The Popular Front condemns the brutal American aggression against Yemen and emphasizes that Yemen will remain a thorn in the eye of the aggressors.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine strongly condemns the extensive American aggression against Yemen and stresses that this crime is an extension of the war crimes and genocide that imperialism and Zionism have committed against the Arab people.

We express our full solidarity with the brotherly people of Yemen, extend our condolences for the martyrs killed in this unjust aggression, wish speedy recovery for our injured heroes, and emphasize that the blood of the martyrs will be the guiding light of perseverance and resistance, and will not be in vain. Instead, it will strengthen Yemen's resolve to confront the aggression.

This brutal aggression will not succeed in breaking the will of the free people of Yemen, who, despite the siege and the aggressions they face, have never hesitated in their support for Palestine and embrace of Gaza.

Anyone who supports Yemen supports Palestine and the Arab people's right to confront colonial and hegemonic projects.

We emphasize that Yemen, which stands at the forefront of defending the dignity of the Arabs, will not be defeated, will not raise the white flag, and will remain a thorn in the sides of the aggressors.

We call on the masses and the free people of the world to take to the streets in support of Yemen, condemn this brutal aggression, and emphasize that resistance is the only inevitable option to neutralize the aggressive plans, and that the will of the people cannot be broken by planes and missiles.

Long live steadfast Yemen! Victory to resistance!

Shame on the American and Zionist aggressors and their agents!

#International #Palestine #Yemen #AntiWarMovement

Los Angeles, CA – Hundreds of spirited demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles on February 4 to send a clear message that business will not go on as usual while Israel continues to savagely attack Gaza and the West Bank.

Multiple organizations, including Palestinian Youth Movement and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), organized and led the march in a successful effort to disrupt the Grammys, which were being held at the nearby Crypto Arena. The demonstrators were full of energy as they chanted “Israel, Israel go to hell!” and “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free!”

Organizers made it a point to call attention to the bombing of Yemen by the U.S., with chants like “Hands of Yemen!” The relentless rain and wind that is currently battering Los Angeles had no impact on the protesters, as many were completely soaked but carried on forward with great enthusiasm.

Many members of Centro CSO from Los Angeles were present, including Gabriel Quiroz Jr from Centro CSO, who said, “We’re here to show solidarity with Palestine. No business as usual as Israel commits genocide in Palestine with the help of the United States. As Chicanos we will always stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian people's right to self-determination! Viva viva Palestina!”

Traffic was jammed up all around the Crypto Arena as protesters blocked luxury black SUVs that were heading to the Grammys. Guests of the Grammys dressed in designer clothes had to walk by protesters who verbally shamed them.

Some of the guests flipped off the protesters, who were by this time completely drenched but carried on with great energy. There was a heavy police presence with dozens of police squad cars blocking the streets around Oceanwide Plaza, which is directly across from the Crypto Arena. The crowd then marched back to Pershing Square.

Centro CSO is a grassroots organization that fights for the self-determination of Chicanos and is mostly based in Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. Centro CSO is currently focused on a campaign to win community control of the police and has a petition to “Boot the Banditos out of East LA!” Centro CSO also has an immigration rapid response team that fights for legalization for all, and education work that fights against the privatization of schools in Boyle Heights and East LA.

If you want to get involved with us you can reach us via social media @CentroCSO.

#LosAngelesCA #AntiWarMovement #International #Palestine #Yemen #USPCN #CentroCSO #Feature

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), and National Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call for a week of action against the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza from February 5 to 11.

The call for the week of actions comes at a time when President Biden states the U.S. is going to step up its military intervention in the Middle East.

A statement from the groups initiating the week of protests states, “The people of Palestine are fighting for their liberation and the people of Yemen are standing with them. The U.S. government is sending billions in military aid to Israel and bombing Yemen. We will never be silent. All of us who stand with Palestine and believe in liberation need to act. The genocide must be stopped!”

“Israel is being defeated on every level – politically, militarily, legally at the International Court of Justice, and in the court of public opinion – so we must continue to apply pressure from the belly of the U.S. imperialist beast,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “Genocide Joe Biden is on the ropes as well, and the week of action will do what we've been doing so powerfully for four months with our Black and brown coalitions in Chicago and beyond – expose Zionism and U.S. complicity in the genocide.”

Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, states, “The recent decision by the UN International Court of Justice makes crystal clear the utter moral bankruptcy of the U.S./Israel axis waging genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Now more than ever we must demand that not another dime of our tax dollars be spent on a war being carried out by war criminals. It is clear now that a majority of the community of nations sees the U.S., Israel and their allies as perpetrators of war crimes, of crimes against humanity.”

Chrisley Carpio, of New Students for Democratic Society said, “The U.S. and its puppet, the Israeli government, are determined to fund and carry out a genocide of the Palestinian people. They will bomb Yemen, Iraq, and go to war with sovereign countries to maintain their criminal domination of the region. It's imperative that people in the United States do everything they can to damage this agenda, starting with calling for the end of all U.S. aid to Israel. Students across SDS are facing discipline, code of conduct charges, and other threats for opposing this genocide and for standing with Palestine. We won't stop now!”

Endorsers of the national week of action include the Samidoun Political Prisoners Network, National Students for Justice in Palestine, International League of Peoples’ Struggles – U.S., and the United National Antiwar Committee.

#AntiWarMovement #International #Palestine #Yemen #USPCN #NAARPR #SDS #Samidoun #SJP #ILPS #UNAC #Feature

New Orleans, LA – On January 16, a group of students and other activists gathered in freezing temperatures outside the federal building to rally against the recent U.S./UK intervention in Yemen.

Islam Elrabieey, an Egyptian speaker representing NOLA Freedom Forums, painted a picture of Gaza, describing “men sleeping on concrete, women and children with the luxury of a tent to protect against wind.”

A broad coalition of student speakers and local community activists gave speeches, punctuated with chants such as “No more war! What’s it for? Peace in Yemen forevermore!” and “Come on Yemen, make us proud! Turn another ship around!”

The main theme of the speeches was total condemnation of U.S. attacks against Yemen being led by “Genocide Joe” Biden. Speakers praised the bravery of the martyrs of both Yemen and Palestine. “U.S. forces continue to be embarrassed by Yemeni forces on rafts posting Tik Toks of their actions,” a speaker for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated.

Despite the extreme weather, the New Orleans community showed up in solidarity with the brave Yemeni forces. Calls for the prosecution of U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken were met with loud applause and cheers of approval. “We deserve to be proud of our nation’s actions as Yemenis and South Africans are proud of their nations,” Elrabieey said.

The protest responded to a national call to action by Students for a Democratic Society.

#NewOrleansLA #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #International #Yemen #Palestine #SDS

St. Paul, MN – On January 19, despite frigid 6-degree temperatures, 60 activists rallied at a busy intersection at the weekly Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) Free Palestine event.

This week it focused on the U.S. bombing attacks on Yemen. Motorists responded positively to the signs which said, “U.S. hands off Yemen” and the chants, “Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around” and “Yemen, Yemen stand your ground turn another ship around.”

After chanting for a half hour, protesters listened to speakers representing several Twin Cities anti-war organizations.

Sorcha Lona, a member of the MN Anti War Committee, spoke of the heroic resistance of Yemen to the genocidal Zionist bombing of Gaza, “The Yemeni Armed Forces, the military of one of the most economically oppressed nations in the world, has brought global trade to its knees. They see the ships sailing in their backyards carrying weapons and supplies to the butchers occupying Palestine and have said ‘no more.’ They’ve stopped these ships and made it clear they will not end their blockade of Israeli ports until the genocide and occupation has been defeated.”

In response to Yemen’s Ansarallah being put to the terrorist list, Lona said, “The people of Yemen standing for the lives and rights of their Palestinian siblings are not terrorists; the United States are the real terrorists, the Zionist Israelis are the real terrorists. The people of Yemen are being killed for standing on the right side of history despite the consequences. There is no possible justification for a second front of aggression, and we must demand U.S. hands off Yemen.”

