JORDAN’S King Abdullah II told CNBC television news network last week that he supports the formation of a NATO-style military alliance in the Middle East region.
He said: ‘The kingdom works actively with NATO and sees itself as a partner of the alliance, having fought shoulder-to-shoulder with NATO troops for decades.’
The Jordanian monarch expressed his desire to see ‘more countries in the area come into that mix.’
‘I would be one of the first people that would endorse a Middle East NATO,’ he added. King Abdullah said the vision and mission statement for such a military alliance must ‘be very clear, and its role should be well defined. Otherwise, it confuses everybody.’
US President Joe Biden is due to travel to the Middle East next month, during which time he will visit the Israeli-occupied territories and the West Bank, followed by a trip to Saudi Arabia.
His visit to form a Middle East NATO organisation is a direct threat to Iran, the Palestinian revolution and the struggle for Arab liberation.
It takes place just after the World Food Programme (WFP) announced further dramatic cuts to food aid in Yemen. A new UN report says more than 19 million Yemenis are now facing hunger, setting a new record since the beginning of the devastating Saudi-led, US-supported war on Yemen in 2015.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that funding cuts are hampering its ability to help people in need, including 160,000 Yemenis who are on the verge of starvation. ‘Five million people will now receive less than half of their daily requirement, and eight million people will receive less than one-third of their daily requirement,’ the OCHA said.
The World Food Programme announced on Sunday that it was forced into further dramatic cuts to food aid in Yemen as a result of not receiving enough funding, global economic conditions, and the continued knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine.
‘Critical funding gaps, global inflation and the knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine have forced @WFP in #Yemen to make some extremely tough decisions about the support we provide to our beneficiaries,’ the organisation said on Twitter.
Political commentator Hussein al-Bukhaiti says Saudi Arabia is in fact openly violating the truce deal because the agreement allows the entry of 18 fuel ships into the Hudaydah port.
The OCHA also said UNICEF may have to stop treatment for more than 50,000 severely malnourished children by July, adding that the UN body will suspend maternal and child health support which help up to 2.5 million children and 100,000 women by then.
The UN has described the situation in Yemen as the world’s ‘worst humanitarian crisis,’ caused by seven years of war and a cruel siege launched by Riyadh and its regional allies against the poor Middle Eastern country.
Since then, the Saudi-led coalition has repeatedly prevented the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid and fuel to Yemeni ports.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands are homeless and going hungry after a massive earthquake killed thousands last Wednesday.
Most survivors on the hit area now live outdoors with no food or water available. Ehsanullah Ehsan is a security officer in Barmal district. He said: ‘The urgent need is to rebuild the houses … but what is certain is that without the help of the international community we will not be able to do it.’
The international community however is not helping, it is taking its revenge on the Afghan people who defeated the military forces of both the USA and the UK to gain their liberation. Without access to clean drinking water, health authorities fear that cholera will spread among survivors of the deadly earthquake.
In a rare move, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah has pleaded with the international community and humanitarian organisations ‘to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort’.
But the international community is not listening. They are taking revenge for their historic defeat.
Workers trade unions in the West must demand that their governments aid the Afghan people, and that the US and the UK must give up their plot to establish a NATO organisation in the Middle East.
What the Middle East needs is workers revolutions that will see to it that the colossal wealth of the region is used for the benefit of the peoples of the region.
