A high-ranking Houthi leader has accused the US of participating in the killing of Yemeni civilians to ensure the longevity of its defense industry, adding that Washington is the “source” of violence in the country.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the cousin of the leader of the Houthi movement and the chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, issued a scathing condemnation of US support for the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen of five and a half years ago.
He accused Washington of implementing the plans of the “Israeli enemy,” adding that the US is the “source of killing” in Yemen.
The Houthi official said US weapons were being used to carry out “massacres” and Yemen’s people “wake up to the sounds of American bomb explosions” that kill “children, women and the elderly.”
A Riyadh-led coalition launched a military intervention in Yemen in March 2015, after the Houthis seized power. Civil war erupted in Yemen in late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi militia forced the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital, Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition intervened to support the Hadi government.
The Saudi bombing campaign and its naval blockade have dealt a dire blow to civilians, vastly complicating a deadly cholera outbreak and pushing thousands of families to the brink of famine. More than 100,000 people have died in the conflict, with the UN and other international organizations describing the war as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in recent memory.
The Trump administration has been unapologetic about US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states waging war in Yemen. The US president has promoted the deals as a major employment creator for the United States, although he’s been accused of wildly inflating the number of jobs such agreements actually create. Last year, Trump used his veto power to push through arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth $8.1 billion, arguing that attempts by Congress to block the deals “would weaken America’s global competitiveness.”
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