IT has been more than 16 months since the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched a war on Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arabian peninsula. The other members of the military coalition are the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco and Kuwait. Most of the bombing raids are being conducted by Saudi planes these days. The UAE air force which was very active in the earlier phase of the campaign is now only playing a limited role. The UAE forces on the ground are concentrating their firepower on the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Daesh (Islamic State). The unjustified war unleashed on the hapless people of Yemen has the full support of the United States and key western nations like the Britain and France.

The Obama administration had given the Saudis the green light to attack Yemen to salve the bruised ego of the Saudi monarchy. The Saudis were deeply upset when it became clear that Washington was on the verge of inking the nuclear deal with Teheran. Iran has been certified as the main enemy of the Saudi monarchy. Israel too has identified Iran as the main threat to its existence. Top Saudi personalities have been openly meeting with Israeli officials. Prince Turki bin Faisal recently met with the former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) chiefs. This was followed by a visit to Israel by retired Gen. Anwar Eshki to Israel. Eshki is known to have close links with Saudi military and intelligence apparatus. The Saudis have been alleging without providing any proof that Iran been militarily propping up the Houthi led coalition that was on the verge of consolidating its hold over the country. Teheran so far has only given diplomatic support to the Houthi led government.

Meanwhile western countries, the US and UK in particular, have been making handsome profits replenishing the Saudis and the Emiratis with armaments, that include precision guided munitions and banned cluster bombs. Britain itself has sold weaponry worth more than $3.8 billion to Saudi Arabia since April last year. The US has sold more than $100 billion worth of arms to the Saudis since 2010. The Obama administration took a belated decision in May this year to stop supplying cluster bomb munitions to the Saudi led coalition but Washington continues with its political and military support for the war on Yemen despite the growing evidence that it is the civilian populace that is facing the brunt.

More than 6500 people are killed so far and the infrastructure of the country completely devastated. According to reports by the UN and human rights groups, airstrikes are responsible for more than half of the casualties. Earlier in the year, a Saudi air attack on a crowded market in north Yemen killed more than a hundred civilians. Americans are helping the Saudis pin point targets besides providing Saudi fighter jet mid air fueling and logistics support. American military personnel are also on the ground in Yemen ostensibly to only target the AQAP. The group has exploited the instability in Yemen to expand areas under its control in the south of the country. Hospitals, markets, factories and schools have not been spared in the Saudi led air operations.

A UNICEF report released in the first week of August stated that 3,70,000 children were in urgent need of food. Otherwise, the report said they faced the risk of starving to death. More than half the population of 16 million is facing imminent starvation. 2 million people have been rendered homeless and could join the wave of refugees heading towards the European continent and other parts of the world.

At the outset of the war, the Saudi led coalition with the help of the US had imposed an economic blockade on the country. Even ships carrying humanitarian aid were not allowed to dock in Yemeni ports. UN flights and shipments to Yemen have to be cleared by the Saudi authorities. The international media has been banned from covering the conflict by the Saudis. Only a few intrepid journalists have managed to smuggle themselves into the country. The humanitarian situation in Yemen today is numerically even worse than that in Syria. Last year, the Netherlands tried to get the UN to conduct an independent inquiry into war crimes committed in Yemen by all sides. The Saudis were able to scuttle the inquiry with the help of the Americans and the British.

The UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon told the UN Security Council in the first week of August that the Saudi Arabian led coalition must address “very serious concerns” about the killing of children in Yemen. The UN had originally put Saudi Arabia on its children rights violators blacklist in June after a UN report “Children and Armed Conflict” concluded that the Saudi led military coalition was responsible for 60 percent of the casualties involving children in Yemen last year. The report said that the Saudi led forces had hit schools and hospitals. The UN secretary general was arm twisted in removing Saudi Arabia name from the list of children rights violators after the government in Riyadh threatened to cut off its generous funding to UN aid organisations.

