West making profit of Saudi war on Yemen: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hussain al-Bukhaiti, an activist and political commentator from Sana'a, to investigate the ongoing peace talks among Yemeni political factions in Kuwait amid Saudi Arabia’s bombardment of the impoverished country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Tell me overall the perspective of the Yemeni people with these peace talks. Are they optimistic and what would they like to see be included in some type of a final agreement there?

Bukhaiti: Actually the first thing that the Yemeni people want is a total respect of the ceasefire as Ould Cheikh said is a kind of respect. It doesn’t matter if there is one strike or two or ten. If they are hurting the Yemenis, hurting the Yemeni economy, killing people this is still a breach of the ceasefire and a violation from Saudi Arabia and as well the first thing we want as Yemenis as the Cheikh talked about is about the blockade. There must be a lift of the entire blockade or at least to somehow … let medicine and … let people go in and out of the country freely without the need of stopping in Saudi Arabia for about five to ten hours. We know that some people are really sick and they need direct attention outside Yemen and some of them avoid travelling because of the waiting in Saudi Arabia and just today there was an attempt to reach a statement between all parties that they will commit to the ceasefire. Of course … Hadi or the Saudi delegates have refused that. This shows that they don’t even commit to the ceasefire inside the talks and as well the Saudis are continuing their airstrike across Yemen. Just today in Taizz, in one province there were six airstrikes on Taizz city itself and three airstrikes on al-Jannat district north of Taizz and still … the Cheikh should always appoint or say who is breaching this ceasefire either from the Ansarullah or Houthi side with the Yemeni army or from Hadi side. But he always avoids talking about who did this breach or who is violating those ceasefires because it is always coming from the side of the Saudis and their backed forces across Yemen.       

Press TV: Why do you think that is the case? You said that Cheikh Ahmed basically avoids looking into who is actually breaching the ceasefire. If the United Nations really wants the ceasefire to hold and perhaps hopefully ultimately lead to a permanent ceasefire then do you not think that they have to be more aggressive in addressing what is the main problem here?

Bukhaiti: We all know in Yemen that the UN and especially the UN convoy have been biased. They are the political wing of the Saudi aggression in Yemen and to prove that we all remember the statement Cheikh read at the UN Security Council weeks ago. He thanked three countries. He thanked the United States and thanked Britain and at the end of the statement he thanked the Saudis for helping or working as a mediator between parties in Yemen. So, in a state of putting the Saudi as part of the aggression or this war or this ceasefire the Saudis suddenly become like the savior of the Yemenis.

Press TV: If that is the case, if that is the situation, you are talking about the role of the UN is playing there and basically siding on the sides. Can we expect then that the ceasefire is going to lead to a permanent peace or what if the United Nations is really not non-biased in all of this?

Bukhaiti: I don’t think the ceasefire will work and I don’t think that the talks in Kuwait will work as well because this happened in Geneva I and Geneva II and we know that the UN Security Council is controlled by the US, Britain and France and those countries are making billions of dollars in arms sales to the Saudis. So, they don’t want to have any peace in Yemen and they want Yemen to be a new hub for al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda activity in Yemen, the same like they did in Iraq, Syria and Libya and this is the simple story that are repeating in every Muslim country. 

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