Michele Kearney's Snuffysmith's Blog: July 2025

US to impose sanctions on Palestinian organisations Transmitted below is a BBC report on "the Trump administration's response to this week's French-Saudi conference at the United Nations held to rally support for a future two-state solution," a response which reconfirms the degree to which the U.S. government is divorced and isolated from the moral and ethical conscience of the vast majority of mankind. The US says it is going to impose sanctions on the Palestinians' self-governance organisation as well as the body that represents it on the international stage. The sanctions affect both the Palestinian Authority (PA) which was established by the Oslo peace accords, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) which was recognised after the same process as the official representative of the Palestinian people in return for it recognising Israel and renouncing violence. The State Department said it would deny visas to PLO members and PA officials. The timing and language of the statement suggest it is the Trump administration's response to this week's French-Saudi led conference at the United Nations held to rally support for a future two state solution. The meeting came as France, the UK and Canada committed to recognising an independent, demilitarised Palestinian state later this year, in some cases subject to certain conditions. The US castigated these moves, having privately warned of diplomatic consequences if those attending the UN conference made "anti-Israel" declarations. In its sanctions announcement, the State Department accused the PA and PLO of taking actions to "internationalise its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ)". It also referred to a series of long-standing complaints by the US and Israel that the PLO and PA had continued "to support terrorism including incitement and glorification of violence (especially in textbooks), and providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families". The Trump administration earlier this year lifted sanctions on violent Israeli settlers who have killed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. One leading Palestinian politician described the sanctions move as "revenge" by the US for the commitments to recognise Palestinian statehood by a growing number of countries. The PA appeared to echo that sentiment in a statement released on Thursday. "These campaigns have been escalating in response to the significant and successive achievements of Palestinian diplomacy," it said. "Particularly the recent recognitions of the State of Palestine by key countries, the successful United Nations conference in New York, and the historic declaration issued therein." Mustafa Barghouti, founder of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) which is part of the PLO, said the US was targeting the wrong side. He told the BBC: "Trump's administration, instead of punishing the criminals who are committing war crimes in Gaza and in the West Bank, which is Israel, is instead… punishing the victim, which is the Palestinian people." Israel welcomed the sanctions and thanked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for imposing them. "This important action by [President Trump] and his administration also exposes the moral distortion of certain countries that ran to recognise a virtual Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to its support for terror and incitement," said foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar. The PA has always rejected complaints around "salaries" saying the payments are stipends to the families of all Palestinian prisoners held under Israel's military occupation, many of whom are not given any due process and are held in breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Palestinians see all those detained by Israel and jailed by its military courts, which have a 99 per cent conviction rate, as political prisoners. French officials said last week the PA had expressed its willingness to end these payments in response to France's commitment to recognise a Palestinian state. This week's UN conference further isolated the US in its support for the way Israel has continued the war in Gaza, which many countries criticised at the meeting. The conference exposed a strategic vacuum being left by Washington that had traditionally led diplomatic efforts towards a viable longer-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The travel ban on Palestinian officials may be meant as a more limited broadside than a full range of financial sanctions. It is already a complex and lengthy process for PA and PLO officials to obtain visas to travel to the US, requiring special exemptions which are rarely given. It is not yet clear whether the move would affect any officials working for the Palestinian mission to the United Nations in New York. The current Palestinian ambassador to the UN and his deputy are both US citizens.