Molly Wilbur-Cohen, a member of WAMM, spoke as well, “How absurd that Biden hopes that Ansarallah will be nice and stop its activities in the Red Sea. Yesterday Biden was asked by reporters if the U.S. strikes on Yemen are doing anything. He said no, not yet, but we’ll continue until the Houthis stop their attacks on cargo ships. Then, unbelievably, Biden said the U.S. is acting in self-defense and doesn’t want a regional war. Number one, the U.S. is not under attack. Number two, the U.S. would rather bomb the people in Yemen than stop Israel’s genocide.”

The program concluded with a powerful and moving speech by Emily Chu, a member of the U of MN chapter of Students for a Democratic Society . She said, “My mom was raised in Long An, a province in rural southwest Vietnam. The Vietnam war, or the American war as it’s called in Vietnam, was marked by indiscriminate carpet bombing campaigns and deliberate targeting of civilians, primarily affecting the Vietnamese countryside. SDS was also started during the war.”

Chu added, “A popular tactic during the war was to bomb hospitals and afterwards claim that they were housing Viet Cong. The parallels between what happened then in Vietnam and what is happening now in Gaza are impossible to unsee. Just as Agent Orange once denuded the Vietnamese jungles and disabled generations of civilians, white phosphorus now scorches the children of Gaza with impunity.”

Next week, the Minneapolis city council will debate a resolution calling for a ceasefire for Gaza. Demonstrators vowed to do all they can to make sure a strong veto-proof resolution is passed.

#SaintPaulMN #WAMM #Yemen #Palestine

Austin, TX – On Friday, January 19 around 35 students and community members gathered off Speedway corridor at the University of Texas at Austin. As the crowd chanted, “Yemen, Yemen stand your ground, turn another ship around!” and “Gaza, Gaza you will rise, you have Yemen by your side!” several students passing by stopped to join in the chants and listen to speeches.

Crystal Silva McCormick of the Austin for Palestine Coalition spoke of Latin American solidarity with Palestine, saying “Our lucha is Palestine's lucha. We know what imperialism looks like.”

Joshua Sklar of Jewish Voice for Peace emphasized the racist and Islamophobic hate the media uses to justify U.S. terror against Yemen and Palestine, as well as how the U.S. and Israeli governments hide behind accusations of antisemitism to justify their crimes.

“Yemen remains determined in its support for Palestinian liberation and so do we,” said SDS member Ashley Awad before leading the crowd in a round of energetic chants. “We must not stop fighting for an end to the siege on Gaza and a free Palestine!”

#AustinTX #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #International #Yemen #Palestine #SDS #JVP

Around 20 community members and students gathered demanding an end to U.S. attacks on Yemen and an end to U.S. aid to Israel. The protest came in response to the January 12 U.S.-British missile strikes on Yemen.

Protesters chanted for a “Free Palestine!” and gave speeches showcasing the history of U.S. intervention in Yemen, the U.S. funding Israel’s genocide, and the University of South Florida’s relation to Israel. University President Rhea Law has come out in support of Israel but has not commented on Palestinian students’ safety, even though attacks on them have heightened.

Community activists were also present, and a member of the New Era Young Lords gave a speech in solidarity with Palestine and Yemen. Speakers made comments on the hypocrisy of the U.S. government failing to fund people’s basic needs in the middle of a housing crisis in Florida, especially critical in Tampa, while having money for military operations across the world. Tampa is also home to the MacDill Air Force Base from where the attacks on Yemen were ordered, in an area of the city with up to 27% resident poverty rate.

Tampa Bay SDS member Eithne Silva highlighted the importance of student protests against U.S. intervention, stating, “The U.S. is unjustly bombing Yemen, a country they were already destroying through a proxy war led by Saudi Arabia, because they are preventing countries from doing business with the apartheid state of Israel.”

Silva continued, “Yemen is doing the right thing by standing in solidarity with Palestine and it’s important for us as students to speak out against more U.S. intervention and endless wars in the Middle East.”

Joining under the slogans, “Hands off Yemen,” “All eyes on Palestine,” “No war on Yemen” and “End all U.S. aid to Israel,” attendees made their demands clear. They finished by inviting people to come to the statewide mobilization to Tallahassee on Tuesday January 30 at 4 p.m. in the Florida Senate Building to “Stand with Palestine” and defeat SB 470, a bill which threatens financial aid for pro-Palestinian students and visa rights for international students.

#TampaFL #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #International #Yemen #Palestine #SDS

Milwaukee, WI – On Saturday, January 13, hosted an emergency protest in front of City Hall following the U.S. and UK airstrikes on Sanaa, Yemen.

Sara Onitsuka, the chair of Milwaukee Anti-war Committee, spoke to the courageousness of Yemen’s efforts in blocking ships heading towards the Zionist entity in response to the genocide against the Palestinian people. Onitsuka explained that despite Yemen experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world at the hands of Saudi Arabia and the U.S., they are still taking their streets in the millions and standing in solidarity for the self-determination of their Palestinian brethren. Further, Onitsuka believes that U.S. imperialism and propaganda continue to falter through its support of Israel.

Onitsuka stated, “The U.S.’s legitimacy on a world scale will sink just like those ships in the Red Sea.”

Robby Knapp from Students for a Democratic Society of UW-Milwaukee expressed the organization’s commitment to defending and expanding student rights globally. However, this cannot be achieved as the U.S. continues to fund the bloodthirsty military of the Israeli occupation, he argued. Knapp ended his speech with a list of demands of the present organizations, amongst them that “the City of Milwaukee and its common council draft a resolution both condemning the illegal attack against Yemen and calling for the end of the genocide in Palestine.”

Jacob Flom from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization closed speeches by touching on the endeavors of the organization in fighting against U.S. military interventions for the past 40 years. He explained how Palestine has flipped the world’s order on its head. Flom finished by urging attendees to read up on capitalism and U.S. imperialism, stay active and involved in the community, and continue building strong organizations to oppose the status quo.

Despite the short notice, freezing temperatures, and several inches of snow, 30 people took to the corners surrounding City Hall, holding up signs and chanting in support of Yemen and Palestine.

The protest was organized by Students for a Democratic Society of UW-Milwaukee (SDS UWM), Milwaukee Anti-War Committee (MAC), and Wisconsin Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

On January 14, one day after the emergency protest, UWM SDS, MAC, and FRSO drafted a resolution titled, “Hands off Yemen! Free Palestine!” and are proposing that the Milwaukee Common Council take action by doing the bare minimum and adopting this resolution.

To read the full statement, check out @sds_uwm, @MKEantiwarcommittee, or @FRSO_WI on Instagram.

#MilwaukeeWI #International #Yemen #Palestine #AntiWarMovement #MAC #SDS #FRSO

Chicago, IL – On Thursday, January 18, nearly 150 students rallied and marched at the University of Illinois at Chicago as part of Students for a Democratic Society’s national day of action against the U.S. bombing of Yemen and in solidarity with the resistance in Palestine.

Despite the cold and wind students gathered between UIC lecture centers to show their solidarity with the Palestinian and Yemeni resistance. SDSers led students in chants of “Yemen Yemen stand your ground, turn another ship around!” and “Money for schools, not for war, U.S. out of Yemeni shores!”

SDSer Angel Naranjos began the rally with a speech emphasizing the connections between U.S./Zionist aggression in Palestine and the ongoing immigrant crisis and economic war against progressive governments in Central and South America.

“It is the reactionary and racist, billionaire class of countries like the United States, Britain and Israel who are the direct beneficiaries of the siege on Palestine. In particular, our government, here in the United States, is directly responsible… for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans, just as they are responsible for displacing countless Palestinians.”

