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Time for Yemeni forces to launch retaliatory raids Saudi infrastructure: Pundit

Monday, 20 May 2019 9:42 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 20 May 2019 9:48 AM ]

This file photo taken on March 22, 2006 shows a general view of oil tanks at a plant in Haradh, about 280 kilometers (170 miles) southwest of the eastern Saudi oil city of Dhahran. (By AFP)

A commentator says the Riyadh-led war against Yemen has entered a “new stage” following retaliatory drone strikes on a major oil pipeline deep inside Saudi Arabia, stressing that it is time for Yemeni armed forces to target the kingdom’s vital infrastructure in retaliation for its war crimes against the besieged Arab state.

In an interview with Press TV on Sunday night, Hussein al-Bukhaiti, Yemeni activist and political commentator, said the Yemeni forces should launch more retaliatory raids not only on military targets but also “economic infrastructure” on Saudi soil, including airports and ports as well as power and water stations.

This would be a response to numerous Saudi raids over the past years, which have “destroyed Yemeni infrastructure,” said the analyst, adding that the Riyadh regime has used US-supplied smart bombs to attack hospitals, markets, cities, homes, roads and bridges among other civilian targets.

Bukhaiti said the recent Yemeni drone attacks, which forced Saudi Arabia to temporarily suspend oil pumping on the East-West pipeline, sent “a message” to the kingdom.

He said the Yemenis had already warned Saudi Arabia of retaliatory raids, but the regime would not take those warnings seriously.

Those drones could have been sent into oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia, causing damage to the tanks filled with crude in those facilities, the analyst said.

Bukhaiti said such an attack would “actually break the backbone of the Saudi economy, which is the oil” since Riyadh uses oil revenues to buy weapons from the West and to “bribe” the US, the UK and France — the regime’s main arms suppliers.