UN does nothing to stop Saudi war on Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Max Igan, a radio host and political commentator in Andalusia, to get his take on a recent report by OXFAM, a human rights organization, on Riyadh regime’s military campaign against Yemen, which raises the alarms of an imminent humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country.

What follows is a rough transcription.

Press TV: 16 million people according to OXFAM do not have access to clean and drinkable water as a result of the Saudi bombardments on Yemen. Give us your thoughts on the recent numbers released by the rights organization.

Igan: Look, these numbers are astronomical. I think it is beyond most people’s comprehension to be able to conceive the sheer scale of tragedy and human rights… what we are seeing here in Yemen, it is actually disgraceful. We need to stop this bombardment immediately. What we are seeing here, this is unbridled terrorism being carried out against the people of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and we need a huge uprising to stop this, we really do. This is a humanitarian tragedy of absolutely epic proportions like nothing we have seen. And it is totally contrived, it has been totally brought about by western forces against people who wanted a democratic government. This makes no sense at all; they wanted a democratic government where the controlling hand was not going to have so much power in Yemen and because the decided to stand up against the system, they just obliterated the whole country, worse than we have seen them done to any other country recently. I do not know how we are going to deal with this and I do not know what it is going to take for people to stand up and make noise about this. It is evidently outrageous.

Press TV: Yemen’s infrastructure has been totally obliterated; women and children are being killed as a result of the attacks and now according to this report water which is one of the most basic commodities is now a scarcity for ordinary civilians in Yemen. Are you surprised that there has still not been a formidable international push to get the Saudis to halt the airstrikes on Yemen?  

Igan: I am extremely surprised and it shows the UN out for what they really are. I mean this is supposed to be a bastion of international law and human rights protection and it is doing nothing to stop this at all. This needs to stop immediately. All support needs to be withdrawn from Saudi Arabia and this needs to stop. And aid agencies need to get in there as quickly as possible. The people in Yemen are depending on… remember that this people are trapped at the end of a peninsula; they have got a nation on the other side of them and there is nowhere for them to go. It is a desert region. This is absolutely outrageous and I don’t know why we are not seeing the international community standing up in complete defiance against what Saudi [Arabia] is doing. It is absolutely incredible; it boggles my mind, it really does. I mean watching the news everyday and just seeing what is unfolding is just devastating, it really is. And we need a massive push by the West to stand up and stop this immediately and get aid into these people.

MTM/KA

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