The Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman called for an end to arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, saying that Yemen is now living the specter of hunger in a real crisis caused by the unjust war.

In an interview with Channel 4, she called for an immediate end to the war and that the international community should press Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well as Iran to end it.

In response to the latest international political movement, and calls for a cease-fire, Karman said Yemen needs no words but actions to end the status quo, starting with a halt to arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates used to kill the Yemeni people.

Karman pointed out that the cease-fire itself is not enough. It must be accompanied by a Saudi-Emirati withdrawal from Yemen, the handover of the militia arms to the state and all those who have committed war crimes in Yemen to be held accountable, including the Saudi-UAE-led Arab coalition.

She also called on Arab states to compensate Yemen for all the damage caused by the war.

As for the British academic Matthew Hedges, who was convicted by the United Arab Emirates with spying, Karman expressed her happiness at the news of his release, but noted that there are many prisoners who are not British in UAE jails.

She also referred to dozens of private prisons set up by the UAE in Yemen, where Yemeni prisoners are in large numbers tortured, some of them unarmed or unaccounted for.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also referred to prisoners of conscience as well as Saudi activities in Saudi prisons where they are subjected to torture and sexual assaults, calling on the international community to put pressure on the Saudi and UAE governments to release the prisoners.

At the end of her speech, Tawakkol Karman expressed her regret that the Saudi Crown Prince would be among the participants in the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, noting that his natural place is the prison or the International Court of Justice in reference to his involvement in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

 

To view the meeting on the British Channel, click here