wiqi21
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Govt missed that target now growth rate is estimated at 4.2%
Govt likely to miss 4.2% growth rate target, again: ADB - The Express Tribune
Yemen imbroglio: Pakistan mulls limited mission for Saudi security
- Thread starter Zibago
- Start date
Govt likely to miss 4.2% growth rate target, again: ADB - The Express Tribune
ajpirzada
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their superiority complex doesnt stand much when it comes to our military might. they know it very well. They might treat our citizens as somewhat inferior but not our State/Establishment.
Pakistan does have a leeway. Yesterday an article mentioned that Iranians had a meeting with our Iran ambassador in which they expressed their concern of Potential Pakistani involvement and also showed their willingness to find a diplomatic solution. Inshort Iranian are willing to engage with the Gulf on this via Pakistan. Its upon us to create an opportunity out of this and aim to come out taller than others in the Muslim world.
daring dude
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Army says will toe govt’s line on Yemen conflict
Defence secretary says Pakistan Army would abide by govt’s position on nature of participation in Yemen war
The members of the Standing Committee on Defence appeared to be divided over the matter of sending Pakistan Army troops to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Yemen conflict.
Defence Secretary Lieutenant General (r) Alam Khattak told the committee that the Pakistan Army would abide by the government’s decision on whether to send troops to Saudi Arabia to partake in a military campaign in Yemen.
This was the first time that the defence secretary spelled out the official stance of the Pakistan Army on sending troops to Saudi Arabia to partake in a military campaign in Yemen.
His brief comment came in response to a volley of questions by committee members as to whether military troops would be sent to the Saudi kingdom.
Chairman Sheikh Rohail Asghar maintained that the Pakistan Army should chase terrorists regardless of their location but women members belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) had a different point of view.
Meanwhile, naval officials informed the committee that the federal government has endorsed a summary to get eight submarines from China.
Pakistan’s military has long been a major importer of defence equipment, particularly from key ally China.
After the Cold War ended Pakistan began to deepen defence and economic ties with China.
The committee was informed that Secretary of the Economic Affairs division Saleem Sethi would be leaving for China on Wednesday where the issue is expected to come under discussion. The officials also said that the national security committee will give the final nod to go ahead with the plan to get eight submarines from China.
“Other proposals are under consideration as well. The Pakistan navy is also in touch with Germany, Britain and France to purchase used submarines,” officials informed the committee.
Keeping in view the level of threat and the present status of submarines, naval officials said Pakistan needed the latest submarines.
The naval officials also revealed that France had refused to provide submarines to Pakistan.
They said there seemed to be various reasons behind France’s refusal to sell submarines to Pakistan — including an issue of technology transfer. On the other hand, they said France was selling its submarines to India.
The naval officials rejected some committee members’ concerns that Chinese technology was not of satisfactory quality. They said there was no such issue at hand as JF-17 has proven to be a world class military jet. The officials informed the standing committee that Pakistan’s defence relations with Russia were also improving.
Pakistan's Yemen Gamble
Pakistan, the world's only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons, is also the sole non-Arab country that has officially indicated to support the Saudi-led strikes against the Houthi fighters in Yemen. Pakistan is not in the Middle East nor is the conflagrations of this conflict capable of immediately crossing into its borders simply because Pakistan shares no borders with Saudi Arabia or Yemen. In spite of this, Pakistan's response to the Saudi call for military assistance has been even faster than what was seen after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when the United States demanded that Islamabad should either join the war on terror or, in case of noncompliance, prepare to be bombed back to the stone age.
While some see the crisis in Yemen as a proxy battle between the Sunni and Shia camps led respectively by Saudi Arabia and Iran, the people in Pakistan have already seen the glimpses of this war, although in a different form, for nearly three decades. The Pakistan-based religious schools, which are allegedly substantially funded by Saudi Arabia and several other oil-rich Arab states, have been blamed for churning out Islamic terrorists and providing sanctuary to similar local and foreign fugitives. In addition, hundreds of Shias are killed each year in Pakistan in sectarian violence.
Notwithstanding Islamabad's blatant denials of its land being used as a ground for proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia, public weariness and discontent toward both the nations, particularly among young activists, has been increasing in the recent times. By the virtue of social media, it has become much easier to hear these dissenting voices from Pakistan that regularly call upon Islamabad to distance itself from the ideological wars of Tehran and Riyadh.
Whether the Operation Decisive Storm is about restoring democracy or containing Iran-backed Houthis, Pakistan will be blundering by joining the eight-nation coalition. Unlike Islamabad's decision to join the war on terror that received robust resistance from the pro-Taliban religious parties, this time opposition is likely to come from liberal, educated, technology savvy young people.
Murtaza Solangi, a former Director General of the state-run Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter, "Monarchs only have to worry about their fiefdoms. You will be held responsible by the people if you throw Pakistan to fire."
Sharif cannot say no to the Saudis for obvious reasons: When General Musharraf ousted Sharif on October 12, 1999 during his second term as the prime minister and imprisoned him, the Saudis came quickly to rescue him. For the next seven years, Sharif remained a guest of the Saudis and returned to Pakistan in 2007 only on Saudi assurances. In 2003, he was elected as the prime minister for a third stint.
According to BBC Urdu, the anti-U.S. right-wing Pakistan Justice Movement (also locally called PTI), the third largest party, has expressed concerns about Pakistan's possible participation in the operation in Yemen warning that Islamabad could not afford to face the blowback of the "U.S.-Saudi alliance" in Yemen. Even the Jammat-e-Islami, the most hardliner religio-political party, has suggested that Pakistan should let the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) assess the situation instead of committing any military cooperation. (The OIC says it backs the states supporting constitutional legitimacy in Yemen.)
Pakistanis trace back their country's engagement in "other countries' wars" to the war in Afghanistan that began in 1979. Since then, barring the initial years of the 1990s, Pakistan has been embroiled in these bloody, regional, religious, proxy wars.
It was only last week, on March 23rd, when Pakistan organized its first public paradeof the National Day in seven years. Terrorist attacks by the Taliban had almost completely paralyzed Pakistan to such an extent that it was no longer capable of publicly marking its national day. When the National Day parade was held for the first time after a lull of so many years, exultant Pakistanis cheered and looked at this as a landmark moment in their country's war against extremism. The Pakistanis engaged in self-congratulatory celebrations assuming that they were finally seeing signs of their country overcoming the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Pakistanis should know that Saudi Arabia does not bomb a country to restore democracy there. Democracy is certainly not a Saudi thing nor does it care much about constitutional supremacy. We all knew that Saudi Arabia and Iran would someday end up in a military conflict. We only did not know the "when" and "where" of it. The developments in Yemen have taken us to the closest point where we are seeing those fears come true.
