US, UAE support for Saudi-Yemen war stopping?

This 13 July 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

House Passes Bill to Halt US Support for Yemen War, UAE Withdraws Troops

The war in Yemen could end, if U.S. and United Arab Emirates’ support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen is truly over. However, the House NDAA bill still faces a major hurdle in the Senate. If those who want US military involvement to end pressure Congress, it can be done, says CodePink‘s Medea Benjamin.

U.A.E. Pulls Most Forces From Yemen in Blow to Saudi War Effort: here.

‘Most forces’ unfortunately is not yet all forces.

If all UAE forces would withdraw from the Yemen war, that would be the end of their sexual torture prisons for Yemenis, run jointly with Saudi forces and United States forces.

It would also be end of UAE parents having to mourn as their conscript sons come home in coffins.

From TRTworld.com:

Is the UAE pulling out of the Yemen war?

4 July 2019

Reports about a military drawdown come at a time when the UAE is deeply involved in the complex conflict and faces global scrutiny over its role.

In the last few days, two international news organisations have reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is drawing down troops from Yemen.

First reported by Reuters and then by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the stories based on anonymous western diplomatic sources say UAE soldiers are being called back to strengthen security at home as tensions rise in the region between the United States and Iran.

The UAE, they say, is also under pressure by European and American politicians who are angry over the humanitarian disaster in Yemen’s prolonged war.

But neither the UAE nor its Yemeni proxies have officially acknowledged any military withdrawal.

…“Reports that UAE is withdrawing its forces from Yemen should never be understood as a sign of UAE completely ending their fight in Yemen war and becoming fully interested in finding a political solution to the conflict”, says Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni-Swedish journalist. …

On the ground, especially in southern Yemen, the UAE has been more active, funding and controlling different militias including Colombian mercenaries with the ostensibly stated aim of ‘fighting Al Qaeda’.

However, multiple reports over the years have come out that say that the UAE often arms and pays militants for its own purposes.

“They didn’t come here to fight extremist groups”, says Albukhaiti …

“Al Qaeda is running freely in areas controlled by the UAE and the coalition. The only place where the group is not active is under the control of Houthis.”

In a report last year, Amnesty International said there were dozens of cases where people were tortured in secret prisons run by UAE-backed forces.

Nasser, who is also the editor of Sanaa Review, says UAE runs a paramilitary force known as the ‘The Security Belt’ that is outside the rule of … the Saudis …

“So, even if the UAE decreased its forces, it still has a huge security apparatus across southern Yemen.” …

However, for the locals, the distrust runs deep.

“Dubai was in control of the Aden port for years, and they destroyed it,” says Albukhaiti.

Yemen signed a contract with [UAE] DP World to run the Red Sea port in 2008 but cancelled it a few years later saying Dubai’s port operator had not met the investment commitment.

“That is why they focus on the south; they are interested in the Socotra Island, they want to control the coast”, says Albukhaiti.

Whatever the geopolitics of the conflict, it has taken a heavy toll on the Yemeni people.

Homes, farms, shops and schools – all have been attacked since the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula descended into chaos.

Depending on which source you pick, between 7,000 and 68,000 people have been killed in the war, many in relentless Saudi air raids, which have at times hit unsuspecting civilians during funerals and weddings.

The NGO Save the Children estimates that 37 children have been killed or injured on average every month last year in bombings from air raids.

That’s on top of what it reported earlier about the 80,000 kids who died because of malnourishment between 2015 and 2018. …

Over the years, the Saudis have violated international humanitarian law by using excessive air power, according to the UN.

Last month, a court in the UK ruled that that government’s deal to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia was illegal as the weapons were being used against civilians.

Earlier, the government of Morocco stopped participating in the Saudi war.

It would be good if Sudan would also withdraw its soldiers, mostly child soldiers sent there by dictator Bashir, from Yemen.

Libyan bloodbath with imported weapons, UAE soldiers

This 23 May 2019 video says about itself:

Eastern Libya’s renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar has ruled out a ceasefire, saying he wants to get rid of groups from the capital that have “infested” the United Nations-backed government during a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

When the question of a ceasefire was mentioned during the meeting, Haftar asked quote: ‘negotiate with whom for a ceasefire’ end of quote.

Khalifa Haftar rejected suggestions he or forces loyal to him were benefiting from oil sales in the east of the country.

