World silent on Saudi Yemen war’

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, managing editor at Veterans Today, from Atlanta, to get his opinion on the current situation in Yemen.

Press TV: Why do you think the camp of Mansur Hadi has rejected the calls for peace talks?

Dean: Well, I think that is obvious that they feel that they have strong support from the US and the Arab coalition that is backing them. It seems that the ceasefire did not last very long. I think we can look back on it now and call a day of fraudulent ceasefire because they were bombing the second day. So, it is confusing what they thought they are going to gain by announcing them because the worst just continued and so far they do not see enough public relations or political pushback from the world in general. We have not heard very much from the EU after initially they spoke out against this war. They have been quiet. So, this is what happens, when there is no public outcry, they figure where they are going to do a war of attrition, and my worry here is that if need be, they will turn Yemen into another Syria with a long-drawn-out conflict with a lot of suffering.

Press TV: Of course, Saudi Arabia speaks of a political initiative for Yemen as a second phase after the airstrikes. But I mean, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is keeping on bombing Yemen, how much do you think it would want to be a part of this political process?

Dean: Well, it is hard to tell that the battle although it’s crossed the country, the big concern is Aden, because they want to make sure that does not become a part that is in control of the Houthis, but it does not make that much difference of their control by the ground, because the naval blockade can prevent any ships from going in there. So, you have fighting there now on the border area of Saudi Arabia. So, the Houthis that the problem they have, is they have limited ammunition a limited fuel, and the longer things go on, they are going to start running out of ammo. And I think that is what the Arab coalition and Saudi Arabia, that is what they are betting on. It is their fighting ability will be degraded and when they feel they are weak enough, then they want to negotiate.

Press TV: And of course what legal action can Yemen take against Saudi Arabia, considering the fact that Saudi Arabia launched this war without a UN mandate?

Dean: Well, the problem, it had there, is this a group that is going to take the deposed Yemen government before world body. When the world body actually credits the Hadi government as still being the sitting government. So, this is the classic case and of course, when you compare it to Ukraine, where the West overthrew an elected government, even all they were not happy with it, in very similarly the coupe was not able to establish its control over the entire country, which makes any military aid actually illegal, because the coupe is supposed to not be recognized unless the party is able to get control over the country and have their back with the election which has not happened in Yemen. So, we see this international double standard with the West once again, when they were to overthrow a country, this is the roles they played by and someone else is resisting public government wants to throw it out, we have different set of rules.