Imperialists Continue Bombing of Yemen as Famine Spreads in Gaza

Washington’s plan to establish a pier to supply assistance ridiculed by Palestinians and observers around the world

By Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Friday March 15, 2024

Geostrategic Analysis

Warplanes from the United States and the British Royal Air Force (RAF) once again launched a series of airstrikes against the people of Yemen in several locations on March 14.

Statements to the media by White House spokespersons for President Joe Biden claim that the bombing operations are designed to degrade the military capability of the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) led by Ansar Allah resistance movement which controls large swaths of territory in the country designated as the least developed in West Asia. 

This is not the first time that Washington has taken aggressive actions against Yemen. Prior to 2015, Pentagon troops were present and carried out regular airstrikes and targeted assassinations against those deemed as terrorists. Then after the early months of 2015, the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and later Donald Trump continued to back the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as they launched large scale bombings and ground operations.

Ansar Allah, the Yemeni resistance movement, was falsely accused of being proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran therefore providing a rationale for an imperialist-engineered war to displace them from the capital of Sana’a and other regions of Yemen. A rival political grouping was armed and financially supported by the U.S. and Britain through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which was headed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Realizing that Ansar Allah could not be militarily defeated, peace talks resulted in a truce between the resistance and the western-backed forces. 

The war waged against the people of Yemen brought about the worst humanitarian crisis internationally. A cholera epidemic and the systematic targeting of national infrastructure created the conditions for thousands of preventable deaths, particularly among children. 

Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Storm on October 7 and the subsequent genocidal war against the people of the Gaza Strip, the Yemeni resistance has attempted to impose a blockade of the ports servicing the State of Israel. Numerous vessels linked to Tel Aviv and its backers have been targeted by the YAF prompting seizures and the sinking of a ship owned by British interests. 

Biden’s hastily convened coalition of imperialist states and allies known as “Operation Prosperity Guardian” (OPG), have continued to engage in airstrikes against Yemen under the guise of keeping the shipping lanes open within the Arabian and Red Seas through the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandab straits. Yet the bombings by the U.S. and Britain have targeted civilian areas and transportation hubs. 

A report on the March 14 airstrikes by a Lebanon-based television network said that:

“Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that the American-British aggression launched 11 airstrikes on Hodeidah Governorate, west Yemen, during the past hours. According to our correspondent, the joint aggression targeted the areas of al-Jah, al-Faza, Ras Issa, and Hodeidah Airport. He indicated that the American-British aggression targeted al-Jah with four airstrikes, Hodeidah Airport with one airstrike, al-Faza with two airstrikes, and Ras Issa with four. Later, Al Mayadeen correspondents reported that the joint aggression carried out two airstrikes on the Abs District in Hajjah Governorate, northwest Yemen.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-uk-forces-launch-11-airstrikes-on-yemen-s-hodeidah-in-pas)

These airstrikes by London and Washington on March 14 came in the immediate aftermath of the declarations made by Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi to expand the military operations against Israeli interests in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine as a whole. Obviously, the White House and 10 Downing Street are quite nervous about the overall impact of the Yemeni resistance in redirecting shipping vessels, the higher costs of maritime trade and the lack of security. 

The attacks on shipping have coincided with the operations by allied resistance forces in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Zionists and imperialists are being militarily engaged from Palestine to the Red Sea.

In another article published by Al Mayadeen it emphasizes:

“Meanwhile, the United States and other Western countries are not ‘ashamed of providing weapons to the Israeli enemy to pursue its crime of genocide in Gaza,’ Sayyed al-Houthi confirmed. ‘The Israeli occupation is carrying out the crime of the century, with American participation and contributions from Western and some Arab countries, he said.’… He added that the deception and maneuvering methods practiced by the United States are ‘part of the aggression against the Palestinian people.’ Regarding the U.S. aid airdrops, which led to the martyrdom of several people in Gaza, Sayyed al-Houthi confirmed that the real intent behind them is ‘to insult the Palestinian people,’ explaining that the occupation is trying to sideline the official mission regarding the distribution of aid and its supervision in Gaza.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/al-houthi--our-ops--hit-indian-ocean--to-be-expanded-to-cape)