Macron and French officials have for weeks repeated their official support for the Government of National Accord based in Tripoli and have called for an unconditional ceasefire. But some European countries, including France, have also supported Haftar …

The battle for Tripoli has killed at least 510 people, forced 75,000 out of their homes, trapped thousands of migrants in detention centers, and flattened some southern suburbs.

It has also forced closures of schools, split families on different sides of the front line, and brought power cuts.

The flare-up in the conflict in Libya – which has been gripped by anarchy since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011 – began in early April, when Haftar’s Libyan National Army advanced on the capital Tripoli. The LNA is now bogged down in southern suburbs by fighters loyal to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA).

Translated from Dutch daily De Volkskrant, 26 May 2019:

In Tunisia, a United Nations expert has been sued for espionage. Colleague academics suspect that he knows too much about foreign arms support to Libya. Many countries, including western ones, have shown little difficulty in violating the UN arms embargo. The UN envoy for Libya is not really hopeful: “The arms for Libya are coming in from all sides. All parties send weapons.”

The charge of espionage in Tunisia against a UN weapons expert, Moncef Kartas, sheds light on the involvement of other states in the power struggle in Libya. Colleague academics suspect that he had discovered too much about the dubious role of a foreign power that is said to have prompted the Tunisian authorities to take action.

The suspicion goes primarily to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is hardly a secret that the Emirates give Libyan field marshal Khalifa Haftar large-scale arms support, in violation of the UN embargo on Libya. The six-member UN panel of which Kartas is a member mentioned that two years ago in a report.

However, many more players are active. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, … and France are also behind Haftar. Members of the Macron government have opemly expressed their admiration for the ambitious warlord, who has conquered much of Libya.

But also the other camp, the UN-recognized Sarraj government, receives plenty of foreign support, for example from Qatar. “And Turkey has recently been very active in violating the arms embargo,” says researcher Jalal Harchaoui of [the Dutch] Clingendael [institute]. Turkey is also on the side of the government in Tripoli. …

Here, the Volkskrant article should also have mentioned the support for the Tripoli government by the right-wing Salvini government in Italy, the former colonial power in Libya. Like the French Macron government wants Libyan oil for the French Total corporation, the Salvini government wants Libyan oil for the Italian ENI corporation.

The UN panel, which monitors compliance with the arms embargo against Libya, has previously noted that, in particular, Field Marshal Haftar benefits from embargo violations. …

In the annual report for 2018 to the Security Council, the UN panel had already carefully pointed out the accumulation of weapons in eastern Libya: armored vehicles, trucks, machine guns, mortars and rocket launchers. The panel also published critical information on Haftar. … Haftar’s son is said to have stolen millions of Libya’s central bank money. …

At the end of April, it was announced that the panel is investigating missile attacks on Tripoli, carried out by the Emirates army as part of Haftar’s offensive. …

UAE soldiers operate from the Al Khadim base in eastern Libya.

From africanews.com, 14 May 2019:

UNHCR warns against deportation to Libya as fighting continues

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has asked that nobody be returned to Libya as fighting continues in the capital Tripoli.

A spokesman for the UNHCR, Charlie Yaxley, said on Tuesday that returning people to the North African nation cannot be considered a rescue.

“In the past week, around 944 people are known to have departed in boats from the Libyan coast. We know that 65 drowned in an incident off Tunisia, but of the survivors, 65 percent were subsequently disembarked in Libya. The UNHCR has repeatedly called that at this time nobody should be returned to Libya, there are no safe ports there and we cannot consider this to be a rescue if people are being returned to dire conditions inside Tripoli detention centres”, Yaxley said.

A group of aid agencies also called for a U.N. resolution to support people caught up in fighting around Tripoli.

The U.N says 66,000 people have been forced out of their homes and at least 454 others killed since April 5.

New York University links to UAE dictatorship

This 18 September 2017 Gulf Human Rights Committee video says about itself:

Short film about human rights abuses by the government of the UAE against democracy activists, foreign businessmen, and their families.

By Josh Varlin in the USA:

New York University faculty defends academic freedom against NYU’s ties to UAE

8 December 2018

Dozens of New York University faculty gathered December 3 in a forum to voice their concerns over the NYU administration’s response to the case of Matthew Hedges, a British academic who was imprisoned for months in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on trumped-up charges. Despite an open letter —presently signed by 224 faculty, staff and PhD students—demanding NYU President Andrew Hamilton condemn Hedges’s arrest and take measures to secure academic freedom, NYU continues to cover for the UAE government.

