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Saudi Arabia always violates truces in Yemen: Activist

Sunday, 20 November 2016 5:59 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 20 November 2016 6:01 PM ]

Yemenis shop at a market on November 19, 2016 in the capital Sana’a after a 48-hour ceasefire, announced by Saudi Arabia begins. (Photo by AFP)

Saudi fighter jets have carried out fresh air raids against Yemen in violation of a 48-hour ceasefire declared by Riyadh on Saturday noon.

Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, says whenever there has been a truce in Yemen, Saudi Arabia has violated it by its continuous bombardment and use of military force against civilians.

“Unfortunately the history of what has been happening in Yemen testifies to the fact that every time the Saudis announce that they are going to go along with some sort of ceasefire and give peace a chance, really that has not lasted many hours,” the activist told Press TV.

He also argued that the Saudis were not capable of carrying out these “barbaric acts” and “war crimes” in Yemen without West’s support.

The activist also opined that Saudi Arabia has been able to “bully” the entire Middle East, because of the support it gets from the Western countries.

“The Saudis have been pushing their weight around because they are getting support from the United States, and indeed they are being supported by Europeans and indeed by the Israelis,” he said.

“And the fact of the matter is that without that support, they would not be so arrogant to go around demanding to sort of run the affairs of neighboring countries against their wishes,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has been engaged in a deadly campaign against Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to crush the Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former Yemeni administration. The war has left at least 11,400 civilians dead, according to a latest tally by a Yemeni monitoring group.

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