By announcing the decision to ban Saudi navigation at sea, Yemen has thrown the ball into Saudi Arabia’s court. It is solely up to Riyadh to decide whether to proceed with further escalation or to meet Yemeni demands, which are neither impossible nor would cost Saudi Arabia a single penny.
Exclusive – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:
In the statement of the Yemeni Armed Forces, just delivered by the official spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, Sana’a dismantled all Saudi justifications for the ban step. The move has no relation to Iran, as Saudi Arabia claims, nor does it conflict with the international community, as the Kingdom seeks to portray. According to the statement, the step is a necessity and a reflection of the situation that the Yemeni people are suffering from due to the Saudi siege by land, air, and sea, as expressed by the millions who gathered in the squares of protest on the “Friday of Warning and Mobilization.”
Despite political messages and diplomatic communications, Saudi Arabia did not pay heed, nor did it even pay attention to a people burned by the fires of its war for years, believing that it had become protected after concluding a truce agreement.
Saudi arrogance and tyranny, as described by the leader of the Ansar Allah movement, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, have been clear in dealing with the Yemen file. It wants nothing but guardianship, controlling the country’s wealth while starving its people and besieging its population.
The chances of dialogue are no longer possible, according to the head of the negotiating delegation, Mohammed Abdulsalam, who just stated that all options with Saudi Arabia have been exhausted over the past years. Nothing remains for Yemen, its people, and its leadership but one option: a return to confrontation, the very confrontation that brought Saudi Arabia and its 17-nation coalition to their knees and forced them to search in diplomatic basements for a way out of the Yemen predicament.
Although it was expected that Saudi Arabia would seize the opportunity of years of truce to avoid a situation like this or worse in the future, it chose to keep the situation in a state of neither war nor peace, a choice that will certainly lead to an explosion with dire consequences, given the popular resentment in Yemen.
Today, after more than a decade of Saudi war on Yemen and years of de-escalation, the situation has returned to square one, and Yemen has effectively activated its last options. The ball is now in Riyadh’s court: either to move towards peace that meets the aspirations of the Yemeni people and ends years of guardianship, or comprehensive escalation, a nightmare that the Kingdom has already experienced for bitter years, ending in defeat and an inability even to achieve the least of its goals.
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