‘Saudi intelligence forces are killing people in Yemen for US’

Yemeni officials said that over 180 militants were among those killed.

On Monday, local officials said at least six militants were killed in a Yemeni airstrike in the southern Shabwa province. However, the militants say only three of their members were killed in the attack, which, they say, was carried out by a US assassination drone.

On Sunday, at least three children were killed on their way to school when a roadside bomb targeted a Yemeni security patrol.

In an interview Syed Ali Wasif, the president of Society for International Reforms and Research, shares his thoughts regarding the issue.

It seems that airstrikes that the government claims it has carried out are that of US drones according to locals. What does the US gain by this, given the disastrous results of drone strikes in Pakistan?

Wasif: US gains a lot with this policy of drone attacks in all three cases in Somalia, in Pakistan and in Yemen. In all three cases, the governments are complicit. So it is not the case that it is a unilateral action by the United States air force or for that matter the US government. It is exactly a matter of consent from all three governments there.

So now having said that, the objectives of carrying out these attacks are different in different countries. In Pakistan, it is against the Taliban militants or the remnants of al-Qaeda heading in the mountainous regions. So that seems to be kind of justified, though.

In Somalia, they talk about taking actions against the Somali pirates and those non-state actors which are creating a kind of chaos there in that region.

As far as the Yemeni issue is concerned, this is the most pressing issue at the moment in that region because of two reasons. The first is the Saudi backing of the Yemeni government and its cronies there. Of course when you talk about Saudi Arabia, one understands, even a layman, that Saudi Arabia is actually the guardian of US policies in that region.

So whatever happens whenever US policies or US interests are threatened in the Middle East, the US brings forward Saudi Arabia leadership instead of going directly into the region. So it is mainly an operation led under the guidance of the Saudi intelligence forces there operating in Yemen. So that is not exactly a case of direct involvement of the US government. It is basically Saudi Arabia’s operatives and spy agencies working there.

The Yemeni government is carrying out an assault on remote areas in the country, according to reports, based on US intelligence. What does this say for the claims about the restoration of democracy in Yemen with the appointment of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi?

Wasif: Simply these are hollow claims because whatever we are seeing we have not seen any primary changes there. Whatever has been changed, a cosmetic change is not exactly a fundamental change.

So how could you expect drastic changes in the policies? It is basically a continuation of the policies of the former regimes with the difference of change of faces and of course in the previous case, it was the case of supporting and safeguarding the American and Saudi interest in Yemen, so is the case today. So nothing has changed.

With a little difference that now that drones attacks are basically against even the Houthi rebels there or the Houthi freedom fighters there who are fighting against both the Americans and the Saudi authorities to seek independency and to seek democracy and their rights which have been denied for more than 4 decades now.

So whatever is seen must be seen in the light of the latest developments in the region and the latest developments are the strengthening of the American interests, the American forces, the American attacks and the involvement of Saudi operatives, the Saudi intelligence agencies and the funneling of millions and millions of dollars to the despots and the dictatorial regimes of the region especially in this case the Yemeni regime in order to crush the Houthi freedom fighters there.

So this is basically to protect the Saudi regime from infiltration from other sides where today Saudi Arabia is the most vulnerable country by the hands of the freedom fighters in and around Saudi Arabia especially in the eastern province.

In the course of this year of the Yemeni uprising and revolution, the Houthi militias, as you have mentioned them, did give their backing to the Yemenis that still continue to take to the streets against the regime but with US interests as well as Saudi Arabia’s, as you have just mentioned, being met by this current president in place, will Yemen be seeing a true victory of its revolution?

Wasif: I would like to disagree with your notion of using this word ‘revolution’. Revolution is different from uprising. These are uprisings, not exactly revolutions in the political lexicon and in international legal lexicon as well.

So these are uprisings not revolutions because in order to have a revolution, you have to have a leadership, an organization, a planned strategy and an ideology. In this case, you do not have any of the four ingredients necessary for using the word revolution.

So this is an uprising, yes. The case here is of course a kind of case where you could have a ray of hope for the future because the people have standard one step ahead, one step in the right direction and that is the change, though cosmetic, but still the change is there.

And the second step would be if the elections are held in a free, fair and transparent manner, which is of course kind of I am still skeptical about the intentions of the Americans and the Saudis there and the military forces in Yemen and some tribal chiefs there which have stakes in the Yemeni politics.

So I think if they are allowed to participate in a free, fair and transparent manner, then I do have a ray of hope that, yes, the people would one day be seeing a positive result. Of course they have still a long way to go but in this case, I would suggest for the Yemeni people and to the Yemeni people that they must cooperate with each other.

In this case, the south and the north people, the northern and the southern Yemenis must join hands to get rid of these despots and to get rid of the Saudi authorities, Saudi operatives and the intelligence agencies and their stooges working in their country and the American forces, of course.