UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lavished praised on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 27, with not a word of the Saudi led bombing campaign that has killed civilians and caused cholera in Yemen. The occasion was Guterres accepting a $930 million check for the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. Call it blood money I. Next, Guterres arranged to travel to Saudi Arabia on April 12 - but delayed it for the Saturday Syria meeting of the Security Council, outside of which Inner City Press asked Guterres, quite audibly, Now are you going to Saudi Arabia? Call it Blood Money Tour II.
Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokespeople in writing to inform it when Guterres leave New York, and the costs. There has been no response, as usual with Guterres, on costs. (He doesn't like to answer Press questions, Vine video here.) But the UN on Sunday evening issue this: "the Secretary-General stayed back in New York over the weekend to address the Security Council on Saturday. His Under-Secretary-General of the UN Counter Terrorism Office, Vladimir Voronkov, was at the Arab League Summit in his absence. The Secretary-General arrives in Riyadh on Monday and he will attend the 16th meeting of the United Nations Counter Terrorism Centre Advisory Board on Tuesday, where he will deliver remarks at the opening session of the meeting as planned. The Secretary-General is still expected to be back in New York on 18 April." Blood Money II is back on. Here are the questions Inner City Press submitted to Guterres' top two spokesmen on April 14, no answers at all: "reiterating Inner City Press' request to be informed when the Secretary General leaves New York, in this case for Saudi Arabia, and of any stop overs....as well separately of costs involved. Also, on the new Sexual Exploitation and Abuse cases put on the UN website at 5 pm on Friday April 13, please explain why one of them is dated April 20, 2018. And on the incidentin CAR of a peacekeeper found with ammunition, please state the nationality of the peacekeeper, or explain why you will not." On April 11, the US State Department - Inner City Press was there on April 10, asking two questions, here - has issued this: "The United States strongly condemns today’s Houthi missile attack on Riyadh. We support the right of our Saudi partners to defend their borders against these threats, which are fueled by the Iranian regime’s dangerous proliferation of weapons and destabilizing activities in the region. The Houthis’ continued attacks on Saudi population centers calls into question their commitment to helping shape a peaceful, prosperous, and secure future for Yemen. We continue to call on all parties to return to UN-facilitated political negotiations and move toward ending the war in Yemen." But what about the Saudi air strikes, in Taiz and elsewhere? In France, a legislator in Emmanuel Macron's party is calling for an investigation of French arms sales to the Coalition, while Macron's minister assures it's all good. Sebastien Nadot and 15 other co-signatories are pushing for a 30-member commission "to study France’s compliance with international commitments regarding arms export licenses, munitions, training, services and assistance that our country has granted during these three years to the belligerents of the conflict in Yemen." Spinning prior to the Paris visit of Crown Prince MBS, compliant wires quoted an anonymous Macron flack that "there is a very strict control of arms exports ... which obeys very precise criteria, including the concern for situations in which civilian populations may be endangered." Really? Killing children with airstrikes? On April 4, Inner City Press asked the new UN Ambassador of the UK, Karen Pierce, about the recent Saudi airstrike which killed 12 civilians, among them seven children. She replied that the Saudi government adheres to international humanitarian law. Video here, Vine here. From the UK transcript: Inner City Press: On Yemen, have you seen the news of the air strike that killed 12 including 7 children. I am wondering if the Council, do you feel that the Saudi Coalition is being careful enough in how it bombs?
AMB PIERCE: I haven’t seen the news of that. I think that is is apparent and we have discussed this with our Saudi friends that there needs to be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. We support Martin Griffiths the new Special Envoy and his work. I do know that in respect of Coalition operations, the Saudi government adheres to International Humanitarian Law. We talked to them bilaterally about that and we have offered them training to enhance their own efforts to that end but the obvious route forward is an inclusive political process. We will be discussing Yemen later in the Council in April and we will look forward to hearing from the new Special Envoy about that." We'll have more on this. Given that UNSG Guterres did not mention the bombing or the Children and Armed Conflict list that the Saudi led Coalition is still (barely) on, Inner City Press on March 28 asked Guterres' spokesman Farhan Haq, who said what Guterres said, is what he said. Asked how was in the meeting to following up on children and armed conflict listing, there was no answer - and no Virginia Gamba was seen. Blood money works, at the UN.
AMB PIERCE: I haven’t seen the news of that. I think that is is apparent and we have discussed this with our Saudi friends that there needs to be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. We support Martin Griffiths the new Special Envoy and his work. I do know that in respect of Coalition operations, the Saudi government adheres to International Humanitarian Law. We talked to them bilaterally about that and we have offered them training to enhance their own efforts to that end but the obvious route forward is an inclusive political process. We will be discussing Yemen later in the Council in April and we will look forward to hearing from the new Special Envoy about that." We'll have more on this. Given that UNSG Guterres did not mention the bombing or the Children and Armed Conflict list that the Saudi led Coalition is still (barely) on, Inner City Press on March 28 asked Guterres' spokesman Farhan Haq, who said what Guterres said, is what he said. Asked how was in the meeting to following up on children and armed conflict listing, there was no answer - and no Virginia Gamba was seen. Blood money works, at the UN.