If Pakistan decides to join the Saudi alliance, the decision will have two adverse outcomes.
Firstly, Operation Zarb-e-Azb (OZA), a military campaign Islamabad has been carrying out against the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan tribal region since June 2014, will encounter a great setback. Even an effective military operation against the insurgents will not permanently resolve the threat of Islamic extremism. The Pakistani military needs to divorce the ambitious dream for pan-Islamism, a dangerous vision espoused by terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The proponents of OZA insist that the army has learned lessons from its past mistakes of maintaining covert relations with the Islamic extremists. But if Pakistan decides to join the battle in Yemen, it will give credence to those who argue that Pakistan is still unwilling to end its engagement in these dirty wars. When the Taliban terrorists are killed but the ideology that gave birth to them remains alive and backed officially, there is no way Pakistan can fully get out of this trap of extremist violence. Furthermore, engaging the Pakistani military in Yemen will distract attention from the ongoing operation against the Pakistani Taliban. Leaving that mission incomplete will provide the Taliban, who, according to the government, have been weakened, an opportunity to reassemble and launch new terrorist attacks.
Secondly, Pakistan's 30 million Shias are most likely to be the first ones to face the backlash of their government's support for Saudi Arabia. This will embolden anti-Shia terrorist groups and trigger a new wave of anti-Shia sentiments. It is known that Pakistan feels deeply insecure about India but what we don't talk much about is what other countries, besides India, make Islamabad insecure. The answer is Iran. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran remarkably alerted the Sunni clergy in Pakistan. Believing that the Iranians would export their "Shia revolution" to Pakistan, the then military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, with the support of the Saudis, accelerated orthodox Sunni Islam to guard Pakistan's idealogical borders from the influence of the Shia revolution. While doing so, the Shia population had to pay a costly price in the sectarian war waged against them.
Pakistan should be healing the Shia wounds instead of adopting policies that will reopen fresh chapters of hatred and violence against them.
For years, Pakistanis have been complaining that their efforts to fight terrorism are under-appreciated. They complain that the world does not sufficiently acknowledge and applaud the measure they have taken in this regard. There is a straightforward answer why this is so: Pakistan has played double standards in fighting extremist groups. For every one step forward, it has taken four steps backward. Maybe Pakistan's interest, in the backdrop of the conflict in Yemen, lies with staying totally disengaged and viewing this crisis from the balcony in order to see what transpires when religious proxy wars erupt and what lessons can be learned from their consequences.
Iraqi Militiamen Plan To Travel To Yemen To Battle U.S.-Backed Coalition
BAGHDAD -- Iran-backed Shiite militiamen in Iraq say they're ready to take up arms in a country most of them have never been to: Yemen.
“We defeated ISIS in Syria, we’re defeating ISIS in Iraq, and we’ll defeat them in Yemen,” Abu Kumael, a volunteer fighter with the powerful Iran-supported Shiite militia known as the Peace Brigades, told The WorldPost Monday. “We’re not just talking. We’re physically ready to go and fight.”
In Iraq, the militias are working on the same side as U.S. forces against the self-declared Islamic State. But once the militiamen get to Yemen, they'll be fighting not for the U.S., but against the Americans -- which means that the U.S. will be battling the same forces, and in some cases the very same men, that ISIS is taking on in Iraq.
A young member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization looks up at a drone in the sky over Tikrit on March 26.
Last week, a Saudi-led alliance began bombing Yemen’s Houthi rebels -- airstrikes that were supported with U.S. logistics and intelligence. The rebels have largely driven Yemen's government from power. The government had been backed by the U.S. because of its willingness to battle militant extremists, and to allow the U.S. to do the same within its borders. It also had the strong backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations that see Shiite Iran as their true enemy.
The Shiite Iraqis see the unfolding events in the Arabian Peninsula as an extension of their own fight in Iraq and Syria. It’s a sectarian war, they say, in which they see no choice but to defend the Houthis, adherents of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam.
The Yemen conflict complicates U.S. policy in the region because the Houthis have the support of Iran. That means the U.S. is fighting alongside Iran in two countries and against it in at least one other. "We finally figured out a way to fight a proxy war against ourselves," is how comedian Jon Stewart put it. "Now we're just punching ourselves in the dick."
But the previously unreported intention of the Iraqi militias to travel to Iraq and battle the U.S.-backed coalition takes the contradiction to new heights. Shiite paramilitary forces keen on fighting in Yemen say innocent Shiites are being slaughtered there by Saudi Arabia, which makes their war one and the same. On Monday, Arab coalition airstrikes killed dozens of people in a camp for those displaced in the country's north, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The White House declined to comment on the development.
A member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization eyes a large hole in the ground caused by an IED in Tikrit on March 26.
Abu Ahmed, 33, who fights with the Iranian proxy militia Kata'ib Sayyed al-Shuhada near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where ISIS still vies for control, said men from his fighting force have already begun signing up to fight. One of the group’s leaders told the fighters that there would be a chance, very soon, to go to Yemen, according to Ahmed. He said his brother immediately added his name to the growing list.
“We’re ready, 100 percent, to go and defend the Houthis,” said 35-year-old Wissam, a militiaman with the Peace Brigades. “The battle is against the Shia. It’s a sectarian war. We’ll never forget our brothers in Yemen.”
Wissam, currently in Baghdad, said he was one of many who had already spoken to their leaders about heading to Yemen. He added that he might be able to somehow coordinate with people in Lebanon, where Iran also has a strong influence.
“We have armies waiting for the call,” said Abu Kumael. “We’re getting ready in the next few days to prepare to defend our brothers in Yemen.”
Tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites joined forces last summer when the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani issued a call to arms to fight off the extremist group closing in on the capital and other major Iraqi cities. Now, Kumael said he expects the Marjaya -- Iraq’s leading religious authority -- to soon call on Iraqi Shiites to join the fight in Yemen.
While many Iraqi Shiites view the militias as heroes for taking security into their own hands when the state could not, thousands of Sunnis who insist they are being pushed out of their homes, detained and killed, say the fighters are nothing but sectarian bullies.
The U.S. has an uneasy relationship with the Shiite militias. They are one of the few solid fighting forces capable of taking on ISIS, whose reach extends close to Baghdad. But they also have until relatively recently been openly battling U.S. forces andshelling the Green Zone, home to U.S. diplomats and advisers in Baghdad. They are under varying degrees of control by the Iranian government, which also has broad sway over the Iraqi government.
Last week, U.S. officials pushed for the militias to take a backseat in operations against ISIS, while the militias claimed to be stepping aside to protest U.S. entrance into the battle.
