Negotiated deal only way to solve Yemen crisis: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jeff Steinberg, with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, to ask for his insight on the Yemeni people’s response to the deadly Saudi raids against their country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How much do you think the Houthis’ retaliation power would force the Saudis to back down in this war?

Steinberg: Well, I think that the assessments that I hear from senior US military officials is that the Saudis do not have the ability to defeat the Yemenis. And that they are creating a significant international backlash by the fact that they are carrying out bombing campaigns that are indiscriminate and as you indicated, they have damaged a large number of civilians and mostly hit civilian targets. At the beginning of the whole battle, back several months ago, the US concluded that the Saudis were going to simply carry out indiscriminate bombing attacks with no real military consequence.And so for a period of time, the United States itself provides certain Houthi and Yemeni army military targets, but those targets really sort of ran out.

And Saudis were not even very effective when they were given accurate targeting information. They hoped to get Pakistani and Egyptian military forces on the ground in Saudi Arabia to defend Saudi territory so that the Saudi army and National Guard might be able to move into Yemen. But that never materialized. So we’re in a situation right now, where there is no alternative to a legitimate political settlement in which a negotiated agreement is reached on a power sharing arrangement to end the indiscriminate violence. Otherwise this is going to continue to be a backlash and a running sore against the Saudis. 

Press TV: And so based on what do you say, how likely will there be any physical intervention in this war by Saudi Arabia’s allies?

Steinberg: I think the allies have basically concluded that they don’t have a stake in this fight and that there’s of course a very long history ironically during the 1970s and 60s and into the 80s, when you have the conflict between north and south Yemen. The Houthis were the leading allies of Saudis fighting against the quasi-Russian-backed government in south Yemen with a lot of British support there. So, the idea that the Saudis are now claiming that the Houthis are new Hezbollah force backed by Iran is just not an accurate account. If you look at any of the history and if they keep pressing on these indiscriminate civilian targeted bombing attacks, you’re going to rally the entire Yemeni people, including the Sunni tribes and anybody else in support of the Houthis, they already have the support of large part of the Yemeni army. So this is a losing proposition, it reminds me of the impact of the Israeli most recent war against Gaza, where nominally they caused a great deal of civilian casualties and damage, but they were demonized internationally for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. I think that’s where the situation is headed for the Saudis if they don’t reach the conclusion that they’ve got to reach a diplomatic agreement.

Press TV: How optimistic are you about the Geneva talks on Yemen?

Steinberg: It remains to be seen. I’m afraid that there is enough kind of stubborn irrationalism on the part of the Saudi leadership at this point that there may be a while before they reach the point where they are finally forced to acknowledge that they have no ability to win this battle militarily, and may be at a later point will be willing to reach a diplomatic agreement. Saudi Arabia of course is awash in oil money. And if there were agreement and a unity government were established, the Saudis could put a lot of money and then deal with the really underlying problems that Yemenis face every day, which is the economic problems that are now compounded by the fact that there is this targeting of civilian population centers.

ABN/MKA

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