Nadiah Alyafai, a South Yemeniyah member of the US Palestinian Community Network, lauded the heroic actions of the Yemeni resistance, stating, “Yemen has proved to the world this is not just a Palestinian fight. The importance of freedom and liberation lies within the context of everyone's freedom. The Palestinian fight is central to the whole Arab world and to anyone that fights in the name of social justice, because there is no justice or peace in the world without justice and peace for Palestine.”

Alyafai also condemned the brutal bombing of Yemen, stating the U.S. government “would rather bomb multiple cities in Yemen to protect Israel from suffering economic damages than to stop the genocide in Gaza. It is clear that, under capitalism, shipping containers have more sanctity than human life.”

SDSer Erin Boyle condemned the hypocritical lies of Secretary of State Blinken and the U.S. government., stating. “Our state officials have no shame for the blood on their hands, our secretary of state said the South African case against Israel in the International Court of Justice ‘distracts the world from important efforts for peace and security.’ Shame on him. Peace and security for who? Israel continues to rain down bombs on Gaza paid for by us.”

Liz Rathburn of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization emphasized the pressing need for solidarity between workers and oppressed people in the United States and the resistance in Palestine.

“We the working people in this country have more in common with the people of Yemen and Palestine than we do with our own government or with the apartheid regime in Israel, they are waging a revolutionary struggle against the same empire working people in this country need to overthrow.”

After the speakers, activists led students in a march on the UIC administration building to support Students for Justice in Palestine in their demand that UIC cut its ties with Israeli institutions. Before dispersing, students shook the 28-story tower with chants of “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” and “Genocide Joe it is time, stop funding war crimes!”

#ChicagoIL #International #Yemen #AntiWar #Palestine #StudentMovement #SDS #USPCN #FRSO

Chicago, IL – Over 750 protesters braved the coldest weekend of this winter so far on Saturday, January 13 to demand that the U.S. and its allies take their hands off Yemen and end their support of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

The protesters spoke in favor of Yemen's naval blockade against Israel as well as in support of South Africa charging the apartheid state with genocide at the International Court of Justice. This was the latest in a string of weekly protests organized by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine since October 7, 2023.

In addition to the usual chants of “Free Palestine” and “No more money for Israel's crimes” protesters chanted “Yemen, Yemen stand your ground. Turn another ship around.”

“Yemen’s message to the world is that there will be no business as usual unless the Zionist state of Israel and its partners stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Nadiyah Alyafai, a Yemeni member of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), explaining why Yemen has been blocking ships in the Red Sea that are doing business with apartheid Israel.

Protesters condemned the series of airstrikes that have killed people in Yemen, mostly perpetrated by the U.S. and UK.

“It seems the British did not get enough after we sent them home with their tails between their legs in our war for independence in 1967. So, we will do the same now!” declared Omar Al-Yemeni, also a member of USPCN.

“Yemen is stopping the killing of civilians. The U.S. and UK are protecting their assets. Now the world can see how the Western powers prioritize profit over the people,” said Yasmin from Students for Justice in Palestine. “Meanwhile, South Africa’s decision to bring Israel to the International Court of Justice is a powerful act of solidarity.”

“All the countries who supported apartheid in South Africa are now supporting apartheid in Palestine,” said Kobi Guillory, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Those of us who are oppressed by imperialism have to unite and fight back.”

Protesters resolved to continue pressuring U.S. politicians to stop their support for Israel’s genocide.

Nadiyah Alyafai added, “We tell Joe Biden: ‘Get your bloody hands off our homelands!’”

#ChicagoIL #International #Palestine #Yemen #AntiWar #USPCN

Freedom Road Socialist Organization condemns the cowardly January 11 attack on Yemen by the U.S., United Kingdom, and their accomplices. The large-scale military strike took lives and destroyed property.

It was meant to frighten Yemen’s government and people. But the opposite took place. The government of Yemen has announced that it will continue to blockade shipping to Israeli-occupied Palestine. Backing that decision up were more than one million people rallying in the Yemeni capital city Sana'a.

Yemen’s response to the genocide in Gaza has been nothing short of heroic. Long a target of a brutal war waged by the Western powers and Arab reactionaries, Yemen’s choice to embrace the Palestinian resistance stands as an example to all yearn for liberation and justice.

In Palestine, the Israeli occupiers are losing the war, and the resistance movements in Lebanon and Iraq, along with the governments of Syria and Iran, are helping along the process that will end the occupation once and for all.

So, the Zionists have resorted to genocide. More than 30,000 are dead and they kill more every day. The mass murder is not an accident, it was embedded in the logic of the Zionist project from day one. And the imperial backers of the project, the U.S and Great Britain were, and still are, well aware of it.

Yemen’s courage stands as a beacon of hope where there is the darkness of oppression. It represents a step to a brighter future where the peoples of the Middle East will be free from imperialism and Zionism. When the monopoly capitalists that run the U.S. lose their hold on the Middle East, it will be milestone in the decline of the American empire.

For us in the U.S., standing with Palestine is important. The genocide Palestinians face would be impossible without U.S. backing. What we do here to stop it is important.

We need to stay in the streets and turn up the heat on all those who back Israel economically, with weapons, or who provide political cover to that apartheid state. Representatives of the Biden administration should be confronted about their support of genocide. All U.S. aid to Israel should stop!

There are two sides fighting in Palestine. It is not complicated at all. There is the oppressed and the oppressor. Israel exists on stolen land and borrowed time. The clock is ticking. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Hands off Yemen! End U.S./U.K. attacks!

#International #Yemen #Palestine #AntiWar #FRSO #Statement #Feature

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) condemns the U.S. and UK imperialist attacks on the sovereign Arab state of Yemen. The U.S. and its allies have launched several airstrikes on multiple Yemeni cities in the past few hours. The attacks came after continuous provocation by the U.S. to stop Yemen from aiding the Unified Palestinian Resistance against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. Yemen has vowed to intercept all Israeli and Israel-bound ships until the war crimes against the people of Palestine have ceased.

These attacks are a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty. The U.S. imperialist agenda is being exposed as it strives to destabilize and colonize the region in a continuous effort to support the genocidal, zionist state of Israel.

After the U.S.’ failed attempt to create a coalition to occupy the Bab al-Mandab Strait, it resorted to aerial strikes to further destroy Yemen, a nation recovering from a previously U.S.-funded war waged on them by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – a war which left Yemen devastated and facing a horrific, U.S.-manufactured humanitarian crisis. In addition, as collective punishment by the U.S. and its allies, humanitarian aid to Yemen was suspended.

As a number of Arab governments have been normalizing relationships with the apartheid state of Israel, and passively watching the genocide, Yemen stood up strongly and bravely in support of Palestine, preventing the advance of any naval vessels headed towards Israel. Its actions in the Red Sea, along with attacks from the Lebanese Resistance against the north of Israel, have inspired Arabs and other anti-imperialists and Palestine supporters across the world, in addition to providing real material reinforcement to the Unified Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.

#GenocideJoe Biden is not satisfied with funding Israeli war crimes and having the blood of 23,000 Palestinians on his hands. In the wake of an historic day in The Hague, where representatives of the remarkable state of South Africa offered powerful testimony about the Israeli genocide against Gaza to the International Court of Justice, he also approved these airstrikes on Yemen to murder more Arabs and devastate even more of the nation that has made us all so proud.

History has proven over and over that, wherever the U.S. military advances, destabilization and carnage is left behind, as we experienced in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and dozens of other countries across the world. The U.S. and its imperialist warmongering allies must keep their bloody hands out of our countries.

#International #Yemen #AntiWar #USPCN #Palestine

The attacks serve as the latest in an ongoing war of resistance by Yemen that began nearly five years ago. On one side, there are Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) and its allies in the camp of resistance including Iran, Syria, and the political organization Hezbollah, and the Palestinian movement; on the other side, Saudi Arabia and their coalition forces – made up in one form or another of the United States, Israel, several Gulf States, and others.