Given NYU’s role in the UAE, where it has a degree-granting campus in Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), the silence of the administration amounts to complicity. The UAE gave $50 million to the construction of the NYUAD campus, and a high-ranking member of the UAE government sits on the NYU Board of Trustees. His fellow board members are an ignominious group of New York City multimillionaires and billionaires, including several who sit on the boards of imperialist think tanks like the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

After an international outcry, including the NYU faculty letter, Hedges was hastily pardoned and allowed to the leave the UAE. He has since explained to the Telegraph that after he was sentenced, he was interrogated yet again, prompting suicidal ideation. While he was imprisoned, his captors administered both tranquilizers and stimulants to him without proper medical supervision, leaving Hedges suffering from withdrawal symptoms in the UK.

At the faculty forum, titled “NYU, UAE, & Academic Freedom”, three faculty members who had experience with NYUAD and the UAE government spoke, followed by contributions from the floor. The common theme was that academic freedom was anything but sacrosanct in both the UAE and at NYUAD, and that the NYU administration is fully aware yet continues to claim otherwise.

The first of the main speakers was Lauren Minsky, assistant professor of history, who taught at NYUAD from its opening in 2010 until this year. She was followed by Andrew Ross, professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and director of American Studies, who was barred from the UAE in 2015 due to his research on labor conditions in the country. Arang Keshavarzian, associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies, was the last of the main speakers. Keshavarzian was denied a security clearance by the UAE last year and was therefore unable to teach in the country.

While the arrest of Hedges was a nodal point in the attacks on academic freedom by the UAE, it was hardly the first time academics had been harassed for their work by the federation of sheikdoms. Minsky provided a timeline of the sordid NYU-UAE “partnership”, including how NYU walked back on promises of academic freedom shortly after the campus began operations by creating a facile distinction between academic freedom and freedom of speech.

Minsky described how, after her arrival in the UAE, she noticed how the boxes containing her research materials had been opened and everything was in disarray. “They had clearly gone through everything”, she noted. Some of her husband’s English- and Hebrew-language books were confiscated. She described extensive “direct harassment of faculty teaching at NYU Abu Dhabi”, Minsky noted that she was followed for hours in her car—with her infant on board—by an unmarked vehicle that she believes was associated with the regime’s security services.

Harassment has only escalated over the past couple of years, Minsky told the meeting, with the campus suddenly declared a “public space” by the government. All public events that people unaffiliated with NYU could attend had to be approved. “From my perspective, it’s almost like the [UAE] government is taking over the institution, and I don’t say that lightly”, she explained.

Ross emphasized that genuine academic freedom extends to speech that is critical of university administrations and extends beyond the walls of the university. “One of the duties or obligations of our profession’s members is to share our knowledge and opinions with the public”, he said.

The secrecy around the Memorandum of Understanding between NYU and the UAE—which has never been made public—was the “original sin” of NYUAD he said: “The ‘original sin’ of non-transparency determined the character of these operations from there on. … That original sin has made it all the more likely that something very, very bad will happen sooner rather than later at NYU Abu Dhabi. And in my mind that’s almost a certainty.”

Ross also noted that this was hardly exclusive to NYUAD, referencing how Israeli law now prohibits entry to members of pro-Palestinian groups, including groups with an organizational presence at NYU. Thus, it isn’t legally possible for all NYU students to study at NYU Tel Aviv, something also noted by a subsequent student speaker of Palestinian origin.

Keshavarzian stressed that the UAE was an absolutist monarchy from its founding in 1971 through to NYU’s decision to construct a liberal arts college in the country, and remains so today. However, the UAE’s authoritarianism made NYUAD possible, including the brutal exploitation of labor to construct the campus. “NYU entered into this arrangement because of the UAE’s illiberal system, not despite it”, Keshavarzian explained.

Regarding the denial of his security clearance in 2017, Keshavarzian asked: “Was I denied entry because I was born in Iran and I was asked to identify myself as a Shiite Muslim, or was I denied entry because of what I teach, research or write? I do not know, and allegedly the UAE government won’t tell NYU. … If it was the former, then it is a simple case of discrimination based on my ethnicity; if it is the later, it is a simple and gross violation of academic freedom.”

