AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): While the world is busy watching Ukrainian crisis, the UN Security Council at a Tuesday meeting voted to renew arms embargo on Yemen. The resolution, adopted with 11 affirmative votes and 4 abstentions, says all of body of Yemen's Ansarullah resistant movement will be covered by the arms sanctions. The movement has been under weapons sanctions since 2015 according to UNSC 2216 resolution, with the UN every year extending the restriction.
UNSC resolution apparently biased
The UNSC approved 13 resolutions from March 2015 to July 2021 on Yemen war, waged against the already-impoverished nation by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
In all these resolutions, although Saudi Arabia and its ally the UAE glare as the aggressors, the UNSC not only did not condemn Riyadh and Abu Dhabi's unabated and indiscriminate attacks on the civilians, all-out siege, and occupation of parts of Yemen like ports and islands in an apparent violation of its sovereignty but also condemned the defensive measures of the Yemenis, moving in line with the aggression countries' plans.
This politicized view can be seen in several Security Council resolutions since the preliminary 2216 resolution.
Resolution 2216 explicitly condemned Ansarullah while Saudi Arabia had started the war against Yemen. One of the important points of this resolution is that without pointing to Saudi Arabia it accused Ansarullah and took a stand against it. The resolution does not even make a call for Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to stop daily bombardment of Yemeni people and infrastructure.
This resolution shaped the basis for the UNSC addressing of the war over the past 7 years. The newest version of the resolution "strongly condemns the cross-border attacks" on Saudi Arabia and the UAE by the Yemeni movement.
The UN regularly ignores reports by its own institutions like World Health Organization and children's fund UNICEF which have issued several reports so far warning that Yemen is facing a grave famine and humanitarian crisis because of ongoing Saudi and Emirati attacks. But whenever Yemeni forces tighten the noose on Riyadh and Abu Dhabi on the battleground, the UNSC rushes to help the aggression countries with meetings and resolutions against Yemen resistance.
When the UAE sent a letter to the UNSC on 18 about retaliatory attacks by Ansarullah on the Emirati cities, the UNSC issued a statement on January 23 condemning the strikes as "heinous terrorist attacks."
Actually, in Yemen case, policy and interests are apparently put before rights and the UNSC has focused on advancing the goals of one side of the war.
For example, in a statement on October 20, 2021, members of the Security Council welcomed the return of the government of prime minister of the illegitimate and fugitive president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to Aden in the south. And while the south sunk in chaos and tensions of allies, apparently in Ansarullah interests, due to disputes between Hadi loyalists and UAE-backed separatist southerners, the UNSC in a statement called for full implementation of the Riyadh agreement according to which Hadi and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) agreed to share power.
UNSC not stopping the war but perpetuating it
Yemen crisis has become one of the longest and most complex international crises today, and the role of the Security Council decisions in its continuation is undeniable. The important point is that the Security Council resolutions not only did not force-stop the war but also perpetuated it.
Certainly, the arms embargo in its true sense has no effect on the military capabilities of Ansarullah and Sana'a since this poor country has neither the financial capacity to buy arms nor the possibility of large-scale arms imports with a watertight siege in place by the Saudi-Emirati alliance. So, the UNSC resolutions and statements are just endorsement for the belligerent policies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their evasion of negotiating table to end the devastating war. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have always taken advantage of these resolutions to gain international legitimacy for continuation of their criminal actions in Yemen.
Another mentionable point is that the Western members of the UNSC themselves capitalize on ongoing anti-Yemeni campaign as they sell arms to Saudis and Emiratis. Despite all documents of Saudi crimes against humanity and shocking violations of human rights in Yemen, not only they impose no sanctions on Riyadh and its allies but also continue to provide weapons of all kind to them.
Mentionable is a $110 billion arms deal struck in May 2017 between the US and Saudi Arabia. The US agreed to provide more arms to the Saudis while the most important conflict principles, distinction and proportionality, have been regularly breached by the Arab coalition for its use of Western-supplied cluster bombs.
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