Yemeni Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf Abdullah has warned that the Arab League could collapse in the near future as the 22-member regional organization suffers from lack of concern and gross inaction in light of the crises that the Arab world is going through.
“Apathy will inevitably result in the complete collapse of the Arab League, because the organization has deviated from the path of the sublime objectives for which it was established, and that the body has failed to resolve inter-Arab conflicts and to preserve unity among Arab nations and states in the face of multiple plots and conspiracies, most notably the evil Zionist regime and its supporters in the Arab world,” Sharaf said in an interview with Yemen’s official Saba news agency on Tuesday.
The top Yemeni diplomat added, “Whilst international organizations and human rights groups have repeatedly condemned ongoing blatant and inhuman violations by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the Arab League and its Secretary-General [Ahmed Aboul Gheit] have turned a blind eye to the Saudi-led onslaught and tight blockade on Yemen, and have sought to justify the measures through flimsy excuses.”
Sharaf further argued that the Arab League has sided with wealthy Arab countries, which inject enormous sums of money into the organization and are involved in the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen instead of carrying out the tasks set out in its charter.
“Such a policy has turned the Arab League secretary-general and his staff into pawns in the hands of countries that attack the Yemeni nation and maintain a total blockade on Yemen’s entry ports,” he pointed out.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the regime of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement. The Riyadh regime and its partners enjoy arms supplies from their Western backers.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.
The Saudi regime has, however, failed to fulfill the objective of its deadly campaign.
The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.