Ban, after years of being forced to backtrack on key issues, may have decided to finally stand up to the bullying by the big powers as his term in office winds down. Last year, the Israelis with the help of their all weather ally, the United States, had seen to it that their name did not figure on the infamous list despite the recommendations of senior UN officials. Israel had resorted to wanton targeting of children during their last large scale military operations in Gaza. Washington had earlier prevailed on Ban to withdraw an invitation he had extended to Iran to attend a UN Conference on Syria. The Moroccan government virtually forced Ban to apologise when he described Western Sahara as “occupied territory” during a visit to the area earlier in the year. The UN recognises Western Sahara as a “disputed area” but Morocco has the full backing of France, a permanent member of the UNSC. After Palestine was admitted into UNESCO in 2012, Washington had suspended its annual funding of $80 million to the cultural organisation.

Ban was however furious with the Saudis and publicly blamed Riyadh for putting “unacceptable pressure” on the world body. He told reporters that he was warned that the UN would lose financing for humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories. He said that if countries threaten to defund UN organisations, then there is a possibility “that millions of children would suffer grievously”. In the first week of August, the secretary general told the Security Council that the review of Saudi Arabia's inclusion in the annual report on armies that kill and maim children, is still ongoing. He said that the Saudis have provided the new information “to prevent and end grave violations against children”. The Saudi led coalition has acknowledged “some shortcomings” on two of the eight cases they have investigated. The UN secretary general has warned member states involved in conflicts to “protect children” if they wanted to protect their image.

Three months of peace talks brokered by the United Nations that had taken place in Kuwait ended inconclusively in the second week of August. A shaky cease fire that warring sides had had agreed on is now in danger of unraveling completely. The so-called “legitimate” government backed by the Saudis adopted a tough stance. Its President in exile, Abd Rabdo Mansour Hadi is refusing to accept the compromise formula under which a coalition government will be installed in the capital Sanaa under a new interim president. Hadi is insisting that his government should be put back in place and that the Houthis should disarm and return to their bases in the north of the country.

The Saudis had already started escalating their air strikes even as peace talks were going on in Kuwait city. The Houthis on their part, have announced the formation of a coalition government with the General Peoples Congress Party, the former ruling party, led by the former Yemeni strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The cabinet posts are to be divided equally between the two parties. After the breakdown of the talks in Kuwait, the chief negotiator for the Houthi led coalition, Nasser Bagazgooz, accused the UN appointed special envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmad of siding with Saudi Arabia and its plans to impose a military solution in Yemen.

As of now, the Saudi military adventure in Yemen has been deemed as a failure. The Saudis had failed in the past to bring the Yemenis to heel. In 1991, the Saudi government had expelled more than a million Yemenis working in the kingdom after President Saleh refused to support the first Gulf war against Iraq. The remittances of the workers estimated at $350 million a month was crucial to Yemen's struggling economy. The Saudis followed it up by cutting all financial aid to Yemen. Financial ties were only restored after a decade.

The resilient Houthis, are now once again on the offensive, despite the efforts of the Saudis and their local allies to crush them for decades. After having captured the capital Sanaa in 2014, they were successful in building a broad based coalition and seemed to be on the way to consolidating their hold on the entire country. The precipitate Saudi military intervention has changed the political and military scenario. In the territory now controlled by the Saudis and their local allies, they face serious threats from AQAP, the Daesh and southern separatists. Many Saudi and Emirati soldiers have been killed by the AQAP and the Daesh in recent encounters.

It has proved to be an expensive war, both in terms of money and human casualties for the Saudis and their allies. The war is being conducted at a time when the oil price is hovering between $30-40 a barrel for more than a year. Saudi Arabia has recorded a budget deficit of $100 billion in 2015 and it is projected to be even higher this year. Factories are being closed, foreign workers are being laid off in droves without being fully compensated. A long running Saudi war in Yemen is an unsustainable proposition.