The Secretary General of Amnesty International warned on Monday that a US military intervention in response to the attacks on Saudi Arabia would only aggravate "an already bad situation" in the Middle East. "It's time to stop the bloodshed," said Kumi Naidoo, head of the human rights organization for a year. "Talking about a military intervention at the moment would only aggravate an already bad situation," he added.
The United States blames Iran more or less directly for Saturday's attack on Saudi oil facilities, and threatens to retaliate, including militarily. Kumi Naidoo called for lessons learned from the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 based on misleading charges of possession of weapons of mass destruction. This has "engendered the current catastrophe, not only in Iraq but also in neighboring countries".
"The sounds of boots"
"Political leaders can choose war opportunistically if it can help them in elections," he said, without targeting US officials in particular. "I do not make a difference between countries, I think there are far too many countries that like to feed the sounds of boots right now." Rather than igniting the powder keg of the Middle East, the South African human rights activist believes that the international community should instead redouble efforts to end the war in Yemen, where a military coalition led by Ryad supports the government faces Houthis rebels backed by Tehran.
"The atrocious violence that people endure, as well as the bombing of hospitals, the destruction of water supply infrastructure, and so on, all that would have simply had to stop thanks to a little political will," he said. he stressed. "Unfortunately, it seems that some governments, if they are allies of the United States, like Saudi Arabia, manage to get through the cracks despite the murder charges," he lamented.
Donald Trump reaffirmed his strategic alliance with Ryad despite the assassination in 2018 of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi whose US Senate has however blamed the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The US president also confirmed support for the Saudis in the war in Yemen against the opinion of the Congress.