Alwaght- The Saudi-led military coalition involvement in aggression on Yemen has been criticized by the UN over the number of civilian casualties and the infrastructure destroyed.
The comments came from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at a session of the Security Council, which held its first public meeting on Yemen in months.
Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein said: “I have observed with extreme concern the continuation of heavy shelling from the ground and the air in areas with a high concentration of civilians as well as the perpetration of the destruction of civilian infrastructure, in particular hospitals and schools by all parties to the conflict, although a disproportionate amount appeared to be the result of air strikes carried out by coalition forces.”
"The potential ramifications of a failed state in Yemen would almost inevitably create safe havens for radical and confessional groups such as the so-called ISIS," Zeid told the 15-member council.
"I further call on the council to do everything within its power to help restrain the use of force by all parties and to urge all sides to abide by the basic principles of international humanitarian law," Zeid said.
The United Nations has designated Yemen as one of its highest-level humanitarian crises, alongside emergencies in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq. It says more than 21 million people in Yemen need help, or about 80 percent of the population.
Human rights groups have condemned the United States, Britain and other Western countries for supplying deadly arms to the Saudi regime that have been used to commit war crimes in Yemen, and they have also accused the Arab forces of using cluster bombs, which are banned by most states.
"Hostilities in and around civilian areas, including the use of heavy weapons and cluster munitions, as well as air strikes and anti-aircraft fire, have inflicted an unacceptably high toll on the civilian population," New Zealand U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen told the council.
The UN Security Council meeting came just days after Yemeni peace talks concluded with no clear resolution to the nearly nine-month-old conflict. The talks failed due to Saudi intransigence and truce violations. The U.N.'s envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the two sides would meet again on Jan. 14.
Saudi Arabia began a deadly military aggression against Yemen – without a UN mandate – on March 26 to stop advances of the Ansarullah movement which is backed by the country’s army and Popular Committees. The Saudi regime intends to restore fugitive former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to power .
Over 7,600 have been killed during the Saudi-led airstrikes which began late March with over 16,000 injured. Most of the casualties are civilians especially women, children and the elderly.
The illegal war has inflicted damages on hundreds of important installations in the civilian infrastructure including hospitals, schools, mosques, residential quarters, water reservoirs etc.