The general response of the NYU administration to faculty having their academic freedom and democratic rights restricted by the UAE was to sweep it under the rug. Keshavarzian noted that most of the communication with him regarding his security clearance denial came in the form of phone calls rather than e-mails, and that Hamilton “has never once picked up the telephone to talk to me, or Mohamad [Bazzi, another professor denied a security clearance by the UAE in 2017].”

The three speakers were followed by contributions from the floor. While the faculty had invited members of the administration, including Hamilton and Provost Katherine Fleming, they did not attend.

Toward the end of the discussion, John Archer, a professor of English and one of the organizers behind the open letter to Hamilton, proposed a motion that was amended and then supported overwhelmingly in a resolution that called on the NYU administration to “uphold the principles of academic freedom at NYU’s global sites and protect anyone who has experienced explicit threats to their academic freedom and personal safety” and to make public NYU’s Memorandum of Understanding with the UAE.

The resolution proposed a monitoring committee of faculty, staff and students. independent of the NYU administration, to oversee these demands and to create a secure whistleblowing website that would air “concerns about threats to or violations of academic freedom, violations of policies regarding labor, and the like” by the UAE government.

A representative of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality addressed the meeting at the end and stressed how the UAE is cracking down on academic freedom during its bloody intervention in Yemen and how attacks on democratic rights are taking place internationally—including the repression of the French “yellow vest” protests and the attacks on immigrants at the US-Mexico border. If democratic rights are to be defended at NYU and elsewhere, it must be based on an international strategy oriented to the working class, he stressed.

The IYSSE at NYU will discuss these issues at its next meeting, “NYU Administration Backs the UAE: The Way Forward to Defend Academic Freedom”, which will be on Tuesday, December 11 , at 6:30 p.m. in room 910 of the Kimmel Center at NYU. Faculty, students, staff and others seeking a socialist strategy to defend democratic rights are invited to attend.

British Conservatives soft on UAE human rights violations

This photo shows British Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May shaking hands with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) member state Abu Dhabi in 2017.

The UAE participates in the bloody war by Saudi Arabia on the people of Yemen. There are UAE torture jails for imprisoned Yemenis. Like Saudi Arabia and other Saudi coalition states, eg Bahrain, the UAE wages its war on Yemen with, eg, British weapons.

By Ceren Sagir in Britain:

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Tories put relations with UAE above welfare of its citizens, says wife of jailed academic

THE British government is putting its relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before the welfare of one of its citizens, the wife of a jailed academic charged today.

Daniela Tejada condemned the Foreign Office over its handling of the case of British citizen Matthew Hedges, who has been locked up for life in the UAE over allegations of spying.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who met the UAE British ambassador today, said he had threatened the UAE with “serious diplomatic consequences” if Mr Hedges is not freed as there is “absolutely no evidence” to support the charge.

But Ms Tejada said Britain had “failed” to take a strong position from the start.

She said: “I was under the impression they were putting their interests with the UAE above a British citizen’s rightful freedom and his welfare. They were stepping on eggshells instead of taking a firm stance.

“I believe that they should have taken a firmer stance from the beginning, if not publicly then through their private representations.”

Ms Tejada added that she believes Britain should stop at nothing to free the “innocent” Mr Hedges, who was imprisoned on “completely fabricated” evidence.

Mr Hedges, a Middle Eastern studies specialist at Durham University, was arrested at Dubai Airport in May and has been held in solitary confinement since. His family claims his “mental and physical health seriously deteriorated” while in confinement.

A Foreign Office spokesman did not say what form any possible diplomatic consequences could take other than that a number of options are available.

Will the British Conservative government seriously consider the option of stopping to sell the UAE autocracy British weapons for the disastrous war in Yemen? And stopping to train UAE army officers in Britain? And stopping to train UAE torturers? I hope so, but I don’t count on it.

British government inaction ends in life sentence for PhD student in UAE: here.

UAE: call on Grand Prix drivers and fans to tweet support for jailed student Matthew Hedges: here.

UPDATE: Spy charges: UAE gives Matthew Hedges a presidential pardon. British academic, who was accused of spying on behalf of his government, to be freed as part of a national day amnesty: here.

Academics at New York University condemned the life sentence handed down to British academic Matthew Hedges by the United Arab Emirates for supposed espionage in an open letter to NYU President Andrew Hamilton. While Hedges has since been granted clemency following international outrage, his case underscores the contempt with which the UAE government—with which New York University has deep ties—views academic freedom: here.

