Saudi Air Strike in Yemen

The following is the transcript of the conversation between the investigative journalist, Richard Medhust, & Yasser Al-Mohallil on the Saudi air strike on al–Hodeiya in Yemen & the subsequent internet blackout throughout the country.

Richard: First of all thank you for coming on the program I really appreciate it.

Yasser: Thank you so much thank you for asking

Richard: Can I just get your immediate reaction to what’s happening in Yemen, these wave of Saudi strikes the entire week? What is your initial reaction?

Yasser: Yes, well as you know in the recent days United Arab Emirates & Saudi Arabia tried to intensify their operations on the ground. They tried to take over several areas in chapel district which is in the south of Yemen and as you know that hitting United Arab Emirates by our drones and ballistic missiles stopped for like two or two and a half years because UAE just showed that they are a little bit out of the conflict in the Yemen. I know it was like a deceiving reaction that they they’re trying to vote for the international community and trying to vote for Yemenis so they don’t get hit by our drones & ballistic missiles.

Now & after they got back to the ground with an intense & a very hard operation on the ground. They, as I told you, took over some areas in the in chopper district and they are trying to just go back to their tight alliance with Saudi Arabia invading our countries and killing our people. This, of course, had to be faced with a reaction from Sanaa which was making or just committing (carrying out) an operation towards Abu Dhabi and hitting some very important facilities in there.

I guess the reason is that if you just differentiate a little bit between Saudi Arabia & the UAE, we are in the middle of you know firing [missile & drones] battle with Saudi Arabia. [It] didn’t stop for the seven but the UAE had had to go back for this battle for their own reasons. I think Israeli and the Americans are putting pressure on the UAE to go back to the battle because Saudi Arabia, currently, is facing a very hard situation in Yemen alone. That’s why they brought their troops back to the Yemen and votes again in Yemen and like Saudi Arabia [who] are being hit every single day maybe the because of the continuous air raids and continuous crimes against the people of Yemen, United Arab Emirates are going to face the same problem from Yemeni Force.

Richard: When we talk about the Emirates and Abu-Dhabi facing a reaction, just recently there was a strike all the way in Abu Dhabi by Yemeni Forces… What kind of message do you think that sends to the Emiratis and what kind of impact do you think it has on their morale and on how they’re acting now on the battlefield?

Yasser: Well, you know, United Arab Emirates is vulnerable to such reactions or such operations against its security and economic facilities. Due to the fact that Saudi Arabia is geographically a bigger country they can somehow tolerate more serious operations and just endure more and more operations deep inside the country of Saudi Arabia but United Arab Emirates cannot take, maybe, more than three such operations inside Abu-Dhabi or Dubai. If this really happens, the insecurity situation will just drive away all the investors out of the country and it will be a very bad situation for United Arab Emirates.

I think why you know why United Arab Emirates is trying to put the blame on Yemen or Sanaa for the intensifying operation now is the backlash. It’s our right to defend our country, it’s not as if we want war. It’s like that we are seeking for more wars. The Yemeni people are the ones who are being killed & being prevented from [abstaining] their essential needs. Right now fewer hospitals have access to fuel due to shortage of fuel. Hospitals are under blockade [for their essential needs] & beside that, they are being targeted but I think if United Arab Emirates continues carrying out crimes like what took place in Sanaa yesterday, what happened to Shbwa and other districts inside the country they will face even more uh operations inside their country and the Yemeni military will just carry out more operations on Abu Dhabi or Dubai or any place they choose.

Richard: do you think that these uh strikes from this week by the Saudis are a form of revenge for the strike on Abu Dhabi?

Yasser: Well, I think it’s an Emirati air struck in the first place, not only Saudi airstrikes… I mean in the recent three days, after the operation took place in Abu Dhabi, because as long as they have a green light from the international community and they have the green light from the United States of America which is covering all the crimes in the United Nations or in the united nations security council while the people of Yemen are getting targeted and over 70 persons were killed in one single day. The United Nations Security Council condemned our right to defend ourselves; they did not condemn these crimes against humanity in Yemen. This is the double standard that the international community is trying to distort the whole picture of what’s going on in Yemen. I really think Saudi Arabia and UAE are not going to reach anything by committing more crimes against the people of Yemen. They will just create more reasons to be hit back in their own country and in their own cities and undermine their security and economic stability.

Richard: You mentioned the double standard where the UAE & the Saudis can keep on pounding Yemen nonstop but when Yemen defends itself for example the strike on Abu Dhabi… They’re quick to condemn that and speak out against Yemen defending itself but nothing towards the Saudis particularly today after the strike that you mentioned killed 70 people today, did we see any condemnation from the United States or the international community?

Yasser: well, to this day, United States did not say anything about the crimes that have been committed against Yemen because they are participating in these crimes. As you know, these weapons were made in the United States, [they] were provided by the United States. They are not manufactured in Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates. Right now, as the information suggests, Israeli military are contributing and also may provide logistic support to the United Arab Emirates and to the Saudis to hit back the Yemeni people because of what happened last couple of days in the United Arab Emirates but this double standards does not make us weaker as I told you. It incentivized us to face the spiritual war. I mean the silence of the world is not going to make us give up and just cry about what’s happening to our people. No! We will just try to enhance our capabilities to defend our country and of course the military can and has strategic choices and options that can impact those countries with the ballistic missiles & drones. The main message with the operation on the United Arab Emirates is that we have the capability to hit Saudi Arabia, to hit United Arab Emirates & even to hit other countries that are further from those & are contributing and conducting aggressive act against the people here.

