Stubbornness, inexperience to push S Arabia to continue war on Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ali al-Ahmed, the director of IGA from Washington, to get his insight on the recent Saudi-declared ceasefire in Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about these five days of ceasefire? Many people argue that this wasn’t really much of a ceasefire to begin with.

Al-Ahmed: Well, this ceasefire was very nominal because during the same time the ceasefire was supposedly enforced, the Saudi-led countries continued to bomb Yemen. So, there was a scale-back of the attack but not any suspension of any bombing or targeting of Yemen.

This was done again, like I told before, for the purpose of media consumption and coincided with the summit in Washington between the American president and his [Persian] Gulf allies. Today, the Saudi minister of defense left Washington. When he was in Washington, the operation stopped, and when he returned, the operation resumed.

Press TV: How do you feel about the Saudi efforts if I may call it that – the “dialogue” that they call it now – but of course the Ansarullah movement is not taking part, will this bear any fruit?

Al-Ahmed: I don’t think so, because you are talking about people who are marginalized, who do not have any representation… they do have small representation on the ground. They don’t have any reality in Yemen. So, the leading actors in Yemen are not part of that conference, so this is not to bear any fruit. It is a waste of time. It will be really an embarrassment for the Saudis to hold this event that has been cost them millions and really the results are nothing, but maybe some European governments feel good about participating. I namely speak about the Germans over there, and others who were involved. The United Nations’ representative spent his time in Riyadh. This is really a no-go conference and not going to impact anything.

Press TV: I’m wondering at this time about the entire Saudi game plan in Yemen; it seems that of course its goals have not been achieved that it wanted to achieve, so what now? At some point it will have to give in, won’t it?

Al-Ahmad: You cannot really rule out the Saudi stubbornness, you’re talking about the young defense minister who is calling the shots and you might be surprised that he’s continue the war for a long time although they are losing… their stubbornness and inexperience will push them to continue to bomb and they will buy more weapons and ammunitions to destroy Yemen further. I wouldn’t really rule out the continuation of this war.

ABN/HJL

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