Dutch army helps UAE war on Yemen

This November 2017 video says about itself:

150 children die every day in Yemen as Saudi Arabia has implemented a vicious bombing campaign and has blockaded the country from land, air, and sea. 7 million people are threatened by famine leading many organizations to say that what is happening in Yemen has the makings of a ‘genocide’.

From Stop wapenhandel (Stop the arms trade) in the Netherlands (translated):

UAE army elite unit involved in war in Yemen comes to train in the Netherlands

June 26, 2018 – The Presidential Guard of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a military elite unit that plays an important role in the war in Yemen, will participate next week in the Non-Conventional Threat (NCT) Europe event in Vught.(1) This event is organized in collaboration with the Dutch armed forces and takes place at its National CBRN Training Center.(2)

Stop Wapenhandel finds it incomprehensible that an army unit which participates in a war in which human rights are brutally violated is welcome in the Netherlands for military training.

The UAE‘s Presidential Guard is not just any army unit: it is the leading unit in the war that the Emirates are waging in Yemen as part of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia. According to the United Nations and human rights organizations, this coalition is committing war crimes on a large scale, eg, by bombing hospitals.

The humanitarian situation for the citizens of Yemen is disastrous, partly due to a sea blockade that leads to the first necessities of life and relief goods being unable to reach the country. Oxfam Novib warned earlier this month that millions of people in Yemen are threatened by food shortages and contagious diseases. The war cost the lives of more than 10,000 people, mainly ordinary citizens. For this reason, the Dutch government pursues a cautious arms export policy for countries involved in the war in Yemen.(3) A seriously cautious policy should also apply to training of soldiers who play an important role in this war.

Notes:

(1) The NCT Europe event focuses on training for reactions and protections against the use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. The event will be opened by Inspector-General of the Armed Forces (IGK) Lieutenant General Hans van Griensven. In addition to training and lectures, there is a trade fair with various military and security companies. The organization of NCT Europe is in the hands of the Leiden IB Consultancy, which collaborates with the Ministry of Defense.

(2) It is not the first time that Defense has gone wrong in this way. In 2016, the Commander of the Naval Forces invited Saudi Arabia, the driving force behind the war in Yemen, to participate in the MAST arms fair in Amsterdam. In response to parliamentary questions, then Minister Hennis merely said that “bilateral contacts with the Saudi Arabian Navy” are independent of a restrictive arms export policy. The Dutch Socialist Party last week discussed the participation of the Presidential Guard in the Vught training in a parliamentary debate. Minister Blok would reply to this by letter.

(3) The Dutch government pursues a cautious arms export policy for countries involved in the war in Yemen, but refuses to proceed to a full arms embargo. For example, the export of SOTAS military communication systems for tanks to Saudi Arabia produced by Thales Netherlands is not completely stopped. The Abrams tanks in question are frequently used in Yemen. The government also issued a new permit last month for the export of radar equipment for a frigate for the Egyptian navy, despite the participation of this navy in the sea blockade of Yemen.

UAE ‘SUPPLYING ARMS’ TO MILITIAS IN YEMEN The United Arab Emirates is “recklessly” supplying militias waging war in Yemen with an array of advanced weaponry, according to an investigation published by Amnesty International. [CNN]

UAE occupiers’ sexual torture of Yemenis

This video from the USA says about itself:

Yemenis Accuse UAE Officers of Sexual Torture Inside Secret Prisons

21 June 2018

A new investigation has uncovered rampant sexual violence against Yemeni prisoners held in prisons run by the United Arab Emirates in Yemen.

The Associated Press reports that in March, 15 officers lined up the prisoners in the southern city of Aden and ordered them to undress before searching their anal cavities, claiming they were looking for contraband cell phones. The prisoners screamed and cried and those who resisted were beaten and threatened by dogs.

Hundreds of prisoners reportedly suffered similar abuse. A Pentagon spokesman quoted in the piece said the allegations were not substantiated. The UAE is a key ally of the United States and has partnered with Saudi Arabia in its military assault on Yemen.

YEMEN FREES JAILED JOURNALIST Authorities in southern Yemen released jailed journalist Adel Al-Hasani, who contributed to international coverage of the crisis in Yemen. HuffPost broke the news of Al-Hasani’s detention on Feb. 8. His six-month imprisonment and mistreatment directly implicate the U.S. and its close partner, the United Arab Emirates. [HuffPost]

UAE human rights activist gets ten years imprisonment

GCHR confirms shocking news that our board member @Ahmed_Mansoor, @martinennals winner, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in #UAE . Total disregard for fair trial standards & right to free expression #FreeAhmed @HHShkMohd @AntonioPanzeri @ForstMichel @StateDept @FCOHumanRights pic.twitter.com/u35T9dUNuV

— GC4HR (@GulfCentre4HR) May 30, 2018

Translated from Dutch NOS TV, 30 April 2018:

In the United Arab Emirates, human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor has been sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence. He also has to pay an around 250,000 euros fine.

