The U.N. Security Council finally agreed to a new resolution on Yemen last week, but only after the U.S. used its threat of veto to strip out language on humanitarian access and war crimes:

However, the resolution was only agreed after it was stripped of much the language on guaranteeing humanitarian deliveries and the need for accountability for war crimes [bold mine-DL]. The edits were on the insistence of the US mission, reflecting the views from the Saudi and Emirati coalition, which has resisted any UN constraints on its operations in Yemen.

When diplomats reconvened at dawn on Friday after a long night of negotiations, the US stunned the UK and other European missions by threatening to veto the British resolution if the humanitarian language was not pruned [bold mine-DL] and a clause inserted explicitly condemning Iran for its role as a backer of the Houthi rebels – an insertion that was blocked by Russia.

It is highly unusual for the western allies at the UN to threaten each other with vetoes. One official involved in the talks said he had “never really seen anything like this”.

Our Yemen policy continues to be as despicable as ever. The U.S. is still shielding the Saudi coalition from the consequences of its crimes in Yemen, and the administration keeps acting as the coalition’s lawyer instead of acting in the American interest. The administration had earlier blocked consideration of a resolution calling for a ceasefire because the Saudis and Emiratis didn’t want one. Now it is using its veto to take out language from the resolution that the Saudis and Emiratis don’t like. It makes sense that the coalition governments would object to language guaranteeing humanitarian deliveries, since they have been the chief obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian goods into the country. Because of the many thousands of war crimes that coalition forces have committed in Yemen, they are naturally going to be opposed to holding war criminals accountable. The story concludes:

A passage expressing grave concern about the “growing threat of conflict-induced famine and the devastating impact of the conflict on civilians” was dropped, as was call for “transparent, credible and timely investigations” into war crimes and for those responsible to be held to account.

“What has been lost is a sense of international consensus around priorities in Yemen,” said Peter Salisbury, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. “The mind boggles at what should have been something really simple and positive has become so difficult, and managed to muddy the waters as such a fragile moment.”

The U.S. is still sponsoring and defending despotic governments guilty of numerous war crimes and the crime of mass starvation. The fact that the U.S. wanted language warning about famine removed from the resolution is a tacit admission of our government’s shared responsibility for creating the famine. Taking out references to credible investigations into war crimes is the sort of thing one would expect from the government that has aided and abetted these crimes for more than three and a half years. Each day that the administration’s support for this war goes on the U.S. remains a participant and accomplice in these awful crimes.