Riyadh not to respect upcoming Yemen truce: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hussein al-Bukhaiti, an activist and political commentator in Sana’a, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing aggression against Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Sir tell us the situation, it seems that it is going from bad to worse. On the one hand, we are hearing about a possible ceasefire but on the other hand, we continue to see attacks and people die. Your take on the latest situation taking place in Yemen. 

Bukhaiti: This is what we are expecting from the Saudis because from the beginning of the “Decisive Storm”, they changed the name to the so-called “Restoring Hope” and attacks and strikes continued and they even got worse and worse. And now they declared ceasefire on the 12th of May and in these four days since they declared it till the 12th of May, they tried to destroy as much as they can and they are targeting everything in Yemen.

After they finished the military target and civilian target and as well as infrastructure, they started targeting heritage site. Like today in the morning they attacked a historic castle in west of Dhamar, and yesterday they attacked an old mosque like about 1,100 year old in Sa’ada and they as well have destroyed about 13 hospitals and medical centers in Sa’ada in the last two weeks.

So that is what the Saudis are doing and I do not think and I do not expect that they will hold themselves for this so-called ceasefire because they will continue attacking Yemen.

Press TV: Mr. Bukhaiti, how do you see the whole situation? It seems that the attacks have been extremely vicious especially with not only attacking civilians, killing civilians but also infrastructure as you have just mentioned – hospitals, mosques and of course, we know water supplies and different situations like that.

Why do you think that we are seeing this kind of intensity by Saudi Arabia on Yemen and yet the same country never interfered for example in Israel in defending Palestinians? So why does it seem so vicious in dealing with a fellow Muslim and Arab country?

Bukhaiti: They would not attack Israel because they do have relation with Israel if not in the media, they do have ties and they do exchange visit every now and then and because they have close ties with the United States, which has close ties with Israel, if Saudi Arabia had anything against Israel then they would not have that good relation with the United States.

The Saudis are afraid after the revolution of 2014 and when Yemen got rid [of] their military and terrorist wing in Yemen that was headed by Ali Mohsen Saleh al-Ahmar and Al-Ahmar family as well - some top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Party - they thought they are going to lose Yemen, they will lose it its people. They want to have control and they want to have the upper hand in Yemen because they want Yemen to be the basket to send their dirt like terrorists and al-Qaeda and now they tried to create Daesh (ISIL) and they want the same situation they have created in Syria and in Iraq, they want to create it in Yemen.

AHK/MKA

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