Rights Watchdog Hails US House For Passing Bill To Withdraw Aid For Saudis In Yemen

Rights Watchdog Hails US House for Passing Bill to Withdraw Aid for Saudis in Yemen

A prominent human rights watchdog welcomed on Thursday the US House of Representatives' passage of a measure seeking to withdraw US support for the Saudi-led coalition's campaign in Yemen, calling it the "right decision" that would relieve Washington from the responsibility of being complicit in war crimes

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th February, 2019) A prominent human rights watchdog welcomed on Thursday the US House of Representatives' passage of a measure seeking to withdraw US support for the Saudi-led coalition's campaign in Yemen, calling it the "right decision" that would relieve Washington from the responsibility of being complicit in war crimes.

On Wednesday, the lower chamber of Congress passed a bill aimed at withdrawing the US military support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. The campaign has been repeatedly criticized for violating human rights as its strikes often target peaceful inhabitants and civilian infrastructure.

"It's certainly the right decision, and a welcome decision of the US Congress to try to curb America's involvement in this war, given years of violations of laws of war, some of which are war crimes the Saudi coalition has been engaged in and the conduct of the US, that makes it a party and, therefore, implicated in these war crimes," Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) middle East and North Africa Division, said.

She added that HRW had called for ending arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, another member of the coalition, for years and praised not only the fact that military aid potentially would be suspended but also the damage it may cause to the campaign's image in general.

"It's also a diplomatic cover, the PR-cover that it gives them in having the United States very openly supporting their effort against Yemen. Taking that away would signal to the Saudis and to Emiratis that they can no longer count on this support from the United States and they are going to be isolated and alone, particularly, on the global stage. Hopefully, that will increase pressure on them to stop their reckless bombardment of the country," Whitson said.

She argued, however, that the bill still had to go through the Senate and that it was still unclear whether the US administration would adhere to it once passed.

"But even if it passes in the Senate, it's not clear that [US President Donald] Trump's administration will comply with this, or the extent to which it will devolve into a new fight about funding, like the border wall for example... It remains to be seen whether Trump's administration agrees to be subjected to the appropriate control of the Congress. Obviously, in the US government system it's Congress that decides what to spend money on and whether or not the United States should go to war," Whitson said.

Yemen has been engulfed in a violent conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Shiite Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah, backed by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, for several years. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.

The intense fighting between the two sides resulted in one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises, with about 22 million people in Yemen currently in need of some form of humanitarian assistance or protection, according to the UN figures.