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US, UK push Saudi Arabia in Yemen war for own profits: Activist

A Yemeni man collects items amid the rubble of a destroyed building following Saudi airstrikes on the capital Sana’a on October 8, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Saudi Arabia has resumed its airstrikes against Yemen after the expiry of a three-day ceasefire in the war-hit country.

The truce was brokered by the UN to allow humanitarian aid to reach the families trapped in areas cut off by months of the Saudi campaign.

A peace activist says the United States and Britain are pushing Saudi Arabia to engage in the war on Yemen for their own profits.

“This is not in the UK or the US’s national interest to be supporting this war but it is in business interest and that is often what wars [are] usually about,” David Swanson told Press TV.

“It is companies from the UK and the United States that are pushing for theaters of war so they can play with their F-35s and F-22s, which cost half a billion dollars per unit, and Yemen does not have the anti-aircraft or air defense to deal with these. It is a safe place for them to have a playground for war. It is really that disgusting,” he added.   

Swanson said the United States had sold billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia despite the fact that it was aware that Riyadh was aiding and financing the terrorist groups which Washington was supposed to be fighting in Syria.

The activist said Saudi Arabia’s indefinite bombardment of Yemen was going to have a major blowback and there would be a price to pay down the road.

“They (the Saudis) have to stop these cycles of violence but in order to do that we are going to get foreign powers and their business interests out because that is what is at play here,” he said.

Yemen has seen almost daily airstrikes by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with the UN putting the death toll at 10,000. The war was launched in a bid to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch sally of Riyadh, who has resigned as Yemen’s president.

The United States has been providing logistic and surveillance support to Saudi Arabia in the bloody war. The Obama administration has also approved a potential $1.15-billion arms package for the kingdom.


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