US Support for Saudi Aggression on Yemen Reinforced under Trump: Ex-UN Official

A former UN official and professor of international law highlighted the US role in “tragic situation” in Yemen and said Washington’s support for Riyadh’s aggression on the Arabian Peninsula country has increased under the presidency of Donald Trump.

“Since the presidency of Donald Trump, the US has reinforced its support for Saudi Arabia’s aggression against Yemen,” Richard A. Falk said.

“The nature of this aggression is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and of international law,” said Falk, who has served as the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.

Richard Anderson Falk is the author or co-author of 20 books and the editor or co-editor of another 20 volumes. In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”.

It is a sad and tragic situation, and reflects the inability of the international community to respond effectively and consistently to even the most severe humanitarian crises when, as here, major geopolitical obstacles exist. The role of Saudi Arabia in creating and aggravating this crisis in Yemen is central, and given Saudi leverage within the UN as reinforced by the backing of the United States, paralyzes all UN efforts to respond on behalf of the victimized Yemeni population. All in all, what the Yemen situation underscores is the primacy of geopolitics in the Middle East, which is mainly responsible for this terrible ordeal of human suffering being experienced by the civilian populations of several societies in the Arab world.