Saudi Arabia cannot conquer Yemen: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Navid Nasr, political analyst in Zagreb, to discuss Saudis ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: If we want to take a look at the purpose of this, it is a very costly campaign for Saudi Arabia but are they getting back the investment they are making?

Nasr: I do not see what possible investment they are getting back for their trouble here, unless they actually want a completely destroyed and destabilized Yemen bordering them which very well could be the case. I do not know.

Honestly it is difficult sometimes to get into minds of people like this and see exactly what their intentions are, exactly what their goals are, what the endgame is that they envision. One thing we know for sure is that in their mind, in their delusional fantasies, this is all about Iran. This is all about curtailing Iran’s influence, the Houthis are Iranian proxies, and they are fighting Iran by destroying Yemen.

It is absolutely ludicrous but this is the narrative that at least they are putting out there and probably even something that they genuinely believe in. So who knows? Who knows how this is going to end? How they can claim victory and retreat because that is what is going to happen. They are not going to win here. They are not going to militarily conquer Yemen. They could not militarily conquer a sand dune in Najd much less the entire country of Yemen. They can bomb as many targets as they want but that is it.

Press TV: What is very interesting is that every now and then you would hear about these US drone attacks that would take place in Yemen. We do not hear about them anymore, in the past three months not one has been reported. What do you think that is?

Nasr: We can speculate and that is what I will do right now, I speculate, I say that AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) acts as another militant proxy both for the Saudis and for the US in terms of whatever foreign policy goes they seek to establish. Right now AQAP in terms of fighting prowess it is not even close. AQAP has actual fighters and the Saudis have… whatever, their army is a joke. So AQAP can actually fight, maybe go toe to toe with the Houthis and the Saudi army cannot, so they are not going to do anything that would weaken the AQAP.