Saudi targets civilians in Yemen to achieve political goals: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Naseer al-Omari, an author and political commentator in New York, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: A shocking number of women, children, and civilian men [are] targeted and killed in Yemen by Riyadh. Will these people ever get recourse? We have heard the phrase “war crimes” from a number of world bodies and other governments. Will Riyadh ever have to account or answer for what it is doing in Yemen?

Omari: This is really very devastating news and it is unfortunately a continuation of the campaign of targeting civilians or at least not caring if civilians are killed as we have seen from the United Nations report and this is a pattern of behavior on the part of the Saudi regime to achieve military goals, to achieve political goals, they are willing to target children.

The United Nations has been outspoken about it and the Saudis have tried to prevent the international community from taking a closer look at the tactics that are used by this regime. It is a very sad day for Yemen and I believe that the international community and the United Nations are to blame for these atrocities.   

Press TV: Well what do you think gives the Saudis this confidence, this boldness to go ahead and target any kind of civilian residential areas, districts, hospitals in Yemen and feel like they can get away with it? What gives them that feeling?

Omari: Well I would say that it is my own government; the United States government has turned a blind eye to what is going on in Yemen. If you follow the political campaigns here, the presidential campaigns, there is no mention whatsoever of the Saudis, of their involvement in these crimes, how they have contributed to the chaos in Yemen and in the Middle East, there is simply the media. It is simply turning a blind eye.

On the other hand, there are corporations and weapons companies that are benefiting from the Saudis, and that is how they keep them quiet about these crimes.

The same thing with the British government; we know that billions of dollars are being poured into Britain and the United States of the Saudi oil money to buy weapons. Unfortunately, poor Yemenis are paying the price for these deals.  

Press TV: It seems that the talks, these peace talks, keep failing because it seems that Riyadh doesn’t want the Houthis to have any role in the unity government and there is a significant population and they are demanding some kind of involvement, participation obviously, they want to have a voice but Saudi Arabia wants to dictate and have the last say on who runs the country and how, your thoughts on that?

Omari: Exactly and they talk of a political process when in fact they want to dictate to the Houthis and to the forces of Ali Abdullah Saleh who has real popularity in Sana’a and in Yemen. You can say whatever you want about them but they have constituents and they are not going to disappear, they are not going to drop their weapons and just wait for the Saudis to do justice by them. So the whole process is flawed, the intervention of the Saudis in Yemen is flawed and I think it will fail because the Yemenis will reject the Saudi intervention.

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