Yemen, the target for everyone's bombs

Nikki Hayley, the impressive US ambassador to the United Nations, has highlighted the appalling situation in Yemen in an article in the New York Times. But she is guilty of omission on one crucial issue. She has picked out Iran for breaching the arms embargo by selling bombs and missiles to the Houthi rebels. She is right of course, it is a fact that Iran, stirring up trouble wherever it goes in its foreign ventures, IS arming the Houthi rebels who are trying to overthrow the government of President Abdrabbuh Monsour Hadi, and as a consequence hundreds of Yemeni citizens are being killed or made homeless. As Nikki Hayley points out, Yemen is suffering the worst humanitarian disaster in the world right now. But it is also true to say that the Americans and British are providing missiles and bombs to Saudi Arabia which is leading a coalition attacking the Houthi rebels....and as a consequence hundreds of Yemeni citizens are being killed or made homeless. Ok, the aim of the arms embargo is to prevent the Houthis from getting their hands on weapons. But Saudi Arabia has been ruthless in its airstrike campaign and has devoted far less time and energy in avoiding civilian casualties as the Americans and Brits would if they were engaged in targeting the Houthi rebels. And because of that. the providers of the bombs and missiles have to take some responsibility for where they are landing. Yemen is a hellhole for its people, just as Syria has been and still is a hellhole for those who have had little relief from war despite the defeat of Isis. Yemen is one of those countries that seems to be a target for everyone. With so much chaos going on and so much death and destruction, the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda is flourishing in Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's training camps are bombed by the US Air Force, and individuals targeted by American Reaper drones. Al-Qaeda, like other terrorist groups, hides among the population. So bombing raids always have the risk of collateral damage, as the military like to call civilian casualties. Hitting al-Qaeda in Yemen is a totally legitimate, justified and necessary strategy. But it is a tragedy for the Yemeni people that powerful nations a long way away are devoting so much time to dropping bombs over their country. Nikki Hayley should spend more time trying to solve this seemingly unsolvable conflict than selecting out Iran for condemnation. In this war, everyone, except for the Yemeni people trying to live their lives, are guilty one way or the other.