Aid Groups: Joint Exercise with Saudis during Yemen Blockade ‘Taints’ Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy conducted the training as part of Operation Manitou, a longstanding joint force operation to maintain maritime security in the Middle East, ABC reported.

The training exercise occurred on August 14, not far from the location where the Saudi-led coalition is enforcing a naval blockade of Yemen.

The blockade has led to widespread food shortages, with 7 million people in the impoverished country now on the brink of an unprecedented famine.

“I think it is disturbing to hear that the ADF is training a navy that is involved in this blockade,” Elaine Pearson, Director of Human Rights Watch in Australia, said.

“We know that the Saudi-led coalition has been arbitrarily delaying and diverting ships carrying lifesaving goods to Yemen, and humanitarian assistance is clearly desperately needed right now.”

Ms Pearson said Human Rights Watch would be asking the ADF for an explanation.

“It is up to the Australian Defense Force to provide more information about exactly what type of training is being provided to the the Saudis, especially given our concerns about repeated violations of international law by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.”

The charity Oxfam, which is engaged in aid work on the ground in Yemen, said the news of the training was “concerning in the context of the complete blockade of Yemen that is being maintained by the Saudi-led coalition.”

“Oxfam will be asking the Australian Government for more information. We are concerned by anything that could look like support to the implementation of the blockade,” says Rebecca Barber, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Policy Advisor in Melbourne.

“The blockade is directly contravening a series of UN Security Council resolutions and Security Council presidential statements calling for full and unimpeded, unhindered humanitarian access. So the blockade is in direct contravention of existing Security Council resolutions.”

Tim Costello from World Vision Australia called on the Federal Government to cancel future training exercises with the Saudis, until the blockade of Yemen is lifted.

“That lever we have to pull in terms of stepping away from joint exercises, encouragement, aiding and abetting,” Mr Costello told the ABC.

“Any connection, even in joint boarding party operations, taints us.”

The executive director of the Australia Defense Association, Neil James, said he found the timing and location of the exercise puzzling.

“Particularly as the Saudis are a combatant engaged in a separate war zone,” he said.

Professor Greg Barton from Deakin University said Operation Manitou had been a success in past years.

“I think the fact that the Australian Defense Force cooperates with the Middle Eastern Forces, specifically around the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, is both understandable and necessary,” he said.

“But that doesn’t mean that Australia can’t speak up. There are good reasons for being very concerned about this blockade. I don’t think Australia is going to be able to change its foreign policy and its defense cooperation policy overnight. But it certainly can speak up and say as a friend as an ally, we want to point out the global community has concerns.”

The ADF did not reply to questions from the ABC about the specifics of the exercise and if there were any future training exercises planned with the Saudi navy.