The involvement of the Saudi-U.S. coalition forces represents an intervention into the sovereign affairs of the Yemeni people. Ansar Allah has led the armed resistance against this foreign invasion. With the success of this attack, the tide of the war may have dramatically shifted in favor of the patriotic forces.

The conflict in Yemen has produced the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, with tens of thousands of people dead, many more wounded, and millions either on the cusp of starvation, victims of disease brought on by the war, or on the move as they flee for safety. Despite the magnitude of the crisis and the fact that the fighting has been raging for nearly five years, the U.S. corporate media has hardly covered Yemen at all. Until now, that is.

Over the last several days, mainstream media outlets have released story after story about this massive strike. A key piece to this narrative being spun by the Western press is that the attacks did not originate from Yemen, but Iran instead. The Iranian government has denied these allegations. As ever, U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to address the situation. The administration claims to be looking into the situation. Trump declared that they are “locked and loaded, depending on verification,” implying that they’re more than ready to retaliate directly in some capacity.

Combining the denial of the Iranian government with the bluster of President Trump leads to the conclusion that the pinning of the attack on Iran is a part of the broader U.S. shift toward open military aggression. The situation represents a danger not only to the people of Iran and the greater Middle East, but to all peace-loving people on the planet.

The demands of the anti-war movement in the U.S. must be clear: No to war on Iran! End military aid to Saudi Arabia! U.S. hands off Yemen!

#MilwaukeeWI #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Iran #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #SaudiArabia #Houthis #DonaldTrump

Yemen’s progressive, national democratic Houthi movement is resisting a war of aggression led by Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

#WashingtonDC #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #MiddleEast

The Anti-War Committee calls on its supporters to demand Congress and the Trump administration immediately cease all support for Saudi Arabia’s military assault on Yemen.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia, with the support of President Obama, began waging a ruthless war against Yemen, with the goal of protecting Saudi and U.S. shipping, oil, and imperialist interests in the Middle East. The invasion began in reaction to the September 21 Revolution of 2014, when the Houthi movement for Yemeni self-determination, which for years had protested growing Saudi influence over Yemeni society, led a takeover of the most populous areas of Yemen including government institutions in the capital Sanaa. The war has been waged by a so-called “coalition” of Saudi-aligned governments in the region, together with the United States, and has involved a brutal aerial bombing campaign, a ground invasion and a blockade of Yemeni seaports.

While the ground assault has failed to capture significant territory from the Houthi-aligned forces, the aerial assaults—which have persisted for nearly four years—have destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure along with countless lives.

War on Yemen has Created a Grave Human Rights Crisis

International monitors have documented Saudi bombings of Yemeni refugee camps, hospitals, funeral processions, school buses, and many other civilian targets. Casualties from individual bombings have climbed into the hundreds; tens of thousands of Yemenis are estimated to have been killed overall.

The U.S./Saudi coalition has also blockaded seaports of the Houthi-held areas of Yemen, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching millions of people. As a result, famine has spread across Yemen, with international aid organizations estimating that hundreds of children die of malnutrition daily, and that 14 million Yemenis—half of the pre-war population—are at risk of starvation.

Adding to the carnage, the U.S./Saudi war and blockade have caused what international medical groups have deemed the worst cholera outbreak in human history, with over one million cases and thousands of deaths.

End U.S. Military Intervention!

None of this could have taken place without the initiative, weapons, intelligence, and approval of the United States. The U.S. supplies targeting information and intelligence for Saudi attacks, refuels Saudi planes in the air, has deployed Navy destroyers in the blockade, and supplies arms and training to Saudi forces. There are even U.S. “boots on the ground” near the Yemeni border. As of early 2018, about a dozen Green Beret commandos were stationed in Saudi Arabia along the Yemen border.

Historically the Saudi regime has proven itself a willing partner of NATO powers, chiefly of the United States. The war on Yemen is no exception, as it willingly aids the US in its bid to cement its domination of the oil-rich Middle East and the strategic Gulf of Aden shipping lanes, where Yemen’s southwest coastline forms a narrow choke point connecting Europe to Asia’s ports. Both the US and Saudi Arabia have also been eager to portray the war on Yemen as part of their long-standing beleaguerment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which neoconservative warmongers and regime-changers for decades have sought to punish for its rejection of Washington’s diktats.

In 2017, Trump and Saudi rulers crafted a US arms sales deal totaling $350 billion, all to fuel the profits of CEOs and shareholders of big corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. These arms sales continue the direct complicity of the United States government in Saudi war crimes against Yemen.

Khashoggi’s Case Sheds Light on Horrors of War in Yemen

Meanwhile, the outcry from U.S. media and political leaders about the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been naive at best, and hypocritical and deceitful at worst. While his murder has led to some increased scrutiny of the war on Yemen, the shock being expressed belies the U.S. government’s years-long collusion in exactly the sort of violence and human rights abuses Khashoggi was silenced for writing about. Unsurprisingly, on November 14, House Republicans moved to block a vote to end US military involvement in Yemen under the War Powers Act. While a separate bill in the Senate would end arms sales for Saudi use in Yemen, the bill simultaneously threatens to levy even more sanctions on Iran—sanctions that are already choking off medical and humanitarian supplies—over its alleged support for the Houthi movement. We demand an end to US wars and blockades, with no exceptions!

No Ban, No Bombs, No War!

While continuing the war on Yemen, President Trump has outlawed Yemenis from traveling to the U.S. under his racist Muslim ban. It is criminal for the U.S. to bomb and attack other countries and then turn away refugees when the U.S. has destroyed their homelands! It is outrageous for Trump to ban Yemenis from traveling to the U.S. while destroying their country and starving their people. Trump, since the campaign trail, has painted the Middle East and Muslims in general as “terrorists” and this anti-Muslim rhetoric and this racist travel ban are legitimizing the increase in hate crimes and hate speech against our Muslim neighbors. We cannot be silent in the face of this bigotry! We need to speak out against the racist Muslim ban and the foreign policies which cause refugees to flee.

Take Action!

We at the Anti-War Committee know that the Congress will only end US support for Saudi Arabia if we demand with a united voice: STOP SUPPORTING THE WAR ON YEMEN!

Call Senator Amy Klobuchar at 202-224-3244 and Senator Tina Smith at 202- 224-5641 to tell them to vote against all aid to Saudi Arabia and to voice opposition to US coordination in the war on Yemen.

#TwinCities #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #TwinCitiesAntiWarCommittee #SaudiArabia #DonaldTrump

Jacksonville, FL – On Dec. 4, Yemen’s Houthi movement reported they had killed former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a military operation just outside of Sanaa, the capital. Both Saleh’s own party – the General People’s Congress – and Saudi media confirmed Saleh’s death.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi called the successful roadside attack on Saleh a “historic, exceptional and great day, in which the conspiracy of betrayal and treason failed, this black day for the forces of the aggression.” Saleh, once part of the resistance against the nearly three year U.S.-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen, switched loyalties on Dec. 2, abandoning his former Houthi allies.

The Saudi-led coalition resumed bombing of Sanaa just hours after confirming Saleh’s death, effectively reimposing a Saudi blockade on the war-torn nation. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a savage war against the Houthis and the people of Yemen, with the backing of the U.S. Their blockade, which was briefly lifted to allow international aid workers to deliver food and medical supplies, has drawn widespread condemnation for effectively sentencing millions of Yemenis to starvation and death.

Saleh and the Houthi movement

Yemen is the poorest country in the Persian Gulf and has fought against foreign domination and colonialism for much of its history. In 1962, Yemen won its independence from Britain but divided into two countries – north and south – just five years later. A revolution in southern Yemen led by socialists and communists gave birth to the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, while the north remained firmly aligned with Western interests. Saleh became president of North Yemen in 1978 and oversaw the reunification of the nation in 1990.