Mansoor has been locked up for more than a year; he was removed from his bed in March last year and has since been detained at an unknown location. International human rights organizations have condemned his detention widely and claim that he was arrested because of his criticism of the government and because of his contacts with human rights organizations. …

Human Rights Watch says in a first reaction that the verdict shows that the country can not deal with “even the mildest criticism by a real reformer”.

Torture

Human rights organizations wrote in a joint statement in March that they have indications that Mansoor was isolated in a cell all this time. He is said to also have been exposed to other forms of torture. Contact with his family was barely facilitated and the authorities did not allow him to have his own lawyer. Two lawyers from Ireland who were engaged by the organizations were misguided in the United Arab Emirates, so a meeting did not happen.

No more Norwegian, still US, British weapons for war on Yemen

This video from the USA says about itself:

Norway Halts Weapons Sales in Yemen War, Citing Humanitarian Crisis, as US & Britain Continue Supply

4 January 2018

Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday the country will stop supplying weapons and ammunition to the
United Arab Emirates, citing “great concern” over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen for nearly three years. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Britain continue to supply the Saudis with billions of dollars’ worth of weapons. The U.S. also provides logistical military support to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi air campaign has killed more than 10,000 civilians in Yemen and displaced more than 3 million. More than 80 percent of Yemenis now lack food, fuel, water and access to healthcare. We speak with journalist Iona Craig, who was based in Sana’a from 2010 to 2015 as the Yemen correspondent for The Times of London. She was awarded the 2016 Orwell Prize for her reporting on Yemen.

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Norway stops selling weapons for Yemen war

This 2015 video from the United Arab Emirates shows relatives of conscript soldiers, forced by the dictatorial regime to fight in the bloody war in Yemen, crying after their loved ones returned in coffins.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Norway halts arms sales to Emirates over Yemen invasion

NORWAY suspended arms exports to the United Arab Emirates today over its role in the invasion of Yemen.

Oslo called the move a “precautionary line” based on its assessment of the devastating situation in Yemen, where the Saudi-led nine-nation coalition, which includes the UAE, has killed more than 10,000 civilians and displaced three million in nearly three years of war.

The coalition was formed in 2015 to fight Houthi rebels who now control much of northern Yemen and the capital Sana’a.

Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said she had “no information” that any of Norway’s military exports had been used in Yemen, but she acknowledged “great concern” over the humanitarian crisis there.

However, Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang published a video released by Houthi forces yesterday, allegedly showing a “US spy submarine” they had seized.

The newspaper said the vehicle was a REMUS 600 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle made by Norway’s Kongsberg group.

This 1 January 2018 video shows the Norwegian REMUS 600 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle captured in Yemen.

Norway has sold weapons and ammunition to UAE since 2010. Its arms exports to the Gulf state totalled 79 million Norwegian crowns (£7.2m) in 2016 alone, up from 41 million (£3.7m) in 2015, Statistics Norway data showed.

On Tuesday, the Sana’a government called for an independent and impartial international commission to investigate war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition, the Saba news agency reported.

The Ministry of Human Rights urged the United Nations and the UN security council to press the coalition to end the war, lift the blockade and work towards a political solution to the regional crisis.

The ministry condemned the New Year’s Eve coalition raid in western Hodeidah province on the Red Sea that reportedly killed 34 civilians.

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UAE hacking of Qatari government Internet sites

This video says about itself:

U.S. Believes UAE Orchestrated Hacking That Sparked Gulf Crisis

16 July 2017

The U.S. intelligence community believes that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) orchestrated the hacking incident that sparked the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and Gulf countries, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. James Valles reports. (BNO News)

From the Washington Post in the USA:

UAE orchestrated hacking of Qatari government sites, sparking regional upheaval, according to U.S. intelligence officials

By Karen DeYoung and Ellen Nakashima

July 16 at 6:25 PM

The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in order to post incendiary false quotes attributed to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, in late May that sparked the ongoing upheaval between Qatar and its neighbors, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Officials became aware last week that newly analyzed information gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that on May 23, senior members of the UAE government discussed the plan and its implementation. The officials said it remains unclear whether the UAE carried out the hacks itself or contracted to have them done. The false reports said that the emir, among other things, had called Iran an “Islamic power” and praised Hamas.

