Yemen Crisis/Conflict & the "Decisive Storm" Coalition

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Iran, Turkey agree need to stop Yemen war: Rouhani

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Tehran (AFP) - Turkey and Iran agree on the need for a political solution to end Yemen's war, which has raised tensions between them, Iran's president said Tuesday after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart.

"We talked about Iraq, Syria, Palestine... We had a long discussion about Yemen. We both think war and bloodshed must stop in this area immediately and a complete ceasefire must be established and the strikes must stop" in Yemen, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said during a joint press conference broadcast by state television.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made no remarks about Yemen, but he talked at length about bilateral relations with Iran.

Iran, which supports the Huthi rebels in Yemen, has condemned air strikes by an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and supported by Turkey.

Rouhani said he hoped the two countries, "with the help of other countries in the region" would contribute to "peace, stability, a broader government and dialogue" between Yemenis.

"We agree on the fact that instability, insecurity and war must cease throughout the region," he said.

Erdogan, a conservative Islamist, denounced at the end of March what he called Iran's will for "domination" in Yemen, calling on Tehran to "withdraw all its forces from Yemen, Syria and Iraq."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif reacted by accusing Ankara of fuelling instability in the Middle East.

Iranian newspapers and conservatives for their part denounced Erdogan's "insult" and called for his visit to be cancelled.

State news agency IRNA said Zarif is to travel to Oman on Wednesday and then Pakistan for talks on the Yemen conflict.

Turkey and Iran are also opposed on Syria, with Tehran the main regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad and Ankara supporting the rebellion.

Several ministers accompanied Erdogan, who also met Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his one-day visit.

Despite the tensions, the neighbouring countries want to strengthen trade to 30 billion dollars (28 billion euros) in 2015.

Erdogan pointed out that the balance of trade was unfavourable to Turkey, since "Iran exports $10 billion and imports only $4 billion in Turkish products."

And he asked for a reduction in the price of gas purchased from Iran.

"The gas we buy from Iran is the most expensive. If the price drops we can buy more," Erdogan said. "That's what a friendly country is."

He also called for expanding air links to medium-sized cities in Iran, and for an increase in electricity imports, as is already the case for several Turkish provinces.

During the visit, eight documents, particularly in the areas of transport, customs, industry and health were signed.

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:D
 

delft

Brigadier
Ambassador Bhadrakumar on the possible support by Pakistan of the Saudi attack on Yemen:
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Pakistan’s all-weather friend counsels caution

By M.K. Bhadrakumar
The opinion of an “all-weather friend” should always count. Will Pakistan take China’s estimation of the Yemen situation seriously before crossing the Rubicon to meet Saudi Arabia’s expectations from it? Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who just returned from a visit to Riyadh leading a military delegation,
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on Monday, “Saudi Arabia has asked for combat planes, warships and soldiers.”

Yet, in an extraordinarily frank assessment, Xinhua news agency flagged over the weekend that Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen is motivated by its narrow self-interests and do not rest on any principles. The commentary attributes four motives to the Saudi intervention, which it says, was “by no means an impulse (sic) decision by Saudi leaders, but reflects their strategic consideration in various aspects.”

One, heightened security concerns over a possible spillover of terrorist (read al-Qaeda) activities in Yemen would have worked on the Saudi mind. Two, the intervention in Yemen serves “to divert attention from the increasingly fierce power struggle among the royals, and provides the new leader (King Salman) a chance to establish his authority.” (Emphasis added.)

Three, Riyadh hopes that the tensions would drive up oil prices, “and that could consolidate Saudi Arabia’s market share.” Four, Saudi Arabia hopes to throw a spanner at the wheel of the US-Iran nuclear negotiations and prevent “a détente between Tehran and the West.”

Indeed, this is plain speaking. China doesn’t buy the Saudi thesis of a hidden Iranian agenda to destabilize Saudi Arabia by inciting the Houthis of Yemen, nor does it see the Yemen conflict as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran or even as a Sunni-Shi’ite question regionally.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity has not come under threat. But it can, if the Saudis persist on the war path. The precipitate Saudi action is bound to produce a backlash at some point. From independent media accounts, the Saudi military operations are having
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on the Houthi’s march into Aden city.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have put the Saudis on the defensive by offering talks. So have the UN agencies and Russia by requesting a “humanitarian pause” in the Saudi air strikes. More and more media reports speak of horrific civilian casualties (
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). Even the cheerleaders among the neocons in the US or Israel would gurdgingly agree by now that it’s becoming
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.

Hardly two weeks into the war, Riyadh seems to have
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. The Saudi demarche with Islamabad virtually seeks subcontracting the war to the Pakistani generals. But Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will do well to pay heed to the Chinese assessment. Read the Xinhua commentary
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.
 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Russia urges UN to call for a 'humanitarian pause' in Yemen



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia urged the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to call for a "humanitarian pause" in the conflict in Yemen to help diplomats and civilians caught in the fighting between Shiite rebels and supporters of the country's beleaguered president.

Russia called an emergency meeting of the council and circulated a draft resolution demanding "regular and obligatory" breaks in airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition against Houthi Shiite rebels to allow the evacuation of foreign personnel. It makes no mention of a halt to fighting by the Houthis.

The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, also demands "rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches people in need."

After the meeting, Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar, the current council president, said members "reiterated concern over the grave humanitarian situation" and again called for implementation of a resolution demanding an end to the fighting in Yemen and a return to negotiations.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Afghan Militants Vow To Send ‘Thousands’ Of Fighters To Yemen



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ISLAMABAD: An Afghanistan-based jihadist group on Wednesday vowed to send “thousands” of fighters to Yemen in support of Saudi Arabia.

Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin was one of the main Sunni insurgent groups that fought against Soviet troops and later re-emerged to fight US-led coalition forces after 2001.

“If there is any possibility to go to Iraq and Yemen, thousands of Afghan mujahideen would be ready to go, to counter Iran’s interference and to defend their Muslim brothers,” its leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, former prime minister of Afghanistan, said in an online statement.

“After Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Tehran has now started interfering in Yemen, it is supporting the anti-Muslim, apostate troops,” he added.

Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin first emerged as part of the anti-Soviet mujahideen alliance in the 1980s which was bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and the United States, and coordinated by Pakistani intelligence.
(Coalition for Democracy:D)

Saudi Arabia has asked its longstanding ally Pakistan to contribute planes, ships and ground troops to the operation against Iranian-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

But Pakistan has resisted so far, calling for a diplomatic solution and saying it does not want to take part in any conflict that would worsen sectarian divisions in the Muslim world.

(AFP)
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Iran, Turkey agree need to stop Yemen war: Rouhani

Syria and Turkey were happily trading along too then the Syrian civil war broke out and look at how quickly Turkey threw Syria, yes all of Syria not just the Assad government, under the bus. Iran must be really desperate for economic development, or blinded by greed, to try to cozy up to Turkey even now.
 
Ambassador Bhadrakumar on the possible support by Pakistan of the Saudi attack on Yemen:
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Pretty sure China is coming from the angle of securing oil supplies from the region as cheaply as possible. It is also probably not enthused by the prospect of additional Saudi extremist influence in Pakistan, especially among military personnel. India most likely shares the same concerns.
 
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