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Saudis won’t get their way in Yemen talks

By Joe Iosbaker

Chicago, IL -This June 13, UN-sponsored Yemeni peace talks are set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland. On the one side will be the exiled former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. On the other side, the Ansurallah movement, which led a popular uprising against Hadi’s government.

Hadi, a puppet of Saudi Arabia and backed by the U.S., wanted the talks on their terms: that the only discussion would be implementation of the UN resolution telling the Ansurallah, or Houthis as they are called in the West, to withdraw from the territory they control in Yemen. The Ansurallah said that there should be no preconditions. UN head Ban Ki-Moon likewise said there should be no preconditions for the negotiations.

The Ansurallah movement is in the right. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is an aggressor, having launched a war to punish the Ansurallah for daring to oust a dictatorial government. KSA has purchased a regional coalition and a UN resolution against the people of Yemen. But the Saudis are like all occupiers – they can impose terrible sacrifice on the people, but they can’t break their resistance, or defeat them. The Saudi military even lacks the will to carry out a ground invasion.

So the Saudis are faced with the choice of sending the former president to the negotiations without his demand being met. This will be a diplomatic victory for the Ansurallah. Or they can refuse to send Hadi, which would also be a victory for the Ansarallah.

Both scenarios are defeats for the KSA, because the most of the world, including Russia, China and many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, doesn’t support the Saudis. Time is not on the side of the Saudis.

The Houthis and their alliance with former president Saleh, and through him with the Yemeni army, are taking more parts of the country, defeating the forces fighting for the U.S.-supported Saudis and the fugitive ex-president Hadi.

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