A dissident Saudi official has alleged that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged his father's signature in a royal decree which committed Saudi ground troops in the early stages of the Yemeni civil war.

Jabri said he had discussed the war, which began in September 2014, with Susan Rice, national security adviser to then-US President Barack Obama. Rice said that Washington would only support an air campaign.

"We were surprised that there was a royal decree to allow the ground interventions," Jabri told the BBC. "He forged the signature of his dad for that royal decree. The king’s mental capacity was deteriorating."

A Saudi-led coalition, which included the United Arab Emirates, intervened on behalf of the Yemeni government in March 2015 to push back the Houthis, after the group took control of Sanaa.

in case people were wondering why the west is so invested in the war

(Beirut) – The Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port on the evening of July 20, 2024, were an apparently unlawful indiscriminate or disproportionate attack on civilians that could have a long-term impact on millions of Yemenis who rely on the port for food and humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch said today.

“The Israeli attacks on Hodeidah in response to the Houthis’ strike on Tel Aviv could have a lasting impact on millions of Yemenis in Houthi-controlled territories,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Yemenis are already enduring widespread hunger after a decade-long conflict. These attacks will only exacerbate their suffering.”

Human Rights Watch found that Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 29 of the 41 oil storage tanks at Hodeidah port, as well as the only two cranes used for loading and unloading supplies from ships. The airstrikes also destroyed oil tanks connected to the Hodeidah power plant, causing the power plant to stop operating for 12 hours.

A remnant that Mwatana for Human Rights collected at the site bore the markings of Woodward, a US manufacturing company, and matches remnants collected in other contexts of the GBU-39 series bomb made by the US company Boeing. The GBU-39, known as the “small diameter bomb,” is a guided, airdropped munition.

https://archive.ph/m6kzi

As "Israel" continues its genocide in Gaza for almost 11 months, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has signed a decree earlier this week, officially banning coal exports to the occupation entity.

The decree, dated August 14 was published on the presidential website.

Last May, the Colombian President announced cutting ties with "Israel" for having a "genocidal" president".

Petro later announced in June the suspension of coal exports to the occupation entity.

In a social media post then, he stated that exports would cease "until the genocide is stopped."

https://archive.ph/DRnmR

Peace activists from several countries are setting out on a converted trawler to defy an Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.

The “Handala” was visited in Malta by 78-year-old retired US Army Colonel and diplomat, Ann Wright, who was on board another coalition ship boarded by Israeli troops in 2010, in the incident in which nine activists died.

“These people are very brave, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. If the Israelis stop them, we know it’ll be brutal,” Wright said.

The brightly coloured “Handala” carries activists from Italy, France, Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, Syria and a number of Palestinians. It has made several port calls around Scandinavia and the Mediterranean to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza.

https://archive.ph/BoAgq

The international mediators engaged in talks to bring Sudan’s war to an end have welcomed decisions by the warring sides to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief to the country.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the sponsors of the talks in Switzerland lauded the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’s commitment to cooperate with humanitarian deliveries to Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan states.

The mediators – the United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations – also praised the Sudanese Armed Forces’s decision to open the Adre border crossing with Chad into North Darfur for three months.

“These constructive decisions by both parties will enable the entry of aid needed to stop the famine, address food insecurity and respond to immense humanitarian needs in Darfur and beyond,” they said in a joint statement.

https://archive.is/2024.08.17-081945/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/17/kursk-ukraine-russia-energy-ceasefire/