Saudis defeated comprehensively in Yemen: Expert

Press TV has interviewed Saeed Shahabi, a Middle East expert in London, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Please give us more insight on the continued Saudi aggression against the people of Yemen.

Shahabi: Of course the Saudis have not been able to fulfill their ambitions. They have been defeated comprehensively and I insist comprehensively because they have not achieved even one of their main goals. Even their own allies in Yemen - Hadi and his group - are disintegrating themselves. Hadi’s prime minister who’s supported by the Saudis - Khaled Bahah - has been removed from his post by Hadi and he does not want to accept this dismissal by his president. So it shows that there is a lot of infighting going on within the Saudi supported government or previous government.

Now on the ground, the Saudis are also sustaining a lot of suffering, a lot of casualties with the Yemeni forces attacking repeatedly the bases inside Saudi Arabia itself and that is causing a lot of casualties. Now even the Saudi casualties are mounting in their thousands despite their superior airpower and also superior financial capability that is allowing them to hire mercenaries from Sudan and elsewhere. So the situation on the ground is not really optimistic for the Saudis.

Press TV: And also talk to us more about the international community’s role as we have seen the past year where the Saudis have continued to completely obliterate Yemeni infrastructure, nearly 9,400 Yemenis have been killed, so many of those have been civilians including women and children.

Shahabi: Well up to 10,000 Yemenis have announced [being] killed, mostly civilians including children and women. Of course there has been a lot of condemnation of the Saudis and accusation that they have committed war crimes at massive scales. Now whether the West, the Americans, the British, especially the British who are giving material support to the Saudis, whether they are going to budge and to get away and to run away from the quagmire that they have found themselves in, whether they will do that or not remains to be seen but it is clear now that the massive war crimes that have been committed by the Saudis and their allies is really causing a lot of pressure on their Western supporters, on their Western backers.

Now also at the same time the Yemenis are suffering. There is a lot of famine. There is famine that is threatening the lives of thousands of children and look my friend, Yemen is under a blockade that has never been seen almost anywhere even in Iraq when there were sanctions for 13 years probably they did not suffer as much as the Yemenis.  There is total blockade on Yemen. Nobody can enter or leave Yemen, all their seashores and airfields and land borders are sealed completely by this arrogant and murderous alliance led by the Saudis.

So I think the international community has a lot to answer for with regards to what is going on in Yemen.

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