Press TV has interviewed Hussein al-Bukhaiti, a Yemeni activist and political commentator in Sana’a, to discuss the outcome of the peace talks underway in neighboring Oman on Yemen’s crisis.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Talk to us about the outcome of the ongoing negotiations taking place in Muscat and of course the calls by regional countries, especially Iran, for the Saudis to halt the attacks on the impoverished people of Yemen.
Bukhaiti: There is not a clear idea of what is happening in Muscat, but, according to some sources, things are going really well and both sides in Muscat, with the help of Oman, are getting closer to have an agreement about the next stage of peace in Yemen.
As you mentioned, Iran has always called for [Saudi Arabia] to stop the blockade and to stop the war against Yemen and Iran always believed that any solution in Yemen should be between Yemenis only without any outside interference. But we know that the Saudis are the ones who started the war against Yemen and we have seen now that their allies or coalition controls almost three to four cities in South of Yemen.
We have seen in recent days that al-Qaeda has come back to these areas, for example Aden and Lahij. Two or three days ago, Popular Committees withdrew from Zinjibar, Abyan, and just yesterday, al-Qaeda entered this city and now has key governmental buildings under its control across the city.
So it shows that the only solution for al-Qaeda is that the Ansarullah and the Houthi Popular Committee working side by side with Yemeni army. And they have cleared Zinjibar months ago, it was one of the strongholds of al-Qaeda. Now, al-Qaeda is back under the cover of Saudi war machine.
Press TV: The Saudis have implemented a siege on Yemen, which has further exacerbated the humanitarian situation there. Would you say that the response of the international community has been quite slow with also just not only removing the siege on Yemen but also stop trying to hold the bloodshed and the deaths of innocent Yemenis as well?
Bukhaiti: Of course, the international community has been quiet about what is happening in Yemen. And we have seen that resolution 2216 that came after the Saudi war against Yemen didn’t condemn this war against Yemen, neither did it give a green light to attack Yemen, but it has thanked the Saudi about what they are doing in Yemen. Since then we have not seen any help from the international community.
There is a kind of media blackout used by the Saudis because they do not allow journalists to come into Yemen and any journalists who have to go through Saudi airport when they come to Yemen; and they have refused many entrances to Yemen.
We’ve seen that the United States, Britain, France and many other European countries like Italy benefit from this war because we’ve seen, during these five months, one of the largest arms deals between Saudi [Persian] Gulf state and those countries in the West.
So, I think, as long as they are making money from this war, they will not stop and they will keep supporting the Saudis. And as well, we are hearing now that the Saudis want to set [up] a new central bank in Aden and there are rumors they want to print new money in Yemen. They do not want us to use rial that we are using now.
So they definitely don’t care about what is happening in Oman at this point. They just want to keep destroying our country; if they couldn’t do it by war, they are going to do this by printing this new type of money and moving the central bank to an area they have under control.
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