Heavy fighting continues between the Yemeni tribesmen and forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital of Sana'a.
Opposition leaders have accused President Saleh of attempting to ignite a civil war in Yemen in a last-ditch effort to hang on to power.
In an interview with Press TV, Peter Rushton, a historian and political observer in London, commented on the latest developments in the Middle Eastern nation. The following is the transcript of the interview:
Press TV: The situation has been serious for a while now in Yemen and is deteriorating with speed as we speak. What needs to be done at this point in time to bring some semblance of normalcy back to Yemen?
Rushton: I think it is now becoming very clear that there will no prospect of normalcy to Yemen as long as President Ali Abdullah Saleh remains in power. The reason why that is the case is that for several months now he has promised to enter into deals, promised to enter into negotiations, promised even to sign agreements to relinquish power and then in the end found some excuse to sign; whether a technical excuse about who else was also going to be signing and where the signature would take place or whether an excuse based on extreme bloodshed and disorder in the past few days
He [Saleh] seems to have calculated that by exploiting in the south of the country and exploiting the long running problems in the south of the country, which he has done so much to stir up, he can claim that his presidency is required and he can turn to Americans, turn to regional power brokers such as the Saudis and their allies and claim that he must stay in change otherwise of al-Qaeda would get a foothold in the country he says strong card to play but the truth is that as long as he remains, there is no prospect of progress towards peace and justice in his country because his rule been for so long on a combination of corruption and violence and he has pushed things so far that many of the key players even [those who] previously trusted him no longer trust him. So even the key players and key tribal chiefs, notably the al-Ahmar family with who he is now in a tense military standoff no longer trusts a word he says even if he comes forward and talks about ceasefire, he is just waiting for an opportunity to launch military strike against them and against any of his other enemies.
Press TV: Do you agree that part of the problem in Yemen is that the US is not ready for Saleh to step down?
Rushton: Yes, and I think when we look at the history of the situation, we don't just look at the history of Yemen in particular but at the history of what has happened in the region because the US having chosen to rule through a series of brutal proxy rulers in various countries. we have seen [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak fall because the Americans were happy for 32 years to have Mubarak in charge and to allow him to continue to rule through a combination of brutality and corruption, similarly in Yemen we see Ali Abdullah Saleh for even longer ruling through brutality and corruption and what happens, of course, is that when you have rulers whose entire basis is their brutality and corruption, the core of the instability is there right from the start, because Saleh himself, to indicate his style of operation, he uses the term, rather contemptuously, of his own country that ruling Yemen, he once said, was like dancing the heads of snakes.
If it is how you see the task of ruling a country, if that is how you see the entire basis of your rule, dancing the heads of snakes, then what happens the moment you stumble. What happens is you lash out in all directions trying to preserve yourself you are prepared to do as much killing as necessary just to preserve your rule and that is what we are seeing with Ali Abdullah Saleh now, that is what we are seeing as a result of the world's greatest democracy supposedly in Washington and its proxies being prepared to rule such a desperately poor country as Yemen through a proxy such as Saleh not engage in any meaningful development of that country but rule on the basis of a network of violence, a network of corruption, a network of cronyism. Once your rule is based on that, then the end comes as a result of that and the end comes this sort of bloodshed and chaos rather than your rule ending in stable transfer of power. The instability is there right from the start due to the methods that the Americans and their proxies use.
Press TV: How likely is it that Israel is involved in the chaos in Yemen?
Rushton: I think Israel's biggest concern in this affair will as usual be to maintain the Saudi autocracy because Israel's continued legitimacy, such as they claim, Israel's continued blank check to continue its war crimes in Gaza to continue its criminal settlements, depends on having that corrupt Saudi autocracy dominating a large part of the region. Once the dominos start to fall, once the citizens of countries such as Yemen start to secure control over their own affairs, once historic injustices start to be undone, that is going to be the major Israeli concern because the biggest historic injustice of all of course is the Nakba in Palestine of 1948 in. Once people start to undo the injustice, once people start to claim their own countries for themselves, the Israelis' concern will be where does it stop the biggest single domino that could fall in that respect would of course be Saudi Arabia which like many of those counties but more than most has so often given rhetorical lip service to anti-Zionism.
Press TV: How concerned do you think Israel is at the moment?
Rushton: I think Israel will be very concerned mainly because the American empire that has backed it so long can no longer deliver the goods. If they are trying to engage in managed chaos, they are not managing it very well. They have not been able to put in a new proxy in Yemen, there is no prospect of them at the moment, engaging in smooth transition at the moment Yemen stands on the threshold of a bloody chaos desperately bad news for its people but there is at least some hope at the end of the tunnel from dedication of the revolutionary youth there. That dedication is what Israel will fear that dedication will be what their Saudi allies will be as well.
