Trump-salman Alliance – All Eyes On Yemen

Ansarullah fighters in Yemen.

21st Century Wire says…

Associate editor at 21st Century Wire, Vanessa Beeley and Director of Shafaqna, Catherine Shakdam, are interviewed by Andrew Korybko of Sputnik after Trump’s recent travels to Saudi Arabia. 

As Andrew Korybko says:

“The recently rejuvenated military alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia could have enormous – and immediate – implications for the War on Yemen.

The peninsular and impoverished country has been in a state of total warfare ever since the Saudis began a brutal campaign against them in spring 2015. The stated objective has always been to restore deposed former president Hadi to power, who fled to the Wahhabi Kingdom after the Houthi national liberation movement took control of the country, though the implicit motivation behind the war is commonly recognized by most analysts as being a proxy conflict to counter speculated Iranian influence. The Western narrative is that the Houthis are nothing more than a stand-in for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps because of their shared Shia faith, though that assertion has been clearly debunked by the fact that the group enjoys broad cross-sectarian support all throughout Yemen.

Nevertheless, it’s geopolitically convenient for the US to scare its Saudi ally with the boogeyman threat of “Iranian encirclement”, which is what prompted the Kingdom’s young Defense Minister Mohamed Bin Salman to initiate the war in the first place. Trump made his anti-Iranian sentiment well known even before he entered into office, and his latest speech in Riyadh confirmed what many had already long believed – that the so-called “Arab NATO” which the US is trying to formalize in the region is really aimed against Iran. The Saudis already lead a 55-nation coalition that is ostensibly supposed to fight against terrorism, but which is now becoming the cornerstone of the US’ proxy plans against the Islamic Republic. Trump just agreed to the world’s largest-ever arms deal with King Salman for $110 billion, with the potential to raise it up to $350 billion across the next decade, and the Saudis also said that their coalition allies agreed to contribute a total of 34,000 troops as a reserve force.

Considering the unlikelihood that the “Arab NATO” will be used against Iran directly, at least at this early stage of its formation, it’s pertinent then to contemplate whether it’ll be unleashed against Iran’s perceived interest in the region, Yemen, in exacerbating the war in that country, though with the calamitous consequences of worsening the humanitarian crisis there and creating new opportunities for Daesh and Al Qaeda to expand their gains.”

End of Sputnik article.

Vanessa Beeley recently detailed the chronology of the genesis of Al Qaeda Arab Peninsula in a Facebook post:

1:  Late 1970s Soviet Union “invaded” Afghanistan, according to the US perspective

“Western backing for these rebels had also begun before Soviet troops arrived. It served western propaganda to say the Russians had no justification for entering Afghanistan in what the west called an aggressive land grab. In fact, US officials saw an advantage in the mujahedin rebellion which grew after a pro-Moscow government toppled Daoud in April 1978. In his memoirs, Robert Gates, then a CIA official and later defence secretary under Presidents Bush and Obama, recounts a staff meeting in March 1979 where CIA officials asked whether they should keep the mujahideen going, thereby “sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire”. The meeting agreed to fund them to buy weapons.” The Guardian – 10 Myths about Afghanistan
2:  US decided best way to combat perceived & media portrayed, Soviet threat on Pakistan borders was to create, arm and fund the Taliban comprising fighters from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. As described by Hillary Clinton. Watch ~

3.  During 1990s these extremist, US equipped terrorists returned to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
4. Saudi Arabia booted all their US funded & armed extremists into Yemen where they merged with the US funded and armed Yemeni factions of Al Qaeda.
5.  2009 AQAP made itself official
6.  Obama started the “war on terror” against the factions in Yemen that the US funds and arms
7.  The US capitalises on the “war on terror” to build secret military bases on the Arab peninsula and Horn of Africa.
8.  Obama conducts drone warfare in Yemen ostensibly against AQAP that is armed and funded by the US. Civilians are massacred by drone attacks which increases radicalization and AQAP presence in Yemen.
9.  2011 US infiltrated “Arab Spring” in Yemen
10. GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) initiative imposes Saudi puppet government on Yemen, led by now exiled illegitimate President Mansour Hadi.
11. 14th February 2011, Yemeni Opposition Alliance issued a statement. Point 6 of that statement was as follows: “Make the war against terror a national issue by removing it from the circles of opportunism and marshalling all possible national resources to not only combat terrorism but eliminate it.”
12.  2012 – March 2015 the Yemenis including the Houthis and the tribes allied to them took the fight to Al Qaeda. Yemenis pushed AQAP out of lands it controlled until it was confined to a small desert city port called Mukalla.
13.  March 26th 2015 Saudi coalition launched the genocidal war of aggression against Yemen, endorsed by President Obama and the UK. Jamal Benomar, UN Peace Envoy at the time professed horror at the launch of this war as Yemenis were on the verge of peaceful resolution and political compromise.
14.  As a result of the Saudi bombing campaign with bombs supplied primarily by the US and the UK, Al Qaeda flourished and recaptured areas it had lost to the Yemeni assaults. AQAP benefitted from coalition weapons and food drops and on occasion they were given air cover to allow them to spread back to Taiz, Lahj and Aden. On occasions the US drones even targeted Houthi fighters to allow AQAP to move into strategic areas.
15.  Brigadier General Ahmed Al Assiri in May 2016 “The objectives of the Saudi led war against Yemen do NOT involve the targeting of AQAP or Daesh.”

16.  AQAP is fighting the Houthis and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh on at least 11 different fronts across Yemen.
17.  Twice resigned Saudi backed Hadi government in exile appoints, US Treasury Specially Designated Global terrorists, as negotiators (Al Humayqani) as governors (Al Qaysi) and clerics (Al Zindani). The UN SC, the UN HRC [with Saudi Arabia elected to the Human Rights panel], the US, the UK and the EU still maintain that Hadi is the legitimate president of Yemen so these countries openly support terrorism and illegitimate power bases while continuing to arm, fund and equip Al Qaeda in Yemen.

18. Saudi Arabia and AQAP often simultaneously take credit for “victories” in Yemen:

#Saudi news channel claims Coalition “Army” “liberated” Himat Liqah #Albayda #YEMEN while #Daesh claims it liberated the same @UNHumanRights pic.twitter.com/M6Kj8qQjbC

— ARWA RIGHTS (@arwa_rights) February 25, 2017

There is NO war on terror, there is simply a “war of terror”, funded, armed and created by the US, UK, Gulf states, Israel and their allies in the region.

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Author Vanessa Beeley is a special contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is also a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. See more of her work at her blog The Wall Will Fall.

READ MORE YEMEN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Yemen Files

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