The Dire Situation in Yemen: A Conversation with Marianne Williamson and Hassan El-Tayyab

hey everybody i'm very glad to welcome a friend of mine to the program today hassan el tayab who is the friends committee on national legislation's lead lobbyist on middle east policy he is responsible for fcnl with the various coalitions that work on these issues his writings and commentaries have been featured in numerous news outlets including cnn bbc world news the hill al jazeera huffington post the intercept the young turks and more hi hassan how are you marianne how's it going so good to see you thank you always good to see you and you and i have been talking for a long time about how we needed to have a public conversation about particularly about yemen when i was running myself last year i talked a lot about how immoral it was that the united states was giving aerial support to a genocidal war being perpetrated prosecuted by saudi arabia against yemen we were told by president biden that there would be a whole new day when it came to foreign policy in relation to human rights we'll talk about the larger issue a little bit later but he spoke specifically in terms of yemen and when he came into office there seemed a moment at least where things were really changing and i think now what we need from you is to understand what did change and what still needs to change so if you could give us the sort of the scoop what's going on with saudi arabia yemen iran the united states and how do we break the blockade that is causing so much damage thank you so much for having me on and highlighting this really critical issue that just does not get talked about enough and it's the world's worst humanitarian crisis and it's a crisis that the united states has helped fuel with our military support to the saudi-uae-led coalition you know for more than six years saudi arabia you know has imposed an air land and sea blockade on yemen that's restricted the flow of vital food fuel medicine and humanitarian aid into the country these restrictions have been a leading driver in the humanitarian crisis that's pushed you know 16 million people to the edge of famine the world food program actually is saying that 400 000 children are suffering from a severe acute malnutrition and actually could die in the coming weeks or months if urgent action isn't taken so it's really critical that we're having this conversation the byte administration came in did some things right and did some things really wrong they came in and they said we're going to restore aid humanitarian aid usaid funding to all parts of yemen great decision they said they're going to lift the foreign terror designation on the houthis which is another great decision that they made to to make sure that we could continue seeing delivery of humanitarian aid to all parts of yemen they said that you know he came in also said that we're going to end u.s support for offensive operations in the saudi-led war in yemen now that sounds great but the devil is in the details what is offensive what does defensive mean you know if we're going to be ending offensive operations does that include the blockade does that include all maintenance support for saudi war planes and unfortunately what we've seen is that key parts of our military support have remained and that is basically continuing and perpetuating the war we haven't said saudi arabia we're going to completely cut off your your air you know the aerial support that we're providing in the form of maintenance for these saudi war planes you know they depend on the steady flow of spare parts and maintenance from u.s civilian contractors and pentagon officials to keep these planes in the air and unfortunately that's led to a continuation of this horrible blockade policy that's cut off the flow uh you know in the past six months it's really pinched off the flow of fuel and that's really just been a disaster for the people of yemen and pushed so many people to the edge of famine why is saudi arabia fighting yemen to begin with so there is a you know uh complicated history in yemen i'm not going to try to say i'm going to give you all the whole picture but here's the gist of it in 2011 there was a you know the arab spring uprising that pushed out uh you know 30-year long dictator in president saleh they in you know they had a non-violent you know revolution peaceful you know peaceful resistance uh he stepped down he wasn't forced to leave the country and they installed hadi who was then vice president and was supposed to be moving on after you know i think two or three years or so when they would then move to a more representative form of government with regular elections unfortunately as these things go uh you know he you know delayed leaving uh leaving office there was a lot of corruption issues the the houthis felt like they were being you know oppressed and getting the short end of the stick economically and they rose up and actually overthrew the hadi government hadi flowed fled to riyadh and asked the saudi-led coalition for support uh saudi arabia you know joined with the uae other arab league states and with the backing of the us uk france and canada and other western allies you know proceeded to start this uh the yemen war the the saudi uae led war in yemen and you know they have long just had when i say they the saudi uh saudi arabia has long had dominance over yemen they really value this strategic location because of the baba mendeb strait they ship millions of barrels of oil it's a strategic point they want they have you know long-term plans the uae also has plans for yemen they're trying to annex key pieces of the country in socotra and param islands and you know they've just used this as a launching point for a war there's also there's you know there's more to it than that but that's essentially the gist of it and the obama administration at the time they were trying to negotiate the iran nuclear deal which i think is a very important initiative to try to you know curb iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief i'm completely supportive of that but unfortunately uh you know the obama administration basically told saudi arabia that we're going to support your war in yemen please just don't interfere with the jcpoa talks and that was a really terrible disastrous decision that's destabilized the middle east it's caused massive suffering uh you know a quarter million people have died because of this war in large part because of the air strikes because of the blockade and it show it's actually showing no signs of stopping right now i wish we were further along in this process but um you know until we get saudi arabia to admit that you know they've essentially lost this war and that they cannot use the blockade mass starvation tactics to basically you know try to push the houthis to a surrender it's just not happening and and what we need to do here in the us is make sure that we're not militarily supporting the saudi-led coalition and that we're urging at all you know every doing everything we can to basically get this blockade to be lifted as a humanitarian act and decouple it from ongoing negotiations because using starvation as leverage is never okay how does this fit in in your mind to biden's larger more comprehensive claim that human rights would be brought back to the center of foreign policy during his presidency oftentimes when people run for office they say a lot of things that we all want to hear and then when they get into office that reality is much different and i don't think the you know what biden has done since uh you know he's come into office it's definitely better than trump in a lot of ways but far short of a human rights-based foreign policy the war in yemen that ongoing military support for the coalition is one example of us kind of compromising you know prioritizing human rights our you know support uh you know while israel was bombing gaza we announced i should say you know the press leaked the story that the byte administration was in process of selling 735 joint direct attack munitions j dams is what they call them the same bombs as israel was dropping on gaza horrible signal uh but the biden administration also said that they were going to you know prioritize having this checks and balances having congress do its thing and the executive branch do its thing and we've seen air strikes on iraq and syria that have not been authorized by congress so those are in the bad poem i think the good column is that the blind administration is pursuing talks with iran the joint uh you know comprehensive plan of action the jcpoa uh trying to you know you know get back into that nuclear accord i think that's a really positive move unfortunately we're still not in there and we're still having those sanctions in place that maximum pressure campaign that the trump administration started when they when he pulled out of the deal now that heck that whole uh maximum pressure regime is still in place on iran so uh it's definitely a mixed bag i am you know do we're doing everything we can here on the hill trying to build momentum build support for actual human rights human rights-based foreign policy and i really appreciate you giving you know you've given me this platform and so many great activists this platform to uh you know help us get from point a to point b because that's what we need and that's what we want for the middle east i don't understand why they have not and that why they will not uh remove those maximum pressure sanctions on iran i mean trump put them there as his own policy when he removed us from the from the iran deal so i don't understand the united states now telling iran that they better you know behave a certain way without our first saying we will remove the maximum pressure uh sanctions and i think sometimes people don't realize what those m you know people hear phrases like maximum pressure maximum pressure sanctions what that means is people can't get their medicine what that means is people can't get dialysis what that means is people can't get insulin what that means is that people can't get food and how how this can be used as a mode of foreign policy just seems barbaric to me is there is there any insight that you have into why the biden administration feels that this is a good uh good thing to hold on to and while they're in process of trying to get into the deal back into the deal yeah i mean so i cannot speak for the bible administration but i will say that covid19 is a huge priority for this administration i do think that they have been doing a good job as far as you know trying to take care of some of these domestic issues and they really prioritizing and focusing on rebuilding our economy infrastructure investment tackling covet 19 here at home and so they're preoccupied they're not going to lie they have a they have a tough job i'm not trying to say that they don't so there's that focus on on what's happening here in the united states which i understand unfortunately what we're seeing is what's happening abroad um you know kind of being left to the wayside the jcpoa is a critical deal you know in my opinion what i would have much preferred is that we you know lift the sanctions on iran and you know say if if we need to we can put them back if you're not going to come back into compliance with the deal but we're not going to use that as leverage um unfortunately credit on a couple pieces they did issue a general license for iran to ensure the flow this was just a week or two ago they issued a general license for iran for covin related relief so that means vaccines ppe testing kits respirator sanitizer you know all covered relief supplies and vaccines are now you know they've clarified that those are not covered by sanctions and shortly thereafter iran was able to you know spend about 100 million swiss francs and purchase 16 million vaccines that is a big deal that's a big deal they relieved some energy sector sanctions so you know it's not like they haven't done anything but the fact is the bulk of the maximum pressure uh you know regime is still in place we need to put pressure on the administration to lift it not just in iran but everywhere we cannot be using sanctions these broad-based economic sanctions that punish civilians and really don't do a lot to hold leaders of of countries like iran venezuela north korea syria accountable it punishes the people in cuba exactly the art of the embargo on cuba so this whole policy about sanctions uh you know is really critical we're pushing some legislation on the national defense authorization act to the very least try to get a humanitarian impact of sanctions report so we can see in the light of day how these sanctions are impacting innocent men women and children all over the world and i'm looking forward to working with congress and trying to get as you know