During a speech on June 27, President Mahdi Al-Mashat, Chairman of the Yemeni Supreme Political Council, accused the US of sabotaging peace efforts in Yemen in “accordance with its colonial agenda.”’

Al-Mashat emphasized that US presence in southern Yemen has delayed Yemen-bound cargo ships in Djbouti, thus legitimizing blockade and preventing payment of salaries to state employees. He added that “Yemen with its leadership, army and people, will not concede or compromise on its full sovereignty by land, sea and air.” 

Al-Mashat called out the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen (UNVIM), an organization that illegitimately monitors Yemini-bound cargo based mostly in Djibouti, Dubai, and Jeddah. The US uses the UNVIM to monitor and delay humanitarian aid from entering the nation.  

Saudi Arabia, with the support of western nations like the US, initiated a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015. In recent months, however, Saudi officials have held peace talks with Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, and have promised to “end the war.” In May, the Supreme Political Council of Sanaa accused the Saudi-led coalition of “procrastinating” with its recent promises, pointing to the obstruction of peace efforts by Washington and the UAE. 

The active and growing resistance front in Yemen has caused Saudi Arabia to fail in pursuing its imperialist interests, which has in turn increased its efforts for peace talks. The US, however, seeks to continue its presence in Yemen, primarily because the resistance there poses threats to the Israeli occupation. 

“We affirm our firm position in advocating for the Palestinian people and standing with all the free people in our nation as it is a principled, humanitarian and religious position that cannot change,” Al-Mashat has said. He also congratulated the operations of the Palestinian resistance in combating the occupiers in Nablus and Jenin. 

Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese news source, states that countries like the US and Britain “try to obstruct all efforts that could lead to peace, and put among their first considerations the Israeli interest.”  It has become increasingly clear that the US attempts to keep a stronghold on Yemen as the nation continues to resist imposed war conditions. This is while the US-backed blockades have caused wide scale suffering, enormous food insecurity, and a massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Al-Mashat explained that “after three thousand days of the brutal US-Saudi aggression against our dear Yemeni people and their suffering from the effects of the unjust American blockade that we warn the countries of aggression, led by America, against the continuation of the aggression and the blockade, and that depriving our Yemeni people of their wealth cannot continue without accountability.”