CODEPINK Press Release

May 7, 2015

Contact: Ret. Colonel Ann Wright, annw1946@gmail.com, 808-741-1141

Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-director, medea.benjamin@gmail.com, 415-235-6517

Robert Naiman, Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy of Urbana, Illinois and art director of CODEPINK for Peace Tighe Barry of Washington, DC are in Iran to be passengers on a ship sponsored by the Iranian Red Crescent Society that will sail into the Persian Gulf to protest the attacks by Saudi Arabia on the civilian population of Yemen.

The ship will not approach Yemeni waters but stay in the Persian Gulf.

Naiman and Barry are currently in Tehran. They are both available for interview by Skype and can be reached through medea.benjamin@gmail.com.

Naiman and Barry were on the CODEPINK delegation to Yemen in June, 2013 to talk with families of victims of U.S. assassin drone strikes and with families of Yemenis held in Guantanamo prison who had been cleared for release by the U.S. government but who are still imprisoned.

Both were delegates on the CODEPINK trip to Pakistan in 2012 to talk with families of victims of US drone strikes in Pakistan.

Before leaving on the trip to Iran, Barry said, “I am horrified at the brutality of the Saudi airstrikes on the civilian population of Yemen.”

Naiman commented, “As a backer of the Saudi attacks on Yemen, the US bears direct responsibility for the Yemeni civilian deaths from Saudi bombing. More bombing isn't going to solve Yemen's problems. Yemen needs a ceasefire and a negotiated political solution to end the war.“

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has bombed Yemen for six weeks. At least 646 civilians have been killed and 1,300 others injured since the coalition airstrikes began in late March, the United Nations said on May 4, adding that the violence has caused "severe destruction of civilian infrastructure."

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