U.S. officials have said they intend to continue working on a $1.29 billion sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia, which are to be used on civilians in Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition is using U.S. missiles in its fight against Yemen which the UN says constitutes a crime against humanity due to their use on the civilian population. Allgov.com reports: The report by the U.N.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki- moon of encouraging terrorists. The remarks followed Ban Ki-moon’s condemnation of Israel’s “provocative” settlements, when he said that the attacks by Palestinians (which he also condemned) are a natural reaction to the occupation. Referring to the Palestinians, Mr Ban said it was human nature for oppressed peoples to react to occupation.
According to a United Nations report released on Tuesday, ISIS are holding around 3,500 people as slaves in Iraq. The report issued jointly by the UN human rights office and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq says that most of those being detained are women and children from Iraq’s Yazidi community. The report said the scale of “systematic and widespread violence” perpetrated by ISIS from May to October 2015 was “staggering, with the enslavement of the Yazidi people being among the worst atrocities documented.
The UN is set to announce the lifting of sanctions on Iran today after Tehran scaled back its nuclear programme. The International sanctions had suffocated Iran’s ability to trade with the west, and was put in place to force anti-western Iran to negotiate on its nuclear programme. The lifting of the sanctions will be marked as a great achievement for U.S. President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State, John Kerry as well as their European partners.
The Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war on Yemen continues, and the U.N. is once again calling attention to the coalition’s war crimes:
Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, warned Friday that a Saudi-led air coalition that is supported by the United States may have committed war crimes by using cluster munitions in heavily populated neighborhoods in Yemen.