US not serious in stopping Saudi war on Yemen: Ex-US diplomat

The United States is not serious in stopping Saudi Arabia and its war of aggression against the people of Yemen, according to J. Michael Springmann, a former US diplomat in Saudi Arabia.

“If the United States really wanted to stop Saudi Arabia and its war in Yemen, it will stop arming Saudi Arabia, it will stop sending money to Saudi Arabia, it will stop permitting Saudis to come to the United States. It could break diplomatic relations with Saudis,” Springmann observed.

Springmann, who served in the US government as a diplomat with postings in Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on reports that the US military is withdrawing from Saudi Arabia its troops who were helping the kingdom with its aggression against Yemen.

“I think it is more of a political show game where you put a peanut under a cup, and you have several cups, and moves them on other tables and you have to guess where the peanut is,” the former diplomat said.

“And I think this really is to hide the peanut, because they might remove them from Saudi Arabia, but who’s to say that this is not being conducted from out of Washington, DC, out of another country, etc.,” he said.  

Washington has also dramatically reduced the number of its staff members that are helping the Riyadh regime with the war against its southern neighbor, Reuters reported Friday, citing American officials.

The move comes as the Saudi monarchs and their allies in Washington are faced with growing pressure from the international community to stop the military campaign which, according to local sources, has killed about 10,000 people, most of them civilians.

Springmann said Washington has made this “because it looks bad for the Obama administration and the Democratic Party when they are charged with continuing warfare around the world by groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”  

“I think that the US is still going to keep arming the Saudis, replacing the bombs they are dropping on Yemen.  The United States continues its unconditional support for the Saudi regime and its wars…they have given more than a billion dollars [to the US] to buy weapons, to rearm, to replace the armament what’s been dropped on Yemen,” the analyst observed.      

“So I feel this is simply a game being played for the front page of a big newspaper at some place rather than dealing with reality, ” he stated.

“But basically this is simply a political theater to hide the peanut. It’s a show-game. Its looks good on paper and it looks good on the mainstream media in the United States. But in the end nothing is going to change,” Springmann concluded. 

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