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Sunday, January 10, 2016

Saudi-led Coalition's Spokesman on France 24

Here are the main points in an interview with Saudi led coalition's spokesman Asiri on France 24 regarding the war in Yemen (my comments in Italics)
Q) Main objectives of Saudi led coalition's war in Yemen? Success level?
Asiri: 1) Reinstating legitimate Yemen government.
          2) Protection of Yemeni citizens.
          3) Protection of Saudi-Yemen border.
Today, the legitimate government is back in Aden and controls 70% of Yemen. 
Comment: Government not back in Aden. Hadi is back, and mostly staying on a coalition ship offshore because neither he nor government have full control of Aden, let alone allegedly 70% of Yemen. Moreover, "objectives" many and kept changing during past 10 months of war, but will admit that the 3 mentioned today are broad enough to incorporate other specific ones under each. Yeah, still & generally not achieved. 

Q) 10 months of war so far, what's expected time frame to end?
Asiri: No schedule ever set or announced. Focus is on strategy achieving objectives and goals, not time. But keep in mind US & NATO spent 11 years in Afghanistan against Taliban, and Taliban's strength nowhere near Houthis & Saleh's. 
Comment: Quick, calculate ratio of strength difference between Saleh/Houthis and Taliban. Hold on, since Saleh/Houthis stronger at any rate, whatever that numerical value ends up being, end of war unlikely to be less than 11 years! What!?

Q) Current goals?

Asiri: Push back the Houthis, rebuild government institutions, and rebuild the Yemen army which Saleh & Houthis dismantled. O
ne of main goals was also to increase aid delivery, which was achieved, but as evident in UN reports, that aid is piling up on cities entrances because Houthis are blocking passage.
Comment: A) Push back Houthis to where, the sea? B) I don't know, but seem to vaguely remember that the army was dismantled by Hadi and the Saudi led GCC initiative through what was called a "restructuring of the Yemen army", no? C) Somehow doubt there's much chance of any aid piling up at entrances of "cities" and wasted when 21.5 Million, 80% of population in need of it. Perhaps he meant one "city" and referring to Taiz; where Houthis indeed blocking passage, but yeah, still no aid piling up there either.

Q) Reports of civilian casualties? 

Asiri: International organizations have no presence on the ground hence reports are not accurate; their data/stats are based on and collected from Twitter and Houthi correspondents in Yemen. The Saudi led coalition's strikes are very precise and it never targeted residential areas nor infrastructure. On other hand, Houthis yesterday attempted to launch a missile from Sana'a but it ended up exploding midair and over the city, which unfortunately killed & injured many in the capital Sana'a. 
Comment: I could've sworn those shady organizations had hundreds of own staff and local offices sprawled across Yemen. Wait a minute, didn't Yemen authorities & just yesterday complain about such offices WITHIN Yemen and wanted to shutdown? Weird. Perhaps Asiri employing reverse psychology and actually encouraging such organizations to collect their information from Twitter & "pro Saudi/Yemen government approved" local sources? You know, since it is evidently clear those organizations were misled; apparently the civilians killed, residential areas and infrastructure destroyed, are all due to thousands of failed Houthi ballistic missiles that exploded over cities and infrastructure across Yemen during the past 10 months? Who knew! 

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