US, UK aware of civilian nature of Saudi targets in Yemen: Intercept

The United States and Britain are fully aware of the civilian nature of Saudi Arabia’s targets in Yemen and yet continue to provide the regime in Riyadh with weapons and intelligence required to hit them, a new report has revealed.

According to a report published by The Intercept on Monday, London and Washington “have indiscriminately and at times deliberately” led Saudi warplanes to strike civilian targets in Yemen during the kingdom’s months-long military aggression against its southern neighbor, which has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis since its onset in March 2015.

The Intercept is a prestigious online news organization created and funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and edited by Betsy Reed, Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir acknowledged in January that British and American military commanders were in the command room.

“We have British officials and American officials and officials from other countries in our command and control centre. They know what the target list is and they have a sense of what it is that we are doing and what we are not doing,” Jubeir said in London after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The unprovoked war started by a coalition of Saudi-allies in an attempt to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to the report, although Western media describe the unfair aggression as a “Saudi-led” war, America and Britain are “central, indispensable” participants.

In August, the US State Department approved the sale of more than 130 Abrams tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment worth about $1.15 billion to Saudi Arabia. Washington had previously sold banned weapons such as cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.

British arms dealers such as the BAE Systems have also provided the Saudi monarchs with cutting-edge military technology. The two side are about to strike a deal for 48 Eurofighter Typhoon jets worth £4 billion ($4.97 billion).

The unconditional support did not stop even after a series of deadly Saudi airstrikes that killed over 100 people and injured hundreds more during a funeral in Sana’a on Saturday.

According to a new report by Reuters, US President Barack Obama has authorized arms deals with Saudi Arabia despite warnings from his aides that “the United States could be implicated in war crimes.”