Saudi crimes in Yemen shame for Western democracies: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Naseer Al-Omari, a writer and political commentator from New York, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing aggression against Yemen.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Riyadh continues to target civilians in Yemen with impunity. What gives the Saudis this bold sense that they never will be held accountable for these atrocities against the Yemeni people?

Omari: They give themselves the right to interfere in Yemen, interfere in Iraq, interfere in Syria because they believe that they have the right to go anywhere in the Arab world and interfere. Also adding to this situation is the fact that the American administration, the Obama administration, and the British government are not putting any pressure on the Saudis to make sure that this targeting of civilians stops.

Basically the Saudis are taking revenge on the Houthis and the Saleh forces because they refuse to succumb and to be subdued and to accept the Saudi invasion and occupation of their country.

Press TV: US Secretary of State John Kerry was just in Saudi Arabia. He condemned Ansarullah for few retaliatory attacks they have carried out against the Saudis but he did not say anything about the Saudi atrocities, this disproportionate amount of the civilian death, the use of banned cluster bombs. What is your view on this side of his lopsided stance on this conflict?

Omari: It is shameful. It is absolutely shameful to see these democracies which are haven for human rights basically accepting the Saudi justification for what they are doing in Yemen. Fortunately, the United Nations in not as accepting as Mr. Kerry and the Obama administration. They have started to speak up against these revengeful acts of the Saudis against the Houthis and the Saleh forces and against the civilians because we have seen that it is always kids, it is always children, it is always women. We don’t see the fighters getting killed. It is actually civilians. So, it is a shame that Mr. Kerry doesn’t see that what is happening in Yemen is a catastrophe and is a war crime against all Yemenis.

Press TV: The Houthis are part of the Yemeni society, and  all they want is a political voice in that country. Corrupt leaders have kept them out of politics and now Saudis are bombing the country every single day to deny the Houthis that voice. How does that make any sense?

Omari: It doesn’t make any sense. Every time you have a foreign power interfering in a country even under excuses like the Saudis came up with, every time we have a foreign power interfering you will have a worse situation. Yemen was fragmented politically. It is the poorest country in the Arab world and now it continues to be the poorest country in the Arab world but now its people are dying, its children are dying and that is what the Saudis have brought on the Yemenis. So, unfortunately the situation, this war is aimless and it has failed and it will continue to fail.   

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