Air strike against Yemen, violation of the international laws and act of aggression!

On Wednesday March 25, Saudi Arabia with the green lights given by the US imperialists and the support of the states such as Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arabic Emirates, Qatar .... , and by using the pretext of preventing the advance of "Shiite terrorists", began the bombardments of several cities and airports and many military bases of Shiite Houthi (Shiite Zaidi) under the name of Operations Decisive Storm. The Obama administration has openly supported the invasion of Yemen and has announced that the US will put its satellite data and intelligence facilities in the service of Saudi Arabia. The exact number of casualties is not yet known but reports suggest that most of those killed are civilians. Many public buildings are destroyed and thousands of people have left their homes and have taken refuge in the surrounding villages. These criminal and aggressive acts are in violation of the rights of nations and of the UN Charter, and are backed by the governments of Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, and supported shyly by the EU. The member states of “Gulf Cooperation Council-GCC” are participating in this aggression. Certainly, the continuation of the war on Yemen will cause some conflicts between the GCC members, particularly when it becomes a war of attrition. At the meeting of the Arab League, Iraq condemned the invasion of Yemen, Syria was not present, and Yemen did not have any delegation at the meeting except the Saudi puppet Mansour Hadi. Saudi Arabia was not able to dispatch the “Syrian Opposition “to this meeting.

The key questions are: what is the reason for bombing Yemen and what political-economical goals does it follow and what are its international and regional impacts?

- First, Yemen borders Saudi Arabia in the North and Oman in the East. The Yemeni government controls the Strait of Bab el-Mandab. This waterway is used for international transport of energy, particularly oil and gas and other products, from the Middle East and the Far East to European countries. Bab el-Mandab Strait is one of the most important international waterways and is connected to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The control of this strategic waterway is very important for the US imperialism. Several US military bases across the Strait, which is connected to the Horn of Africa (Djibouti), add to the strategic importance of the Strait.

- Second, the US imperialists have interfered in Yemen for many years, have bombed the city and village slums, and have killed hundreds of innocent men and women and children by using unmanned aircrafts (drones). But not only they failed to bring the situation under their control, they also have increasingly generated anger and disgust towards theirs aggressive policies and the policies followed by Saud Arabiai. The US has utilized all its power in order to preserve the export of energy resources, to provide the security for oil companies, to guarantee the value of dollar, and to secure its long term interests in Saudi Arabia. But despite all these efforts, its policies did not succeed, and sectarian conflict and insecurity and instability in Yemen continued. Al-Qaeda and ISIS that are strengthened by the US in Syria and Iraq and Lebanon are wishing to take power in Yemen and are opposing the Houthi resistance movement, a movement that has many Sunni individuals in its rank and which has significant influence in the society.

ISIS has repeatedly stated that the Houthi Movement is its main enemy and must be destroyed. The US and Saudi Arabia have common interest with ISIS in the destruction of Houthi Movement. The recent explosion in a mosque in Sana’a that killed more than 140 civilians is one of the criminal acts of ISIS - al-Qaeda in Yemen. This experience shows again that the imperialists and reactionaries are opposed only to an Islamic force that does not back their policies. While the imperialists promote Islamophobia in their countries, they are allies of ISIS and al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria, and Yemen.

Third, nearly forty percent of Yemen's 23 million populations are Shiites who have been discriminated against by the Saudi – supported Yemeni Sunni central government. Saudi Arabia considers Yemen as its backyard and flagrantly interferes into internal affairs of Yemen. In the past few decades and after the destruction of Democratic Republic of Yemen, all the regimes that came to power in Yemen were installed or backed by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia bombarded Houthi’s training camps in 2009 in order to kill the leaders of the Houthi Movement. This action did not weaken the Movement but it increased its social popularity and its resistance to the US and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi kingdom has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to set up camps in Yemen, has trained and armed the Sunni tribes in south-eastern region, and has intensified anarchy and division in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is the main cause of the turmoil in Yemen. In a word, the Saudi kingdom is the enlarged hands of the US imperialism in the Middle East, and slaughters Arabs in the name of Arabs.

Fourth, Houthi Movement, which includes many Sunni Moslems, and the Shiite uprising in Yemen are not created by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the uprising and the protest movement in Bahrain have not been created by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The US imperialists and their allies labels the regime of Iran as the cause of national uprisings in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria,…. in order to legitimize their illegal military aggressions and justify their political and military domination of these countries. The national uprisings in these countries have roots in injustice that is imposed on the people by internal and external forces. Obviously, the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran follows specific political and ideological goals in supporting the movement in Yemen or anywhere else, as the US and Israel do. One cannot make judgment on nature of a social movement in a country solely by the “supports” it gets from outside country. The protest movement in Iran in 2009 was neither pro-US nor pro-Israel though it was supported by the media of these countries, though the agents of velvet revolution tried to infiltrate the movement and seize its leadership. The movements in Palestine, Lebanon, Bahrain, and the resistance movement in Syria are supported by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran but they were not and are not under the control of the regime of Iran. These are just movements and have progressive contents. The coup de tat in Libya by the imported foreign terrorists was fully supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran but it was totally reactionary.

The political, economical, and social sources of the sharp contradictions in Yemen and the rise of the Houthi Movement that seized power in Sana’a are found in social inequality, in neoliberal policies dictated by International Monetary Fund, in shameful and despicable US and Saudi interference into the internal affairs of Yemen. The people of Yemen have joined Houthi Movement because of its political stand against Saudi and imperialist domination and not because of religious beliefs. Oil is the largest natural wealth in Yemen but a large section of the population lives in absolute poverty, the general unemployment rate is 40 %, and is over 50% among the youth, the gap between have and have not is enormous, and poverty and hunger and lack of health care are widespread and deep. Houthi’s denunciation of Yemeni government for the elimination of fuel subsidies had a big appeal among the poor masses. These social conditions have forced the population to rise up and to join the Houthi Movement.

The fact that Saudi Arabia threatened and put political and economical pressure on Moslem countries and EU to join the coalition against Yemen indicates that Saudi regime is desperate in the region. Saudi regime sought and received support even from the murderous Islamic State-IS. Turkey that has its own ambitions in the region stood beside IS and Saudi Arabia. The fact that the UN is silent on the invasion of Yemen shows that the international treaties or declarations or accords do not have any credibility in the eyes of the powers, even if it is signed by several dozen countries. Only force will determine the degree of the credibility of an agreement. The validity of a treaty depends on the military and forceful backing of the treaty.

The Saudi invasion of Yemen has created an explosive situation in the Middle East and clearly its consequences are unpredictable.

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) strongly condemns the aerial bombardment of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and considers it as an act of aggression against Yemeni people.

The Party of Labour of Iran condemns any possible future land invasion of Yemen. We condemn any interference into the internal affairs of Yemen and believe that any political change in Yemen should solely be the decision of the people of Yemen and should be done by the hands of Yemeni people and in opposition to the outside interventionist forces.

The US imperialists and Allies, Hands off Yemen!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) -- April 2015