Yemeni PM: Saudi Arabia, UAE exploiting Yemen's strategic islands

During a meeting with the governor of the southern provinces of Aden and Mahra, Tariq Salam and al-Qatabi Ali Hussein al-Faraj respectively, in the capital Sana’a on Saturday, PM Abdulaziz bin Habtoor stated that the Riyadh and Abu Dhabi regimes are doing all they can to prolong their occupation, plunder Yemen’s national resources and exploit the country’s strategic islands and coasts to serve the best interests of Israel, the United States and Britain.

He stressed that Yemen, given its great history of resistance against invaders and occupiers, is capable of expelling new occupiers and ensuring its security, sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity.

The meeting also focused on the situation in the occupied southern Yemeni provinces in light of the continuing discord and divisions among mercenaries, and the disastrous repercussions that the long-standing disputes have had on the security and livelihood of the local people.

The Yemeni officials also discussed recruitment and mobilization of Takfiri militants by the Saudi-led coalition, stressing that it clearly indicates the imminence of an upcoming armed conflict on the one hand, and the continuation of the extremists’ hostile and arbitrary measures against Yemeni people on the other.

‘UN-brokered Yemen truce near death’
Meanwhile, Mahdi al-Mashat, who heads Yemen's Supreme Political Council, condemned the Saudi-led coalition for frequent cancellation of commercial flights, stating that Sana’a officials have largely lost hope that the extended UN-sponsored Ceasefire can last long in light  of such hostile measures.

Mashat emphasized that the repeated cancellations of flights constitute a flagrant violation of the terms of the truce. 

“The sudden cancellations of flights deprive citizens of benefiting from the ceasefire, and pushes it towards its death,” he said.  

The president of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council also underscored the importance of opening roads in order to alleviate the suffering of locals in Ta’izz and other Yemeni provinces.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states.

The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.

While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.