UN must denounce Saudi war crimes in Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Tighe Barry, with the grassroots anti-war organization CODEPINK from Washington, on the relentless Saudi airstrikes against Yemen and the silence of the international community.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The thing is that this is a deadly milestone and the thing has been going on for almost 11 months. Now, what more need be done by the invading army of Saudi Arabia for the international community and international public opinion to come to the conclusion that enough is enough and to react to this and possibly hopefully bring the perpetrators of this genocide to justice?

Barry: Well, as you said, this has been 10 months too long, one day too long. The invasion by Saudi Arabia on the free nation of Yemen is just against all international norms and international law.

Every day we hear, every once in a while, we’ll hear a peep out of Secretary Kerry saying that there should be an end to this appalling bombing by Saudi Arabia, the indiscriminate bombing of women and children in Yemen. And then they also call Ansarullah a puppet of Iran, which there’s no proof of that whatsoever.

It’s time for the world community to stand up and denounce Saudi Arabia’s imperialist attacks on its neighbor and denounce it as these are war crimes, they are war crimes. Saudi Arabia at the same time is bombing a world heritage site. One of the oldest communities in the world is in Sana’a.

We all know that Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula and it is being bombed by the wealthiest country in the Arabian Peninsula and which is being supplied by the wealthiest country in the world – the United States – and being helped by logistics and its spy community.  This must stop. We try every day here in the United States.

Press TV: Well, speaking of stopping this, is there an international mechanism available to world countries to unanimously bring pressure on Saudi Arabia to put an end to that?

Barry: Well, I think we know that the UN, in a lot of ways, is a puppet of the Western powers and the UN is the only space. The ICC, the UN; there are very few resources that we can pull together. Just the inhumanity, all of the human rights organizations around the world denounce Saudi Arabia as being the aggressor and the oppressor in this situation.

And it’s just day in, day out, we’ve just recently had a protest at the Saudi embassy once again. I don’t know. I can’t really tell you. The UN does nothing, and it’s appalling. The Western European countries do nothing. And it’s true that the United States is helping to kill and murder people in Yemen.

Press TV: So, can it be said that the United Nations has been rendered somewhat incapable to do anything?

Barry: Well, I mean incapable means that they’ve tried. I haven’t seen any efforts by Ban Ki-moon or the world community to step up and even bring light to the fact that Saudi Arabia is there. I mean, it’s almost as if it doesn’t exist in the world press. This situation is very dire for the people of Yemen. They don’t have food, they don’t have water, they don’t have proper sanitation and they’re being bombed by one of the wealthiest people on the planet from 30,000 feet. These are cowardly acts, they’re criminal acts and they should be denounced.

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