Saudis unable to make any headway in Yemen: Pundit

Press TV interviewed William Beeman, professor at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: I want to begin by asking you there has recently been out a UN report suggesting that Saudi strikes, the latest spate of them on the back of the previous ones amount to no less than a war crime. Now how serious are these suggestions if not allegations and how seriously is the world going to respond to that or react?  

Beeman: The Saudi Arabian forces are very frustrated. They have been fighting against the Houthi forces for …  

Press TV: Now what I was asking you if you still do have the memory of the question that I put to you is that the Saudi strikes have been named as such a big, grave crime against humanity by the UN report. Now how serious is this allegation and suggestion and how seriously are the international community, the various organizations, NGOs are going to be reacting to it?  

Beeman: Well anytime you have a force that is targeting civilian targets and killing civilians, non-military personnel, this is a human rights violation. This is an atrocity and the Saudis have been doing this now for some time. One of the things that is very clear is that they are quite desperate after a year of fighting against the Houthi forces, the Zaidi forces in Yemen, they have not been able to make any headway.

There is no other government in Yemen except that which has been established by the Houthis. What the Saudis of course are afraid of is that this resistance from the Zaidis is going to spread over their borders into their own Southern Province where there are a large number of Zaidis living and this is what they are trying to prevent but they are not being very successful and bombing alone is not going to really accomplish their aims.

So I am afraid that the Saudis are really losing this fight and the fact that they are bombing civilians is really a human rights violation and really should be condemned by the international community.

Press TV: Very briefly now, what more can the international community and the NGOs, the peace-loving organizations as well as the media if not the mainstream but definitely the alternative ones do in order to bring more attention to the plight of the Yemeni people under present circumstances?

Beeman: Well in this particular situation the media lead is really the United States and we have almost no knowledge in the United States through the press of what is going on in Yemen.

One of the reasons is that Saudi Arabia is an ally of the United States and the United States is very hesitant to condemn anything that the Saudis are doing and in particular with a new Saudi government, with a new King, the United States is trying very hard to maintain good relations with him.

It is really necessary for the press to report on this much more actively. We do have some reports on the Saudi activities in Yemen but not through the mainstream press. We find it on internet sources, alternative news sources and we have to look very hard in order to find out what is going on.

So it really behooves the United Sates to condemn this operation and to try to deal with the Saudis about scaling back their attacks on civilians.

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