The Yemeni stalemate: is there a way out? Summary: Yemen remains locked in a political stalemate, with both the Huthi (Ansar Allah) and internationally recognised governments showing no willingness to compromise, despite escalating military actions and Red Sea attacks. This entrenched deadlock, exacerbated by internal divisions and external influences, has led to a severe deterioration of living conditions and a dire humanitarian crisis, with millions of Yemenis suffering from a lack of aid and basic necessities due to their leaders' apparent indifference. We thank Helen Lackner for today’s newsletter. An expert on Yemen, Helen’s latest book Yemen In Crisis, now subtitled Devastating Conflict, Fragile Hope, is published by SAQI Books. You can listen to her latest Arab Digest podcast here. Other than regular launches of missiles against Israel and equally regular Israeli airstrikes, mainly on Hodeida ports, Yemen recently made the headlines, having sunk two ships in the Red Sea within as many days, a record, as they had previously sunk two in twenty months. This marked their resumption of naval attacks after a seven-month interval. But what is happening internally? What progress is being made in solving the country’s fundamental problems? Yemen remains in a political stalemate. Before assessing the reasons for this situation, a brief summary of major recent developments: we are now well into the 11th year of the war and three years after the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council [PLC] to ‘replace’ President Hadi. After months of speculation, a new Prime Minister was appointed in May for the internationally recognised government [IRG]. More than two years have passed since the last significant achievements of the UN mediation process [the release of 1056 prisoners from both sides], and the six-month truce. Huthi [Ansar Allah, AA] attacks on Red Sea shipping and on Israel started with the Israeli genocide on Gaza, raising the Huthi profile nationally, regionally and internationally. Following US and UK air strikes since early 2024, these intensified with nightly strikes between March and May 2025, only to be stopped by a Trump declaration of victory just before his fundraising visit to the GCC. No longer the ‘world’s worst humanitarian crisis’ due to disasters elsewhere, living conditions in Yemen are deteriorating to extreme levels of deprivation due to inadequate humanitarian funding in the face of a collapsed economy; by 20 July the UN humanitarian assistance plan was only 13% funded, the worst record since these plans started. Economically and financially, both the IRG and AA are suffering, the former due to its inability to export oil following Huthi attacks on the ports, unreliable tax collection and insufficient financial support from Saudi Arabia and the UAE; the latter mainly as a result of the US designation as Foreign Terrorist Organisation [FTO] whose impact on fuel imports and banking transactions is beginning to be felt with increasing US Treasury sanctions. Yemenis everywhere are suffering from reduced humanitarian aid, but living conditions are far worse in the areas under Huthi control where food and cash distributions have more or less ceased [see our posting of 25 June 2025]. Since the International Court of Justice and UN General Assembly have affirmed that all states are obliged to cut off all military and economic support both for the Israeli regime’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and for its genocidal assault on the people of occupied Gaza, the Huthis' Red Sea blockade is squarely supported by international law. What are the prospects for meaningful change and unlocking of the stalemate? Politically, neither Ansar Allah nor the IRG indicates any willingness to compromise, the former sustaining its repressive rule and ongoing small-scale offensives on all Yemeni fronts, largely thanks to the recruitment of thousands of youth wanting to support the Palestinians but ending up on local fronts. Local weapons production is increasingly replacing imports from Iran some of which are intercepted. Despite the threat and increasing likelihood of far more violent and destructive Israeli retaliation, AA’s leadership is still riding high on its improved image as supporter of Palestine. It is also watching with glee the ongoing chaos of the IRG and anticipating its collapse, a strong disincentive to engaging in negotiations. Its strengths are considerable: control over the capital’s administrative structures and two-thirds of the country’s population residing in the most viable regions for agriculture and rainfall, hence renewable water resources. It has an explicit theocratic ideology and also influence on Saudi Arabia, whose regime is unwilling to risk further Huthi missile attacks on its territory while focused on seeking funds for its grandiose projects. The IRG continues to insist that the solution to the crisis has to adhere to UNSC Resolution 2216 of 2015, a 10-year-old document which fails to reflect reality. Its mantra ‘three references’ include the demand that the Huthi withdraw to their original heartland in the far north of Yemen, a fantasy given the situation on the ground. Why is the IRG failing to seriously strive for a solution? It is largely because the leadership’s internal divisions and rivalries supersede concern to bring about an end to the crisis. Riven by internal rivalries between supporters of different factions, including those between southern separatists [themselves divided] and supporters of Yemeni unity, interaction between PLC and government leaders focus on personal benefits and issues of military control and funding, particularly blatantly in Hadhramaut but also less visibly elsewhere. In recent months, it had hoped for significant international support to renew its military offensive against the Huthis, which did not materialise due to its divisions and unreliability. Whether a likely major Israeli attack on Huthi controlled areas would change this situation is debatable. If there is any debate about the country’s major issues, they are held with such secrecy that nothing has emerged publicly. Just to mention the most obvious ones: Yemen’s future administrative and political structures, the role of political parties and tribes, regional cultural issues, natural resources including water, decentralisation or federalism, economic and social policies, health and education. Moreover, the rivalry between the two main external sponsors, Saudi Arabia and the UAE sustains this internal stalemate leaving observers to wonder about their fundamental objectives in Yemen and beyond. UN Special Envoy Grundberg was in Sana’a in January this year and in Aden in July. But there is no sign of any progress on the ‘road map’ announced in late 2023 when an agreement between the Saudis and the Huthis seemed imminent. His monthly briefings to the UN Security Council have focused on the international situation and Huthi detention for more than a year of dozens of UN and NGO staff. Failure to achieve any progress on their release has further undermined his credibility alongside the lack of progress with any negotiations. Grundberg hopes to influence both AA and the IRG by engaging their international supporters, through visits to Iran as well as Riyadh. As is customary for mediators, he is systematically accused by each side or favouring the other, and leaders of both sides are shunning him. There is little doubt that his actions are constrained by his UN mandate which objectively favours the IRG, an additional difficulty. In the current context, it is unclear what kind of negotiations could take place towards a ‘sustainable’ peace as none of the relevant leaders manifests any commitment to ending the crisis, leaving millions of Yemenis in deeper suffering and despair. Millions of desperate Yemenis are left to suffer an escalating humanitarian catastrophe, which is a direct consequence of their leaders' callousness and serves as a stark testament to their moral failing.

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