Iran’s sway is obvious in Baghdad, where posters for Iranian-advised, paid, and armed militias adorn the city. The face of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen plastered to checkpoints and billboards everywhere.
Meanwhile Iran, the U.S., and its five negotiating partners are approaching Tuesday's deadline for the political framework of an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Saudi Arabia has been skeptical of the negotiations, fearful of the geopolitical implications of U.S. rapprochement with Iran. Its government and other Arab nations over the weekend announced they would create a joint military force in the Middle East.
What You Need To Read To Understand The Crisis In Yemen
The rapidly escalating crisis in Yemen continues to bring chaos to the country as forces of the Shiite Houthi militia drive south in an aim to take the port city of Aden. Their advance has forced President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee from Aden to an undisclosed location, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The crisis in Yemen is one with many different groups and moving parts to it. The Houthis, who now control the capital of Sanaa and much of the nation's northern regions, are engaged in a bitter fight against some Sunni tribes in the country, and clashes have claimed hundreds of lives. On the other hand, the militants of the al Qaeda affiliate in the region, AQAP, have vowed to eradicate the Shiite fighters with attacks and suicide bombings.
Now the Islamic State militants, too, are claiming a role in the violence, and last Friday carried out multiple suicide bombings at two of the capital's Shiite mosques,killing at least 137 people.
The WorldPost presents a roundup of some of the best analysis and reporting on Yemen to help clarify the chaos.
Who Are The Houthis?
Gregory D. Johnsen, an author on Yemeni politics, provides an in-depth account for Buzzfeed of how what was once "just a few men, disaffected students and farmers" is now a group in control of large parts of the nation. Johnsen details the timeline of their rising influence, and the complicated power dynamics that led to the current violence.
In a report on the state of Yemen since the Houthi takeover, Mona El-Naggar of The New York Times offers a look at what life is like in the capital:
The Threat Of Sectarian Violence
According to former Middle East correspondent Brian Whitaker, Friday's IS-linked bombings were a game-changer in Yemen's rapid descent into chaos. "Friday’s mosque attacks, whoever was behind them, will intensify sectarian rivalries and invite bloody reprisals," Whitaker argues in an op-ed for The Guardian. "The scene is set for a protracted civil war."
Whitaker believes that while the violent standoff between Hadi's government, the Houthis and the militants of al Qaeda had pushed Yemen to the brink of disintegration, the recent sectarian attacks have tipped the country over the edge. The longer the conflict lasts, Whitaker notes, the stronger the chances that countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia will double down on support for their proxies -- the Houthis and the Sunni tribes, respectively -- intensifying the conflict.
Contrary to countries like Iraq and Syria, where sectarian violence has wreaked havoc in recent years, sectarian attacks like those perpetrated last week are an anomaly. That has changed with the rise of the Houthis, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports for The Guardian from Sanaa. He explains that the Houthis' power grab has invigorated the "militarization and radicalization in the Sunni-majority Yemeni heartland, acting as a recruiter for jihadis."
In this photo taken on Friday, March 20, 2015, militiamen loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ride on an army vehicle on a street in Aden, Yemen. (AP Photo/Yassir Hassan)
The Role Of The International Community
Farea al-Muslimi, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Middle East, criticized the international community, and the United Nations in particular, for forcing Yemen's political actors to continue a process of reconciliation following the ouster of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh that has done more harm than good. "The world has walked Yemenis into this process and should take responsibility for that. They have broken Yemen and it is time to pay for it," he wrote in a piercing op-ed published in The National.
Al-Muslimi states:
Violence and a declining quality of life have come to represent Yemen. The number of Yemenis now subsumed by the country’s continuing humanitarian crisis numbers 16 million. Basic functioning services have all become as rare as birthdays -- a once a year event.
At the moment, Yemen’s once quiet streets and civic spaces have turned into spaces for militias and unknown suicide bombers. In Sanaa, no one but death walks freely or safely.
The Effect On American Policy
Reporting for the New York Times, Eric Schmitt looks at the consequences of the United States' decision to pull back 125 U.S. Special Operations advisors in the wake of the increased violence.
Hadi's government has been a crucial partner in America's global counterterrorism strategy and its fight against AQAP -- considered the most capable jihadi affiliate worldwide.
"The loss of Yemen as a base for American counterterrorism training, advising and intelligence-gathering carries major implications not just there, but throughout a region that officials say poses the most grievous threat to United States global interests and to the country itself," Schmitt writes.
Schmitt's colleague at the Times, David D. Kirkpatrick, sums up the grim situation facing Yemen in a report on the Houthi clashes near Aden.
As Kirkpatrick puts it: "Yemen is sliding toward a civil war with ominous elements of a sectarian feud, a regional proxy conflict, the attempted return of an ousted authoritarian, and the expansion of anti-Western extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State eager to capitalize on the chaos."
Pak not fighting in Yemen but rescue efforts afoot
Pakistan has rejected reports of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets and naval ships being a part of the military action in Yemen against Houthis.
In a statement issued from Islamabad on Tuesday, Foreign Office (FO) spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam has termed media reports, including that of Reuters, “misleading and incorrect”.
Earlier, speaking to reporters, the FO spokeswoman said that no decision had been taken about sending another flight to Yemen. She said that the government was trying its best to vacate Pakistanis from Yemen but Sanaa Airport could not be used for landing.
She said that extrication of Pakistanis will hopefully be possible by Wednesday (today). She said that the total number of Pakistanis stranded in Yemen is around 450. “It was previously hoped that they would be extricated from Al-Hadeed but most of the airports in Yemen are not usable anymore,” she said.
Moreover, Tasneem Aslam said that the Pakistani ambassador did not leave Pakistanis in Yemen but around 70 Pakistani citizens had decided to stay back in Sanaa. “Now those people are afraid of coming to Al-Makla. However, the Pakistani government is in contact with the Yemeni government, Pakistani embassy and community in Yemen,” she assured.
Furthermore, Aslam said that stranded Pakistanis will now be extricated by sea. She said that two Pakistani ships have already left for Yemen and cooperation from China has also been requested. She added that Pakistanis in Yemen were told to leave the country quite a long time before the situation got worse but they did not act upon the directions.
Pak team reaches ‘holy land’
As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continued to show concern over the security of the “holy land”, a high-level Pakistani delegation, led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, reached Riyadh on Tuesday for talks over the ongoing crisis in Yemen.
The delegation was received by Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Ambassador Manzoor ul Haq, a spokesman for the Pakistan embassy in Riyadh said.
