Saudi crimes in Yemen similar to Israel's in Gaza: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Tighe Barry, a CODEPINK activist, from Washington, to discuss Saudi Arabia's air campaign against Yemen despite a truce the Saudis announced last week. 

Press TV: I have asked this question during the past fifty days and I am still not getting really a clear answer, maybe you can enlighten us. Why Saudi Arabia is attacking Yemen?

Barry: Well, this is unclear to me except that Saudi Arabia is saying that they want to re-install Hadi as the president of Yemen, but Hadi ran away and I doubt he will ever come back. I think what Saudi Arabia is doing is similar to what Israel does in Gaza which I have been many times. They have a very poor country to their south that they can exploit. They want to use Yemen as a doormat and they will continue firing as they please with $60 billion worth of US military equipment, US logistics, and US training.

Press TV: It is interesting that the role the US has played on this because it has been described as having a back seat role yet we hear about logistics that have been provided aside from the $78 billion worth of military fighter jets that they have provided to Saudi Arabia. How do you see the US role when it comes to this air campaign by Saudi Arabia in Yemen?

Barry: Well, they are directly involved. I mean without the United States military technology, without its logistics, Saudi Arabia would not continue. If the United States objected to this bombing in Yemen, Saudi Arabia would stop immediately and that is why I am calling on my government to tell Saudi Arabia stop the bombing of these innocent poor poor people. We have two richest nations in the world, the most militarily, technologically advanced countries in the world, bombing the poorest country in the world with no military to speak of.

Press TV: Finally, Saudi Arabia obviously is a regime, is a monarchy. The people of Yemen withstood from 2011 this uprising that really then go their way whose revolution finally led to Ali Abdullah Saleh leaving the country but then there was one man presidential vote which was backed by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by the US. There is a feeling that Saudi Arabia is afraid of democracy and it does not want be at its doorstep. How do feel when the US is involved with supporting regimes like Saudi Arabia who totally opposes democracy?

Barry: Well, it personally makes me feel very bad, unfortunately most of my fellow countrymen do not realize what is going on there.

It is like I say as in Israel, here we got a very very very wealthy country attacking a very very very poor country. It is time for the United States to pull its support for Saudi Arabia to call it what it is, it is one of the most human rights violating countries in the World.

Yemen, which I went to in 2011, had one of the most driving democracies I have ever seen under the national dialogue. We want that all groups put down their arms, continue in the way of national dialogue and I do believe that Saudi Arabia is very very afraid. Yemen still even under Hadi it was a democracy of sorts and it will be a democracy, and it is the only democracy on Arabian Peninsula. It is time to bring this democracy to freshen help support humanitarily the people in Yemen and stop supporting them with military equipment to Saudi Arabia.  

HRM/NN

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