Call to lift ban on Sanaa International Airport

SANAA, Jan. 27 (YPA) – The global aggressive war on Yemen enters its sixth year, while a land, sea and air blockade is imposed by Saudi-US aggression coalition to kill humanity in the country, and the remaining veins or arteries of Yemenis that did not bleed due to the bombing are targeted by the blockade and the diseases and epidemics caused by it.

The continued closure of the Sanaa airport is a major evidence added to a long list of methods of genocide wars that the Yemeni people are subjected to, which have never occurred throughout history, as a testimony against the pseudo-humanity which its prosecutors, organizations and bodies brag about.

Since the beginning of the aggression until today, the countries of the aggression coalition led by Saudi Arabia and under the American-Zionist supervision continue to stop the movement of passengers and freight to and from Sanaa International Airport on Yemen Airways flights and other flights. All flights are of a purely humanitarian nature and there is no legal justification to be stopped in accordance with the ethics of conflict and the rules of war, and the United Nations itself recognized that this act is contradicting with all international norms, treaties and covenants.

The Saudi-US aggression coalition’s closure of Sanaa airport has led to unprecedented disasters. The airport serves more than 11 provinces, about 80 percent of the country’s population, and more than 6,000 passengers daily. This is in addition to that it is the main gateway to the flow of air freight movement, which includes medicines and medical supplies that are transported only by air, especially for medicines of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, heart, blood vessels, thalassemia and genetic blood diseases.

The airport’s closure also led to the deprivation of many expatriates to visit their relatives, while hundreds of students who have scholarship to study abroad lost their right to join their educational institutions, not to mention many businessmen were deprived of their right to travel to do business.

More than 27,000 patients who needed to travel abroad for treatment have died since the closure of Sana’a International Airport. There are still 200,000 humanitarian cases of sick and wounded people in need of treatment abroad, and the aggression coalition continues to prevent this by closing the airport. Between 25-30 people die every day as a result of this closure, and more than one hundred thousand deaths have occurred due to the depletion of medicines, medical supplies and solutions that only transported by air.

The brutal aggression has stepped up its bombing on the airport, in an attempt by the evil coalition to keep it out of service, and has taken this as an excuse to close it. However, the Yemeni will was present and restored the readiness of the airport, and refuted the falsehood of these allegations. The airport’s reception of the United Nations aircraft represented a complete proof of the airport’s technical and security readiness, and a public disclosure of the criminality of this coalition and the international community’s humiliating silence on its practices.

The Supreme Political Council’s authorities in Sanaa have continued to address the United Nations and the international community that there is no justification or excuse for closing Sanaa International Airport, and that the airport does not pose any threat to any party.

The airport is a civil airport and serves all the citizens of the Republic of Yemen, as the capital’s airport. And the insistence of the coalition countries and the so-called “legitimacy” on keeping the airport closed has no goal other than to punish all the Yemeni people, increase their suffering, blockade, starve, isolate them from the world, and turn Yemen into a big prison for all Yemenis..

More than seven dialysis centers were closed, while 7,000 patients with kidney failure need kidney transplant operations abroad, not to mention that 32,000 patients with cancerous tumors are threatened with death as a result of the continued closure of the airport.

For the sixth year, we appeal to the free and honorable people of the world and all living consciences everywhere to not keep silent. Yemeni people have long been under injustice, siege and the closure of their civil airport. History will write this injustice on the black page of this era, in which everyone brags about spreading the values of justice and equality, preserving human rights and defending the oppressed throughout the world. The history will record that no one has rushed to aid the Yemeni people except for the few who will be remembered for having a true humanity and those who stood by the oppressed person without racism. So, always remember that the oppressed peoples, no matter how long they are besieged, must triumph over the oppressors. The white hands that extended to the Yemeni people in its crises will never be forgotten, and Yemenis’ loyalty is unparalleled among the other peoples.

Finally, if the aggression coalition believes that it with its malicious money and plans and the continued closure of the air and land ports to Yemen will succeed in breaking the Yemeni people’s will and pushing it to surrender, it is fancying.

The options of our blessed revolutionary leadership are today numerous and more capable of avenging the blood, souls and pain of millions of people of this dear country, just as it was able to foil all the enemy’s bets militarily. The weapon of victory that will settle the battle is steadfastness with faith, jihad and patience, and this is what we have and they cannot buy it.
We are people that either we triumph or die.

* First Undersecretary of the General Authority for Welfare of Families of Martyrs and Yemeni Revolution Fighters

Translated by Basheer Mansoor

YPA