Saudi king steps in to stop other countries intervening in Yemen
● Speech comes as Unicef repeats warning of humanitarian crisis
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has vowed to prevent other nations from intervening in neighbouring Yemen, where it has been at war with Iranian-backed Shiite rebels since March 2015.
The king’s speech comes as Unicef has renewed its warning of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen with a new report showing that the number of children suffering from severe malnutrition is 200 per cent higher than in 2014.
“Malnutrition in Yemen is at an all-time high and increasing,” said Meritxell Relano, Unicef’s acting representative in Yemen. “The state of health of children in the Middle East’s poorest country has never been as catastrophic as it is today.”
Unicef said this week that nearly 2.2 million children in Yemen are acutely malnourished and that at least 462,000 children suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
The agency said that the rebel stronghold of Saada province has the world’s highest rate of stunted growth among children, with an “unprecedented eight out of ten children in some areas being chronically malnourished”.
International organisations have demanded the Saudiled coalition lift an air and sea embargo imposed at the beginning of its war, to facilitate access to food and basic necessities. The coalition denies any prevention of food or commodities and has previously said that it only inspects ships to prevent weapons from being smuggled to the rebels.
The Saudis have also faced accusations of war crimes in Yemen as warplanes have caused mass civilian casualties. On Tuesday, the US decided to halt some of its arms sales to the kingdom because of such allegations.
More than 4,000 civilians have been killed, and the UN said that 60 per cent were killed because of airstrikes. The king made no mention of the US decision but said Yemen’s security is “the kingdom’s security” and said that he will not permit anyone to interfere in Yemen’s affairs.
Saudi Arabia views Iran as its main regional rival, and the two nations support opposite sides in the wars in Yemen and Syria.
Salman said he would not allow Yemen to become the “headquarters or a corridor to any country or party targeting the security of the kingdom or the region”. The televised speech at the start of a meeting of his top advisory council yesterday included no major policy changes despite regional upheaval and the economic challenge posed by low global oil prices.
Salman said Saudi Arabia remains committed to diversifying its economy based on the Vision 2030 roadmap, which includes slashing public spending, reducing reliance on oil revenue and boosting employment in the private sector.
At Prime Minister’ s Questions in the House ofCommons yesterday, the sn purged Prime Minister Theresa May to follow the US lead by cutting arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said Britain had sold £3.3 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia since its bombing campaign began in Yemen.
Mrs May responded that the government had refused arms sales to both Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the past, adding that Britain’s relationship with Saudi Arabia on counter terrorism had saved hundreds of lives in the UK.
Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: “With the US now suspending exports of precision-guided weapons to Saudi Arabia, the UK is being exposed as an utterly hardline, conscience-free arms exporter.
“We’ve said it before but we need to keep saying this - the UK should immediately suspend all further weapons sales to Saudi Arabia that risk fuelling further atrocities in Yemen, before it brings further disgrace upon itself over its part in this brutal war.”