US behind Saudi cluster bomb attacks on Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Andre Vltchek, an investigative journalist in Abu Dhabi, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s use of cluster bombs against civilians in Yemen.

Press TV: This is quite a development coming. I would think that this should put this Saudi campaign against Yemen into a whole new level. The question is how would the international community react to this now?

Vltchek: Well, international community is reacting in several different ways. US Secretary of State John Kerry was actually very non-committal in Sri Lanka, where he was talking about the fact that Yemen is not going to be necessarily a collapsed state. But he didn’t do anything... he didn’t elaborate... he didn’t offer any proposal. He didn’t say how the United States is going to influence Saudi Arabia to stop this horrible bombing. In fact US is behind this bombing and this new development with the cluster bombs is very dangerous and it is very disturbing. We know that cluster bombs were used in several US-led conflicts, particularly in southeast Asia, where they were used during the bombing of Vietnam, of Cambodia and Laos.The danger of these bombs is that they are actually... particles of them can explode throughout the way... but some of them are sitting there in the ground for years and decades, they are killing civilians long after they are dropped on the country. Now, John Kerry was not the only person commenting on the situation; Ban Ki-moon was urging a humanitarian pause  in the conflict. The UN is talking about imminent collapse of the infrastructure of Yemen. This is a very dangerous and very brutal conflict which is obviously now escalating and is putting tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians in danger.

Press TV: We know that the US has played a back seat role as they like to call it in this war and they do not want to really even admit to that. But based on all the news headlines that are coming out on this particular topic, it is one thing for Saudi Arabia for example to use cluster ammunitions, but the fact that these are US supplied cluster ammunitions, doesn’t that put the spotlight now on the US? And you mentioned Ban Ki-moon, shouldn’t he be pressuring the US not to supply these types of weapons to Saudi Arabia?

Vltchek: Yes, exactly! The US is behind this conflict and it is a much wider conflict than people... most of the international public is aware of. This is a war that has had testing of the weapons in Yemen by Saudis, it can lead to the conflict...they are basically... some analysts are saying that Saudis are preparing for the conflict against Iran... against Syria. The US of course is involved; the entire western alliance is involved. So it is very dangerous; Russia is trying to negotiate, Russia is offering several solutions. The negotiations... the deals... nobody in the west is taking Russia seriously and of course this is very dangerous.

MTM/KA

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk