Yemen war puts Saudis in precarious situation: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Eugene Michael Jones, an Indiana-based editor at Culture Wars Online Magazine, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen.

Following is a rough transcription.

Press TV: We see death and destruction on a daily basis in Yemen as a result of Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes. Until when will this war continue?

Jones: Well, the problem is that the Saudis have an air force and they don’t really have an army and the Yemenis have a larger population. The problem here goes back to the 70s, when the Saudis became rich with oil money. They created all these madrasas (an Islamic school) all over the Sunni Islamic world, especially in places like Pakistan and they spread this absolutely violent from of revolutionary ideology that was created by .. the teacher of Osama bin Laden and it ultimately turned on the people that created it.

It caused two reactions: first of all, among the Wahhabis, the extremists and the Takfiris, it created people like Osama bin Laden who then turned on the Saudi kingdom. But their ideology was so extreme that it turned on the non-Sunni, non-Takfiri Muslims as well. So these people alienated the Afghanistan ethnic groups.

So either way it created problems throughout the world and now, as we say in America, the chicken is coming home to roost. Now it is on Saudis’ border, now they are coming back… the ideology has alienated the... Houthis and now they are fighting back on Saudi territory.

Press TV: Would you say that Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen is an expression of Saudi Arabia’s defeat in the region?

Jones: I think it is an example of blowback, I think they are in a very precarious situation. They have always been in a precarious situation. They have always relied on America to defend their interests because they really did not have the population that could defend itself.

So now, the world is changing and the Saudis are left high and dry. They are very bitter over the Iran agreement, with the [US President Barack] Obama administration, they are throwing about for some type of new modus operandi and now this is breaking out on their southern border before they have been able to come up with another type of agreement. So they need the allies that they helped in the past, but Pakistan refused to help them out and send troops. Egypt refused to send troops, [although] they were their big client state.

Now they are stuck with this war with an air force and very few troops to back it up.

Press TV: We know that Saudi Arabia launched this war without UN mandate, which makes it illegal. What is keeping Yemen from taking legal action against Saudi Arabia?

Jones: I do not know why they are not doing that. Maybe the situation in Yemen is so chaotic right now that they probably do not have the legal or the juridical infrastructure to mount this type of campaign at the United Nations. That is the only thing I can assume.

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