Reunification brought economic and political ruin to the south, which led to a civil war in the early 1990s. But Saleh faced other challenges in the country’s north with the emergence of the Houthi movement. Founded as a liberation theology movement similar to Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Houthis drew widespread support from Yemen’s poor and religious minorities and quickly became a leading force against Saleh’s pro-U.S. government.

Brutal political repression and harsh economic inequality marked Saleh’s 33-year rule. Fearing the traction gained by the Houthis, he ordered a wave of political arrests in June 2004, which culminated in the extrajudicial execution of the movement’s founder, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. While cracking down on dissidents, Saleh simultaneously cooperated with Washington’s War on Terror – first with the Bush administration and later allowing the Obama administration to conduct drone strikes in his country with impunity.

The Arab uprisings of 2011 eventually spread to Yemen, and a series of mass protests forced Saleh out of power. However, another Saudi/U.S. puppet, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, stepped into the power vacuum and continued Saleh’s repressive, pro-Western policies.

War and the united front

On Sept. 21, 2014, the Houthi movement drove out Hadi’s government and seized power in Sanaa. The popular national democratic revolution struck fear in neighboring Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, which formed a coalition and launched a savage war against the Houthis. As the Houthis mobilized the nation against the Saudi-led coalition, Saleh sensed an opportunity to regain power. He joined the Houthi-led united front and pledged his support for the effort to defeat the Saudi-led attack.

Despite unleashing savage destruction on Yemen, the war effort has not gone well for the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition. In almost three years of fierce bombing, they failed to dislodge the Houthis from their strongholds, instead drawing widespread international condemnation. Already facing giant budget deficits from the global slump in oil prices, the war in Yemen has driven Saudi Arabia further into economic crisis with no end in sight.

As the Houthis’ power grew stronger in the face of war, Saleh became increasingly concerned that victory against the Saudi-led coalition would see the Houthis come to power in a national democratic government, rather than a restoration of his rule. Reports in recent months indicated that Saleh’s forces began conducting back-channel talks with the Saudi-led coalition to negotiate a settlement to the conflict – a settlement that did not include the Houthis in power.

Sic semper tyrannis

The tenuous alliance between Saleh’s forces and the Houthis came to an end on Dec. 2, when the former Yemeni ruler formally switched sides and vowed to destroy the Houthis. In a televised broadcast, Saleh blamed the Houthis for the nation’s problems and called on forces loyal to him to fight his former allies. President Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia at the outset of the war, announced his forces would also join the fight against the Houthis in Saana.

Saleh’s opportunist betrayal drew criticisms from patriotic elements in his own General People’s Congress party. Street battles erupted in Saana between the popularly supported Houthis and small pockets of Saleh’s loyalist forces.

Just two days later, Houthi media reported the death of Saleh in a roadside ambush outside the nation’s capital. In a video posted to social media showing Saleh’s body, Houthi supporters chanted “Your revenge, Sayyidi Hussein,” a reference to the Houthi founder hanged by Saleh in 2004.

With Saleh eliminated, the resistance to the Saudi-led coalition presses forward. The Houthi movement aims to create a democratic, non-sectarian republic, and Saleh’s death rules out the possibility of a return to the status quo. In recent years, elements in southern Yemen have joined the Houthi-led united front, and a successful rocket attack on Riyadh’s international airport – a staging ground for Saudi warplanes – in early November demonstrated the resilience of the insurgency.

Carnage in Yemen

In early November, the Saudi-led coalition announced a comprehensive total blockade of Yemen, closing land, air and sea ports to aid workers and journalists. Yemen imports 90% of its food and medicine, meaning this blockade essentially starves the Yemeni people, who already face firebombs and Saudi-backed death squads waging war in their country.

Aid agencies briefly resumed deliveries of food and medical supplies after Saudi Arabia briefly lifted its blockade of the country. However, the renewed Saudi bombing of Sanaa on Dec. 4 effectively reimposed the same blockade – with all of its ghoulish consequences.

Death and destruction continue to rain down on Yemen since the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition declared war in early 2015. By January 2017, the war had killed over 10,000 civilians and injured 40,000 others, according to a report by the United Nations. This number has almost certainly risen in the last year.

But the carnage in Yemen isn’t confined to military casualties. The war skyrocketed the price of fuel and drove up the already high price of imported food, water and medicine, bringing with it starvation and disease.

UN officials and more than 20 aid organizations say that Yemen will face the world's largest famine in decades as a result of the Saudi-led war and blockade, making it larger than the monstrous famines in South Sudan and Somalia earlier in 2017. Out of Yemen's population of 28 million people, about 20 million “do not know where they're going to get their next meal,” said one UN official in November.

The war has taken a particularly high toll on Yemeni children. Every ten minutes, a child in Yemen dies from conditions stemming from war, according to UNICEF. 50,000 will die from famine by the end of 2017, and another 400,000 will require treatment for acute malnutrition, according to the Save the Children charity.

Yemen has suffered the worst outbreak of cholera in well over a century as a direct result of the war. More than 900,000 people have contracted the deadly disease as a result of the nation's devastated water and health care infrastructure. Modern medicine basically eliminated cholera in the 20th century. However, deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure by Saudi warplanes has destroyed wells and plumbing, leading to a staggering 400% increase in the price of water in much of the country. The lack of affordable clean water and the resulting cholera epidemic stand to get much worse as the Saudi blockade continues.

Support from the U.S. and the United Kingdom allows the Saudi-led war on Yemen to continue. Since the beginning in 2015, the U.S. and the U.K. backed the campaign by selling arms, refueling warplanes and providing international diplomatic cover. Most of Saudi Arabia’s arms come from the U.S. and the U.K. Under Trump, U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia increased from previous highs under the Obama administration. Similarly, Britain has seen a 500% increase in arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the course of its three-year war on Yemen, according to a report by the U.K. Independent newspaper. Other imperialist countries, like Sweden, have stepped up arms sales to core partners in the Saudi-led coalition.

The camp of resistance in the Middle East

The Houthi-led united front in Yemen belongs to the camp of resistance in the Middle East. Anchored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, it includes the Syrian Arab Republic, Hezbollah and other patriotic forces in Lebanon, the Palestinian liberation movement, and other progressive groups in the region. Together they form the largest bloc of resistance to the U.S. and its allies – Israel, Saudi Arabia and most of the gulf monarchies, and Turkey.

While comprising a key part of this camp, the Houthis are not foreign puppets of Iran like the Saudis claim. They are a national democratic movement with deep roots among the Yemeni people, heroically fighting to free their nation from foreign domination and slaughter. As outrage grows over the U.S. role in the massacre of Yemen, working people should stand in solidarity with the Houthis and demand the end of arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition.

#JacksonvilleFL #Yemen #Sinna #Assasination #MiddleEast

On Nov. 5, 2017, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri appeared in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and abruptly announced his resignation. In his resignation speech, Hariri denounced the Islamic Republic of Iran for supposedly interfering in Lebanese politics through Hezbollah, which makes up part of Hariri’s own coalition government.

The unexpected announcement, made from Saudi state-run television, raised suspicions across the Middle East. Many speculated that Riyadh forced Hariri’s resignation in a clumsy effort to ratchet up aggression towards Iran. Hezbollah and other national democratic forces in Lebanon vocally deny any attempt to drive Hariri from power and claim that the former prime minister, a close associate of the Saudi royal family, was coerced into making the announcement.

The same day as Hariri’s abrupt resignation, Saudi Arabia also announced they had intercepted a Burqan 2H ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s defense forces on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Saudi authorities claimed the missile was provided to Houthi rebel forces in Yemen by Iran, supposedly proof of the Islamic Republic interfering in the region.

