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US must force Saudi Arabia to lift Yemen blockade: Activist

Friday, 02 November 2018 2:37 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 02 November 2018 2:40 PM ]

A Yemeni man carries boxes containing bottles of cooking oil in the northern province of Hajjah on September 25, 2018, as Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hudaydah receive humanitarian aid donated by the World Food Programme. (Photo by AFP)

The United States should force Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade on Yemen if it is serious about restoring peace to the impoverished Arab nation, says an activist.

“We know from the beginning of this war for almost four years, most of the Saudi airstrikes have been conducted in rural areas, killing tens of thousands of civilians and US statement actually hasn’t said anything about one of the major killing machine on Yemenis which is the Saudi-led coalition blockade … So if the United States really is serious about bringing peace in Yemen, they must first demand or actually have pressure or just ask the Saudis to stop the blockade and to allow food and medicine coming into Yemen,” Hussein al-Bukhaiti told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

On Tuesday, American officials called for a ceasefire in Yemen and demanded that the sides to the conflict come to the negotiating table within a month.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis said the US had been watching the conflict “for long enough,” and that he believed Saudi Arabia and the UAE were ready for talks.

Mattis’ call was later echoed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who urged the coalition to stop airstrikes in Yemen’s populated areas, saying the “time is now for the cessation of hostilities.”

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The offensive, coupled with a naval blockade, has destroyed Yemen's infrastructure and led to famine as well as a cholera outbreak in the import-dependent state. Tens of thousands of people have also lost their lives in the conflict.