Saudi wouldn’t have dared to attack Yemen without US help, supervision: Sayyed al-Houthi

Leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement Abdul Malik Badreddin al-Houthi says Saudi Arabia would not have dared to launch a campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor if it had not received direct assistance from the United States.

Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast from the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Sunday evening, Houthi said the parties involved in the Saudi-led aggression against Yemen are backed by Washington, and are offered extensive military support as well as media coverage.

He described Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as “puppet regimes” that are implementing US and Israeli plots in Yemen.

“The only parties benefiting from civil wars in the [Middle East] region are Americans and Israelis, who are responsible for most of the regional conflicts. The US is playing the principal intelligence and logistical role concerning the military aggression against Yemen,” the Ansarullah chief pointed out.

Houthi added, “Saudi Arabia is paying all the costs of the war on Yemen, and US officials are accordingly reaping substantial benefits. Aggressors want to take control of Yemen because of its highly strategic location.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Houthi said the Yemenis would never forget Palestine and the sufferings of the Palestinian nation, stressing that his countrymen and women stand with all oppressed people, including Bahrainis.

The Ansarullah leader also praised the resistance of the Yemeni nation against the Saudi-led aggression, saying, “They wanted to bring us to our knees. However, they did not expect us to mount such spirited resistance because we do not want to give them any concessions.”

He concluded that all efforts of aggressor states will eventually fail, and crisis-hit Yemen will be unified once again.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on Sunday that the Saudi-led war has left 600,000 civilians dead and injured since March 2015.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

“After three years of conflict, conditions in Yemen are catastrophic,” John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

He added, “People’s lives have continued unraveling. Conflict has escalated since November driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes.”

Ging said cholera had infected 1.1 million people in Yemen since last April, and a new outbreak of diphtheria has occurred in the war-ravaged Arab country since 1982.