Yemen's Ansarullah Slams UN for Delisting Saudi-Led Coalition
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee of Yemen, strongly condemned the UN decision to take the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen off a global blacklist for killing and injuring children in the conflict-plagued Arab country.
“Delisting Saudi Arabia from the annual UN report confirms the chaos in the world body and its disregard for humanitarian standards,” al-Houthi wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page on Tuesday, Press TV reported.
He denounced the UN’s step as an “ineffaceable crime,” saying it took place at the same time when Saudi Arabia and the United States perpetrated a new massacre in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada.
The Yemeni official was referring to the Saudi-led air raids that targeted a civilian car in Sa’ada on Monday, killing 13 people, including women and children.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took away the Saudi-led coalition engaged in an atrocious military campaign against Yemen from a blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in the impoverished country.
The move prompted immediate protests from human rights groups worldwide.
Jo Becker, the advocacy director of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, argued that Guterres “is adding a new level of shame to his 'list of shame' by removing the Saudi-led coalition and ignoring the UN's own evidence of continued grave violations against children.”
Adrianne Lapar, director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, also said by removing the Saudi-led coalition “the secretary-general sends the message that powerful actors can get away with killing children.”
