Prospects of UN Yemen talks succeeding dim: Pundit
Press TV has conducted an interview with Naser Al-Omari, an author and political commentator, in New York, to discuss planned peace talks on Yemen in Geneva.
This is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How do you feel about the prospects of these peace talks succeeding?
Al-Omari: I think the prospect is dim. I do not believe that the Saudis will accept any kind of agreement that would allow the Houthis to maintain any type of control in Yemen. I believe we are witnessing the early stages of this war in Yemen and it is aimless and it is not going anywhere. If the goal of this war is to obliterate the power of the Houthis, then this goes nowhere.
The Houthis are a component of the Yemeni society and they are a major player, and if the Saudis do not wish to see the Houthis have any role or minor role in Yemen, I believe that any type of negotiation will fail because Houthis are Yemenis and the Saudis should understand that if they continue to escalate verbally as well as militarily against the Houthis without a way out of this conflict, a way for the Houthis to be represented in Yemen and be recognized by the international community, I believe we are looking at a very long aimless war unfortunately.
Press TV: How do you think that the West is viewing all this, because certainly it must look quite drastically horrible, this entire plan, the Saudi goals are not being achieved in the country, I would imagine that there should be some pressure from the West to accept Houthis at least as Yemenis?
Al-Omari: The international community sees this, unfortunately, from the Saudi viewpoint, which is the American administration’s lens. They view this as an interference on the part of Iran in Yemen, targeting Saudi Arabia. With that type of analysis, it is really hard to bring the international community to understand that the Yemenis are not subservient to the Saudis and this is a country with 25 million people and they have the right to choose their political representation and their government and I do not believe the international community is there yet unfortunately.
HRM/HJL
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