Saudis continue to fail inside Yemen: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Seif Da'na, a professor at University of Wisconsin in Chicago, to discuss the recent retaliatory attacks by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and allied army units on Saudi forces.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Well what do you think about these achievements by the Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and the allied army units when it comes to targeting Saudi soldiers and mercenary forces?

Da'na: Well the Yemeni forces are fighting on two fronts at this point, one inside Yemen particularly in Ta’izz and Ma’rib and they have been achieving good achievements. The other side has been losing. We have seen failure of many attempts to infiltrate areas in Ta’izz and in Ma’rib recently but I think the most significant front at this point is the one inside the Saudi area, both through infantry, the Yemeni army and the Ansarullah on one front and also through the ballistic missiles, we have seen Tochka missiles, rockets being fired at military installations inside Saudi Arabia particularly in the areas north to Jizan and Najran.

At this point actually the Yemeni army and Ansarullah are circling. The estimates talk about few hundred Saudi, Emirati and other soldiers inside Yemen actually. The latest news say that a top Saudi general, his name is Mohammad bin Jalawi, I think he is one of the like second or third man in the Saudi military. He was just killed few hours after he arrived inside Yemen to oversee the Saudi military operation inside Yemen but at this point - and I think that is the significant aspect, the significant part of the confrontation – is most the failure of the Saudi military to infiltrate Yemen. There was an attempt yesterday through Jizan, they failed miserably actually and the Yemeni army and the Ansarullah forces retaliated with ballistic missiles. They fired rockets, they are named Qahir-1 and I think it has strained Egypt anyway, but anyway and they managed to destroy couple of military installations inside Saudi Arabia.

So the fact that they managed to move the battle inside Saudi Arabia is an amazing achievement, it is a great achievement for a poor country like Yemen who is facing Saudi Arabia who spent more than 60 billion dollars on arms since 2013. So this is a major failure for Saudi Arabia and they continue to fail both inside Yemen and on the Saudi-Yemeni borders.

Press TV: What do you think, what is Saudi Arabia trying to achieve here? What are Saudi Arabia and its allies who are actually funding it and selling arms to it trying to achieve when it comes to Yemen? It is very obvious that the Yemenis are sending out a very strong message that they do not want Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to be in power. Why are we not seeing democracy being pursued in Yemen?

Da'na: Well the Saudis wanted from the very beginning to continue control over Yemen. Yemen has been part of the sphere of influence since the 60s, actually since it gained independence. They do not want for the Yemeni people actually to rule themselves because any development in Yemen would constitute a threat to Saudi Arabia essentially that the Saudis would want a similar successful democratic model like the Yemenis are trying to pursue.

With that said, on the front the Saudis have been receiving advises from the West particularly from the United States and I guess also from Britain to try to reach some sort of an agreement with the Yemeni army and the Ansarullah because not only that they have been losing since the beginning, they will continue to lose and there is no horizon really for their attack on Yemen.

So the best way is to try to reach a settlement at this point where they might be able to have some gains but the Saudis are not listening. They think and that is why the recent talks in Geneva failed, I think they think that the more money, they can put more money and more arms in the confrontation and they will eventually achieve some military gains but that has not been the pattern. The trend has been loss after loss after loss and actually moving from the confrontation inside Yemen with the Saudi military, the Emirati military and the forces supported by them into … Saudi Arabia has great significance and a great political loss for Saudi Arabia.

As for Hadi, I think he is part of history now. Even the Saudis might not really be inclined to push for keeping Hadi in office at this point. This is part of history. There is no military achievement on the ground that will enable the Saudis or Hadi to keep Hadi in power at this point. I think that is part of history at this point and everyone knows that Hadi is part of history.   

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk