UN does nothing to halt aggression on Yemen: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Hussain al-Bukhaiti, an activist and political commentator from Sana’a, about the intensifying Saudi aggression on Yemeni civilians.

Press TV: We’ve seen an uptick in the air raids that are taking place specifically targeting Sa’ada. Walk us through why Saudi Arabia has chosen now to increase the pressure on Yemenis?

Al-Bukhaiti: This comes as a retaliation for Yemeni army and popular committee attacks on Saudi military bases across the Saudi border and we have known that Saudi has used this method by attacking and targeting civilians and infrastructure every time the war inside its border increases or intensifies.

I just wanted to mention about Ban Ki-moon’s statement when he mentioned the nine people killed in Nihm; if you have seen what he said before that, he had condemned an attack, as he said, on Najran that killed seven civilians, that’s why he has mentioned those Yemenis who were killed in Nihm, because he doesn’t  want to look like that he is biased; otherwise, if there wasn’t any attack, for example, on Najran, he wouldn’t have even cared about the Yemeni civilians.

Not only nine people were killed in Nihm, this was [the death toll from] the strike in the morning; three hours after that strike, 15 civilians were killed as well in Nihm, including 11 children. A mother who was pregnant, she was also killed, but she gave birth to twins, they were well and alive, they were not in any way injured.

So, for Ban Ki-moon to mention only this single incident and he hasn’t mentioned the ten thousands of people that have been killed in Yemen. He has taken Saudi out of the report for violating and killing children in Yemen.

On top of these ten thousand, over two thousand children killed and according to UNICEF, which is an organization belonging to the UN, they have said 10 thousand children have died because of the blockade, because of the lack of medicine, the lack of nutrition and the lack of food, so we have 13 thousand children who have died because of the Saudi war on Yemen.

I have seen an old statement of Ban Ki-moon about the Saudi fifth attack on MSF facility in Yemen, he has not condemned Saudi directly, he called all Yemeni parties, he has not include Saudi to stop targeting medical clinics as he said over 70 health centers have been hit including three MSF.

All these facilities have been targeted by Saudi, why he mentioned the Yemeni parties? It’s Saudi who targeted all these health facilities.

I think 90 percent of these health facilities are in areas far away from the conflict, are in Hajjah, in Sa’ada, in Sana’a, in Amran, in Dhamar, in all those cities that are under the control of Yemeni army and Ansarullah the Houthis and still we don’t know are they going to bring Saudi back to this shameless or is the Saudi money still working in the UN.

Press TV: Are you saying basically that the UN has not done enough to bring this aggression against Yemen to halt?

Al-Bukhaiti: Of course, I mean the UN hasn’t done anything. We have seen since the beginning of the so-called truce on the 10th of April, Saudi has been bombing Yemen since then; they might have avoided major cities like Sana’a and others because they have UN staff in there, but it has been bombing everywhere.

Yesterday, they have bombed a bridge in Ta’izz killing three women, and injuring other six people and as well yesterday they have bombed a petrol station in Sa’ada killing three people and injuring eight and the number of the killed might increase because a lot of them have high degree of burn.

They have bombed almost all petrol stations across Sa’ada province, I was really surprised to see that there is still one petrol station operating in Sa’ada, and I think that if the UN is not going to take a step against the Saudi or a step with the Yemeni people to stop this aggression in Yemen or to condemn Saudi or to ask Saudi directly to stop this aggression on Yemen, we will see more and more attacks from Saudi on Yemeni civilians.

Press TV: Saudi Arabia is still insisting upon installing Hadi as the head of government there in Yemen; however, it seems that despite the bombing and the aggression, Yemen is going ahead with its own political process, isn’t it?

Al-Bukhaiti: Saudi war on Yemen has failed politically, because they failed to install Hadi’s government, they couldn’t even bring Hadi back to areas they say have liberated in the south.

Hadi, when he was in the south, couldn’t manage the gate of his presidential palace, that’s why they have left Aden, and what have replaced the Yemeni army and Ansarullah the Houthis in the south is al-Qaeda and ISIS, as they call it Daesh.

[They] have full control over the south. It was 100% safer than it is now, and we have seen still that Saudis has failed as well in their military target, because they have announced in the second week of their war on Yemen, they announced that they have destroyed to 95% of Yemeni army capabilities, especially missile capabilities, but now we have seen that through this one year and a half of war, the Yemeni army and Ansarullah the Houthis have made new missiles that did not exist and they have moved these missiles close to the Saudi borders, they are firing these missiles at Saudi army bases and soon they will move those missiles inside Saudi territories and those areas now under control and we will see more and more Saudi army bases across Saudi been destroyed soon. So, I think this is the only thing that will stop the Saudi aggression on Yemen.

When the fire from Yemen riches them, then they will stop; because what’s happening, for example, in Syria or Afghanistan, in Libya, Saudi is far away from these, Saudi can just do it whatever they want, but [regarding] Yemen, we are just right at the border and we will retaliate against the Saudi army.

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