U.S. Plans to Address Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza Ridiculed

Not only has the Biden White House’s announcements about airdrops of food and the proposal to construct a makeshift pier to facilitate aid distributions to the people in Gaza been denounced by people across the globe these measures are being advanced absent of the halting of weapons supplies to Tel Aviv and the blocking of numerous ceasefire resolutions before the United Nations Security Council. The first logical policy decision would be aimed at ending the IDF aggression against Gaza. 

The posture of the White House makes it quite clear that the administration does not want any of the political objectives of the Palestinian people realized. Biden and his cabinet along with Pentagon officials are continuing to call for the elimination of Hamas and other resistance movements in Gaza. 

In response to the White House plans for the temporary pier, the Russian Foreign Ministry on March 13 described the proposal as absurd. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a press conference held in Moscow referred to the Pentagon pier proposal as “dances on bones.”  

Palestine Chronicle noted in relation to the Russian Foreign Ministry assessment:

“Russia on Wednesday called the United States-led initiative to build a pier off the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid ‘dances on bones,’ Anadolu news agency reported. Responding to a question at a press briefing in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned the validity of building infrastructure in a war-torn region. ‘These are dances on bones, mocking people, because now, when civilians are dying there every day, we need to talk about their destinies, and not about some illusory future projects that in the first place, need peace to be implemented, otherwise we perfectly understand how all this will end,’ Zakharova reportedly said. ‘When a country does not even want to hear — I am now talking about the United States of America — about even formulating a call for a cease-fire, how can we treat initiatives to build civilian infrastructure where they do not want a cease-fire?’” (https://www.palestinechronicle.com/building-a-pier-off-gaza-is-dancing-on-bones-russian-foreign-ministry/)

Many Believe Biden Plan Will Facilitate Genocide and Forced Removals

At present there are documented cases of starvation in the Gaza Strip. Due to the massive bombing and ground operation in Gaza, aid has been reduced substantially. The attacks on a warehouse utilized by the UN Refugee Agency for Palestine, UNRWA, killed one staff person and wounded 22 others on March 13.

Reports indicate that the idea being pushed by Biden had been suggested several months ago by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden disclosed that security for the aid corridor would be provided by the IDF. Consequently, there is extreme skepticism on the part of Palestinians and others throughout the region that these plans will only worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 

An analytical review by Tamara Nassar published by Electronic Intifada on March 14 reveals the level of suspicion among Palestinians over the Biden plans:

“Palestinians in Gaza received the news about the planned port with fear and suspicion.

Analysts have speculated that this could be a ploy to eliminate Egypt as an outlet between the Gaza Strip and the rest of the world and sever the coastal enclave’s reliance on Egypt economically and politically by way of the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing – the sole point of exit and entry for most people in Gaza. This would ostensibly complete Israel’s control of the Gaza Strip without dependence on Egyptian cooperation, reliable as it may have been. Abdel Bari Atwan, a Gaza-born world-renowned Palestinian journalist, invoked the U.S.-facilitated evacuation of thousands of Palestinian guerilla fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Beirut in 1982 as an insight into what these plans could possibly suggest. Palestinian fighters were transferred by US warships off the Beirut coast to Cyprus and eventually to Tunisia. Atwan indicated that the maritime corridor would create a pathway for the forcible evacuation of Palestinians by sea. Other analysts have expressed similar fears.” (https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/whats-real-purpose-bidens-gaza-port)

Biden is attempting to make it appear as if his administration is concerned about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. The White House is worried that the failure to shift its policy on Palestine could very well cost the Democratic Party another term of office in the executive branch. 

Palestine solidarity activists in the U.S. must remain vigilant in their demands for an immediate ceasefire, the halt to arms shipments to Tel Aviv, the banning of all assistance to the apartheid Israeli regime and the rapid transition to the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.