Macron urged to pressure Saudi prince over Yemen war

PARIS: Ten international rights groups called on French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to pressure Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over his country's bombing campaign in Yemen.

Macron is expected to host Prince Mohammed for a three-day trip to France starting Sunday, the latest stop in an international tour by the 32-year-old son of King Salman who is considered the de facto Saudi leader.

A civil war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia has been bombing since 2015, is considered the world's worse humanitarian crisis by the United Nations with 22.5 million people in need of aid.

"Emmanuel Macron should put Yemen at the centre of his discussions with Mohammed bin Salman as he hosts him in France," said a statement from the rights groups including Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.

They called for "the end of bombing targeting civilians and respect for international humanitarian law" as well as the "unconditional and permanent lifting on restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial goods to Yemen".

In November, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies including the United Arab Emirates tightened a pre-existing blockade on Yemeni ports and airports, severely restricting deliveries of food aid and other humanitarian supplies.

The Saudi-led coalition says it has since lifted the restrictions, but a recent visitor to the main port of Hodeida, humanitarian worker Suze van Meegen, described it as a "wasteland" in an interview with AFP in late March.

The UN Security Council warned last month that conditions in Yemen were deteriorating and having a "devastating" impact on civilians.

Jonathan Cunliffe, from the Action Against Hunger rights group, said Wednesday that after a devastating outbreak of cholera last year that saw a million people affected, the country faced new risks from disease.

"This week we're already seeing another disease that has disappeared from most of the world: diphtheria is emerging in the country as well," he told a joint press conference on Wednesday.

The Saudi-led military intervention began in March 2015 with the goal of rolling back Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and restoring Yemen's internationally-recognised government to power.

"France, the US, Britain are all implicated in this conflict due to their technical, military, financial support to the coalition," Jean-Francois Corty from the Medecins du Monde group told a joint press conference on Wednesday.