AMERICAN arms manufacturers face a lawsuit for ‘aiding and abetting’ war crimes in Yemen, which is suffering a full-blown humanitarian crisis as a result of the 8-year Saudi-led war of aggression.
US defence contractors Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and, General Dynamics, have been sued by a group of seven Yemeni nationals for aiding and abetting war crimes and extrajudicial killings by selling weapons to be used in waging war on Yemen.
The lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Washington DC, also names the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman al Saud, and the United Arab Emirates’ leader, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as well as US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and Pentagon Chief, Lloyd Austin, as defendants.
The lawsuit states: ‘Year after year, the bombs fell on wedding tents, funeral halls, fishing boats and a school bus, killing thousands of civilians and helping turn Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
‘Weapons supplied by US companies through sales unlawfully approved by US officials allowed Saudi Arabia and the UAE through the named defendant officials to pursue an indiscriminate and brutal bombing campaign.’
Eight years of Saudi-led war has left Yemen with a full-blown humanitarian crisis. One of the countries that has provided arms and logistic support to the aggressors particularly Saudi Arabia is the US.
Now American arms dealers face a lawsuit. They have been sued for aiding and abetting war crimes in the Arab country.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the victims of two separate bombings in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, one for a wedding in 2015 and another for a funeral in 2016.
According to human rights groups, in October 2015 a group of Yemeni people were preparing to celebrate the wedding of a relative when a coalition jet bombed the area, killing 43 innocent people, including 13 women and 16 children.
A year later, Saudi-led coalition jets dropped a US manufactured laser guided bomb on a crowded funeral killing over 100 civilians.
The Yemeni plaintiffs are filing the lawsuit under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, a US law that allows victims of torture to sue for compensation from their tormentors if the accused are in the US.
The lawsuit names the Saudi and Emirati leaders under the Alien Tort Statute, a law that grants federal courts jurisdiction over violations of international law.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Yemeni nationals, alleges that Western manufactured bombs have killed over 25,000 civilians since the beginning of the Western backed war nearly eight years ago.
In December, the UN declared that at least 11,000 children had been killed or maimed during the war, adding that the true toll of this conflict is likely to be far higher.
The lawsuit comes more than a month after the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in January said it could be taking legal action against the UK government over its arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the ongoing war in Yemen.
The Saudi-led war in Yemen has turned the lives of Yemeni people into a nightmare.
A human rights group says the nearly eight-year long Saudi-led war on Yemen has claimed the lives of well over 3,000 children.
Of that number, nine children were killed under torture, the Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations said.
Earlier this week, more than 70 rights groups came together to protest against Washington’s support for the war in several states across America.
The United States remains involved in enabling the military actions of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen with US military contractors providing direct support in the form of spare parts and maintenance for approximately two thirds of the Royal Saudi Air Force.
Without this assistance, these aircraft would quickly become non operational.
The Saudi-led coalition launched a wide ranging aerial bombing campaign carrying out thousands of airstrikes.
Yemen’s information minister says the US is responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in the Arab country.
Coalition forces also imposed an economic blockade on Yemen, including a sea and air blockade, worsening economic conditions for millions of Yemenis.
Meanwhile, the United States has no sufficiently compelling interest in Yemen that would justify its involvement in the worst humanitarian crisis in the World.
US military aid has failed to upset the balance of the conflict. The Saudi-led air war has proven largely futile.
The original objective of the Saudi-led coalition was to defeat the popular Ansarullah movement and restore the ousted Western backed president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, to power.
However, this appears increasingly unlikely as Ansarullah has consolidated its control in Yemen.
Ansarullah has been battling terrorist groups on the one hand and defending the country’s territorial integrity on the other.
Senior Yemeni politicians have regularly declared that the US has sent weapons shipments for the Saudis amounting to tens of billions of dollars along with other means of support such as intelligence and training.
Yemeni officials have always referred to their enemies as the US-Saudi coalition due to Washington’s full support for Riyadh in its war against the innocent people of Yemen.
An Oxfam report, which analysed 1,727 attacks on Yemeni civilians since the start of 2021, shows that at least 839 civilians were killed and 1,775 others were wounded during this time.
- Meanwhile, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi has lauded the progress that the country’s scientists have secured in the field of medical equipment and medicines despite decades of sanctions.
‘The achievements of the country in the area of producing knowledge-based medical equipment is a source of pride,’ he said on Wednesday while addressing the inauguration of ‘Mahdi Clinic’ Hospital in the capital Tehran.
Iranian officials in the past used to introduce carpets as the country’s product during their trips abroad, Raeisi said, adding that he is ‘proudly’ willing to take medical equipment made by young Iranian scientists to foreign states.
Known as the biggest medical project of the country after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Mahdi Clinic is equipped with nearly 1,000 beds as well as advanced medical equipment.
The growing interest that the younger generations show in medical branches at universities points to the importance of this field and the need to use this opportunity for improving medical science in Iran, he said, adding that the country should become a hub of medical science in the region and in the world.
The remarks come as Iran has made significant progress in the area of manufacturing pharmaceuticals and medical equipment as well as training physicians in the past four decades.
This progress was seen when scientists developed a vaccine for Covid-19 or other required equipment such as ventilators amid the pandemic as other countries were refusing to export them to Iran.
Implementing a comprehensive healthcare system in the past few decades, Iran has practically improved accessibility of healthcare for all as according to figures, more than 90% of the rural population have access to affordable healthcare.
Meanwhile, manufacturing the required medicines was seriously followed after the Islamic Revolution.
This made Iran from an importer of drugs to an exporter that is currently meeting some 97% of its pharmaceutical needs by relying on domestic capabilities.
Back in early July 2022, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said Iran has the strongest health system in the region.
This success is the result of the resistance of the people, as well as the round-the-clock efforts of scientists and innovative youths, he said.
In the past, people used to go to other countries for treatment, but today Iran has achieved so much in the field of health that many patients in the region travel to the country for treatment, the minister said.