The hacks and posting took place on May 24, shortly after President Trump completed a lengthy counterterrorism meeting with Persian Gulf leaders in neighboring Saudi Arabia and declared them unified.

Citing the emir’s reported comments, the Saudis, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt immediately banned all Qatari media. They then broke relations with Qatar and declared a trade and diplomatic boycott, sending the region into a political and diplomatic tailspin that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned could undermine U.S. counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State [ISIS].

In a statement released in Washington by its ambassador, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE said the Post article was “false.”

“The UAE had no role whatsoever in the alleged hacking described in the article,” the statement said. “What is true is Qatar’s behavior. Funding, supporting, and enabling extremists from the Taliban to Hamas and Qadafi.

Even if these UAE accusations would happen to be true, then it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. As the UAE used to be one of only three countries (including also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, not including Qatar) to recognize the Taliban regime in Kabul, Afghanistan; and as Qatar’s armed forces played a prominent role in the NATO regime change war in Libya, which caused the murder of Qadafi and the present bloodbath after bloodbath.

Inciting violence, encouraging radicalization, and undermining the stability of its neighbors.”

The revelations come as emails purportedly hacked from Otaiba’s private account have circulated to journalists over the past several months. That hack has been claimed by an apparently pro-Qatari organization calling itself GlobalLeaks. Many of the emails highlight the UAE’s determination over the years to rally Washington thinkers and policymakers to its side on the issues at the center of its dispute with Qatar.

All of the Persian Gulf nations are members of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. More than 10,000 U.S. troops are based at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base, the U.S. Central Command’s regional headquarters, and Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. All are purchasers of U.S. defense equipment and tied to U.S. foreign policy priorities in numerous ways.

The conflict has also exposed sharp differences between Trump — who has clearly taken the Saudi and UAE side in a series of tweets and statements — and Tillerson, who has urged compromise and spent most of last week in shuttle diplomacy among the regional capitals that has been unsuccessful so far. …

U.S. intelligence and other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. …

In what the [US Donald Trump] administration hailed as a high point of the visit, the Saudis agreed to purchase $110 billion in U.S. arms and signed letters of intent to invest hundreds of billions in deals with U.S. companies.

He had told the Saudis in advance, Trump said in an interview Wednesday with the Christian Broadcasting Network, that the agreements and purchases were a prerequisite for his presence. “I said, you have to do that, otherwise I’m not going,” Trump recounted. …

The day after the boycott was announced, Trump indirectly took credit for it. “So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with King and 50 countries already paying off,” he tweeted. “They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar.” …

Qatar rejected the demands. Tillerson appeared to agree that they were draconian. But when he called for the boycott to be eased, saying it was causing both security and humanitarian hardship, Trump said the measure was harsh “but necessary.” …

Asked about Trump’s tweets and other comments, he [Tillerson] noted that being secretary of state “is a lot different than being CEO of Exxon,” his previous job, “because I was the ultimate decision-maker.”

This report is contrary to earlier accusations by CNN that Russia was behind the hacking.

Inside the alleged financial plot by the United Arab Emirates to steal the World Cup from Qatar.

U.S. HACKERS HELPED UAE SPY ON AL JAZEERA CHAIRMAN A group of American hackers who once worked for U.S. intelligence agencies helped the United Arab Emirates spy on a BBC host, the chairman of Al Jazeera and other prominent Arab media figures during a tense 2017 confrontation pitting the UAE and its allies against the Gulf state of Qatar. The American operatives worked for Project Raven, a secret Emirati intelligence program that spied on dissidents, militants and political opponents of the UAE monarchy. [Reuters]

Twitter users blast UAE over Emirates ban on Tunisian women: here.

UAE: human rights defender Obaid Al-Zaabi released over three years after being found innocent: here.

The UK government is being accused of fanning the flames of the Gulf crisis after it included both sides of the dispute in a newly published list of countries identified by officials as “priority markets” for the UK’s £12bn defence industry, Middle East Eye can reveal. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain are listed alongside regional rival Qatar on a list of 46 nations highlighted by Whitehall officials as potentially lucrative markets for weapons.

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