Senior officials from the foreign office (FO) and three armed forces personnel were also part of the delegation that departed Islamabad for Riyadh through a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif sought guidance from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before departure to the Saudi capital and held a brief meeting with members of his delegation at Chaklala Airbase.
“Yes, the delegation headed by the defence minister is scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia,” FO spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told reporters.
The Pakistani delegation will meet Saudi Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz and the Saudi defence minister in Riyadh besides meeting other high-ranking Saudi officials for discussion over the crisis in Yemen.
The delegation is also expected to meet the leadership of Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the possibility of enabling a truce in Yemen.
PM DIRECTS SAFE EVACUATION OF PAKISTANIS:
In the meanwhile, PM Sharif chaired a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s House Tuesday morning and sought update on the status of Pakistanis still stranded in Yemen. He directed the authorities to take all possible measures for safe evacuation of stranded countrymen.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Advisor to PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi and foreign affairs secretary among other senior officers.
The prime minister was pleased to note that the first phase of evacuation was completed in a satisfactory manner. He was informed that Pakistanis returning from Yemen are highly appreciative of the personal interest taken by the PM in ensuring their safe exit from the disturbed areas.
The meeting reiterated that Pakistan holds Saudi Arabia in very high esteem and considers the security of the “holy land” of “utmost importance” adding that any violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Saudi Arabia would evoke a strong reaction from Pakistan, according to the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
Defence secretary says Pakistan Army would abide by govt’s position on nature of participation in Yemen war
The members of the Standing Committee on Defence appeared to be divided over the matter of sending Pakistan Army troops to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Yemen conflict.
Defence Secretary Lieutenant General (r) Alam Khattak told the committee that the Pakistan Army would abide by the government’s decision on whether to send troops to Saudi Arabia to partake in a military campaign in Yemen.
This was the first time that the defence secretary spelled out the official stance of the Pakistan Army on sending troops to Saudi Arabia to partake in a military campaign in Yemen.
His brief comment came in response to a volley of questions by committee members as to whether military troops would be sent to the Saudi kingdom.
Chairman Sheikh Rohail Asghar maintained that the Pakistan Army should chase terrorists regardless of their location but women members belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) had a different point of view.
Meanwhile, naval officials informed the committee that the federal government has endorsed a summary to get eight submarines from China.
Pakistan’s military has long been a major importer of defence equipment, particularly from key ally China.
After the Cold War ended Pakistan began to deepen defence and economic ties with China.
The committee was informed that Secretary of the Economic Affairs division Saleem Sethi would be leaving for China on Wednesday where the issue is expected to come under discussion. The officials also said that the national security committee will give the final nod to go ahead with the plan to get eight submarines from China.
“Other proposals are under consideration as well. The Pakistan navy is also in touch with Germany, Britain and France to purchase used submarines,” officials informed the committee.
Keeping in view the level of threat and the present status of submarines, naval officials said Pakistan needed the latest submarines.
The naval officials also revealed that France had refused to provide submarines to Pakistan.
They said there seemed to be various reasons behind France’s refusal to sell submarines to Pakistan — including an issue of technology transfer. On the other hand, they said France was selling its submarines to India.
The naval officials rejected some committee members’ concerns that Chinese technology was not of satisfactory quality. They said there was no such issue at hand as JF-17 has proven to be a world class military jet. The officials informed the standing committee that Pakistan’s defence relations with Russia were also improving.
Pakistan's Yemen Gamble
Pakistan, the world's only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons, is also the sole non-Arab country that has officially indicated to support the Saudi-led strikes against the Houthi fighters in Yemen. Pakistan is not in the Middle East nor is the conflagrations of this conflict capable of immediately crossing into its borders simply because Pakistan shares no borders with Saudi Arabia or Yemen. In spite of this, Pakistan's response to the Saudi call for military assistance has been even faster than what was seen after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when the United States demanded that Islamabad should either join the war on terror or, in case of noncompliance, prepare to be bombed back to the stone age.
While some see the crisis in Yemen as a proxy battle between the Sunni and Shia camps led respectively by Saudi Arabia and Iran, the people in Pakistan have already seen the glimpses of this war, although in a different form, for nearly three decades. The Pakistan-based religious schools, which are allegedly substantially funded by Saudi Arabia and several other oil-rich Arab states, have been blamed for churning out Islamic terrorists and providing sanctuary to similar local and foreign fugitives. In addition, hundreds of Shias are killed each year in Pakistan in sectarian violence.
Notwithstanding Islamabad's blatant denials of its land being used as a ground for proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia, public weariness and discontent toward both the nations, particularly among young activists, has been increasing in the recent times. By the virtue of social media, it has become much easier to hear these dissenting voices from Pakistan that regularly call upon Islamabad to distance itself from the ideological wars of Tehran and Riyadh.
Whether the Operation Decisive Storm is about restoring democracy or containing Iran-backed Houthis, Pakistan will be blundering by joining the eight-nation coalition. Unlike Islamabad's decision to join the war on terror that received robust resistance from the pro-Taliban religious parties, this time opposition is likely to come from liberal, educated, technology savvy young people.
Murtaza Solangi, a former Director General of the state-run Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter, "Monarchs only have to worry about their fiefdoms. You will be held responsible by the people if you throw Pakistan to fire."
Sharif cannot say no to the Saudis for obvious reasons: When General Musharraf ousted Sharif on October 12, 1999 during his second term as the prime minister and imprisoned him, the Saudis came quickly to rescue him. For the next seven years, Sharif remained a guest of the Saudis and returned to Pakistan in 2007 only on Saudi assurances. In 2003, he was elected as the prime minister for a third stint.
According to BBC Urdu, the anti-U.S. right-wing Pakistan Justice Movement (also locally called PTI), the third largest party, has expressed concerns about Pakistan's possible participation in the operation in Yemen warning that Islamabad could not afford to face the blowback of the "U.S.-Saudi alliance" in Yemen. Even the Jammat-e-Islami, the most hardliner religio-political party, has suggested that Pakistan should let the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) assess the situation instead of committing any military cooperation. (The OIC says it backs the states supporting constitutional legitimacy in Yemen.)
Pakistanis trace back their country's engagement in "other countries' wars" to the war in Afghanistan that began in 1979. Since then, barring the initial years of the 1990s, Pakistan has been embroiled in these bloody, regional, religious, proxy wars.
It was only last week, on March 23rd, when Pakistan organized its first public paradeof the National Day in seven years. Terrorist attacks by the Taliban had almost completely paralyzed Pakistan to such an extent that it was no longer capable of publicly marking its national day. When the National Day parade was held for the first time after a lull of so many years, exultant Pakistanis cheered and looked at this as a landmark moment in their country's war against extremism. The Pakistanis engaged in self-congratulatory celebrations assuming that they were finally seeing signs of their country overcoming the threat of Islamic terrorism.
