The prominent humanitarian Jan Egeland has criticized US President Donald Trump’s freshly-inked $110bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia, saying it would deepen the conflict and suffering in neighboring Yemen.
Egeland, a former UN aid chief, said he “was saddened to see that the war in Yemen was not mentioned” when Trump sealed his huge arms deal and other investments totaling $350bn during his maiden voyage to the desert kingdom.
“Clearly the Saudi-led military alliance has not helped the situation inside Yemen,” Egeland told Middle East Eye.
“Saudi has been giving humanitarian aid, but the restrictions on land, sea and air have cost the Yemeni civilians much more than the humanitarian assistance could help them. Saudis and Iranians should concentrate rather on getting peace in Yemen than in undermining each other.”
Trump lauded the agreement, which includes a pledge by Riyadh to assemble 150 Lockheed Martin Blackhawk helicopters in Saudi Arabia, for delivering jobs to US workers and bolstering Washington’s ally against its regional foe, Iran.
But it is controversial. Some 10,000 Yemenis have been killed in the war next door. Civilians face hunger and a cholera outbreak has claimed hundreds of lives. Nearly 3.3 million people – including 2.1 million children – are acutely malnourished, the UN says.
“Trump has always been clear that his intentions are to make great business deals, and it’s obvious what the purpose of the trip was,” Shireen al-Adeimi, a Harvard University scholar who was born and raised in Yemen, told MEE.
“But, in light of the enormous humanitarian toll that the war is taking on Yemen, it’s shocking and disappointing that there was no pushback from the Republican Party about this deal, which will only make the situation in Yemen much worse.”
Trump appears to be taking a tougher line on Iran than his predecessor Barack Obama – a shift that has been welcomed by Saudi royals, who feted him with red carpets, traditional dancing and a five-story headshot of the US president projected onto the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.
