Irish protesters march on Saudi embassy as Yemen war rages on

Irish protesters have rallied towards Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Dublin to protest the seven-year Riyadh-led war on Yemen and criticize their government’s response to the devastating aggression and siege.

The demonstration marked the seventh anniversary of the Saudi aggression on Yemen, upon a call by Ireland’s anti-war movement.

The protesters slammed the Irish government over its failure to condemn the Saudi war on the impoverished country, comparing its stance on the war in Yemen to its “robust intervention” in the conflict in Ukraine, Middle East Eye reported.

“What’s happening in Yemen is a crime against humanity and we are responsible for it. Our governments are criticizing what’s happening in Ukraine, but they are not looking at what’s happening in Yemen, even though we can actually make a huge difference,” said Patricia Mckenna, a former member of the European Parliament.

A hundred body bags were laid on the ground and pulled through the streets of Dublin to draw attention to the Yemeni civilians who lost their lives since the beginning of the war.

The protesters also urged the United States and the United Kingdom to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is the most important member of the Saudi-led military coalition.

Nearly 140 Arab rights groups demand end to Saudi war, siege on Yemen

Some 140 Arab human rights organizations and civil societies demand an immediate end to the Saudi war and siege on Yemen.

Mainstream media silence

Sara O’Rourke of the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) described Yemen as a “forgotten war”.

“People are not aware of what’s happening mainly because of media silence, mainstream media silence,” O’Rourke said.

“And as we have seen with the invasion of Ukraine, the media plays a big role in how people react to these stories when they hear them,” she added.

Launched in late March 2015, the war on Yemen was aimed at crushing the Ansarullah resistance movement and re-installing the former Riyadh-friendly regime in the Yemeni capital Sana’a within weeks, but Riyadh continued the war after failing miserably.

The Saudi-led coalition has been mainly using airstrikes to attack Yemeni targets, including residential areas in the capital Sana’a and elsewhere around the country. The coalition has received logistical and intelligence support from the United States, Britain, and France.

In recent months, there have been serious escalations in the still-asymmetrical war, as the Yemeni armed forces pushed forward with and broadened their retaliatory strikes, bringing the war into the Saudi and Emirati soil. In turn, Saudi Arabia has intensified its air raids and tightened its siege on Yemen by seizing its fuel tankers on several occasions.

Because of the war and the accompanying siege, Yemen is now facing the worst man-made catastrophe in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the course of the war.

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