
People walking over a street paint with the face of French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: AFP/Mohammed HUWAIS.
Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond
From Venezuela and made by Venezuelan Chavistas
People walking over a street paint with the face of French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: AFP/Mohammed HUWAIS.
By Robert Inlakesh – Sep 11, 2022
France is ready to destroy the countryās ceasefire in bid to secure energy
Strained by the consequences of the ongoing conflict between NATO and Russia over Ukraine, France may be destroying all prospects for peace in Yemen, in a bid to secure energy resource from the United Arab Emirates.
Considered to be home to the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history, according to the United Nations, earlier this year, its people saw glimmers of hope towards ending its seven-year long war. A ceasefire truce, which has largely heldĀ since April, has been viewed as the first step towards reaching a UN-mediated solution for peace between the Ansarallah government in Sanaa and the Saudi-led coalition forces which claim to represent the internationally backed Yemeni government in exile.
According to UN estimates, the total number of people killed in Yemenās war already reachedĀ 377,000Ā by the beginning of 2022. The civilian death rate isĀ saidĀ to have doubled, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), since the controversial withdrawal of UN human rights monitors last October.
Although Saudi coalition forces and Ansarallah, popularly referred to in Western media as the āIran-backed Houthi rebels,ā have managed to keep fighting to a minimum during the past months, another major player in the south of Yemen has recently decided to go on the offensive. The Southern Transitional Council (STC), often called Yemenās southern separatists, are backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and declared the start of a new military operation in the Abyan province āto cleanse it of terrorist organisations.ā This follows territorial gains by the STC, in neighboring Shawba province, against the Muslim Brotherhood aligned Islah Party and others. The offensives launched by the UAE-backed STC have been regarded as a major challenge to UN efforts to end the conflict in Yemen, as well as having imperiled the Saudi initiative, which it calls the āYemen Presidential Council,ā aimed at solidifying the legitimacy of the alternative Yemeni leadership in exile.
Where France Comes In
Although its role is little known to the Western public, Paris is theĀ third largest arms supplierĀ to the UAE and Saudi Arabia for their war efforts in Yemen, ranking just behind the US and UK. In fact, Germany, Spain and Italy have also sold weapons that have been used in the devastating war. Despite criticism, from human rights groups, of French weapons being used by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh to commit war crimes, the sale of weaponsĀ has continued from France.
UN Calls Out US, UK & France for Complicity in Yemen War Crimes (Moving but Graphic Video)
April 15, 2019, French investigative magazine, Disclose,Ā published an exposeĀ on Parisās role in Yemenās war. The information presented was based on a leaked French Military Intelligence (DRM) report dating back to September, 2018, clearly proving that the countryĀ had sold offensive weapons that were used in civilian areas, a charge that the French government has denied. As far back as June, 2018, credible reports began to emerge that French special forces unitsĀ were operatingĀ on the ground in Yemen, alongside forces belonging to the UAE. Last December, Paris decided to further tighten its relationship with Abu Dhabi, signing its largest ever weapons sale to the UAE,Ā worth 19.23 billion US dollarsĀ according to a report from Reuters.
France first turned to the US
France is now desperately in need of alternative energy suppliers to Russia, in order to meet its required needs, fearing that as the winter hits, Moscow may strategically cut off its natural gas completely. As part of NATO, Paris is backing a US-led initiative which seeks to make Russia pay an economic and military price for its offensive in Ukraine, however, this strategy has majorly backfired economically.
US President Joe Biden made two major foreign policy pledges when running for office in 2020, which are relevant to the current French predicament. The first being to revive the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal and the second being to find a diplomatic solution to the war in Yemen. Due to the ongoing NATO-Russia conflict, seeking a revival of the Iran nuclear deal has re-emerged on the political agenda of the his administration in a major way. Iran, free from sanctions, could become an alternative source to fill the energy needs of Europe in the future, yet it could take some time for this to actually happen.
On the issue of the war in Yemen, Joe BidenĀ pledgedĀ as part of his first speech on his government’s foreign policy goals, that he would hold Saudi Arabia to account and seek to find a solution to the crisis in Yemen. However, the war in Ukraine clearly changed his approach to Riyadh, so much so that Washington signaled itheĀ review a decisionĀ to not sell offensive weapons to the Saudi government. The US President was heavilyĀ criticizedĀ by Human Rights Watch for traveling to Saudi Arabia in July.
Despite US attempts to have Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states increase their oil production, none have yet complied in the manner that Washington had hoped for. Specifically in the cases of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it is clear that both are seeking to fast track their journey to diversify their economies. That has meant them hanging onto their strategic reserves of oil and gas, during a global energy crisis, which has made fiscal sense for them. In the cases of Venezuela and Iran, despite the US having seemingly reached out to both, neither seem to be a real replacement to Russia in the near future.