Pakistanis should know that Saudi Arabia does not bomb a country to restore democracy there. Democracy is certainly not a Saudi thing nor does it care much about constitutional supremacy. We all knew that Saudi Arabia and Iran would someday end up in a military conflict. We only did not know the "when" and "where" of it. The developments in Yemen have taken us to the closest point where we are seeing those fears come true.
If Pakistan decides to join the Saudi alliance, the decision will have two adverse outcomes.
Firstly, Operation Zarb-e-Azb (OZA), a military campaign Islamabad has been carrying out against the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan tribal region since June 2014, will encounter a great setback. Even an effective military operation against the insurgents will not permanently resolve the threat of Islamic extremism. The Pakistani military needs to divorce the ambitious dream for pan-Islamism, a dangerous vision espoused by terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The proponents of OZA insist that the army has learned lessons from its past mistakes of maintaining covert relations with the Islamic extremists. But if Pakistan decides to join the battle in Yemen, it will give credence to those who argue that Pakistan is still unwilling to end its engagement in these dirty wars. When the Taliban terrorists are killed but the ideology that gave birth to them remains alive and backed officially, there is no way Pakistan can fully get out of this trap of extremist violence. Furthermore, engaging the Pakistani military in Yemen will distract attention from the ongoing operation against the Pakistani Taliban. Leaving that mission incomplete will provide the Taliban, who, according to the government, have been weakened, an opportunity to reassemble and launch new terrorist attacks.
Secondly, Pakistan's 30 million Shias are most likely to be the first ones to face the backlash of their government's support for Saudi Arabia. This will embolden anti-Shia terrorist groups and trigger a new wave of anti-Shia sentiments. It is known that Pakistan feels deeply insecure about India but what we don't talk much about is what other countries, besides India, make Islamabad insecure. The answer is Iran. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran remarkably alerted the Sunni clergy in Pakistan. Believing that the Iranians would export their "Shia revolution" to Pakistan, the then military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, with the support of the Saudis, accelerated orthodox Sunni Islam to guard Pakistan's idealogical borders from the influence of the Shia revolution. While doing so, the Shia population had to pay a costly price in the sectarian war waged against them.
Pakistan should be healing the Shia wounds instead of adopting policies that will reopen fresh chapters of hatred and violence against them.
For years, Pakistanis have been complaining that their efforts to fight terrorism are under-appreciated. They complain that the world does not sufficiently acknowledge and applaud the measure they have taken in this regard. There is a straightforward answer why this is so: Pakistan has played double standards in fighting extremist groups. For every one step forward, it has taken four steps backward. Maybe Pakistan's interest, in the backdrop of the conflict in Yemen, lies with staying totally disengaged and viewing this crisis from the balcony in order to see what transpires when religious proxy wars erupt and what lessons can be learned from their consequences.
Iraqi Militiamen Plan To Travel To Yemen To Battle U.S.-Backed Coalition
BAGHDAD -- Iran-backed Shiite militiamen in Iraq say they're ready to take up arms in a country most of them have never been to: Yemen.
“We defeated ISIS in Syria, we’re defeating ISIS in Iraq, and we’ll defeat them in Yemen,” Abu Kumael, a volunteer fighter with the powerful Iran-supported Shiite militia known as the Peace Brigades, told The WorldPost Monday. “We’re not just talking. We’re physically ready to go and fight.”
In Iraq, the militias are working on the same side as U.S. forces against the self-declared Islamic State. But once the militiamen get to Yemen, they'll be fighting not for the U.S., but against the Americans -- which means that the U.S. will be battling the same forces, and in some cases the very same men, that ISIS is taking on in Iraq.
A young member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization looks up at a drone in the sky over Tikrit on March 26.
Last week, a Saudi-led alliance began bombing Yemen’s Houthi rebels -- airstrikes that were supported with U.S. logistics and intelligence. The rebels have largely driven Yemen's government from power. The government had been backed by the U.S. because of its willingness to battle militant extremists, and to allow the U.S. to do the same within its borders. It also had the strong backing of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations that see Shiite Iran as their true enemy.
The Shiite Iraqis see the unfolding events in the Arabian Peninsula as an extension of their own fight in Iraq and Syria. It’s a sectarian war, they say, in which they see no choice but to defend the Houthis, adherents of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam.
The Yemen conflict complicates U.S. policy in the region because the Houthis have the support of Iran. That means the U.S. is fighting alongside Iran in two countries and against it in at least one other. "We finally figured out a way to fight a proxy war against ourselves," is how comedian Jon Stewart put it. "Now we're just punching ourselves in the dick."
But the previously unreported intention of the Iraqi militias to travel to Iraq and battle the U.S.-backed coalition takes the contradiction to new heights. Shiite paramilitary forces keen on fighting in Yemen say innocent Shiites are being slaughtered there by Saudi Arabia, which makes their war one and the same. On Monday, Arab coalition airstrikes killed dozens of people in a camp for those displaced in the country's north, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The White House declined to comment on the development.
A member of the Iran-backed Shiite militia known as the Badr Organization eyes a large hole in the ground caused by an IED in Tikrit on March 26.
Abu Ahmed, 33, who fights with the Iranian proxy militia Kata'ib Sayyed al-Shuhada near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where ISIS still vies for control, said men from his fighting force have already begun signing up to fight. One of the group’s leaders told the fighters that there would be a chance, very soon, to go to Yemen, according to Ahmed. He said his brother immediately added his name to the growing list.
“We’re ready, 100 percent, to go and defend the Houthis,” said 35-year-old Wissam, a militiaman with the Peace Brigades. “The battle is against the Shia. It’s a sectarian war. We’ll never forget our brothers in Yemen.”
Wissam, currently in Baghdad, said he was one of many who had already spoken to their leaders about heading to Yemen. He added that he might be able to somehow coordinate with people in Lebanon, where Iran also has a strong influence.
“We have armies waiting for the call,” said Abu Kumael. “We’re getting ready in the next few days to prepare to defend our brothers in Yemen.”
Tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites joined forces last summer when the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani issued a call to arms to fight off the extremist group closing in on the capital and other major Iraqi cities. Now, Kumael said he expects the Marjaya -- Iraq’s leading religious authority -- to soon call on Iraqi Shiites to join the fight in Yemen.
While many Iraqi Shiites view the militias as heroes for taking security into their own hands when the state could not, thousands of Sunnis who insist they are being pushed out of their homes, detained and killed, say the fighters are nothing but sectarian bullies.
