SaebPress Press TV

Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeb Shaath, an author and Middle East expert in Belfast, to discuss the ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems that the Saudi bombardment of Yemen is continuing relentlessly. There were hopes that a UN summit in Geneva could bring Yemeni parties to the negotiating table, but that has been postponed as well. How do you see this basically moving ahead from now on?

Shaath: The Saudis are rejecting any calls for ceasefire, even for humanitarian consideration. They are actively sabotaging and ignoring any attempts of diplomacy to bring Yemenis together, as in Geneva conference.

That is because they did not achieve any of their declared and stated goals in Yemen and we know many goals have been stated, like reinstalling Hadi and his legitimacy and so on, that is actually to bring Yemen back to their sphere of domination.

Until today, the Saudis have failed on achieving that,  so they are adhering to their Zionist advisors who planned for them how to execute this war.  They are trying to turn Yemen effectively into another Gaza; they are continuing imposing the sea and land blockade, they are destroying and erasing the civil society in Yemen and its infrastructure network. We noticed the savagery in attacking hospitals, neighbourhoods, schools, etc. but saying that  … they did not achieve the  stated goals.

Today the Yemeni people are on the attack, they are reaching the heart of three provinces, which used to be Yemeni and have been annexed by Saudi Arabia. I am talking here about Aseer, Najran and Jizan. The Yemeni revolutionaries and Yemeni army managed to target the heart of military bases and military controlled areas in these provinces of Saudi Arabia.

Press TV: These gains on the part of the Yemenis at least goes to show that Yemen is no Gaza as impoverished as it may have been, the people of Yemen and the geopolitics are very different as they are in Gaza.

So why then prolong this aggression on the part of Saudi Arabia considering that if it has not achieved its goals up until now, what are the chances that it will achieve them if it continues the same policy for the next weeks or months even?

Shaath: Yes, it will continue for months not weeks, I can see that. The difference in here is that, when King Salman and his young son took power, they started being decisive as they called and changing the policies of Saudi Arabia.  In Saudi Arabia, they have found themselves in deep trouble. They are waging so many wars in Yemen, in Iraq, in Syria even as far as Libya and mingle with the Tunisians, even in Gaza they are trying to help the Israelis in there.

Therefore, they have found themselves, their fingers, at so many cakes, as the saying goes, and they are going to be burnt. Saudi Arabia is in trouble, they are using sectarianism to help in winning these wars, but this sectarianism, which Saudi Arabia becomes the hub of that sort of sectarianism, is helping in disintegrating the Arab world and that is exactly what the Americans and the imperialists wanted. They wanted to achieve another Sykes-Picot plan; Saudi Arabia is helping them that is why they are going to keep exposing Yemen and other Arabic countries to this aggression, and to continue it on them.

AHK/HSN/SaebPress