Local Editor
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday that halting the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia meant that his country’s influence in ending the war in Yemen would “drop to zero.”
Hunt added the conflict has escalated into “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world,” calling again on both sides to seek a political solution – rather than a military one.
Meanwhile, Hunt told the House of Commons that the United Kingdom would not end arms deals with Saudi Arabia because it would end Britain’s influence in peace talks.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies, including the UAE, launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the regime of Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
