Yemen

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Thursday 15th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Ind Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Luce, has set out very clearly the extent to which Yemen is a failed state, and I will not repeat what he said. He also made it clear that the war in Yemen is a calamity. The suffering of thousands and thousands of innocent people, many of whom are children, is horrific. Severe malnutrition is common- place—400,000 children are suffering from it and some have already died of starvation. We are now warned by humanitarian agencies that by the beginning of next year famine is likely to affect as many as 13 million people—half the country’s population. Were this to happen, it would be the biggest famine for a century.

I turn to the statistics on the humanitarian crisis that already exist. Over 20 million people, constituting 75% of the population, are in need. There are 2 million displaced people, of whom nearly 90% have been displaced for more than a year. Cholera is now rampant, as the noble Lord, Lord Luce, mentioned, with 1.2 million people infected last year and the likelihood that even more will be infected in the coming months; 9.7 million people need to be vaccinated against this horrible disease, yet only 1.1 million have had a vaccination. It is unclear how many civilians have already died in this conflict but some estimates suggest that it could be at least 50,000. We know that the number of civilian deaths increased by 164% in the three months from June to September this year. There have also been many serious violations of international humanitarian law by all sides in this conflict.

It is now a matter of the greatest urgency to end this conflict. There is a military stalemate, with very few signs that the warring parties are willing to accept a ceasefire and search for a peaceful outcome, so this is a war without much purpose. In these circumstances, there must be forceful intervention by the international community to get the participants around the table and to broker a ceasefire. To quote David Miliband speaking in his role as the head of the International Rescue Committee:

“Yemen cannot afford a slow walk at UN. Peace in Yemen requires active … diplomacy”.


I therefore welcome, as have the other speakers in the debate so far, the Foreign Secretary’s initiative earlier in the week to visit Saudi Arabia and, while there, to put pressure on the Saudi regime to agree to take steps that could lead to a ceasefire.

I ask the Minister why it has taken so long to get to this point. This was begun in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and the UAE foolishly thought that their intervention would deal with the Houthis and put Hadi back in power, and that the civil war would end in a few weeks. How wrong they were. Their blockade of Yemeni ports, as well as their persistent bombing campaign, have done untold damage. Moreover, instead of pushing back Iran, experts have suggested that it has given Tehran an opening in Yemen that it would not otherwise have had. Can the Minister explain why the Government have been so reluctant up till now to table a UN Security Council resolution on this crisis? It is the penholder on Yemen at the UN and therefore should be at the forefront of UN action to try to stop the war.

The Government’s past reluctance to intervene suggests, as some commentators have argued, that they have more or less sided with Saudi Arabia and protected it from the heavy criticism it deserved. Why have we had to wait for the brutal murder of a Saudi journalist critical of the regime, by a hit squad sent to Turkey from Riyadh, before directly confronting the Saudi leadership on its part in the war? However great a crime the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi was, the crime of perpetuating this war, as the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, said, is far greater because of the loss of life and terrible suffering it is inflicting.

Will the Minister also tell the House what discussions the Government have had with the United States Government? Until very recently, they had failed to use the enormous leverage they have with the Saudis to stop the bombing and seek a political solution. I know the US has recently broken its silence and asked for a ceasefire, but could the Minister perhaps enlighten the House: what has the follow-up been since this relatively recent intervention? One attempt to get the parties together was apparently destroyed by blocking the Houthi delegation’s travel to the talks—I think it was leaving from Oman. Can we ensure that such action, apparently by the Saudi-led coalition, is not repeated? What consideration, if any, are the US Government giving to stopping their logistics assistance and intelligence support to Saudi Arabia while this conflict continues?

I expect that the Minister will emphasise the considerable commitment the Government have made to supplying aid, in particular emergency food aid, to the stricken Yemeni people. I strongly support the Government’s role in this. However, despite our participation in the large aid programme, it is little more than a sticking plaster as long as the conflict continues.

As a major supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia, our Government have a particular responsibility to push for not just a ceasefire but also a diplomatic solution. Can the Minister say whether the Government are sure that the use of UK-supplied weapons in this war is compliant with our domestic and international obligations on arms sales? Since international humanitarian law has been breached in the conflict, should we not have suspended our sales of military equipment to Saudi Arabia, as the German Government did? I end by asking what the Government’s timetable for putting down a UN Security Council resolution is. It cannot come soon enough.