Hands off Yemen!

by New Worker correspondent

AROUND 100 people gathered in Curzon Street, London, opposite the Saudi Arabian embassy, to protest at Saudi Arabia’ bombing of Yemen, resulting in deaths and horrific injuries to hundreds of innocent men, women and children.

The rally, on Saturday 11th April, included many Yemeni nationals who condemned the Saudis loudly and the imperialist leaders behind Saudi Arabia’s unprovoked and aggressive action. They also attacked United Nations general secretary Ban Ki Moon for his failure to condemn the attacks.

Speakers at the rally included Andrew Murray and John Rees from Stop the War, Maz Saleem and STW student organiser Shadia Edwards-Dashti 

The Saudi-led attack on Yemen has killed more than 540 people, of which at least 74 are children, and has left 1,700 wounded.

Supported and directed by the United States, using arms supplied by Britain, Saudi Arabia is waging a war that can bring nothing but more death and destruction for the people of Yemen.

The main message from Stop the War was that Saudi Arabia has no business intervening in internal differences within Yemen – the Yemenis must be allowed to resolve these differences themselves.

John Rees said: “The United States and Britain are up to their ears in this.” He went on to say that Saudi Arabia is Britain’s number one customer for weapons and that is ever a deal is in doubt, one of the royal family is sent to ease it through.

He said that the bombs, drones and guns that are raining death and terror on innocent Yemenis are falling with the blessing of the British government and were supplied by British arms companies.

The US has a central role in all of this. As US officials told the Wall Street Journal: “American military planners are using live intelligence feeds from surveillance flights over Yemen to help Saudi Arabia decide what and where to bomb.”

And Yemen has for a long time suffered repeated drone strikes from the US, killing innocent civilians.

Maz Saleem told the rally that western-backed attacks on Arab countries add to Islamophobia in this country. Her father, aged 82, was stabbed and murdered by a fascist terrorist two years ago while walking home from his local mosque simply because he was a Muslim.