Saudi coalition slams UN’s Yemen rights mission

riyadh — The Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels in yemen alongside government forces on Friday strongly criticised a UN human rights mission as its mandate comes up for renewal.

The coalition said any extension should be a matter for the Yemeni government, which already announced on Thursday that it was ending cooperation with the UN investigation into suspected war crimes during more than three years of conflict. But it again took strong issue with an August 28 report by the panel, which accused both government forces and Houthi rebels of violations but said that coalition air strikes had caused “most of the documented civilian casualties” and voiced “serious concerns about the targeting process”.

In comments released to AFP through the Saudi information ministry, the coalition criticised the “inaccuracy of the information in the report, which was derived from nongovernmental organisations and the testimonies of some persons whose circumstances are unknown”.

It said the report “failed to mention Iran’s role in Yemen, and the countless violations perpetrated by the Houthis, both against the Yemeni people and against the kingdom” of Saudi Arabia. “These violations include targeting the kingdom using Iranian ballistic missiles — aimed at civilian and religious sites,” it added.

The coalition says the rebels have fired more than 185 missiles at Saudi Arabia since it intervened in Yemen in March 2015 when President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled into exile as they closed in on his last stronghold. It accuses Iran of smuggling in the missiles through the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida, the entry point for UN aid for millions of desperately needy civilians. —