All Bets On Yemen
France is now looking for alternatives on its own. In June, the European Union announced that it hadĀ signedĀ an agreement with Israel and Egypt. Under the deal, Israel will send gas through pipelines to Egypt, where it will then be transported to Europe. Although this may work, Tel Aviv does not have the capacity to replace Moscow as Europeās main supplier of gas. IsraelĀ seeksĀ to double its gas output, but in doing so is already running into potential problems over its maritime border dispute with Lebanon and its planned extraction of gas from the āKarish fieldā in September, considered to be located in a disputed area. Lebanese Hezbollah has evenĀ threatenedĀ to strike all of Israelās gas facilities in the event that Beirut is not given a fair deal to access its own resources.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, has attempted to persuade resource rich Algeria to become part of the EUās solution, also going on a three-day trip to Algiers in order to mend ties. Algeria, which maintains close relations with Moscow, withdrew its ambassador from Paris for three months last year, during a diplomatic row. MacronĀ had accusedĀ the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebbouneās government of āexploiting memoryāĀ and ārewriting historyāĀ of the colonial era and even questioned the legitimacy of Algeria as a State prior to French settler-colonial rule there. AroundĀ 1.5 million Algerians were killedĀ in the battle for independence from France, which its resistance eventually managed to win in 1962. The tone of the French president has now dramatically changed from that of last year, withĀ Macron remarkingĀ that both nations āhave a complex, painful common past. And it has at times prevented us from looking at the future.ā
The other major alternative path that France seems to be now seeking, is through its close alliance with the UAE. As mentioned above, it has been clear for some time that Paris has been involved in supplying weapons, logistical support and even boots on the ground to its allies in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, aiding their fight in Yemen. However, it is also clear that the UAE has not been interested in cutting into its strategic oil reserves to meet the demands of Europe.
In July, as President Macron hosted the Emirati President, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in Paris, the French ministry of economyĀ announcedĀ a new strategic energy agreement between the UAE and France. An aide to the French president noted that France was eager toĀ secureĀ diesel fuel from the UAE, hinting that the cooperation agreement involving Franceās āTotal Energiesā and the UAEās āADNOCā may be linked. Although it is unknown as to what the specifics of the āstrategic agreementāĀ are, it has been speculated that the deal could potentially be worth billions.
Then, in August, the UAE-backed STC suddenly began new offensive operations in both the Shabwa and Abyan provinces. It just so happens that the STC forces decided toĀ take overĀ the energy sites in the Shabwa province too. Leading human rights NGOsĀ had urgedĀ Paris to keep in mind Abu Dhabi’s human rights abuses in the advent of the signing of the strategic energy agreement, calls clearly not heeded. On August 21st, when UAE-backed forcesĀ seizedĀ the oil facilities in Yemenās south, it may have been with the French deal in mind. Yemenās former foreign minister, Dr. Abu Bakr al-QirbiĀ stated on TwitterĀ that āpreparations are being made to export gas from the Balhaf facility in light of increased international gas prices.āĀ This was then followed by an announcement from the parliament of the Sanaāa-based National Salvation Government,Ā warningĀ of suspicious movement from both US and French forces.
The key Balhaf facility, in Yemenās Shabwa province, has reportedly beenĀ turned intoĀ a base for forces belonging to the UAE, with allegations suggesting that Paris could āprovide protection for the facility through the French Foreign Legion.” There are also countless reports of the UAE looting resources from Yemen, which would seem to support the idea that they could be attempting to extract themĀ to send to France. The latest reported looting of Yemenās resources, from June, quotes Yemeni officials as having alleged that a Gulf Aetos tanker, carryingĀ 400,000 barrels of Yemeni crude oil, had departed from Rudum port and was being operated by the UAE.
What these offensive moves by the STC also mean, is that the Saudi-backed forces in Yemen and Ansarallah will likely also get involved in the combat too. This could mean theĀ dissolutionĀ of the ceasefire truce between the two sides, the renewal of the Ansarallah offensive to take the oil rich Marib province from the Saudi-backed forces and the death of any potential peace initiative to end the war.
It is unlikely that Ansarallah will stay silent, if the STC are aiding in the theft of Yemenās resources for the sake of France. One of the major reasons behind the dramatic escalation of violence last year, was the Ansarallah offensive, launched with the aim of taking out the last northern stronghold of the Saudi-led coalition, Marib. The purpose of taking the resource rich area would be to stop the looting of Yemenās resources, which according to reports is amounting to the theft ofĀ millions of barrels per year. Some sources claim that an unofficialĀ agreementĀ is in place between the US and Saudi governments, to purposefully keep the resources of Yemen away from its people and instead, divert the profits to Saudi banks.
Part of the reason why there was a Yemeni revolution in 2011, then a seizure of power in 2015 by Ansarallah in conjunction with the countryās military, wasĀ the popular beliefĀ that the past two Presidents of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, were corrupt. The people of Yemen were fed up with Saleh for a multitude of reasons, primarily that he mismanaged resources, had sold out to the United States and was corrupt. President Hadi was later to be seen as a stooge, controlled completely by the Saudis.
Perhaps the biggest problem here however, is not just that Yemen is a resource rich country, with a starving population, being torn apart by foreign powers, but also that nobody even knows what their governments are involved in. On August 25, then British prime minister, Boris Johnson,Ā stated, aboutĀ risingĀ energy bills, that āWhile people are paying energy bills, people in Ukraine are paying with bloodā. Yet, it may turn out that for Europe to keep the lights on, the people of Yemen will pay with their blood. Except in this case, the UK, US and France canāt blame that bloodshed on Moscow, this is their own doing.
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of āSteal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastropheā.
(RT)