Saudis using Yemen peace talks as cover for fresh airstrikes: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hussain al-Bukhaiti, an activist and political commentator from Sana'a, to discuss the Saudi airstrikes on Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Once again we here about Ansarullah calling for the Saudis to stop their attacks and of course the Saudis are continuing to attack Yemen. What does it mean on the one hand to be sitting at the table about peace and a total ceasefire, and at the other hand Saudis are continuing to bombard Yemen?

Bukhaiti: I think what the Kuwait talks are doing are taking the eye from Yemen and all the media are concentrating on Kuwait and anything that is happening now is called violation and I don’t think we can call it violation because there is no truce to violate. From the beginning of this so-called truce on the 10th of April, we have seen over 200 Saudi airstrikes. Just in the last 24 hours, there were 47 airstrikes on the giant base or as we call it al-Amaliqa in Amran, north Sana’a, and as well we remember this base on the 9th of May there was a Saudi double strike on the same base and on its main gate that killed as well four hospital rescuers, one of them was an ambulance driver, and this shows that these talks are not going anywhere and still there are massive attacks as well in the last 24 hours about dozens of airstrikes on … east Sana’a and on al-Motoon district in central al-Jawf and as well central Ma'rib.

So the Saudis are actually using this truce as a cover and they are massing troops all across Yemen. They are trying to gain ground in Yemen, while they are talking in Kuwait, and still as well the same the Saudis are the one who are obstructing any solution in Kuwait. Just yesterday both teams has agreed on a draft about the release of thousands of prisoners from both sides and they were suddenly, I mean the Riyadh delegate, at one point refuse to sign that UN-mediated deal for the release of the prisoners form the Ta’izz Province.

Saudis show that they are not holding the truce in Yemen and as well they are obstructing any deal in the Kuwait talks.

Press TV: You don’t think that there is a possibility of a permanent solution being found to this situation in Kuwait at these peace talks?

Bukhaiti: No, there would be no solution. If the UN and the international committee and the G8 and the five members of the Security Council could not make sure that the Saudis will stop bombing Yemen. This is the simple thing for any peace talk, for any war anywhere in the world and as well to lift some of the blockades, to let fuel and to let medicine to come into Yemen, to allow more flight to go out of Yemen like to any country for Yemenis to receive medical care.

We have tens of thousands of cancer patients who are in need of direct attention outside but they can’t travel because they have to wait five to ten hours in Saudi and as well they have to wait the same in Jordan and they are treated like animals and they are separated from all other passengers into a warehouse in Amman airport in Jordan and they are searched again and again and again and as well just last month on the 15th of April, the Saudis did not allow a diesel tanker or a diesel ship to enter Hudaydah port and after ten days they allowed it and then they have asked it to leave again and go back to Djibouti before it deliver its shipment and now people are dying in Hudaydah, elderly are dying in Hudaydah, patients are dying in hospitals because of the heat and because there is no electricity at all and there is no fuel because the Saudis…

Press TV: Why then is Ansarullah and its allies even involved in the talks if basically there is nothing that is going to come out of it. Tell me that side of thing. What is your perspective?

Bukhaiti: I think there is one main goal behind this. Ansarullah and their alliance either the GPC or other delegates from Sana’a, they were always blamed for what is happening in Yemen. They were always blamed for the blockade and for the war and the cause of all this massacre in Yemen.

So I think they wanted to show the international committee and mainly to show the Yemeni people that it is the Saudi who doesn’t want peace, it is the Saudi who starts war, they have bought so many concessions like to accept to go to Kuwait and Kuwait is part of this aggression. They accept 2216 UN Security Council. They accept to withdraw from the city and they accept to deliver weapons but still showing the Yemeni people that this is the Saudi who are not wanting this peace and I think this talks are going to make Ansarullah and their alliance stronger in Yemen so if there is any hard decision to be taken against Saudi, which is going to happen, when these talks fail,  I don’t think that anybody in Yemen can dare to blame Ansarullah or the GPC or those parties from Sana’a to blame them for anything that is going to happen in the future.

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