The U.S. has an uneasy relationship with the Shiite militias. They are one of the few solid fighting forces capable of taking on ISIS, whose reach extends close to Baghdad. But they also have until relatively recently been openly battling U.S. forces andshelling the Green Zone, home to U.S. diplomats and advisers in Baghdad. They are under varying degrees of control by the Iranian government, which also has broad sway over the Iraqi government.
Last week, U.S. officials pushed for the militias to take a backseat in operations against ISIS, while the militias claimed to be stepping aside to protest U.S. entrance into the battle.
Iran’s sway is obvious in Baghdad, where posters for Iranian-advised, paid, and armed militias adorn the city. The face of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen plastered to checkpoints and billboards everywhere.
Meanwhile Iran, the U.S., and its five negotiating partners are approaching Tuesday's deadline for the political framework of an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Saudi Arabia has been skeptical of the negotiations, fearful of the geopolitical implications of U.S. rapprochement with Iran. Its government and other Arab nations over the weekend announced they would create a joint military force in the Middle East.
What You Need To Read To Understand The Crisis In Yemen
The rapidly escalating crisis in Yemen continues to bring chaos to the country as forces of the Shiite Houthi militia drive south in an aim to take the port city of Aden. Their advance has forced President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee from Aden to an undisclosed location, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The crisis in Yemen is one with many different groups and moving parts to it. The Houthis, who now control the capital of Sanaa and much of the nation's northern regions, are engaged in a bitter fight against some Sunni tribes in the country, and clashes have claimed hundreds of lives. On the other hand, the militants of the al Qaeda affiliate in the region, AQAP, have vowed to eradicate the Shiite fighters with attacks and suicide bombings.
Now the Islamic State militants, too, are claiming a role in the violence, and last Friday carried out multiple suicide bombings at two of the capital's Shiite mosques,killing at least 137 people.
The WorldPost presents a roundup of some of the best analysis and reporting on Yemen to help clarify the chaos.
Who Are The Houthis?
Gregory D. Johnsen, an author on Yemeni politics, provides an in-depth account for Buzzfeed of how what was once "just a few men, disaffected students and farmers" is now a group in control of large parts of the nation. Johnsen details the timeline of their rising influence, and the complicated power dynamics that led to the current violence.
In a report on the state of Yemen since the Houthi takeover, Mona El-Naggar of The New York Times offers a look at what life is like in the capital:
The Threat Of Sectarian Violence
According to former Middle East correspondent Brian Whitaker, Friday's IS-linked bombings were a game-changer in Yemen's rapid descent into chaos. "Friday’s mosque attacks, whoever was behind them, will intensify sectarian rivalries and invite bloody reprisals," Whitaker argues in an op-ed for The Guardian. "The scene is set for a protracted civil war."
Whitaker believes that while the violent standoff between Hadi's government, the Houthis and the militants of al Qaeda had pushed Yemen to the brink of disintegration, the recent sectarian attacks have tipped the country over the edge. The longer the conflict lasts, Whitaker notes, the stronger the chances that countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia will double down on support for their proxies -- the Houthis and the Sunni tribes, respectively -- intensifying the conflict.
Contrary to countries like Iraq and Syria, where sectarian violence has wreaked havoc in recent years, sectarian attacks like those perpetrated last week are an anomaly. That has changed with the rise of the Houthis, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports for The Guardian from Sanaa. He explains that the Houthis' power grab has invigorated the "militarization and radicalization in the Sunni-majority Yemeni heartland, acting as a recruiter for jihadis."
In this photo taken on Friday, March 20, 2015, militiamen loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ride on an army vehicle on a street in Aden, Yemen. (AP Photo/Yassir Hassan)
The Role Of The International Community
Farea al-Muslimi, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Middle East, criticized the international community, and the United Nations in particular, for forcing Yemen's political actors to continue a process of reconciliation following the ouster of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh that has done more harm than good. "The world has walked Yemenis into this process and should take responsibility for that. They have broken Yemen and it is time to pay for it," he wrote in a piercing op-ed published in The National.
Al-Muslimi states:
Violence and a declining quality of life have come to represent Yemen. The number of Yemenis now subsumed by the country’s continuing humanitarian crisis numbers 16 million. Basic functioning services have all become as rare as birthdays -- a once a year event.
At the moment, Yemen’s once quiet streets and civic spaces have turned into spaces for militias and unknown suicide bombers. In Sanaa, no one but death walks freely or safely.
The Effect On American Policy
Reporting for the New York Times, Eric Schmitt looks at the consequences of the United States' decision to pull back 125 U.S. Special Operations advisors in the wake of the increased violence.
Hadi's government has been a crucial partner in America's global counterterrorism strategy and its fight against AQAP -- considered the most capable jihadi affiliate worldwide.
"The loss of Yemen as a base for American counterterrorism training, advising and intelligence-gathering carries major implications not just there, but throughout a region that officials say poses the most grievous threat to United States global interests and to the country itself," Schmitt writes.
Schmitt's colleague at the Times, David D. Kirkpatrick, sums up the grim situation facing Yemen in a report on the Houthi clashes near Aden.
As Kirkpatrick puts it: "Yemen is sliding toward a civil war with ominous elements of a sectarian feud, a regional proxy conflict, the attempted return of an ousted authoritarian, and the expansion of anti-Western extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State eager to capitalize on the chaos."
Pak not fighting in Yemen but rescue efforts afoot
- FO spokeswoman says Sanaa Airport not functional anymore and Pakistanis still stranded in Yemen disobeyed evacuation orders, however they will now be transported home by sea
Pakistan has rejected reports of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets and naval ships being a part of the military action in Yemen against Houthis.
In a statement issued from Islamabad on Tuesday, Foreign Office (FO) spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam has termed media reports, including that of Reuters, “misleading and incorrect”.
Earlier, speaking to reporters, the FO spokeswoman said that no decision had been taken about sending another flight to Yemen. She said that the government was trying its best to vacate Pakistanis from Yemen but Sanaa Airport could not be used for landing.
She said that extrication of Pakistanis will hopefully be possible by Wednesday (today). She said that the total number of Pakistanis stranded in Yemen is around 450. “It was previously hoped that they would be extricated from Al-Hadeed but most of the airports in Yemen are not usable anymore,” she said.
Moreover, Tasneem Aslam said that the Pakistani ambassador did not leave Pakistanis in Yemen but around 70 Pakistani citizens had decided to stay back in Sanaa. “Now those people are afraid of coming to Al-Makla. However, the Pakistani government is in contact with the Yemeni government, Pakistani embassy and community in Yemen,” she assured.
