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Saudi Arabia playing double game over Yemen: Pundit

Wednesday, 16 December 2015 8:51 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 16 December 2015 8:51 AM ]

An armed Yemeni walks past damaged buildings in the country's third city Ta'izz, on December 9, 2015. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Lawrence Davidson, a professor at the West Chester University in Pennsylvania, to discuss the latest Saudi aerial assaults in Yemen despite a ceasefire.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Are you at all surprised that Saudi Arabia is not honoring the ceasefire?

Davidson: No, I am not particularly surprised. I think that the Saudis see it as very difficult to allow for a settlement that involves compromise with the Houthis. I think they are dedicated to either outright conquest of Yemen, which is probably proving very difficult for them, but either that or to keep this thing going until there is simply nothing left of the country but I do not think that a compromised peace is essentially something that they can fit into their own self-image, if you will, at this point in time.

Press TV: So why even go along with these talks? Why have talks for the sake of talks?

Davidson: Well I think they are playing a double game. I mean on the one hand they are trying to appease, if you will, world opinion, present themselves as somebody who is …, as a country or a government that is going to cooperate towards a compromised peace but on the other hand they will do everything they can to sabotage it. So it is this sort of double game, you bomb while you talk.

Press TV: Will that work though?

Davidson: Well it depends upon what your end is. I mean it will work in terms of making it impossible to have a compromised peace. If that is the end it will work. If the end is in fact an end to the slaughter and some sort of arrangement that might have a chance of lasting, then it will not work.

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