US, Saudi Arabia pushing interests through war: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ajamu Baraka, human rights activist from Cali, Colombia, to ask for his insight on relentless Saudi airstrikes against the Yemeni people as well as the international silence on Riyadh’s crimes in the impoverished nation.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Saudis have launched one of their deadliest campaigns against Yemen, especially on Sa’ada Province, since the late hours of Friday, in some areas, even using banned ammunition like cluster bombs. Why isn’t such news being covered in the mainstream media?

Baraka: That’s a very good question. Clearly we have a situation where the Saudi government, along with its allies, is involved in criminal activities at multiple levels. First, you have the illegal attack on Yemen. Secondly, you have the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, which is also a war crime. Third, you have the use of cluster bombs that have been banned by more than 170 nations on this planet. So the level of criminality is clear. It is only a reflection of the lack of political will that the international community has [not] stepped in to bring about some degree of accountability for these plans.

Press TV: The destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure, all these thousands of people being killed by the Saudis in their unlawful aggression against the people, all this to reinstall a fugitive president who’s lost his legitimacy among his very own people. Is that the reason why the Saudis are continuing this war on Yemen or are they looking for other reasons?

Baraka: No, I think that they are attempting under the new leadership in Saudi Arabia to flex their political muscles in Yemen as part of the narrative that they have been successfully able to disseminate in the US that they are involved in a struggle to try to maintain a regional balance of forces against what they claim to be unwarranted influence from Iran. So the notion of them fighting Iran is something that has helped to explain why there’s been relative silence in for example the United States of America. So it is a geopolitical calculation, a calculation that they have made, said that they can engage in these kinds of illegal activities with impunity. And it appears that they have been correct.

Press TV: Human Rights Watch has already alleged that they are using cluster bombs on civilians and targeting civilians indiscriminately and yet we’ve had no human rights organizations question the Saudis. We’ve had no Western country, we know the United States is already providing them with ammunition, we wouldn’t expect response from them, but no Western country is stepping up and trying the Saudis. Why do you think we’re having this deafening silence when it comes to the Saudis’ atrocities?

Baraka: Because we are now living in a period of international lawlessness that the Western powers have decided that they’re going to use for themselves military means and to allow for their vassal states to engage in the same kind of activity. So as long as they are committed to advancing their interest through military means, then they’re going to conspire among themselves to make sure that they’re not going to be held accountable. It is an international crime, and the silence of this criminal activity is the condemnation of the international community as a whole.

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