Saudi army unable to fight on its own: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ali Al-Ahmed, the director of the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs, to discuss the latest developments regarding Yemen.

This is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The Yemeni fighters have crossed the border of Yemen into Saudi Arabia and of course very courageous for them to do that as Saudi tanks were lined up there, but more significantly, what do you think this means and what  message does this send to Saudi Arabia?

Al-Ahmed: Well, it means that although ill-equipped and maybe even ill-trained, the Yemeni fighters are able to throw painful blows to the Saudi army, that is well-equipped. As you can see, people with their light weapons versus tanks, the most modern tanks maybe in the Middle East.

So, it shows that with some Yemeni preparation, they can actually launch an attack that might stop the war if they are able to coordinate their attack; and it shows the Saudi’s vulnerability. Let’s just remember that the Saudi defense minister is not even in Saudi Arabia. This war is basically now on autopilot. The minister of defense has got married and he is spending his honeymoon in Paris instead of manning this war.

So, this is an opportunity for the Yemenis to send a strong message to the Saudi-led aggression by scoring some good points by taking territory or launching a large-scale attack on Saudi positions.

Press TV: A couple of weeks ago, there were reports indicating that Saudi Arabia has massed in the thousands of its troops on the border. At that point, it seemed that they are going to go for ground incursion into Yemen. But that didn’t happen. Do you think that this shows that that is not the decision they are taking and if so, why it is that they have not taken that decision yet as to go for ground incursion into Yemen and start a ground war?

Al-Ahmed: I think right now you cannot rule [out] Saudi surprise invasion of Yemen; that is on the table. The Saudi are known for their deception, deceptive tactics, so you do not put it beyond them to do that; however, very clearly, the Saudi army has not been brought to fight, it is not yet at least - to our knowledge - capable of launching a ground war. That is why they brought mercenaries from Senegal and mercenaries from Malaysia to fight this ground war.

So, the Saudis I think right now are incapable of launching that war on their own at least, so they will need Sudanis and Senegalis and some others to do it from them. But the Yemenis should be very aware that this could happen as well.

Press TV: What is the ultimate game plan that Saudi Arabia has now? They have bombed quite a few places in Yemen, different towns, different cities, what else is left for them to do by air?

Al-Ahmed: I think, right now, they are basically throwing their hand and continue the same bombing and hope for the best. That is why the president who is running this war is not even there to do it. He is probably doing it over the phone. I guess the Saudis have America’s support after the [P]GCC summit and they realized that they have not been beaten hard enough to stop this war.

I think the challenge is if the Yemenis are able to bite back strong enough and hard enough that the Saudis will feel the pain of this war. One soldier here and two soldiers there are not strong enough bite by the enemy side it has to be bigger that means territories and large cashes of arms and strong message to Saudis that they can not continue this war.

HRM/HJL

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