Yemen’s foreign minister says Saudi Arabia’s intensified attacks on the war-wracked country show the inability of the Saudi Arabia in the face of the Sana’a government, whose forces have continued to liberate areas under the control of Saudi-backed mercenaries.
“The bombardment [of Yemen] and the repetition of what has happened since the beginning of the aggression is a manifestation of [Saudi Arabia’s] helplessness,” Hesham Sharaf told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network on Sunday.
“The current escalation on several fronts comes as the Saudi coalition reached the conviction that it has failed to put pressure on Sanaa,” he added.
The Yemeni minister then emphasized that the Yemeni forces are ready to respond to any escalation.
At the same time, Sharaf expressed his country’s readiness for dialogue and reaching “a just peace,” but stressed that the Saudi-led coalition must first stop its attacks on Yemen and open the Sana’a Airport and Yemen’s ports as a gesture of goodwill.
“We extend our hand for peace, but for a just peace,” he remarked. “Open the Sana’a Airport and [Yemen’s] ports and those would be gestures of peace, but moving towards peace [talks] while bombing us and showing us [your] muscle would not help.”
The Yemeni minister explained that the Sana’a International Airport is a civilian airport and “has nothing to do” with the nearby al-Dailmi airbase.
“Bombing the Sanaa Airport means that they don’t want to normalize the situation in Yemen or move towards peace.”
Sharaf also stressed, “We do not accept guardianship, neither from Saudi Arabia, nor from the UAE, nor any other country, and therefore, we will continue our efforts despite all obstacles,” in an apparent reference to the Yemeni counter-attacks.
The Yemeni foreign minister’s remarks come as Saudi fighter jets have continued to target the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to make up for their defeats in other areas.
According to Yemen’s al-Masirah television network, Saudi warplanes conducted three airstrikes on the Sana’a International Airport on Sunday evening.
Two Saudi airstrikes also hit the neighborhood of Dhahaban in Sanaa at dawn on Saturday.
A Yemeni security official said on Monday that at least one citizen was killed and eleven others wounded, including African migrants, when the Saudi-led coalition bombarded several border districts in Saada province, northern Yemen.
The official explained that the Saudi army attacked the highway in the border directorate of Shada with artillery shells, killing one citizen and wounding two others.
Three Yemeni citizens and five African migrants were also injured by Saudi army fire in the al-Raqaw area in the border directorate of Monabbih, Yemen Press Agency reported.
Saada’s border districts are subjected to the Saudi-led coalition’s daily air raids, which cause casualties and large damage to citizens’ homes and property.
Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, including the UAE, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the aims of bringing the government of Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.
Despite heavily-armed Saudi Arabia’s continuous bombardment of the impoverished country, Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees have grown steadily in strength against the Saudi-led invaders and left Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
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