Press TV has interviewed Mark Glenn, an Idaho-based political analyst, to discuss new evidence that further confirms Saudi Arabia’s support for al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen.
A rough transcription of the interview follows.
Press TV: I like to pick up on this evidence, this new evidence showing collusion between Saudi forces and al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen. Now this is something that has been discussed here on Press TV before and something that the Ansarullah movement has been saying even before Saudi Arabia’s aggression started at the country, saying that the kingdom is fostering al-Qaeda on Yemeni soil; are you at all surprised that new evidence is emerging now?
Glenn: Not at all and let’s keep in mind that this is a common pattern. We take for example Syria; you know those of us who have been following this terrible tragedy now going on five years, knew from the very beginning that these terrorists were backed by the United States and the West and yet it took years, literally, for the Americans and their Western lackeys to actually come forward and to fess up and admit ‘yes, you caught us; you got us on this.’
So I’m not at all surprised, in fact if anything I’m surprised that it only took a year’s time now for this kind of ‘official’ statement to come out, acknowledging that indeed the Saudis, who basically are in bed with the Americans and the West, are indeed engaged in war crimes against the people of Yemen.
Press TV: Right. So as long as, as you just pointed out as well, it is [not] just on Yemen, it is also different parts of the region specifically where Saudi Arabia is known to be supporting, funding and even training these Takfiri groups which have become al-Qaeda, Jebhat al-Nusra or al-Nusra front or even Daesh. So what needs to be done to bring Saudi Arabia to account for this?
Glenn: Well, we have to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia is not an independent player in this. Saudis are completely dominated by the United States in terms of money, in terms of military assistant, and the United States is completely dominated by Israel.
So what we have here is a triangle that starts in Tel Aviv, it works its way over to Washington, DC, and then back to Riyadh. So the only way to bring this situation to some kind of resolve is for all of the people in the region to understand that the Saudis are basically acting as the hired guns for America and for Israel; and for the people themselves to rise up and to do what the people of Yemen are doing now and what the people of Iran did in 1979, when they threw the West and when they threw the Zionist influence out of their country.
Press TV: And before we let you go, in 2015 there were a few terror attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia for which Daesh (ISIL) claimed responsibility. Now the Saudi government continues to claim that it itself is also a victim of terrorism. What would you say to that?
Glenn: Well, obviously one of the goals here is that they would like to draw Iran into this conflict in order to draw America into an open conflict with Iran. This is what Israel has wanted now for decades. So in order to cover their tracks and appear more believable of course, the Saudis are going to make the claim that they have been the victims of the same terrorists which they basically have created.
It is just a matter of theatrics; it is a matter of Hollywoodism; it is a way of making an otherwise unbelievable picture more believable to the world so that the Saudis can appear to go before the world with hands that are not drenched with the innocent blood of Yemeni people.