much support for that as possible well it's a very old-fashioned conversation the idea that if the united states uh put sanctions on a country it would make the people so miserable they would rise up against their their government which is absurd and in far too many cases including those that you've mentioned the people are aware that their suffering is not coming from their government in these cases it's coming from the united states sanctions which only makes them support in some cases governments that they would not otherwise support now on the issue of israel and palestine um you and i had lunch with a with a gentleman not too long ago who works very closely on the palestinian issue both of you were were talking about the fact that we have i know that jared kushner had withdrawn some some aid to the palestinians isn't a large part of this not only the size of the aid that is given to israel but also restoring some aid and very much expanding aid to palestinians um so the administration let's put this in the good column they did restore massive amounts of funding to unra the uh un agency that's doing critical work in the west bank and gaza providing humanitarian you know support education resources so i put that in the good column um you know and we need to keep supporting uh you know humanitarian assistance for the palestinians for people in gaza um you know so that's something that we're definitely happy that that that that happened unfortunately uh on the accountability side there's much to be desired and the bill that we're working on right now was introduced by representative betty mccollum and this bill is hr 2590 it's our you know we have a action page on the fcnl site and what it does is it tries to make sure that we have at the very least um end use restrictions on our our military aid to israel we got to make sure that we're not allowing any u.s funds to go to annexation of palestinian land we got to make sure that u.s funds are not going to detain palestinian children in militant israeli military courts or in military jurisdiction we also have to make sure that you know no us funds are being used to demolish uh palestinian homes and just so we have some basic transparency that's not the end of the conversation that's really just you know the bare minimum and we also need to push for a lifting of the blockade on gaza what's happening to the people of gaza is just abhorrent it really is we've got two million people living in basically an open-air prison now what hamas is doing you know sending rockets into israel is not okay you know hands down that is just not okay at all but we cannot do a you know have collective punishment for everybody else who you know frankly these are just innocent people these are children uh they're any child under the age of 15 in gaza right now has never lived in a in a place you know that they could leave they're stuck there so freedom of movement is just not not an option for people in gaza right now and uh you know the 97 of the water is just not drinkable i mean that i just can't even fathom that you know and um they're the sometimes palestinians only have four hours a day of electricity so we need massive investment we need reconstruction of gaza after the the war in may i mean that's just absolute critical that's something else we're working on is trying to you know not only you know support the reconstruction of gaza but try to end this cycle of violence and you know bring to get you know bring folks together on the hill uh palestinian civil society to try to do something about this because it's gone on far too long you know i i'm an optimist i always think that you know we can make progress i do think that that there's more people in the united states that you know want to see a human rights-based foreign policy um you know that want to hold you know israel accountable and any government accountable that we're giving military assistance to that's definitely positive i think uh you know having aoc rashida to leave and mark pocan introduced joint resolutions and disapproval to block those weapon sales to israel you know when we heard that announcement of the 735 million dollar weapons sale i think that's definitely positive um we also have a new government in israel and i think that you know we don't know the full answer to that there's definitely you know cause for skepticism and that things won't get any better but you know i'm gonna keep pushing and trying to you know do whatever i can here to build support on the hill and off the hill to try to move the conversation in the positive direction and you know well let's have this conversation in another couple months and we'll we'll check in and see see how we're doing when you spoke earlier about uh giving credit where credit is due to the biden administration and i certainly agree with that but then you said i know they're very busy well you know the blanket there is the state department nobody's asking biden to do all the all the micromanagement 24 hours a day uh there is a state department they get something along the line of 40 billion a year so why is it given that we do have a state department to to take the larger more comprehensive view of these things um why don't we have a more human rights-centered foreign policy coming out of the biden administration great question i'm not trying to give anybody a pass here but i'm just looking into the head of the biot administration um you know trying to tackle covet i think is their number one priority and a lot of these other critical priorities are getting pushed to the side now unfortunately this is the way i i see you know a lot of people in dc they call i think ben rhodes coined the term the blob they see america's role in the world as we need to play a leadership role we need to be a hegemon in the middle east we need to dominate we need to you know support our allies we need to you know push back against you know bad guys like iran like you know and fortunately that whole line of thinking that the united states needs to be a hegemon in the middle east and and you know around the world frankly is a really destructive paradigm and something that we need to break out of because it's not serving the united states it's not serving the middle east and you know if we don't get out of this line of thinking we're going to see more and more and more violence and that's that's exactly why i appreciate you know having this conversation