Furthermore, Aslam said that stranded Pakistanis will now be extricated by sea. She said that two Pakistani ships have already left for Yemen and cooperation from China has also been requested. She added that Pakistanis in Yemen were told to leave the country quite a long time before the situation got worse but they did not act upon the directions.
Pak team reaches ‘holy land’
- Pakistani delegation arrives in Saudia for talks over Yemen crisis as PM Sharif calls for safe evacuation of stranded Pakistanis in Yemen
As Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continued to show concern over the security of the “holy land”, a high-level Pakistani delegation, led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz, reached Riyadh on Tuesday for talks over the ongoing crisis in Yemen.
The delegation was received by Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Ambassador Manzoor ul Haq, a spokesman for the Pakistan embassy in Riyadh said.
Senior officials from the foreign office (FO) and three armed forces personnel were also part of the delegation that departed Islamabad for Riyadh through a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif sought guidance from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before departure to the Saudi capital and held a brief meeting with members of his delegation at Chaklala Airbase.
“Yes, the delegation headed by the defence minister is scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia,” FO spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told reporters.
The Pakistani delegation will meet Saudi Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz and the Saudi defence minister in Riyadh besides meeting other high-ranking Saudi officials for discussion over the crisis in Yemen.
The delegation is also expected to meet the leadership of Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the possibility of enabling a truce in Yemen.
PM DIRECTS SAFE EVACUATION OF PAKISTANIS:
In the meanwhile, PM Sharif chaired a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s House Tuesday morning and sought update on the status of Pakistanis still stranded in Yemen. He directed the authorities to take all possible measures for safe evacuation of stranded countrymen.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Advisor to PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi and foreign affairs secretary among other senior officers.
The prime minister was pleased to note that the first phase of evacuation was completed in a satisfactory manner. He was informed that Pakistanis returning from Yemen are highly appreciative of the personal interest taken by the PM in ensuring their safe exit from the disturbed areas.
The meeting reiterated that Pakistan holds Saudi Arabia in very high esteem and considers the security of the “holy land” of “utmost importance” adding that any violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Saudi Arabia would evoke a strong reaction from Pakistan, according to the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
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UN rights chief warns Yemen on verge of ‘total collapse’
The UN rights chief expressed alarm Tuesday at the situation in Yemen as Arab warplanes pounded the country for a sixth day, warning it appeared about to collapse.
“The situation in Yemen is extremely alarming, with dozens of civilians killed over the past four days,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said in a statement.
“The country seems to be on the verge of total collapse.”
Zeid’s comments came after nearly a week of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition, which has vowed to continue the attacks until Houthi rebels end their uprising against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia.
He said he was particularly shocked by an air strike on Monday against the al Mazraq camp for displaced people in northwest Yemen.
The International Organization for Migration said at least 40 people had been killed and 200 wounded in the attack, and medics at a hospital near the camp gave a similar toll.
Zeid’s office said its staff had personally verified that at least 19 people had died and at least 35 had been injured, including 11 children.
The camp, which is home to some 4,000 people, was set up by the United Nations in 2009 and recently received at least 300 new families fleeing unrest in Saada, the northern stronghold of the Houthis, the statement said.
Zeid also denounced reported attacks by Houthi-linked fighters on three hospitals in the southern town of Daleh, causing an unknown number of casualties.
“I roundly condemn all attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities, which have a special protected status under international law,” he said.
A government official told AFP Monday that the rebel attack on Daleh had killed eight civilians, including two children, when they opened fire using tanks and artillery.
Since March 27, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 injured in the violence, Zeid’s office confirmed Tuesday.
Hundreds more had reportedly fled their homes in Saada, Daleh and elsewhere, it said.
“Private homes, hospitals, education facilities and infrastructure in several locations have been destroyed, making life even more difficult for the people in the war-torn country,” Zeid said.
“The killing of so many innocent civilians is simply unacceptable,” he said.
Iran says it can work with S. Arabia to end Yemen conflict
KUWAIT:
Tehran wants all parties in Yemen to return to talks, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said, adding the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia can work together to end the conflict there.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia can cooperate to solve the Yemeni crisis,” Mr Abdollahian told reporters in Kuwait on Tuesday, speaking through a translator.
“We recommend all parties in Yemen return to calm and dialogue.”
Asked whether Iran had any channels of communication with its regional rival, Mr Abdollahian said: “We are trying.”
He gave no details but, asked whether Tehran had a plan for resolving the war, he replied: “We have a proposal.”
Iran supports the Houthi fighters who control Sanaa and have launched an offensive against forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern port city of Aden. But it denies Saudi accusations that it has given military assistance to the Houthis.
It has also criticised the six-day Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis and allied Yemeni army units.
“The Saudi military attacks on Yemen are a strategic mistake,” Mr Abdollahian said. “Reaching a political solution requires an immediate halt to the military operations… and the start of dialogue (between) all the Yemeni parties.”
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said the operation would continue until it achieved its aims of restoring security and unity to Yemen.
“We are not the ones calling for war. But if you bang the drums of war, we are ready for it,” he told the kingdom’s Shura Council advisory body.
Saudi troops, meanwhile, clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters on Tuesday in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of the Saudi-led air offensive last week. And Yemen’s foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.
Residents and tribal sources in north Yemen reported artillery and rocket exchanges along several stretches of the Saudi border. Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard and Saudi helicopters flew overhead, they said.
In the southern port of Aden, Houthi fighters and allied army units pressed an offensive against forces loyal to Mr Hadi, trying to capture the last remaining major stronghold of the absent president’s forces.
At least 36 people were killed when Houthi forces shelled Hadi loyalists in Aden. Jets from the Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi positions near the airport.
Mr Hadi’s rump government, now based in Saudi Arabia, is calling for Riyadh to escalate the air war into an invasion. Asked by an interviewer on pan-Arab television channel al-Arabiya Hadath whether he sought an Arab ground intervention, Yemeni foreign minister Riyadh Yasseen responded: “Yes, we are asking for that, and as soon as possible, in order to save our infrastructure and save Yemenis under siege in many cities.”
Saudi authorities say they have gathered troops along the border in preparation for any possible ground offensive, but have given no timetable to send them in.
In the southern city of Dhalea, residents reported heavy fighting, with southern secessionist fighters trading artillery fire with Houthis backed up by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Repeated air strikes hit Houthi and allied positions, including an ammunition store at a military base causing huge explosions. An eyewitness said nine southern fighters were killed, along with around 30 Houthi and allied fighters.
In the central town of Yarim, an air strike hit a fuel tanker, killing at least 10 people, residents said.