Richard: When we talk about successful strikes or when we talk about successful actions by Yemen, there’s one thing that comes to mind there was a Saudi ship that was seized by Yemeni forces which the Saudis claimed was carrying medical supplies… Was it really medical supplies or something else?

Yasser: Well, that’s so funny, declaring that it was carrying some medical supplies. The footage that have been shot by the military of Yemen showed that the ship was carrying weapons, military vehicles & armored vehicles & also radars. Even the international community could not accept this justifications from the Saudi Arabia because they saw the pictures and they saw footage and they also call for immediate cessation of the ship but they did not say whether [or not] it’s really carrying like medical supplies for the hospitals. This is not true and if it was true, of course, they don’t even have the right to violate the Yemeni territorial water. They got close to the [Yemeni] water that is been taking over by the Yemeni authorities. This is not acceptable even if they want to you know just provide some medical supplies to their affiliates or to their troops.

Richard: Speaking of heavy weaponry, when it comes to ballistic missiles the Saudis accuse Yemen of building ballistic missiles and doing it in secret, they used some weird video which I believe was some from Hollywood movie to say that Yemen is running a secret operation. Is Yemen building ballistic missiles and if it was, Would Yemen do it secretly? Because the message & the tone that’s coming from Yemen is that it’s proud to defend itself it’s not something that it would do secretly or something that it would hide.

Yasser: Yeah It’s my opinion that after seven years or close to seven years of failure in Yemen it’s very shameful that they say they are trying to destroy the quality of Yemeni army forces by claiming that they found some sorts of ballistic missiles and plan to hit it. What, actually, is worse than this justifications from Saudi Arabia and their allies, is the fact that these false claims, which are being highlighted for the international community, can lead to targeting of humanitarian facilities to targeting humanitarian aids in Yemen, for example what would happen if they had destroyed totally port of Hodeida completely based on these justifications that were taken from a movie from Hollywood? You can’t even imagine what kind of the situation, we would end up in and how ugly the silence of the international community towards what’s going on to the Yemenis is.

Richard: When you mention the port of Hodeida [reminds me of] today’s terrible bombing… we have a prison being bombed [in which] at least 70 people were killed and also the telecommunications [were destroyed] & all of the all of Yemen has had its internet cut off…. Can you tell us how the situation is? Are you or other Yemenis able to speak with their families? Do you have any means of finding out what’s actually happening on the ground?

Yasser: I was trying to reach out my family for approximately 18 hours. It’s very hard to reach the family now. Even trying to call them by phones via cell phones is not possible currently due to the airstrike that targeted all the telecom companies facilities in Hodeida and it’s the main source that provides internet access to all the places in Yemen. Now, it’s a complete blackout of internet in the country. We don’t know whether our families are safe or not because the air strikes continues in the country. We don’t know what the situation in Yemen looks like. We can’t reach out to our families, our mothers & our siblings. Also, The situation for me is no different than the situation for hundreds of thousands of other people outside the country, they, too, cannot reach millions in Yemen to see how they are doing to doing while the bombing is still taking place intensively all over the country from Sana’a to Hodeida to any other place. Every village, every city & every neighborhood has been targeted by Saudi Arabia’s airstrike right now. But I hope that our families are safe. I hope that we can reach out to them very soon if the internet gets fixed. This has really added to the list of war crimes that have been committed by Saudi Arabia. Note that they are targeting infrastructures and facilities of telecommunication. They want the internet to be cut off so the crimes cannot be covered for the ppl of the whole world so that they would not be able to see what’s going on in Yemen. This is the main reason why I think they will not be able to hide the crimes for much longer because everyone in the world is now talking about how criminal they are and how they have committed so many crimes in Yemen.

Richard: yes that is there anything else that you would like the world to know about Yemen… maybe something that I didn’t ask?

Yasser: I just want to say that the oil barrels are not more valuable than the Yemeni blood. The world should really put an end to what’s going on in the country of Yemen. Yemeni people are being killed right now. Children cannot even go outside to play football or soccer due to similar things that happen like what just happened last night when children were playing soccer in one of the small cities in the neighborhood and they got targeted directly by air raids. Over five children were killed. Women and children, in their houses, are being killed cruelly as the whole world is turning a blind eye to what’s going on Yemen. They should be a little bit principled and they should be humanitarian & react to what’s going on in Yemen. They should stop this war immediately.

Richard: Do you think that Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are able to do this only thanks to the support of the U.K. and the U.S.? If tomorrow morning these western countries cut off their support for Saudi Arabia and the emirates, Do you think that the war in Yemen would stop?

Yasser: Well… As you know even the former President of the United States Donald Trump said that if we cut off our support to Saudi Arabia they will not be able to fly with their jets even for a week and it’s also the same with the UK government. If UK cuts its weapons supply to Saudi Arabia, Saudis will not be able to keep going in this war but for these western countries, the war in Yemen is economically profitable so they are working to sell more arms to Saudi Arabia. They get a lot of money! And they pay the least amount of money in humanitarian aid for situation in Yemen. For example, to help Yemenis for humanitarian situation, the UK paid maybe 10 or 20 million dollars but how much do they get from the arms sales to their Saudis? They are getting the hundreds of millions of dollars. Same goes for United States of America. They are really a main partner of for the Saudis in these crimes against humanity. These crimes will not be forgotten for years. We will always remember that the UK government & the U.S. government were complicit in this war and they have blood on their hands.

Richard: Sir, thank you so much for joining me. I hope you’ll be able to reach your family and everyone else soon and that this bloody war comes to an end.

Yasser: Thank you so much.