Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was a Foreign Affairs Council meeting yesterday. Not surprisingly, there was talk about Mr. Khashoggi and his terrible disappearance from the Saudi embassy. It is in no way surprising. I am not surprised that the Saudis are misbehaving or that western media are now so exercised about the same thing. There is no excitement among the western media about what is happening in Yemen, where tens of thousands are being killed and we are looking at millions starving. The Government's line on the situation in Yemen and the narrative peddled on RTÉ yesterday hold that there is a terrible civil war in Yemen and that a coalition involving the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is defending the rightful leader, Mr. Hadi, from the evil Iran-backed Shia Houthi movement and that all of the endless fighting is the cause of the famine. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yemen has long been the target of global capital on the rampage for cheap profits and new frontiers for investment. The plundering of Yemen intensified about 15 years ago with IMF and World Bank readjustment programmes spearheading the opening up of Yemen to global finance. Neoliberal reforms were dutifully implemented by Mr. Hadi's predecessor, Mr. Saleh.

By 2009, the Yemeni people had begun to mobilise collectively to protest the unemployment, homelessness and hunger that the so-called reforms brought. The government responded violently and, as a result, the protest movements in the north and south gained support and momentum. In the words of the historian, Isa Blumi, "It was not civil war that befell Yemen in 2011, it was the next phase of a war of survival against the [worst] forms of finance capitalism."

Saleh was forced out and in 2012, his vice-president, Hadi, was installed as an interim leader while the country was to quieten down and prepare for elections. Instead, Hadi speeded up the liberalisation of the economy, steamrolled Yemen into the World Trade Organization, implemented crippling austerity and proceeded to privatise and literally sell off Yemen to the Saudis and Qataris. A sham referendum was held in 2012 to legitimise Hadi and his name was the only one on the ballot. In August 2014, Hadi's government breached its mandate and unilaterally declared an extension of its power instead of holding the elections that Obama promised. With widespread public support, Ansar Allah and a diverse range of allies occupied the capital, set up committees to investigate corruption by the ruling party and exposed how the pillaging of Yemen had increased under Hadi.

In September 2014, with the assistance of Jamal Benomar, the UN envoy to Yemen, Hadi signed the Peace and National Partnership Agreement with Ansar Allah and the leaders from all the major political parties, and elections were back on the agenda. However, this was not what Saudi Arabia wanted. According to the UN envoy, Saudi airstrikes began just as the main political parties were on the verge of agreeing a power sharing deal.

The Ansar Allah movement, against whom this devastating war is being waged, is a popular and representative movement of the Yemini people. It is fighting US trained and armed mercenary militias paid by the Saudis, the Qataris and the United Arab Emirates, UAE. Ansar Allah and the innocent people of Yemen are being bombed by UK and US made bombs and other munitions from the UK, France and Germany, which are dropped by US fighter bombers. They are refuelled mid-air by US refuelling planes and the targeting is carried out by the US military.

This is a war of resistance by the people of Yemen against the pillage of their country by global financial capitalism and because there is such broad support for this effort, the Yemenis have been doing well and the Saudis have not been able to quieten them down. That is why starvation has now become the Saudis' weapon of choice. With the help of the US, the UK and other Europeans, the Saudis and the UAE are bombing cows, farms, water infrastructure, food stores, food trucks, markets, agricultural banks and numerous agricultural facilities. The reason there is a famine is that our trade partners are bombing the food infrastructure of an entire country, as they try to starve the people into submission, and we are okay with that. As Deputy Daly just stated, to think that a national air cargo plane on contract to the US military was refuelled at Shannon a couple of months ago on its way to Djibouti with supplies to attack Yemen. Ireland is complicit in the destruction of Yemen. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

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