The
last thing Saudi Arabia and its Western allies want is a
self-sustaining, economically viable, militarily strong, and
anti-imperialist Yemen at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula,
controlling the Red Sea and its strategic waterways. Yemen’s
geographic placement in regards to the flow of world capital cannot
be stressed enough.
by
Randi Nord
Part
5 - Turning Yemen into another Somalia through sabotaged peace
initiatives
During
recent negotiations in February, the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed, claimed that, after working for hours, Ansarullah
representatives “refused to sign in the last minute.” “In
the end of the consultations, it became clear that the Houthis were
not prepared to make concessions on the proposed security
arrangements. This has been a major stumbling block towards reaching
a negotiated solution,” he said, alluding to previous talks in
Switzerland and Kuwait.
While
the media portrays Ansarullah as the peace-talk saboteur, it is
actually the U.S. ambassador who obstructs dialogue. Al-Houthi says
his movement has made significant concessions in all previous
potential agreements: “One day in Switzerland there was a
dialogue session. The national delegation and the other delegations
agreed to continue negotiations on that day, but the U.S. ambassador
telephoned UN Envoy [to Yemen] Ould Cheikh and told him to cancel all
dialogues. The dialogue was canceled and the delegation returned from
Switzerland.”
He
points out that a similar incident took place in Kuwait: “The
American ambassador entered the room and said that if we do not
comply [with] orders and the American demands, they will turn Yemen
into another Somalia.”
Since
the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates
launched the war against Yemen, they have ensured a tight grip over
the narrative of the conflict, painting it as fighting Iranian
aggression and expansionism.
This has
also allowed these aggressors to successfully control the terms
during peace negotiations.
Al-Houthi
explains that Washington supports the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, who
act in accordance with U.S. interests: their political policies for
the region go hand-in-hand. This manifests in Yemen throughout every
action, from launching the war to dominating peace talks.
Washington’s
hard-line stance and failure to support a proper dialogue (along with
support for the Saudi coalition) is directly responsible for
thousands of innocent Yemeni deaths. Al-Houthi says his movement has
always called for peace since day one: “The one who hinders the
dialogue today and who hinders peace in Yemen is the one who kills
the Yemeni people … We are working for peace, and we have talked in
all our speeches and movements. We have always called for dialogue,
we welcome it, we are working for its success, but when there are
countries like the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E., they insist on
continuing their aggression on Yemen even if they haven’t achieved
or gained anything from it besides killing thousands of our people. I
think it is important that there be full support for the initiative
of the free members of the UN Security Council and the United
Nations, and there should be full adoption of it as realistic points
and reinforce the solution.”
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