UK protecting mercenary government, aggression: Sanaa

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The United Kingdom cannot have a hand in alleviating the economic suffering of the Yemeni people, said Saturday Sanaa government Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, explaining that it is a main party to the aggression on Yemen.

"The United Kingdom, through the multilateral agreement, will not give a single pound to ensure the success of the mercenary government's proposals," the Sanaa premier told the Yemeni Al-Masira TV channel. "It is going through an economic crisis and looking toward others for help."

"The United Kingdom is till this day a main party to the aggression on Yemen, in terms of planning and execution," he said. "London is the protector of the government of mercenaries."

"The British ambassador's recent statements are irresponsible," bin Habout underlined. "The mercenary government's decision to raise the price of the customs dollar rate is directed, in this circumstance, against the entire Yemeni people."

It is noteworthy that the UK supported the measure in question, which was met with condemnation from Yemen as an extension of the blockade imposed on it by the West and the Saudi-led coalition of aggression.

"The United Kingdom supports the economic measure implemented to avoid the repercussions of an attack by the Ansar Allah movement," the British ambassador to Yemen said, holding Ansar Allah responsible for the humanitarian situation in Yemen. This claim comes as the US and UK have been imposing a stifling air, land, and sea blockade on Yemen.

Read next: Over 70% of Yemenis need humanitarian help: Red Cross

"The British ambassador's statements publicly revealed the criminal role played by London in exacerbating the suffering of the Yemenis," the Sanaa premier said, adding that the statements in question "prove that London stands behind the economic warfare, including the policies of blockade and starvation."

"Britain is involved daily in the suffering of the Yemeni people, and it is boldly standing with the corrupt thieves and the terrorists," Sanaa government Information Minister Daifallah Al-Shami said.

"The rudeness of the British ambassador proves Britain and America's direct involvement in the crime" being committed against the Yemeni people, Al-Shami added.

A report that came out earlier in the month disclosed some serious statistics of casualties in Yemen due to the US-Saudi-led coalition which has been regularly bombing civilian areas since 2015.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, has for 14 consecutive months (January 2021 to the end of February 2022) endured more than four armed attacks on civilians on a daily basis, the Oxfam report states. 

The report found that air raids carried out by the US-UK-Saudi-led coalition were using weapons solely supplied by the UK and the US. 

It found that the use of these weapons accounted for about a quarter of all attacks on civilians, which amounted to 1,700 attacks on Yemenis that either killed them, wounded them, or forced them to be displaced.

They also found that between the period of January 2021 to the end of February 2022, the US-UK-Saudi-led coalition was responsible for at least: 87 civilian deaths and 136 injuries; 19 attacks on hospitals, clinics, and ambulances; and 293 attacks that forced people to flee their homes – 39 percent of all attacks causing displacement.

The issue of this report comes in the backdrop of a legal suit brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) against the UK government over the supply of arms and weapons to support the Saudis in their ongoing aggression against Yemen. 

The suit is reportedly taking place this month at the High Court in London and Oxfam reportedly intervened to support the campaign.

Since the beginning of the aggression, the UK has reportedly sold at least £7.9 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia for a number of 547 licenses. But experts from CAAT estimate the true value of arms sales to be over £23 billion if 'open licenses' are taken into account. 

In June 2019, a hearing about the UK's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia forced the government to halt the issue of arms licenses. But shortly after, the government resumed its arms sales after it announced it carried out a minor reform in the issue of its licenses. 

The United Nations constantly warns of the bad situation in Yemen. In its latest report, the organization showed that the number of child victims of the war on Yemen has risen to 11,000.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) affirmed in December that the majority of the Yemeni people urgently need humanitarian aid, as a result of the conflict that has been going on in the Arab country for 8 years.