Saudi Arabien vs. Iran vs. Türkei, Machtpole und "Regional Player" im islamischen Vorderasien Einstellungen

[Schwabo Elite]

Liebe User,

nach l�ngerer Downtime hat sich das WHQ-Team darauf geeinigt die zuletzt sehr hei�en und wenig konstruktiven Diskussionen zu den Konflikten in Nordafrika sowie dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten neu zu starten. Dabei w�rden wir gerne den geographisch und politisch sehr weiten Raum von Iran bis Marokko in vorerst drei Threads aufteilen. Die Threads zu

• B�rgerkriege in Syrien und im Irak - Die Neuordnung Mesopotamiens?
• Nordafrika - Revolutionen & Transformationen
• Saudi Arabien vs. Iran vs. T�rkei - Machtpole und "Regional Player" im islamischen Vorderasien

gehen damit online. Wir w�rden uns w�nschen, dass die sicher auftretenden �berschneidungen, z. B. eine iranisch-saudische Stellvertreterproblematik in Mesopotamien, von Euch allen in einer Art freiwilliger Selbstkontrolle gesteuert werden. Das hei�t, es liegt an Euch �berschneidungen auf m�glichst einen Thread zu reduzieren oder direkt neue Threads zu beginnen.

Insbesondere das neue Beginnen von Threads oder die Bitte an uns um Ausgliederung hilft uns sehr und reduziert moderative Schlie�ungen von Threads. Es ist immer umst�ndlicher "am offenen Herzen zu operieren" und Themen auszulagern, w�hrend weitere Beitr�ge produziert werden. Wenn Ihr also selbst auf Kontexte und Rote F�den achtet, bleiben Diskussionen l�nger lebendig. Neue Threads und ein Mehr an Diskussionen finden daher grunds�tzlich unsere Unterst�tzung.

Viel Vergn�gen,
Euer WHQ-Team

Der Beitrag wurde von Glorfindel bearbeitet: 5. Aug 2023, 18:55

[Dave76]

Mon Oct 10, 2016
Exclusive: As Saudis bombed Yemen, U.S. worried about legal blowback

By Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay

The Obama administration went ahead with a $1.3 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year despite warnings from some officials that the United States could be implicated in war crimes for supporting a Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians, according to government documents and the accounts of current and former officials.

State Department officials also were privately skeptical of the Saudi military's ability to target Houthi militants without killing civilians and destroying "critical infrastructure" needed for Yemen to recover, according to the emails and other records obtained by Reuters and interviews with nearly a dozen officials with knowledge of those discussions.

U.S. government lawyers ultimately did not reach a conclusion on whether U.S. support for the campaign would make the United States a "co-belligerent" in the war under international law, four current and former officials said. That finding would have obligated Washington to investigate allegations of war crimes in Yemen and would have raised a legal risk that U.S. military personnel could be subject to prosecution, at least in theory.

[...]

The previously undisclosed material sheds light on the closed-door debate that shaped U.S. President Barack Obama’s response to what officials described as an agonizing foreign policy dilemma: how to allay Saudi concerns over a nuclear deal with Iran - Riyadh's arch-rival - without exacerbating a conflict in Yemen that has killed thousands.

The documents, obtained by Reuters under the Freedom of Information Act, date from mid-May 2015 to February 2016, a period during which State Department officials reviewed and approved the sale of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia to replenish bombs dropped in Yemen. The documents were heavily redacted to withhold classified information and some details of meetings and discussion.

(A selection of the documents can be viewed here: tmsnrt.rs/2dL4h6L; tmsnrt.rs/2dLbl2S; tmsnrt.rs/2dLb7Ji; tmsnrt.rs/2dLbbIX)

An air strike on a wake in Yemen on Saturday that killed more than 140 people renewed focus on the heavy civilian toll of the conflict. The Saudi-led coalition denied responsibility, but the attack drew the strongest rebuke yet from Washington, which said it would review its support for the campaign to "better align with U.S. principles, values and interests."

The State Department documents reveal new details of how the United States pressed the Saudis to limit civilian damage and provided detailed lists of sites to avoid bombing, even as officials worried about whether the Saudi military had the capacity to do so.

State Department lawyers "had their hair on fire" as reports of civilian casualties in Yemen multiplied in 2015, and prominent human rights groups charged that Washington could be complicit in war crimes, one U.S. official said. That official and the others requested anonymity.

During an October 2015 meeting with private human rights groups, a State Department specialist on protecting civilians in conflict acknowledged Saudi strikes were going awry.

"The strikes are not intentionally indiscriminate but rather result from a lack of Saudi experience with dropping munitions and firing missiles," the specialist said, according to a Department account of the meeting.

"The lack of Saudi experience is compounded by the asymmetric situation on the ground where enemy militants are not wearing uniforms and are mixed with civilian populations," he said. "Weak intelligence likely further compounds the problem."

The Saudi government has called allegations of civilian casualties fabricated or exaggerated and has resisted calls for an independent investigation. The Saudi-led coalition has said it takes its responsibilities under international humanitarian law seriously, and is committed to the protection of civilians in Yemen. The Saudi embassy in Washington declined further comment.

In a statement issued to Reuters before Saturday's attack, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said, "U.S. security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check. ... We have repeatedly expressed our deep concern about airstrikes that allegedly killed and injured civilians and also the heavy humanitarian toll paid by the Yemeni people."

The United States continues to urge the Kingdom to take additional steps to avoid "future civilian harm," he added.

[...]

The White House convened a meeting in August 2015 on how best to engage the Saudis over rising civilian casualties, the emails show, in a sign of mounting concern over the issue. That same month, State Department officials gathered to discuss how to track those casualties.

In late January 2016, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken chaired a meeting with officials across the department in part to discuss "Options to limit U.S. exposure to LOAC (Law of Armed Conflict) concerns," according to a Blinken aide's email.

The Law of Armed Conflict, a group of international laws and treaties, prohibits attacks on civilians and requires combatants to minimize civilian death and damage.

While preserving military ties with Riyadh, the Obama administration has tried to reduce civilian casualties by providing the Saudis with "no-strike lists" of targets to avoid, dispatching to Saudi Arabia a U.S. expert on mitigating civilian casualties and pressing for peace talks, the officials said.

"If we’re going to be supporting the coalition, then we have to accept a degree of responsibility for what’s happening in Yemen and exercise it appropriately," a senior administration official said.

One no-strike list, called "The Overlay," was delivered to the Saudis in mid to late 2015. It included water and electrical facilities and infrastructure vital to delivering humanitarian aid, a second senior official said.

[...]

Kompletter Artikel:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saud...m_medium=Social