Analyst: Saudis Starving Yemen to Install a Puppet Regime in Sana’a

Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Riaz Karim slammed the Saudi-led coalition for using food as a weapon of war against the Yemeni people in pursuit of its aggressive objectives, and said American and British governments have the ability to bring an end to the war on Yemen but they won’t because they are making profit out of the war.

Dr. Karim also added that the United Nations is not doing enough to stop the war due to its fears of losing the funding they receive from the Saudi.

Riaz Karim holds a PhD from Harvard University. He is the director of Veritas Centre for Strategic Studies in London. Dr. Karim has been interviewed by many international news outlets such as RT English and Press TV.

FNA has conducted an interview with Riaz Karim about the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and the possible motives behind the war imposed on the poor country by Saudi Arabia and its western allies.

Below you will find the full text of the interview.

Q: What do you think about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen caused by the Saudi war and blockade on the country? What are the Saudis’ objectives in their war on Yemen?

A: I can tell you categorically that Yemen is a humanitarian black hole. What Saudi Arabia is doing in there with its allies like the US, UK, and France is that they are using the scorched-earth strategy.

There is so much destruction everywhere. Food is being used as a weapon of war. It is absolutely inhumane; Yemen is on the brink of collapsing. And when I say that, it probably doesn’t hold that much weight. But I can tell you the situation in Yemen is absolutely vexatious.

With Cholera cases surpassing one million and Diphtheria (DPT) cases on the rise, coupled with existing waterborne diseases such as Dengue Fever, Malaria and Dysentery have brought Yemen to its knees.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), threshold for malnutrition is 12% whereas Yemen has recorded as much as 31%, but the mainstream media will not report this besides the rest of the world has the Ostrich Syndrome that means we bury our heads in the sand and hope it will go away. For those people I have news, this will only get worse unless we collectively do something now!

At this point the main objective of Saudi Arabia and its allies is to bomb and starve Yemen into submission and install a puppet government in order to effectuate their geopolitical aspirations.

Q: It seems that the Saudis expected an easy-to-win combat when they first stepped into the war. What do you think is the cause of Saudi Arabia’s continued failure in Yemen?

A: Saudi Arabia in itself neither has the personnel nor the expertise of fighting any wars, it is entirely dependent on other countries for both, but they do have the money and since we live in a world where greed surpasses compassion anywhere, anytime, countries are queuing up to have a piece of the Saudi Pie.

In contrast the Yemeni people are the fighters of Arabia, history tells us that they managed to defeat the Egyptians and Ottoman Empire and we shouldn’t forget that they are fighting in their own terrain besides history and the war in Iraq has taught us that airpower alone cannot win wars and even today after 3 years of bombardment and blockade Saudi Arabia’s woes still continue the way things are going, they can’t win this war neither can they get out of it with their reputation intact.

Q: Why do the US and UK continue to supply Saudi Arabia with arms despite international criticism about civilian casualties?

A: Remember those “experts” who sit today in Riyadh’s war rooms as children are sent to slaughter. Remember whose weapons and military know-how have been spent towards the killing of Yemen.

If Saudi Arabia should be held accountable – not that we are holding our breath, it should not stand alone in the booth of the accused – the United States and the United Kingdom have a lot to answer to. I would actually argue that in this particular case, guilt lies not with those who pulled the trigger (after all, it is in the nature of the scorpion to sting) but those who provided a steady flow of fire power.

But then again it is in the nature of capitalists to turn a profit. Money they say has no smell. Money they say is an end in itself, and its call should never be denied. Who could in fact refuse the powerful song of al-Saud billions? Who indeed? This is the reality of capitalism. The bloodshed you see on your screen is what our democracies bought, and what our global institutions are powerless to denounce. What happens when the bloodshed hits closer to home? What happens when war capitalists decide to train in your back garden and turn your children into target practice?

Silence will muzzle your outrage. Silence and one good dose of political impotency. We still speak of war crimes as if we could really punish the offenders. We speak of Yemen today as if we were serious about offering solace to those in mourning. Yemen should have taught you that our world system is broken, actually not broken, but rather sold-out.

Silence today has a price, but we simply chose not to face uncomfortable realities. Why? Because admitting to an injustice would force us to enact reparation – and this requires actual courage.

The kind of courage Yemen has demonstrated as the world firmly looked away. But guilt is not a burden the kingdom should bear alone. Guilt is still more pronounced in London and Washington since it is there, in those corridors of power that Yemeni lives were forfeited.

If cluster bombs were used it is because the US and UK sold them to Riyadh. If Yemen has been starved under a humanitarian blockade it is because the United Nations has allowed it; if children have died it is because British experts signed off on it.

Blaming the kingdom will achieve little by way of reparation; it is our broken institutions which need to be challenged, and redressed. If not, there will be many more innocent children to cry over in the future.

Q: Why have the international organizations, particularly the UN, remained passive in the face of the ongoing Saudi atrocities?

A: Following 35 months of violence, engineered starvation and a blatant media blackout, Yemen’s suffering has risen to the surface – one hot bubbling shame, the one conflict few have dared discuss for fear of financial repercussions.

I realize that truth and honesty are hard commodities to come by, but let’s momentarily try them on for size and see how they fit. Let’s see if we can stomach the reality the people of Yemen have had to live under as the global community chose to avert its gaze.

Yes, a school was bombed and children were butchered. Yemen was violated and scarred beyond the tolerable and the comprehensible. What else is new? Yemen has died a thousand deaths already, and none have come to its rescue.

Yemenis have pleaded, argued and debated for 18 months, calling for inquiries, calling for a humanitarian corridor, calling on the international community to heed the cries of a nation caught in the fires of war. The world answered by way of deafening silence.

As you look on in disgust to the charred bodies of innocent school children realize that such barbaric attacks have become Yemen’s daily bread. Since March 25, 2015, when Saudi Arabia unilaterally declared war on Yemen, an entire nation has been subjected to unfathomable abuses – so unfathomable in fact that the United Nations even kept mum to avoid facing the consequences of such human rights abuses.

I remember still how quickly UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon had to reinstate Saudi Arabia after labeling it a war criminal in its annual Children and Armed Conflict report. I remember how an allegedly impartial party was brought to a standstill after Riyadh threatened to withdraw its financial contributions.

If you want to find out who is guilty, silent or ignorant all you have to do is follow the money and it will become very clear very quickly.

Q: The Saudi-led coalition has recently increased its airstrikes on Yemen. These airstrikes have mostly killed Yemeni civilians, including thousands of women and children. What do you see as the reason for the airstrikes targeting civilians?

A: Once again Saudi Arabia and their allies are ratcheting up the attacks on civilian targets in the hope that the people will have enough and rebel against the resistance to side with the Saudis who can then become their saviors.

Q: What do you think about the future of the war?

A: The US and the UK have the ability to bring an end to the war in Yemen but they will not do it because they stand to make a profit from this war, the UN stands spineless to be able to do anything for the fear of losing their funding and that puts the possibility of ending this war in a complete quandary.

Yemen is in the throes of a conflict that has ravaged more than just its infrastructure, civilians, military and otherwise, Yemen is quite simply being bled dry of its people so one kingdom could manifest those political realities it once dreamed up. Yemen’s barren land, its destroyed villages and silenced streets all testify to the horrors that befell a nation whose ambition was merely to rise independent within the confines of its sovereignty.

“Yemen is not the forgotten war of the decade; Yemen is the unspoken shame of our generation”.