with you because we're i don't think the american people want that paradigm we don't want to be world cop we don't want to be sanctioning you know you know dozens of countries around the world just because we don't like their their leadership and when in fact you know it's hurting civilians not really doing you know having the intended outcome and so you know you have a whole bunch of people in dc that do have this you know uh this this way of thinking about the world and i you know i it is what it is we're we're where we're at right now and and i think our job here is to you know decolonize you know our own minds but also try to decolonize our government folks need to get engaged i really i really believe the vast majority of americans want to see a human rights-based foreign policy not just you know not just rhetoric we want to see it in practice yes i think the majority of americans do want us to leave with our values and the american people were conned the american people were tricked into believing that with the war in vietnam we were standing up for our values with the war in iraq we were standing up for our values and as you've made very clear and as everybody recognizes now it was the opposite of standing up for our values that was standing up for american militarism and the kind of hegemony that you were talking about what are the ways that you with your organization friends friends committee is pretty famous for this what are the ways that somebody listening to you right now can become active can learn more about what you are doing about what the organization is doing to help move forward a more human rights-centered foreign policy in the united states thank you for that great question one keep listening to you you have great you know great commentary out there and i think you offer a really fresh and wise perspective on a lot of these issues uh two i would say yeah absolutely um on the question on yemen i would suggest folks go to endtheblockade.com it's a website uh that that our coalition has set up to drive you know you know letters to congress to basically speak out about the blockade in yemen and make sure that we're going to end our uh you know and all u.s complicity and get the bid administrations with the pressure on saudi arabia needed to end the blockade we have leverage we have pending weapon sales you know we can you know get suspend visas we can you know you know there's a lot we can do that we haven't done we we got to make it happen i think congress is what needs you know we need to put pressure on congress to put pressure on the buy administration to put pressure on saudi arabia so that's another thing and the blockade.com as long as i'm sorry go ahead as long as we're on the topic of saudi arabia of course biden had said you know we understand the murder of khashoggi and that that saudi arabia would be recognized for the murderous you know the crown prince and his murderous activity there and yet recently washington hosted what the foreign minister of saudi arabia what was that about so the bible administration you know again campaigned on making muhammad bin salman a pariah you know saying that you know they're gonna hold saudi arabia accountable for what they're doing in yemen what they did to khashoggi uh the tiger squad so a lot of talk right there and instead of completely cutting off saudi arabia and cutting off the military and trying to push for accountability they they use a funny term it's called recalibration uh so i think they're trying to you know do some stuff you know we're gonna like you know lift the fto designation we're gonna cut off some support gonna cut off some weapons but not really going all the way and saying you know this is a toxic monarchy in the middle east and it's causing massive destruction for the people of yemen it's destabilizing the entire region it's going to actually support al qaeda in yemen and beyond i mean the we could go on about all of the destructive things that saudi is doing we haven't even talked about the climate crisis and you know how we need to get off fossil fuels and how they keep pumping uh more and more fossil fuels into our atmosphere you know so they've made the determination that's better to recalibrate than to actually you know completely reform the u.s saudi alliance i think that's a major mistake is part of this recalibration having to do with iran and and trying to make sure there's enough of a buffer there and playing our cards that way yeah i mean i think it's a similar you know situation where they're trying to get back into the iran nuclear deal um you know they don't want saudi to play the spoiler uh you know it's the same kind of calculation that the obama administration made when they supported the saudi-led coalition war in yemen in the first place and again it's like gets right back to that idea that the united states needs to be a hegemon in the middle east and it's just more of the same mold the thing is they don't even do it well they don't even do it well if you really wanted a buffer uh that would protect us from overreach by iran we had one it was called saddam hussein in iraq the iraq iran wars kept iran very busy and powerless in ways that it is not powerless anymore well thank you hassan thank you for all the work that you do and as i've said to you before anytime you want to talk about any of these things we talk privately but anytime you want to talk about any of this publicly on any of my platforms you are more than welcome just text me and say i got something i want to say and i'm more than glad to give everybody the opportunity to hear the very important messages that you give thank you thank you so much marianne really appreciate the discussion and uh you know i hope people do take action we do need to force a yemen war powers resolution vote to cut off all u.s support for the saudi uae-led coalition's war in yemen that's my top foreign policy priority right now and i'm glad to have a platform to talk about it okay everybody you heard it in theblockade.com do something thank you hassan thank you so much

Channel: Marianne Williamson

Views: 4,859

Rating: 4.9314284 out of 5

Keywords: Marianne Williamson, Marianne Williamson (author), A Course In Miracles, ACIM, Consciousness, Love, Happiness, Spirituality, Humanity, Our Deepest Fear, A Return to Love

Id: ieqTpPOkfa4

Length: 27min 42sec (1662 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021