As Saudi Arabia attempts to destabilize Lebanon and continues its three-year carnage in Yemen, the risk of regional war grows. Beneath these sparks of political and military crisis, however, exists an even greater crisis for imperialism in the Middle East. The United States’ efforts to dominate the region, especially with the use of Israel and Saudi Arabia as attack dogs, are crumbling as resistance grows. The heightened risk of war reflects the desperate attempts by the U.S. and its allies to crush that camp of resistance, particularly Iran.

Hezbollah is the target of Saudi interference in Lebanon

Saudi authorities are almost certainly holding Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri prisoner and pressured him into resigning, according to Sayid Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.

“We deem the resignation of Hariri illegal and invalid,” said Nasrallah on Nov. 10. “All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Saudi Arabia called the prime minister on an urgent matter without his aide or advisers, and was forced to tender his resignation, and to read the resignation statement written by them.”

Hariri holds dual Lebanese-Saudi citizenship, prompting some observers to speculate that Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman placed the billionaire prime minister under house arrest alongside the other Saudi officials caught up in a recent crackdown.

In the immediate aftermath, Saudi Arabia has attempted to inflame sectarian tensions in Lebanon by calling for Sunnis to take to the streets against the predominantly Shi'a Hezbollah. But despite these calls for disunity, the response across the country to Hariri's resignation was near unanimous in denouncing Saudi interference. All major political players have called on Saudi Arabia to allow Hariri to return to Lebanon and resolve this crisis.

Hezbollah called for calm and stability while the nation sorted through this bizarre incident. “Lebanon had enjoyed unprecedented stability over the past year,” said Nasrallah. “We declare that the prime minister of Lebanon has not resigned. Saad Hariri is our political opponent, but he is also our prime minister.”

Beyond Hezbollah, Lebanese president Michel Auon appealed for calm. Even members of Hariri’s own party, the Future Movement, expressed concern at Saudi interference in Lebanese affairs.

The target of Saudi Arabia’s interference is Hezbollah. While officially Shi’a Muslim in its religious orientation, Hezbollah is a progressive non-sectarian national liberation movement. Its leader, Sayid Hassan Nasrallah, preaches liberation theology and anti-imperialism. The organization has a mass base among poor and working class communities in Lebanon, and its armed wing has supported the Palestinian liberation movement and Syria’s national democratic government. In 2006, Hezbollah defeated a brutal 32-day-long invasion of Lebanon by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), marking a new chapter in its resistance to foreign domination.

While Saudi Arabia has long interfered in Lebanese political affairs, the Arab uprisings that began in 2011 forced the bulk of their attention elsewhere – Syria, Bahrain and now Yemen. In that period, Hezbollah made marked gains both in its electoral strategy, its social influence, and its military capacity, culminating in their presence in the ruling parliamentary coalition government that Habibi headed. With Lebanese elections on the horizon, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S. fear that Hezbollah's victorious return from Syria may translate into serious gains in parliament

“It is clear that Saudi Arabia and Saudi officials have declared war on Lebanon and on Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Nasrallah stated.

Saudi Arabia descends into further crisis

Saudi Arabia’s erratic and violent actions reflect a growing crisis for the gulf monarchy, both internal and external. For over half a century, the Saudi monarchy functioned as a vital part of U.S. dominance in the Middle East. In exchange for its enormous oil reserves and support for the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency, the U.S. provided the Saudis with both military protection and cheap weapons of war to defend its power.

But deep social and economic contradictions exist behind the wealthy façade of Saudi power. Dependent on migrant labor from neighboring countries, like Yemen, and the exploitation of petroleum, Saudi Arabia saw its status sharply decline with the global drop in oil prices. Attempts to drive competitors, like U.S. shale oil producers, out of the market by ramping up its own production backfired, further driving down prices – and with it, Saudi revenues.

Forced to run huge budget deficits, the Saudis have become desperate to shore up their financial situation. On the economic front, they announced plans to sell shares in its state-owned oil industry, ARAMCO. Even more drastic, Saudi leaders agreed to offer oil futures contracts denominated in Chinese Renminbi, backed by gold, in September 2017.

Saudi Arabia’s deep economic crisis has triggered an acute political crisis as well. Earlier this year, Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman relaxed restrictions on women driving cars – one of the more bizarre and widely criticized aspects of the country’s theocratic oppression of women. Far from the image of a ‘reformer’ promoted by the U.S. corporate media, Salman’s move was a cynical attempt to make Saudi Arabia appear ‘more modern’ and drive up foreign tourism. It accompanies announcements to build extravagant beach resort hotels and attract foreign capital from corporations like Virgin Airlines.

Unfortunately for Salman, this concession to the Saudi women’s movement angered the hardline conservative religious elements in the House of Saud, sharpening a power struggle within the ruling family. Salman has responded by savagely cracking down on dissent, beheading Shi’a religious clerics, and even jailing other members of the royal family in the name of “fighting corruption.” In reality, Salman, who is just as corrupt as the royals he throws in prison, cares only about consolidating his power in a time of crisis.

Saudi Arabia’s gangster ‘Game of Thrones’

Salman's purge shows the gangster nature of the Saudi monarchy. Between suspicious plane crashes, the extrajudicial executions of political rivals, and the bizarre jailing of opponents in the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh, it plays like a scene from the movies Goodfellas or Scarface. By some estimates, Salman's so-called anti-corruption dragnet have arrested nearly 500 members of the Saudi monarchy and expropriated their wealth. But there's something bigger at work.

Corrupt wheeling and dealing between Saudi royals and international oil tycoons is a key component of the gulf monarchy's wealth. Salman now labels these backroom deals, struck with U.S. and European oil corporations by members of the Saudi government, as “corrupt” and illegal, even though the Saudi monarchy has known and encouraged these practices for decades.

Salman instead hopes to consolidate his power before the death of his father, King Salman, and stabilize Saudi Arabia's massive budget deficits by liquidating competitive elements of the royal family. The younger Salman, a junior member of the royal family, faces external instability and internal crisis, which raises concerns for his power after his father eventually abdicates the throne. Prince Salman himself jumped another Saudi prince, long thought of as the next in line after King Salman, much to the frustration of other elements in the royal family.

Prince Salman's crackdown is a move of desperation from a young, brash monarch who sees the writing on the wall. It's a response to severe crisis, not corruption.

The massive wave of arrests came on the heels of a visit by Jared Kushner, chief advisor to Trump, to Saudi Arabia. During the visit, Kushner praised the Saudis for purchasing U.S. arms and “modernizing” the country – sentiments later echoed on Twitter by Trump, who also praised Salman's crackdown on rival elites.

It isn't hard to see why Trump would support – and many believe greenlighted – Prince Salman's purge. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the most prominent royal arrested in Salman's crackdown is estimated to be the 45th wealthiest men in the world, with large shares in Fox/Viacom and Twitter. But unlike Prince Salman, who has intimately tied his rule to the Trump presidency, al-Waleed voiced criticisms of Trump during the 2016 U.S. election, at one point even calling for the billionaire mogul to drop out of the race. From the White House’s perspective, Prince Salman is weeding out potential obstacles for U.S. domination.

The Saudi killing fields in Yemen

Equally troubling for Prince Salman is the disastrous Saudi-led war on Yemen. While the Saudi state claims they intercepted the ballistic missile fired on Nov. 5, both the Houthi-led resistance in Yemen and many international observers report that the strike was successful. But far from unprovoked aggression by the Houthis, the missile was fired in response to the Saudi coalition bombing of a market in northern Yemen three days earlier, which killed 26 people, mainly civilians. This act of Yemeni resistance highlights the failure of the Saudi war effort. Prince Salman, the primary architect of the Saudi war on Yemen, now faces the reality that the Houthi movement has withstood even the most brutal carnage inflicted on it.