While the air strikes have not halted Houthi gains, the Saudi-led coalition says it has succeeded in closing off Yemeni airspace to Houthi supporters and imposing a naval blockade.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said one of its planes was prevented from delivering medical supplies in Sanaa, and called for “the urgent removal of obstacles to the delivery to Yemen of vital medical supplies needed to treat casualties”.
It also called on all combatants to allow humanitarian workers to operate safely.
The UN rights chief expressed alarm Tuesday at the situation in Yemen as Arab warplanes pounded the country for a sixth day, warning it appeared about to collapse.
“The situation in Yemen is extremely alarming, with dozens of civilians killed over the past four days,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said in a statement.
“The country seems to be on the verge of total collapse.”
Zeid’s comments came after nearly a week of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition, which has vowed to continue the attacks until Houthi rebels end their uprising against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi Arabia.
He said he was particularly shocked by an air strike on Monday against the al Mazraq camp for displaced people in northwest Yemen.
The International Organization for Migration said at least 40 people had been killed and 200 wounded in the attack, and medics at a hospital near the camp gave a similar toll.
Zeid’s office said its staff had personally verified that at least 19 people had died and at least 35 had been injured, including 11 children.
The camp, which is home to some 4,000 people, was set up by the United Nations in 2009 and recently received at least 300 new families fleeing unrest in Saada, the northern stronghold of the Houthis, the statement said.
Zeid also denounced reported attacks by Houthi-linked fighters on three hospitals in the southern town of Daleh, causing an unknown number of casualties.
“I roundly condemn all attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities, which have a special protected status under international law,” he said.
A government official told AFP Monday that the rebel attack on Daleh had killed eight civilians, including two children, when they opened fire using tanks and artillery.
Since March 27, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 injured in the violence, Zeid’s office confirmed Tuesday.
Hundreds more had reportedly fled their homes in Saada, Daleh and elsewhere, it said.
“Private homes, hospitals, education facilities and infrastructure in several locations have been destroyed, making life even more difficult for the people in the war-torn country,” Zeid said.
“The killing of so many innocent civilians is simply unacceptable,” he said.
Iran says it can work with S. Arabia to end Yemen conflict
KUWAIT:
Tehran wants all parties in Yemen to return to talks, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said, adding the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia can work together to end the conflict there.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia can cooperate to solve the Yemeni crisis,” Mr Abdollahian told reporters in Kuwait on Tuesday, speaking through a translator.
“We recommend all parties in Yemen return to calm and dialogue.”
Asked whether Iran had any channels of communication with its regional rival, Mr Abdollahian said: “We are trying.”
He gave no details but, asked whether Tehran had a plan for resolving the war, he replied: “We have a proposal.”
Iran supports the Houthi fighters who control Sanaa and have launched an offensive against forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern port city of Aden. But it denies Saudi accusations that it has given military assistance to the Houthis.
It has also criticised the six-day Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis and allied Yemeni army units.
“The Saudi military attacks on Yemen are a strategic mistake,” Mr Abdollahian said. “Reaching a political solution requires an immediate halt to the military operations… and the start of dialogue (between) all the Yemeni parties.”
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said the operation would continue until it achieved its aims of restoring security and unity to Yemen.
“We are not the ones calling for war. But if you bang the drums of war, we are ready for it,” he told the kingdom’s Shura Council advisory body.
Saudi troops, meanwhile, clashed with Yemeni Houthi fighters on Tuesday in the heaviest exchange of cross-border fire since the start of the Saudi-led air offensive last week. And Yemen’s foreign minister called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.
Residents and tribal sources in north Yemen reported artillery and rocket exchanges along several stretches of the Saudi border. Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard and Saudi helicopters flew overhead, they said.
In the southern port of Aden, Houthi fighters and allied army units pressed an offensive against forces loyal to Mr Hadi, trying to capture the last remaining major stronghold of the absent president’s forces.
At least 36 people were killed when Houthi forces shelled Hadi loyalists in Aden. Jets from the Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi positions near the airport.
Mr Hadi’s rump government, now based in Saudi Arabia, is calling for Riyadh to escalate the air war into an invasion. Asked by an interviewer on pan-Arab television channel al-Arabiya Hadath whether he sought an Arab ground intervention, Yemeni foreign minister Riyadh Yasseen responded: “Yes, we are asking for that, and as soon as possible, in order to save our infrastructure and save Yemenis under siege in many cities.”
Saudi authorities say they have gathered troops along the border in preparation for any possible ground offensive, but have given no timetable to send them in.
In the southern city of Dhalea, residents reported heavy fighting, with southern secessionist fighters trading artillery fire with Houthis backed up by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Repeated air strikes hit Houthi and allied positions, including an ammunition store at a military base causing huge explosions. An eyewitness said nine southern fighters were killed, along with around 30 Houthi and allied fighters.
In the central town of Yarim, an air strike hit a fuel tanker, killing at least 10 people, residents said.
While the air strikes have not halted Houthi gains, the Saudi-led coalition says it has succeeded in closing off Yemeni airspace to Houthi supporters and imposing a naval blockade.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said one of its planes was prevented from delivering medical supplies in Sanaa, and called for “the urgent removal of obstacles to the delivery to Yemen of vital medical supplies needed to treat casualties”.
It also called on all combatants to allow humanitarian workers to operate safely.
Pakistan has no choice but to get involved, only option for Pakistan is to keep it to minimum as much as possible. You just cant call someone your best friend and when friend asks for favor you look the other way. The other option we have is to totally deny it and then prepare for 5 million Pakistanis working in Kingdom.
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@xyxmt we are a sovereign Nation, But acting like dogs and where ever these politicians find bones, they starts to starve for that... they don't have to act like they are beggars... they have to do this as they have a lot of association and promises with saudi government..coz they have businesses and factories in these countries.. So Nawaz sharif have to safeguards his businesses also...So it is our Politicians personal will,, not of our Nation....
don't be so naive and stop giving these childish arguments.
you have relationship with Saudia Arabia, you have over two million people working in Kingdom and total over 5 million if you include all Gulf states. I dont like our army going to Saudia and fight their war just as much as you but international politics dones't work like this, politics dont work around NS factories either...there is lot more involved in relationships than just having two factories.
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get the right figures on total population lives in Whole Gulf & Mideast region... coz i dont think these figures r correct.. but even put his business in India, Turkey, Gulf Region, Europe, and Africa then will say NS can take any step against his Saudi Premiers.. who always backing and supporting him in every worst situation..
if they will oversee Nation's interest, then he wouldn't be taking any decision to send Pak army to Yemen, only fighter jets can be provided to them.. and also have to mediate between #Iran and #Saudi to resolve between Sectarian Devide...
as this Yemen war is not sectarian,,,as Sunni and Shia both fighting against the State of Yemen...
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