Saudi Arabia serves as US agent in Yemen: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Tighe Barry, from CODEPINK, to discuss US drone strikes in Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: We have talked about the US drone attacks at length but what is interesting in terms of the attacks that happen in Yemen is that there is a war going on, Saudi Arabia using air power, at this point... have resulted in the deaths of many. Why is it that the United States does not coordinate its war efforts with drones with Saudi Arabia to reduce civilian casualties if they are using intelligence on the grounds?

Barry: Well I think the United States has this..., Saudi Arabia is like the US weapon in the area. Saudi Arabia was recently described on Al Jazeera as having a Gaza-like attack on Yemen and the United States, we must know the United States arms, equips and trains and logistically supports Saudi Arabia, so I kind of dispute the fact that drones are any more humanitarian way of murdering people. I do not think drones are any more accurate. I think this is bombing from the air a group of people.

We saw the other day the massive protest that took place in Sana’a. The people of Yemen want to be free. They want to have a democracy unlike their neighbors to the west - Saudi Arabia - which has zero democracy. They do not need a Saudi-imposed “democracy”. What they want is freedom and this is intolerable. The UN should step in; every human rights organization has condemned the Saudi attack as war crimes and murder on mass scale.

Press TV: Well just yesterday marked the first year since this war began and at this point there are reports indicating over 9400 people have been killed. How has the UN failed in this regards when we look at the fact that the UN actually issued a resolution a year back, giving the right of the ones who are bombing the right to bomb the ones that are being bombed?

Barry: Well these are all run by the gang of five, I call them - the Security Council - where they just get together and decide which poor country is going to be able to be bombed next.

The fact of the matter is Hadi ran away from Yemen because he was an unpopular president. Unfortunately it seems like Abdullah Saleh has come back on the scene as he was speaking at the rallies the other day in Sana’a. This is unfortunate.

But what really was taking place as we all know was a national dialogue in Yemen. It was the first on Arabian Peninsula where national dialogue, freedom and democracy was taking place and Saudi Arabia would have nothing of it and I think the United States is complicit in all these Saudi Arabian crimes.

And I congratulate the people of Yemen for sticking with this and as I was in Yemen and I saw the tragedy of the American drone program which absolutely is not effective, I witnessed the national dialogue and I witnessed the fact that the people of Yemen will never give up.

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