In response, the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen announced a comprehensive total blockade of the nation, closing land, air and sea ports to aid workers and journalists. Aid agencies connected with the UN and other providers were not notified prior to the implementation of the blockade. Effectively this move cuts Yemen off from the outside world while Saudi warplanes and mercenary death squads strangle the Yemeni people.

The consequences of this latest blockade will devastate Yemen further. Every ten minutes, a child in Yemen dies from conditions stemming from the savage, Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war on the country, according to UNICEF.

United Nations officials say that Yemen will face the world's largest famine in decades, larger than the monstrous famines in South Sudan and Somalia earlier this year, if the Saudi-led coalition doesn't lift its blockade. Out of Yemen's population of 28 million people, about 20 million “do not know where they're going to get their next meal,” said one UN official.

Famine isn't the only heinous result of the Saudi blockade. Since the war began nearly three years ago, Yemen has suffered the largest outbreak of cholera, a deadly disease nearly eliminated by modern medicine, in over a century. Yemen's cholera epidemic, which has stricken more than 900,000 people, is the result of the nation's devastated water and health care infrastructure, which Saudi-coalition warplanes have deliberately targeted. By blocking access to clean water and medical supplies, the Saudis have guaranteed the epidemic will spread and kill more people.

The Saudi-led war on Yemen could not continue without the support of the U.S. Every step of the way, the U.S. and the U.K. have backed the Saudi-led slaughter by refueling warplanes, selling death machines and providing diplomatic cover. The U.S. and the U.K. are the two largest sellers of arms to Saudi Arabia. British arms sales to Saudi Arabia have increased 500% since the war began three years ago, according to a report by the Independent newspaper in the U.K.

Even Sweden, a country that many people in the U.S. don't associate with imperialist war, has stepped up its arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – one of the partners in the Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen.

For the entirety of the three-year assault on Yemen, the Saudis and the U.S. have claimed the Houthi rebels are proxy forces for the Islamic Republic of Iran. In reality, the Houthi insurgency began in 2004 among the rural populations living in northern Yemen, who make up about a third of the entire country. Influenced by the liberation theology of Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, the Houthis formed with the goal of driving out U.S. imperialism, Saudi domination and their puppet rulers.

Today, the Houthis lead a united front against the Gulf monarchy coalition that seeks to dominate Yemen by force. Deposed Yemeni ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, once an ally of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, has joined the united front along with elements in the nation’s south. Together they comprise a united front resisting the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Israel and Saudi Arabia: Partners in crime

Despite the blank check of support offered by the Trump administration, Israel has seen its position in the Middle East decline sharply. Like Saudi Arabia, the Israeli government backed the seven-year war in Syria in hopes of toppling President Bashar al-Assad, a key regional partner of Iran and a supporter of the Palestinian liberation struggle. It covertly assisted fighters from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and bombed the Syrian Arab Army several times to no avail.

Worse than Assad remaining in power, though, is the strengthening of Hezbollah in Lebanon. As the Syrian civil war winds down, Hezbollah returns from the battlefield victorious, better armed and with greater influence in regional politics. As a key ally to both Palestinians and Iran, Hezbollah poses an existential threat to Israeli power. They defeated the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and have only grown stronger since that time with battle-tested experience fighting the Islamic State death squads in Syria. Publicly released threat assessments by the Israeli Defense Forces in 2016 identified Hezbollah as the main external threat to Israeli security.

Wikileaks cables have revealed growing ties between the Israeli government and Prince Salman, who see a common foe in Iran and the entire camp of resistance. Saudi Arabia, for its part, never supported Arab resistance forces like Hezbollah, who they blamed entirely for the 2006 Israeli invasion, but their collaboration with Israel has deepened. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for instance, released a statement after Hariri’s resignation hysterically denouncing Iran and Hezbollah.

In Washington, Israeli lobbyists have begun working closely with lobbyists from the Gulf monarchies in Washington, particularly from the UAE. After securing greater arms sales to their countries in the latest U.S. military budget, these lobbyists have a singular goal in mind: Build consensus for war with Iran.

Imperialism and the camp of resistance

On Nov. 10, the Syrian government declared final victory over the Islamic State. While pockets of conflict will likely continue, this effectively means the end of the nearly seven-year war in Syria.

The Islamic State (IS), born out of the disastrous U.S. occupation of Iraq, functioned as a proxy army for the U.S. in Syria. While President Obama and later Trump formally declared war on IS, the U.S. contained the bulk of its offensive against the right-wing Salafist militia to Iraq in hopes of pushing the group away from Iraqi oil derricks and into Syria. Often U.S. warplanes bombed Syrian Arab Army forces that were actively fighting IS on the ground. All doubts over the real target of U.S. bombing missions in Syria ended on April 6, 2017, when President Trump fired 59 tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government air base.

At the center of these victories are the anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East, which comprise a camp of resistance. Anchored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the camp of resistance includes the Syrian Arab Republic, Hezbollah and the patriotic forces of Lebanon, the Palestinian liberation organizations, the Houthi insurgency in Yemen and other allied national democratic movements in the Middle East.

The goal of the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel is to destroy the camp of resistance in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, in alliance with the Israelis, has taken stock of the major battlefields in the Middle East. The influence of the camp of resistance is expanding. Almost seven years of trying to topple the Assad government in Syria has failed, and the attempts to stop the Houthi movement in Yemen have proven disastrous for the Gulf monarchies. Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon and beyond has grown. And worst of all for the U.S., Iran's influence has grown.

With Trump’s move to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal last month, the risk of region-wide war in the Middle East rises each day. Imperialism is a brutal, vicious system that guarantees high oil profits for the 1% while brining death and destruction on the rest of the world. All people opposed to that system should resist the threats of war and work to bring an end to the slaughter in nations like Yemen.

#SaudiArabia #MiddleEast #Yemen #Hezbollah #SaadHariri

“The free Yemeni people with all its tribes, popular committees and army refuse the presence of foreign forces on its territory, as it consider the U.S. presence a clear colonization,” the statement said.

“Once again we affirm that the presence of U.S., UAE and other forces is an occupation aimed at spoiling our country and wealth,” the statement added, stressing that this occupation will be met with resistance by all means.

The U.S. Defense Department is stating the number of troops sent is small; but the U.S. is rushing arms to the Saudis, refueling their aircraft and supplying intelligence. Thousands of Yemenis have been killed by the Saudi bombing campaign.

The U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others began a war on Yemen in March, 2015, with the aim of dominating the country.

#WashingtonDC #Occupation #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Yemen #UnitedStates #SaudiArabia

Saudi Arabia's vicious assault on the people of Yemen continues nearly one year after its initiation – and there's no obvious end in sight. In March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition largely made up of the other reactionary monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) launched a military intervention in Yemen. Called Operation Decisive Storm, this intervention began as a response to the overthrow of Yemen's corrupt government by the popular Houthi insurgency.

To date, Operation Decisive Storm has left over 2800 Yemeni civilians – many of them children – dead, and displaced thousands. For all the carnage and brutality, though, Saudi Arabia's intervention comes from a place of weakness, not strength. And in the face of mass popular resistance and widespread international opposition, the operation has fared poorly for Saudi Arabia and its imperialist backers.

As monopoly capitalism plunges the world deeper into crisis, the U.S. and its partners like Saudi Arabia lash out in increasingly brutal ways to maintain control of the oil-rich region and these actions spark fierce resistance by the anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East. The Houthi uprising in Yemen is part of this camp of resistance and the Saudi-led military intervention speaks to the eroding rule of imperialism in the region.

Yemen's revolutionary history

Yemen has a vibrant history of resistance to foreign domination. Because of its strategic location in the Gulf of Aden, Yemen drew the attention of both the British and Ottoman empires, which colonized and divided it into a north and south territory in 1904. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Britain continued to exercise control over Yemen through corrupt rulers and sultanates – not unlike the U.S.'s relationship to the Gulf monarchies today. However, in 1962, nationalist forces in the northern Yemen, inspired and supported by Gamal Abdel Nasser's anti-colonial government in Egypt, overthrew the British and Saudi-backed monarchy and proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic in its place.

This rebellion spread to southern Yemen in 1963, when communists and nationalists united to form the National Liberation Front of Yemen (NLF) and launched an armed struggle for liberation. Facing defeat, Britain granted independence to South Yemen in 1964 and withdrew from the country entirely two years later. The new NLF government immediately proclaimed itself the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) in 1970, aligned with the Soviet Union and set itself the goal of building socialism.

For the next 20 years, Yemen remained divided – a capitalist north and a national democratic, leftist south – until the PDRY agreed to a unification proposal in 1990. For the vast majority of the Yemeni people, however, unification proved economically disastrous. Per capita income for Yemeni workers dropped 10% between 1989 and 1993. In the same period, prices for food and basic goods skyrocketed, unemployment reached 25% and nearly one in three Yemenis lived in poverty.

While the majority suffered extreme hardships from unification, the small class of wealthy in the north made dramatic gains in this period by privatizing the south's socialized industries, confiscating peasant land and stealing oil revenue from government coffers. This unified Yemeni government, led by Ali Abdullah Saleh, also aligned itself closely with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, generating popular discontent and protest. After the outbreak of a brief civil war in the south by former PDRY elements, Saleh's government heavily repressed the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) to eliminate any challenge to its rule.

The Houthi insurgency and the national democratic revolution

Shortly thereafter, Saleh's government faced another challenge to its rule – this time from the north. The Houthi insurgency began in 2004 among the rural Shi'a populations living in northern Yemen, who make up about a third of the entire country. Yemen's Shi'a communities faced extreme poverty and persecution from Saleh since before reunification. Influenced by the liberation theology of Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, the Houthis formed with the goal of driving out U.S. imperialism, Saudi domination and their puppet rulers.

Triggered in part by the wave of Arab uprisings in 2011, the Houthis joined with other popular forces in Yemen to drive Saleh out of power. Fearing the loss of Yemen as a neo-colony, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia installed another puppet, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in his place. Hadi's government continued the corrupt economic policies of Saleh and abandoned the political reforms agreed to by opposition forces. Hadi, like Saleh, also allowed the U.S. free reign to conduct drone strikes throughout the country.

The crisis in Yemen reached a boiling point in 2014, when Houthi rebels stormed the presidential palace in Sanaa, the country's capital, and placed Hadi under house arrest. Having seized state power and having begun laying the ground for an inclusive democratic republic, the Houthi government immediately came under military siege by the Saudi-led GCC coalition.

The empire strikes back

On the whole, this intervention has not gone well for Saudi Arabia. It began as an aerial bombing campaign, but the Saudi-led coalition eventually committed ground troops to directly fight Houthi forces. The coalition has experienced high casualties and it has largely failed to unseat the Houthis from country's populated urban centers.

Furthermore, these attacks on Yemen have forged a large united front of unlikely partners. In May 2015, deposed President Saleh and a large section of Yemen's national military announced an alliance with the Houthi insurgency aimed at defeating the Saudi-led coalition. Although Saleh ruled Yemen as an ally of the U.S. before popular protests forced his resignation in 2012, he has come out in support of the national democratic forces resisting foreign intervention.

Saudi Arabia faces widespread international opposition to its campaign in Yemen, largely owing to the many documented atrocities committed by coalition forces. An as-of-yet-unpublished U.N. panel report from January found evidence of “widespread and systematic” targeting of civilians by coalition forces, including “bombing residential neighborhoods” and “treating the entire cities of Sa’dah and Maran as military targets.”

While not actively engaged in combat, the U.S. stands firmly behind this vicious war on Yemen. From their perspective, a Houthi-led national democratic government in Yemen would oppose U.S. drone strikes and counter Western aggression toward the camp of resistance. As Saudi Arabia's main supplier of weapons, warplanes and military equipment to the tune of several hundred billion dollars, U.S. imperialism literally makes the entire assault possible.

Crisis and resistance in the Arabian peninsula

U.S. imperialism is in a period of deep crisis, particularly in the Middle East. The occupation of Iraq ended in defeat for the U.S. and the occupation government it left to govern now leans towards Iran. Its attempts to destabilize the national democratic governments of Iran and Syria have failed. Popular democratic forces in countries like Bahrain and Yemen shook, and in some cases overthrew, long-standing puppet governments.

At the center of these victories are the anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East, which comprise a camp of resistance. Anchored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the camp of resistance includes the Syrian Arab Republic, Hezbollah and the patriotic forces of Lebanon, the Palestinian liberation organizations and other allied national democratic movements in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia's attack on Yemen reflects its growing desperation and weakening ability to project influence in the region. Along with the U.S., Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council monarchies, Saudi Arabia invested heavily in toppling the Syrian government in order to strike a blow against Iran – its largest competitor for regional influence. The failure to overthrow Assad – due in part to intervention by Hezbollah, Iran and Russia – and its inability to control the anti-Assad opposition groups like Islamic State speak to the sharply declining influence of Saudi Arabia.

As an anachronistic religious monarchy built by imported migrant labor and the craven exploitation of natural resources, the House of Saud's wealth masks its vulnerability to crises in imperialism. Fearing an increase of U.S. domestic oil production, the Saudi monarchy flooded the world market with cheap oil, which further drove down falling energy prices. As a result, the country faces a widening deficit from the decline in oil revenues and eroding investor confidence by imperialist powers.

The Saudi monarchy increasingly reacts to this deepening crisis with brutal and disproportionate political repression. Opposition movements terrify the House of Saud, which promotes anti-Shi'a sectarianism to drum up support for aggression against Iran. This fear fuels increasingly drastic actions, like the execution of Shi'a cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, along with 46 other dissidents and prisoners, at the start of 2016.

Saudi Arabia exaggerates the level of Iranian support for the Houthi insurgency. Iranian officials have expressed solidarity with the Houthis as part of the camp of resistance. Reports indicate that they have provided weapons to the insurgents in response to the GCC's brutal onslaught. Facing the looming threat of U.S. and Israeli aggression, Iran has an obvious interest in seeing anti-imperialist movements like the Houthis come to power because it strengthens the camp of resistance.

However, the Houthi insurgency is not a proxy army of Iran like the Western media portrays. It's a popular movement with strong roots among the Yemeni people, who have had enough brutality inflicted on them by imperialist powers. And their stand in the face of unrelenting attacks deserves our support and solidarity.

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Hadi, a puppet of Saudi Arabia and backed by the U.S., wanted the talks on their terms: that the only discussion would be implementation of the UN resolution telling the Ansurallah, or Houthis as they are called in the West, to withdraw from the territory they control in Yemen. The Ansurallah said that there should be no preconditions. UN head Ban Ki-Moon likewise said there should be no preconditions for the negotiations.

The Ansurallah movement is in the right. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is an aggressor, having launched a war to punish the Ansurallah for daring to oust a dictatorial government. KSA has purchased a regional coalition and a UN resolution against the people of Yemen. But the Saudis are like all occupiers – they can impose terrible sacrifice on the people, but they can’t break their resistance, or defeat them. The Saudi military even lacks the will to carry out a ground invasion.

So the Saudis are faced with the choice of sending the former president to the negotiations without his demand being met. This will be a diplomatic victory for the Ansurallah. Or they can refuse to send Hadi, which would also be a victory for the Ansarallah.

Both scenarios are defeats for the KSA, because the most of the world, including Russia, China and many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, doesn’t support the Saudis. Time is not on the side of the Saudis.

The Houthis and their alliance with former president Saleh, and through him with the Yemeni army, are taking more parts of the country, defeating the forces fighting for the U.S.-supported Saudis and the fugitive ex-president Hadi.

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