In this week’s UpFront, we ask Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman who she holds most responsible for the war in Yemen and what her message is for US President Donald Trump.
And in the Arena, we debate whether the Brexit referendum was a mistake.
Tawakkol Karman: Mohammed bin Salman “is a criminal”
The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to end US support for the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen. But the White House has signalled that US President Donald Trump will likely veto the measure.
A Saudi-led coalition, allied with the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has been fighting Houthi rebels since 2015. Aid groups estimate as many as 60,000 civilians have been killed and an additional 85,000 children may have starved to death.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Yemeni human rights activist, Tawakkol Karman, says the United States president has the power to end the war.
“I’m calling on him [Trump] to stop the war in Yemen. He can do it more than making the nuclear agreement with North Korea.”
When asked if she had a message for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who has been a driving force behind the war, Karman says she believes he is a “criminal”.
“I won’t ask anything from Mohammed bin Salman because he is destroying my country. Mohammed bin Salman and [Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi] Mohammed bin Zayed, they should be tried in the International Criminal Court, because they have committed war crimes in my country,” says Karman.
This week’s headliner Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman.
Brexit: Was the 2016 referendum on leaving the EU a mistake?
It has been nearly three years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and still, there is no agreement on just how to exit the bloc. Instead, Britain is on course to crash out with no divorce agreement.
Politicians are in gridlock. Some want a “no deal” Brexit, others say some kind of exit agreement must be in place. The people are divided with thousands from both sides of the debate taking to the streets in protest. So, should the referendum have been held at all?
Claire Fox, director of the think-tank Academy of Ideas, believes the Brexit vote was a democratic achievement.
“The whole Brexit process has proven to be somewhat traumatic, but I can’t emphasise enough to viewers how exciting and brilliant it was that the Brexit vote happened in the first place,” says Fox.
Anti-Brexit campaigner, Femi Oluwole, says Brexit was a “terrible referendum”.
“And the reason why it was a terrible referendum was precisely because Brexit had not been defined. We were not told exactly what relationship we were going to have,” added Oluwole, who is also the cofounder of the pro-EU group Our Future Our Choice.
In this week’s Arena, Claire Fox and Femi Oluwole debate the Brexit chaos.
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Source: Al Jazeera
