Yemen Vows to Keep Attacking Saudi Coalition till Riyadh Stops Aggression

“If the collation puts an end to its attacks, the Yemeni Army will stop its operations,” al-Houthi said, adding that the recent attacks of the Yemeni Army on Saudi targets are in response to 5 years of Riyadh’s continued attacks on the impoverished country.

He underlined that the drone and missile attacks by the Yemeni Army are not intended to further escalate tensions, adding that the attacks are the natural response to the Saudi-led aggressions and bombardments in the past 5 years.

“The real enemy is the one who keeps conducting operations even using internationally-prohibited weapons and we are just confronting their continuous attacks against our country,” he highlighted, adding, “We keep resisting with whatever we have, and we, along with the defense ministry, respond to the Saudi-led attacks with appropriate operations at the right time.”

Earlier, the Yemeni Army stopped its drone and missile attacks to support ceasefire efforts, but the Saudi-led coalition inferred that they have achieved a victory and [our] missiles and drone are run out, he said.

The Yemeni resistance figure went on recounting that when Yemeni defense officials found out that the Saudi-led coalition is keeping committing crimes with its aggressions, and reached the conclusions that honoring ceasefire is useless, they decided to restart operations to respond to attacks with available means.

“The coalition of aggressors is the side which is actively following the policy to lead the peace initiative into failure, and it has never contributed to this cause. For the sake of peace, we proposed a plan to halt drone and missile operations, our military operations in the sea, our military operations along the terrestrial borders all across the map of the Republic of Yemen, but they never took a step, and they just talk,” he underlined, speaking to Lebanese journalist Najlaa Aboumerhi who hosted the program.

He totally rejected that Yemen received any help from Iran, adding that his country is ready to stop its military operations if the coalition stops its attacks against Yemenis, adding, “This is the best piece of evidence to attest that we are not in touch with Tehran. Because we are not undertaking measures for the helps, which the Saudi led coalition claims, we are receiving from Tehran, but for the reason that our nation is targeted by the coalition and its crimes.”

“Yemen is not an arm for Iran, and if it was as they claim that Iran was an arm for Yemen, we would have never said that we were ready to stop attacks if the coalition stopped its attacks,” the Yemeni resistance figure underscored.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed more than 20,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.

The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition’s bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.

A UN panel has also compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.