IHRC condemns in the strongest possible terms the military attack launched by US/UK led forces overnight on Yemen.

In the context of the ongoing genocide by Israeli forces in Gaza the escalation is inflammatory and perverse.

At a time when western powers should be reining in the Israeli terror machine in line with the demands of international law, it is instead assisting them to continue the massacres of mainly innocent civilians.

Yemen’s Ansarullah are blockading ships bound for Israel in order to force the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv to halt the military onslaught on Gaza and lift the siege. Punishing them for doing so amounts to trying to stop them from upholding international law.

It is revealing about western intentions that they have not lifted a finger to stop Israel from putting Palestinian waters off limits to the native inhabitants for many decades. Fishermen and other seafarers are routinely prevented from sailing in their own waters at risk of being attacked by Israeli gunboats that patrol the waters off Gaza.

While spouting the rhetoric of international law, the US in particular has no qualms about seizing foreign vessels in actions that are nothing short of piracy. The US and its allies have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since 2019. [ENDS]

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