Yemenis hold mass rallies to condemn Saudi-led aggression, demonstrate strong steadfastness on National Day of Resilience

Thousands of people have staged mass rallies in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a and elsewhere in the conflict-ridden country to roundly condemn the devastating Saudi-led military campaign as well as the crippling all-out blockade, and to exhibit their firm steadiness in the face of the aggression.

On the occasion of the National Day of Resilience, demonstrators took to the streets in Sana’a to reaffirm their steadfastness in the eighth year of the Saudi-led aggression, and to pledge that their sacrifices would continue until ultimate victory.

The participants waved national Yemeni flags and chanted slogans like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as they expressed their deep-seated resentment over Saudi atrocities in Yemen.

“Our nation is firmly, strongly and vigorously entering the eighth year of steadfastness in confronting the Saudi-led coalition’s aggression. We are ready to implement directives and guidelines of the leader of Ansarullah movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and achieve military, security, economic and media improvements while standing up against the Saudi-led onslaught,” the protesters said in a joint communiqué.

 The statement added, “We urge freedom-loving people in the Saudi-occupied Yemeni territories to rise up against coalition forces and their mercenaries, and expel them from their communities.”

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The Saudi-led military coalition has overtly attempted to starve the Yemeni people, says the war-stricken country’s foreign minister.

The demonstrators also voiced their strong support for the latest retaliatory missile and drone strikes by Yemeni Armed Forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees against oil storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, stressing that such attacks will deter the Riyadh regime from its aggression and will break the cruel siege on Yemen.

“We call on invading countries to stop their aggression, lift the siege, and take lessons from losses suffered over the past seven years,” the statement also read.

“We reaffirm our firm adherence to our principled policies, especially the Palestinian cause. We are standing with our Palestinian brethren on the same path of resistance and struggle,” the protesters noted.

Elsewhere in the northwestern city of Saa’da, people carried Yemeni flags as well as the pictures of former Ansarullah leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was assassinated by forces loyal to slain former Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh back in 2004, and current Ansarullah leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

They chanted slogans against Saudi criminal acts, and voiced their determined resistance.

Sa’ada Governor Muhammad Jaber Awad said the Yemen war is engineered by the United States as he addressed the rally, noting that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and their allies are just playing out Washington’s scenarios.

“Massive rallies like this are actually referendums on the approval rating of Yemeni leaders and the resistance front after more than seven years of aggression,” he said.

Awad went on to condemn the ongoing crimes of the Saudi-led aggression, the brutal siege on Yemen, closure of Yemeni ports and airports, and airstrikes against vital infrastructure.

For his part, the director of the Human Rights Office in Sa’ada, Yahya al-Khatib, stated that at least 4,339 people, including 1,265 children and 767 women, have lost their lives as a result of seven years of Saudi-led strikes on various regions in the northwestern Yemeni province.

He added that 6,442 people, including 1,195 children and 684 women, were wounded as well.

Similar rallies were held in other Yemeni cities, including Raymah, Hajjah and Mahweet, to mark the National Day of Resilience.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states.

The objective was to bring back to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.

The war has stopped well short of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

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