clashes between Yemeni forces with pro-former Yemeni President Mansour Hadi forces and coalition forces which began in northwest of Marib Province, and during the clashes, Saudi fighter jets for ten times conducted aerial strikes in Sarvah town of Marib Province.

Reuters quoted some sources close to negotiating team between Saudi Arabia and National Salvation Government of Yemen as saying and claimed that both sides have had several contacts since the beginning of the week but the progress for restoring the ceasefire all depends on Ansarullah forces and trust building between both parties.

Some local officials have told Reuters that Saudi coalition started again efforts for negotiations for a truce after their forces launched aerial attacks on towns and villages under control of the army and popular committees in order to stop their advancement in al-Jawf Province (North of Yemen) towards town of Marib, a town which is said is the last stronghold of the resigned-government of Yemen which is supported by Saudis.

Reuters has claimed it has contacted with Spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition Turki Al-Maliki about this claim but he has not replied. The claimed truce of the Saudi-led coalition has begun since last Thursday under the pretext of the breakout of the Coronavirus in Yemen but the National Salvation Government, that Ansarullah is some part of it, called it a deceit and did not accept the call for truce and emphasized that it would only agree with ceasefire in Yemen when the truce is a comprehensive one along with lifting the five-year siege of the country because without lifting the siege, fight with Coronavirus will be impossible while the country’s health and hospital infrastructures have been ruined and its economy has collapsed and it faces shortage of food and medicines.

This point that arms dealers and vendors who have veto and lobbying power are not ready to restore ceasefire in Yemen will not ever be wiped out of Yemenis’ memories because if they want a ceasefire and an end to war in Yemen, it means they have ignored their whooping revenues and petrodollar earnings from arms sales.

Yemeni people undoubtedly will overcome this devastating war but the time will come when they punish the pro-Saudis like the British.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian