{"id":82546,"date":"2016-11-07T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=82546"},"modified":"2016-11-06T16:10:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T16:10:30","slug":"saudi-ambassador-to-the-u-s-vows-to-keep-hitting-yemen-no-matter-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/saudi-ambassador-to-the-u-s-vows-to-keep-hitting-yemen-no-matter-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Vows to Keep Hitting Yemen, \u201cNo Matter What\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yemenis<\/a>

Yemenis stand on a rooftop looking at smoke billows from a building following an air strike reportedly carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept. 25, 2016.
Mohammed Huwais\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

1 Nov 2016 – <\/em>\u201cWill you continue to use cluster weapons in Yemen<\/a>?\u201d we asked Prince Abdullah Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambassador to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like the question, \u2018Will you stop beating your wife?\u2019\u201d Al-Saud responded<\/a>, letting loose a bellowing laugh.<\/p>\n

We continued to ask with the same question, and the ambassador grew tired of our persistence. \u201cYou are political operators!\u201d he accused. \u201cI\u2019m not a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference \u2014 bankrolled<\/a> by oil companies Chevron, ExxonMobile, and ConocoPhillips, and weapons contractors Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing \u2014 the Saudi ambassador was the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n

The Saudi-led coalition bombing\u00a0Yemen had \u201crighteousness, legitimacy, a lot of support,\u201d and would keep bombing \u201cno matter what it takes,\u201d he told the audience, which included U.S. military officials as well as\u00a0defense contractors and oil executives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone attacks human lives, and disturbs the border, in whatever region, we\u2019re going to continue hitting them, no matter what,\u201d said Al-Saud.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who wants to solve the Yemen problem should understand who is making all the problems,\u201d he said, ducking Saudi responsibility for the\u00a0suffering in Yemen. \u201cWe will not at all allow anything to develop in the future like this no matter what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in March 2015, shortly after Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed ruler fled to Riyadh\u00a0and six months after Houthi rebels from the border region of Northern Yemen moved south and overran the capital.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has since been responsible for the majority<\/a> of the 10,000 deaths in the conflict, according to the U.N. The coalition has repeatedly targeted civilian sites, including homes, farms, factories, markets, hospitals, and children\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

When asked by The Intercept why Saudi Arabia continued to strike civilian targets, the ambassador responded, \u201cWe have no interests in doing these things. If it was just a military victory without care for human life, we would have bombed Saada [a Houthi stronghold].\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition announced<\/a> on Saudi state television that the entire province of Saada was a military target, and warned the residents to leave.<\/p>\n

Eli Massey of In These Times asked the ambassador if he disputes the\u00a0fact<\/a>\u00a0that most civilian casualties in Yemen come from the Kingdom\u2019s airstrikes. \u201cYou are really, you\u2019re a heckler. You\u2019re a politician,\u201d he said, dismissing Massey. When The Intercept repeated Massey\u2019s question, he responded \u201cYes! Yes!\u201d When we asked him to prove his claim, he grew more dismissive. \u201cYou are a political operative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the catastrophic humanitarian toll of the Saudi coalition bombing campaign, the U.S. military has continued to play a supporting role, providing targeting intelligence, signing off on $20 billion<\/a> in weapons shipments, and flying refueling missions for Saudi aircraft.<\/p>\n

After a year and a half of war, the\u00a0Obama administration has come under increasing pressure\u00a0from Congress<\/a> and human rights groups<\/a>\u00a0to cut off its support for the coalition. After Saudi Arabia bombed a funeral<\/a> in Sanaa earlier this month, killing 140 people and wounding more than 500, the White House initiated a review of its support, and threatened to\u00a0\u201cadjust our support so as to better align with U.S. principles, values and interests.\u201d It is unclear when the review will be completed.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, the ambassador to the United States from Yemen\u2019s exiled government, also told the audience that Saudi Arabia was not to blame for the suffering in Yemen. \u201cYemen is suffering from all sorts of serious problems \u2014 all of which have been caused by the irresponsible actions of Houthi rebels,\u201d Mubarak said.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"zaid-jilani\"<\/a>

Zaid Jilani<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Alex<\/a>

Alex Emmons<\/p><\/div>\n

Zaid Jilani<\/a> – \u2709zaid.jilani@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alex Emmons<\/a> – \u2709alex.emmons@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Nov 2016 – At last week’s Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference \u2014 bankrolled by oil companies \u2014 the Saudi ambassador was the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}